The Fred G. Sanford Fleet (Next Engine)

Keep in mind that if you put it in frame with chain drive they run backwards. And they will rubn in any posision. I have a old Remington that I am going to stand up so the carb will be on the bottom, may make a right angle intake for it. I also cut all the exses metal so it is just a bear engine now.

If you do any cutting on it màke sure you clean up after that old magnesium is explosive near spark or flame...........Curt
 
I did find a nice place on top of the frame where it will line up nicely with the pedal crank, where the exhaust should clear the chain. My idea is to run a 6 tooth on the clutch, to the 40 tooth pedal crank, which would now be a jackshaft with an 8 tooth inside that (relative to frame) going to the 28 on the hub. That seems about right, if I can find the 6 and 8 tooth sprockets. If this plan works out, I'll have to be careful not to let the primary chew up my knee. Probably going to need some sort of cover on it. I like to keep the cases on, but I'll take a look at that option as well. I'm familiar with the chemistry and volatility of magnesium dust, but thanks for the heads up Curt.

Just for the sake of the drawing board, I held the engine above the back wheel and reversed the orientation of the drive as in a friction bike. Looked SO appealing, and obviously much easier to construct than this chain drive thing up to now. Haven't given up on it yet, but I do have a decent backup plan if this doesn't start heading in the right direction.
 
Time is running short. I'm hoping to have something functional before the weekend, so I'm changing the game plan completely. Until I can get more sprockets and the time to make this chain drive possible, it's on the shelf. No sense in letting a good bike and motor sit in the garage another week. I can always revisit the original plan later.

I'll have to settle for a basic rack mount friction drive with front suspension. This time I will have some sort of emergency release in case I get caught in the rain on it. This way, I can still pedal easily when the roller gets wet. Planning a slot in the mount or something similar to unbolt and slide the motor up in such cases. That should cover a couple of the main points I was going for. Thanks everyone for the pointers, but I'm going back to the kingdom of Friction for now.
 
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Things are finally coming together since I started down the friction route again. All bolt on mounts, no welding. Cut and bent the motor mounts from the steel scraps of the last build. There wasn't much space on the axle for them, but there were a couple mount holes in the dropouts... I had just enough room for one on the axle and the other side attached to the two (factory) pre-drilled holes above it. Got the bike peg grooves cut (diagonal squares/length lines), and it bolted up in a flash. Pretty painless the second time around. The clutch on this engine had a lot to do with that.

I had a brake lever laying around the bench this time, so I tossed that on the left side under the front brake lever for throttle. The angles are such that controls work fine without contorting my hand. Not quite as cool as a gas pedal feels, but it'll do. The suspension fork makes for a smooth ride, and I'm only going to enjoy it more with an engine. The power to weight ratio seems as though my other FD will now be "the slower one". We shall see. :)

Not quite what I originally had in mind for #2, but not bad either.

Once I get it all bolted back together, maybe a couple new pics of the little Mongrel.

cvlt1
 
I had quite the test drive. It went like a bat out of you-know-where around the block, and the peg, locking washer, and clutch nut rolled off onto the driveway when I stopped. Being a standard non-reverse thread driveshaft, I sort of expected that. I guess I'll try some loctite and another nut (if I can manage another one on) in the sandwich for the next test. Otherwise, it's back to the drawing board.

For said block: It was sturdy, handled well, wasn't overly tipsy, comfortable under typical road impacts (digging that suspension fork), and fast as I'll ever want to go on a pedal bike. The acceleration and top speed were a rush! Appropriately, it also stopped on a dime.

There's only one other issue: The rubber trigger extension over the plastic inner trigger, which limits me to half throttle. Figured I'd cut the rubber away and still have half the trigger to work with, without it gumming up the works. It made the lever pull way too hard and the throttle recoil action funky. Should work fine, because I had all the gas control I needed on the test run.

Still no pictures, because it won't leave the garage until it's right this time. It looks wild, I must admit. Somebody's gonna get a few chuckles, at least.

The business end looks pretty much like the previous build. Other than the larger engine, lack of lights (at press time) and new tension slide/motor mount system, nothing's really changed from my last bike's design. It's obvious that she's Diesel's little (bigger) sister. :)

Once I can get that blasted peg to stay put, this thing will be a joy to ride. The trigger modification should be easily sorted out. Almost there. I think.
 
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Get some jam nuts witch are thiner then regular nuts,then there should be room for two. But then you have to have a thin wrench............Curt
 
Good tip, Curt. It had a short jam nut, but no room to spare for another. That was what I was hoping to do. I gave it a good shot of loctite, a lot of torque, and a couple hours to let it set up. Rode it a lot more afterward, and hasn't wiggled loose so far. I'll keep a close eye on that until I'm certain it won't budge.

The throttle is only slightly changed from yesterday's ride, but works a whole lot better without that spring yanking up the pressure of the handle.

Since it finally made it past the home block, I decided to get a few pics of the "after". It's still bare bones, but I'll eventually put together a lighting system. Slowly but surely, #2 is getting there.

r.ly.
 

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Again, apologies for the one pic-per-post format. Blasted tablet just won't let me attach more than one. Here's the rest.
 

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The other side shows the rest of the brackets and pre drilled mount holes above the axle.
 

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Apparently, the XL-400 is a 66cc saw. No wonder it was so much faster than the little guy!

The stock exhaust is solid again, since I tapped the stripped holes. The tiny baffle inside doesn't do much to quiet it down, though. Now I can add the extending pipe and modded muffler onto the bottom tip. The volume level has got to be more civilized. That will definitely come before anything else.
 
I forgot to chronicle one thing early on in the build, as it happened the instant I got the bike home. The cover and padding had been pulled away from the seat bucket, leaving them both half attached underneath.

This was my solution: I removed and disassembled the seat assembly, and stretched them back over the bucket. Then, I hot glued the edges down tightly to the underside. After that, I reassembled the collar on the bucket and reattached the seat to the post. Looks like new, and more comfortable too.
 
I tried the radiator hose method to extend the muffler today. It worked like a charm for a couple blocks, sounding unique and quieter. At the stop sign, it fell off the sleeve just like the previous attempt with stovepipe. There's not enough room on the exhaust tip to drill mounting holes, either. Already attempted it. Back to the muffler drawing board again.

I'm going to hammer a small copper pipe flat to fit inside the length of the tip, and make a sleeve to seal around the outside from stovepipe and hose clamps. That should take some of the pressure off of the edges and help hold the hose tighter to the stock box. I'm getting closer... On the lookout for another small lawn mower or snowblower exhaust, too. It would be really cool to make a muffler like the last build. I know that would tame the whine a lot.
 
This lesson is so important it deserves not to be a footnote in another post.

With 66cc's on a 20" back rack friction drive, it's imperative to keep your center mass toward the front wheel. I like to crouch down into the bars often for decreased wind resistance anyway, which turned to be a stroke of luck. During my muffler test, I gave it a bit too much gas from a slow (pedal) speed. I was still somewhat upright at the time, and the front wheel shot up a few inches before I got it back on two wheels.

Moral of the story: I wouldn't let anyone without a good amount of motorbike/motorcycle riding experience on this thing, and certainly not without a helmet. The jump it gives is similar to a lightweight dirt bike. If you goose it, it will goose you back.

I knew what I was getting into, but felt compelled to issue a disclaimer. Be careful if you decide to make this type of bike. The difference between a 31-36cc and 66cc friction drives is even more than one would assume.

drn2 ----> .wee.
 
A few changes to this one tonight:

The muffler system might be solved, but I couldn't get enough testing to know for sure before it started raining again. With the copper inserted into the small inner sleeve that doubles as the exhaust tip, I had just enough space to drill two small mounting holes for short bolts to hold it in place. Then, I just had to put some stovepipe around the outside edges with a hose clamp to close the area the inner pipe didn't quite fill. Once the makeshift fitting was assembled, the heater hose easily attached to the copper end remaining with another hose clamp. There was a couple feet of it, so I wrapped it down and around the engine/tire and secured it near the end and bottom points. A long spring wrapped around the frame/motor mount above the cassette secures the bottom, and a zip tie holds the end near the tail light at a 90 degree angle off the side. It's performed well so far, but still needs a couple rides to be certain it will hold.

This little exhaust experiment led me to another issue that was much more potentially dangerous. As I attached the new exhaust hose, I happened to hit the back tire against my arm. This made the wheel shake back and forth with a vengeance, and told me the hub bearings were loose. I quickly removed the back tire and secured it tightly, as if my life depends on it (as it does). Nothing was stripped out yet, so I'm glad I caught it early. It seemed to be well seated before, but I imagine the speeds it produces requires more torque on the nuts. No more play in it now, but I'll be checking that wheel often.

After bringing it in from the rain, I noticed a loud, sickly wheezing coming from the engine. Typical problem: No gas cap vent. Don't know how that one slipped by the goalie. The smallest bit I could find was 1/16", but it worked. After drilling the hole, the wheeze is gone. No spillage either, only a small circle of condensation around the hole.
 
Perfect day for riding. Minimal wind, around 80 degrees and sunny. There are a few more miles on both bikes now.

I swapped out the thin hose clamp holding the outer exhaust flange for one much wider, and the stove pipe stopped coming loose. The inner pipe is holding up well with only the two small bolts. Sounds great again, and seems to help my top end a bit. This bike does 30 easily, with some to spare- but I'm not taking it much higher than that. Its acceleration was still uncanny for a friction bike. I put a stiffer spring on the throttle cable to tame it down and keep away from WOT, just to be on the safe side. It ran like a top all the way through the rest of the tank.

There was a police officer sitting in their car (There's a Church parking lot across the street, with a good overview of my neighborhood...) the whole time I was doing my testing, watching me lap the block. I was hand signaling (for lack of electric lighting yet- only mounting brackets and reflectors so far), riding respectfully as usual; and drew absolutely no attention from them. The muffler modifications passed that test with flying colors! I was grinning from ear to ear. :D

The neighbors sure got a kick out of it. All the pedestrians smiled or waved. Caught a few cagers rubber necking, too. Passed a few mopeds cruising along, much to their amazement. Proper motorcycles passed me, and looked back to see how well I was keeping up. Tons of fun.

Now, I just have to get some lights and switches wired in. The Mongrel is almost complete, and I'm very satisfied with how it turned out. The distance run of this little gunner is going to be a riot.

xct2
 
Here are the newest additions: I bent up a scrap (fairing skirt, maybe? Thanks little bro!) for a back fender, and attached it to the motor mounts. The chrome looks nice, reflects the taillight well, and does a good job keeping the water away from me. Added bonus: it hides some of the exhaust hose. :)

Also pictured, the exhaust system made from heater hose. The copper pipe inner/stovepipe outer/hose clamp/heater hose arrangement attaching to the stock exhaust box is still holding up well. It's going to be tricky getting a photo of it, but I'll give it a shot. I also plan to add a small circular lawn mower exhaust on the end of the hose when I find one. Another hunt at a favorite haunt tomorrow, so here's hoping.

The tail light is basically a flashlight covered with the gutted original rear reflector, attached with duct tape. Under the seat, it's attached with zip ties and Velcro. The battery system is slightly different than normal, but you get the idea. Works pretty well.

I did go out and purchase a cheap bike headlight with 3 large LED's inside it. It runs on AAA batteries, and saves a lot of space compared to my original plan. Less wires on this bike, and it really helps the look.

No turn signals or brake light as yet, but the latter will definitely be included at some point.

I haven't been riding this much lately, due to the lack of fenders and a lot of rain. Now that I have one on the back, I can just raise my motor up in the slide and pedal off; in any amount of rain. No more horsing a wet drive wheel for me!

Here's what she looks like, as she sits tonight:

xct2
 

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With the tension down hard, I can manage about 15 or so on wet pavement. No speedometer yet, so this is only an estimate...

If I get caught in a heavy downpour, it slows to the point where pedaling is more efficient. I rode it about half way home under power, and when the storm picked up- I stopped and lifted the mount.

I like the ability to lift the heavier motor off the tire, because once I have to stop in the rain- it's nearly impossible to drag start again.
 
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