Too much thinking is dangerous.

By the power of Threadcromancy arise my old thread. :D

Not such a good day for me today so I'm doing research. I haven't given up on the idea of building my own motorwheel it's just that I wasn't happy with some of the design points and on top of that the local recycling centre (the tip) hasn't been coming up with the goods lately.

As many of you know I like French cyclecars, Velocars, bikes & etc mostly because of the principle that, 'The French follow no-one and no-one follows the French'. That's not an original Intrepid quote by the way, I got it from the Cyclekart Club forum. Getting back to the topic something I did not know was that Monet & Goyon (one of my favourite French makers) made a motorwheel.



Doing my best to ignore that distractingly beautiful green bicycle I soon noted that Monsieurs Monet & Goyon had taken a very different approach with their motorwheel and what's more I liked it :)



 
Really is cool Intrepid!
I really wanna do one like that with a gokart sized drive wheel with a CVT.

LOL @ "Threadcromancy" 2 funny
(gonna save that in the snork thread)
 
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Came across this and thought of you. I'd love to take a vertical briggs, re-build it to run horizontal but with the vert base and build one of these.
 
I would love a fuel tank like that for my Pig. Much as I hate French cars, this is a very beautiful bit of vintage engineering and typical of your good taste I.W.
I'm considering building one similar for under my top bar if I can save up for some large copper pipe and caps. I love copper, all it takes is time and elbow grease to bring out the beauty and shine. But it's awful expensive on my budget.($0)
Scrappers have killed all my traditional sources for metal scrap. They are like a plague to junkyard builders. It breaks my heart to see some of the stuff going to the recycling yard any given day. More people see the cash value rather than the possibilities.
 
Well, they take all the old stuff and melt it down and make new stuff out of it.

Not many people are into the DIY thing ya know. And the crap does build up.

I'm guilty myself, still got old copper pipe with soldered ends on it from replumbing jobs I've done.

Me toss copper pipe? No way Jose - :)
 
Mike B said:
Well, they take all the old stuff and melt it down and make new stuff out of it.

Not many people are into the DIY thing ya know. And the crap does build up.

I'm guilty myself, still got old copper pipe with soldered ends on it from replumbing jobs I've done.

Me toss copper pipe? No way Jose - :)
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The trouble is Mike the New Stuff they make from the Old Stuff usually isn't a patch on the quality of the Old Stuff that was used to make it.

I've got some nice lengths of copper pipe under the house left over from previous plumbing work. Take it to a scrap yard, - no way. What if i should need it for something? I would feel a right idiot then for having to buy new what I used to have already.

Scrap scavengers around here are a problem. The mining museums and the preserved bush railway folk have to be constantly on their guard for scrap thieves stealing irreplaceable parts from machinery under restoration.

Other places I've lived it's been very easy to find second hand and used parts for projects. It was almost as if the bits and pieces breed and the mounds of parts just get bigger by themselves. Not now though, folk are taking stuff to the scrap merchants right from the get go.
Fortunately there is a scrap merchant locally who actually advertises that he sells scrap steel items to folk looking for material for projects. I fully intend to go and check out his yard next week.

Building a motorwheel is still on the workshop roster, - only I want to finish building my cyclecar first before I get distracted with anything else. A motorwheel will be incredibly useful to have though as it can be hitched to anything that needs assistance with forward progress.
 
the title to this thread is absolutely right...since seeing this motorwheel ive been losing sleep...

heres my thought:

hf motor with one of those clutches everyone loves,
homemade frame
custom made adapter to fit onto the clutch output which would drive an emergency donut tire from any car...

ive found a shaft collar that will fit the shaft on the hf motors, but is about 4 1/2" in diameter...

maybe have that drilled and tapped to accept the lugs to hold the tire onto the adapter...

man I hate my brain sometimes...

I am subscribing to this thread my lady...great piece of history you have there...
 
I'm not sure that direct drive is going to work. The original motorwheels always had some form of reduction gearing which was most commonly driven off the camshaft as the first reduction stage.
You're not the only one to wonder about using one of those space-saver spare tyres on a bicycle project. I have a couple of them put by for 'research purposes'. ;)

Motorwheels are fascinating though and their basic simplicity almost demands that anybody with a spare wheel and an engine have a go at making one.
 
Intrepid Wheelwoman said:
Motorwheels are fascinating though and their basic simplicity almost demands that anybody with a spare wheel and an engine have a go at making one.
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I agree completely...I think some sort of manual clutch, cable engaged?, would do the trick with one of those emergency spares...especially earlier foreign cars (to the usa) where the stock rim sizes were 12, 13, 14 inch rims, which are around the size of a 20" bicycle rim...just a bit beefier...

but anyways im signed up to follow this thread(amongst a couple others of yours)

and hope to be fire in your creative stove.
 
Intrepid Wheelwoman said:
I'm not sure that direct drive is going to work. The original motorwheels always had some form of reduction gearing which was most commonly driven off the camshaft as the first reduction stage.
You're not the only one to wonder about using one of those space-saver spare tyres on a bicycle project. I have a couple of them put by for 'research purposes'. ;)

Motorwheels are fascinating though and their basic simplicity almost demands that anybody with a spare wheel and an engine have a go at making one.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking using a jackshaft between the motor and wheel to get the needed reduction.
A couple nice old pillow blocks with brass oil cups, a nice vintage looking clutch, a couple sprockets....you could have a bunch of vintage whirly bits exposed for a nice mechanical look. I'm fairly sure someone with your impeccable taste in machinery has something suitable and beautiful laying about somewhere I.W.....
I'm thinking lots of brass cups and maybe some copper oil lines with a old time clutch driving a chain or belt to the spacesaver. Hide the ugly wheel with a vintage looking disc cover or possibly cut out some rim openings to disguise it.
 
Some space saver spare tyres are better looking than others Maniac which means that it might be possible to find one that only needs a decent paint job and a little dressing up to pass muster. The good thing too about the space saver wheels is that they do have a bit of weight to them which is good for traction.

Interesting mechanical bits and bobs I have (but of course I'd always like to have more), so if i can't do something with that lot there must be something wrong with me.

.weld

(PS. the welding smiley is very nice, but I'd like it better if there was a welding lady smiley too. Pretty please could someone create such a thing for me.)
 
Maybe some kind of friction with a rubber roller on the engine shaft running on the lip of the rim to mimic a gear drive on the internal surface of the rim?
Several old motorwheels used this kind of internal rack drive.
 
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