why I love friction drive

[deacon]

The bee came in two styles the front wheel and the rear wheel. My rear wheel has a handle that you push down to lever the engine up and then it had a notch to lock it. I like my lever in front of me so I added some linkage to the harp I added to allow me to tension if from the off side. That seems to work really well.

I have used the smaller wheels on bikes before and they are really nice. I would have to add a drop down for the brake in the front fork, then weld some straps to hold the brakes in the rear.

But actually I raised the seat and inch and cut off some bolts that extended down past the nut on the engine mount of the 24" and that seems to have given me a little clearance. Once the temperature gets up, I will make an evaluation run. If I drag my foot against the engine mount again, I will go 'chop shop' on the 26"er. I really hope I don't have to for the work involved, but since I buy thrift shop bikes, there isn't a lot of money involved with going either way.

I can buy bikes that have spent most of their life in some garage somewhere at the thrift shop for less than twenty bucks. If nothing else I get lots of parts. The BAM bike was made from two thrift shop bikes. One was a mountain bike 26" for the frame size. Then a twenty inch coaster brake wheel from a bmx. The handle bars came from the same bmx. I had a 24" front wheel left over from a previous build. I still have most of the bmx out there, I need to so something with the excess parts. I usually leave the frame on the curb for the scrapers. I feel good that everything gets used.

I like the old story from one of paul newman's movies. A white man will ride a horse till it falls. An indian will come buy and get the horse up, ride it ten more miles, then eat it. I feel that way about bikes.

 

[deacon]

I got the bike out to ride and it is better. I think it is going to be doable, so I'm going to leave it alone a while to see how it does.

I also decided that I have all the parts to modify the 26" frame I already have, so I think I will lower it. I can put 20: wheels front and back. I will have to swap the crank set for the twenty inch one on the bmx I have, or I can use one of the others I saved. I might even go with a front wheel drive and try to mount some batteries on the bike itself. I really don't know if I want to go back Ebike or not. The ebike performs well, but the range issue makes it pretty much a one trick pony. Anyway I will have a bike ready for anything If I do that conversion. I get bored if I'm not working on something these days.

 

[deacon]

I had nothing to do today. It's cold and looks like rain any minute, so I rebuilt the E drive for me newly lowered 26" bike. I built a front wheel drive friction ebike. What is the difference between the front wheel drive and rear wheel you might ask. Well I really didn't want a ten pound engine hanging off one side. It tends to make the bike hard to steer.

So I mounted the 600watt electric motor across the wheel. I had to do some fabricating but it seems to be ready to run. I need to build a luggage rack on the rear to carry the batteries and then I'm ready to rewire it and ride. Most likely it will be ridden very little and when the batteries go, it will probably get converted to a gasoline bike. The first sunny day I will shoot some pictures of my bikes to show what the new configurations look like.

 

[deacon]

http://img402.imageshack.us/i/imag0001yo.jpg/
This is the bumble bee bike is on a 24" frame

http://img826.imageshack.us/i/imag0002dd.jpg/
This is the BAM bike (Big A88 Motor) bike A 26 inch frame with a 20" coaster wheel rear and 24" front wheel/

http://img859.imageshack.us/i/imag0003d.jpg/ This is the 26" long frame bike with 20" coaster rear wheel... 20 inch front wheel with a front E friction drive mounted. i still need to build the battery carrier over the rear wheel and wire it up.


http://img718.imageshack.us/i/imag0004fs.jpg/
These are all the bikes I own. A sad group I know lol but all are rescues.

 

[deacon]

Just so you guys know a 3/4 steel pipe nipple will not slide into a 1" nipple. It is just a hair too large, I have one on the 3 something hp snowblower engine. So I cut a groove in the pipe with an angel grinder with a cutoff blade. I spread the crack a little slipped it over the 3/4 nipple and then welded it on. Its a mess looking but I think it will hold. I started the engine and it didn't throw it off or vibrate too much, so i think it will work.

I went from a one inch roller to about 1 5/16 I think. With the motor that will not bog down on any hill using the one inch roller, maybe this one will give me a little more speed and just as much torque on the hills. We shall see on the first clear day.

 

[deacon]

I am thinking that by this summer I will have all the tests on this BAM bike finished. I should know enough to build a bike with either the harbor freight or the lifan 2.5 four stroke the same way. I will also have tested the trailer pulling power of it.

At that time I would love to do some traveling with it. Nothing far away maybe just within a days ride from home. Maybe camp overnight, then come home the next day. The trailer I have has the bed made from a plastic milk carton one that holds four gallon jugs. I think it is about 12 x 16 or so. I can probably get a gallon of gas an extra tire and tube and a blanket roll at least in it. I might try to find one of those foot pumps to inflate a tire. and a tool kit of some kind as well. That's a long way off though.

I am the only human being in the world without a cell phone. I found that those burn phones can be purchased, then purchase a limited use card. When it expires, the phone just sits there till you reload it. Probably on the next trip I made, if I ever did.

 

[cannonball2]

Sounds like fun! What part of NC are you?

 

[deacon]

Central NC near Greensboro... By the way I rode the bike for the first time with the 1 1/4 more or less smooth roller made from the steel pipe nipple. Man that thing is terrific. It will pull every hill i put in on with less than full throttle, and it will go as fast as I feel safe at about half throttle or maybe a little more. There is still power left when I stop going up with the throttle. I goosed it once just to see what it had left. It started to pull away so I backed off. Even my sloppy welding hasn't created a problem yet. The four cycle ending have keyways so I can probably fabricate a slide on roller so that I won't need to weld it much at all.

This bike should do 20mph pretty consistantly. I could most likely do a hundred miles in a day easy. A hundred miles will get me a lot of places. I'm not sure my creaky old joints will do it but I sure would like to try. When the weather gets better, I'm going to start doing some longer rides to see what me and the bike can do.

I do love this bike, but I'm still going to work on the bumblebee since it is absolutely legal. It will be a good enough bike to run around town on. Go to the hardware store for parts ect.

Next warm day, I am going to test the BAM bike with the trailer. Just to see how it pulls.

 

[deacon]

I finished refitting the ebike today. Front wheel friction drive using the scooter rear wheel and a 600 watt motor. running it at 900 watts since I upped the volts from 24 to 36.

Got the rear battery carrier finished today and the packs reconfigured as well. So I need to test it as well as ride one of the gas bikes up to the home depot for tape of all kinds. Tomorrow's project.

 

[cannonball2]

Hey deacon, why dont you build a hybrid. Use one of your gas motors to tun an alternator to keep your batteries charged. You could mount the motor and all in the trailer, just have a plug going to the bike. Heck, you could use the ever availble, cheap lawnmower engine. I made a rig using a GM alternator to keep the batteries in my sail boat charged. Worked great.

 

[deacon]

I tried that once. It really seems like a diminishing return thing.

 

[cannonball2]

Wasnt on my boat. I had and 50lb thrust trolling motor for getting in and out of the marina, and for use in dead air. As best I remember it pulled a little over 50amps at max output. Was using a 100amp alt. Was very easy to keep the batteries up. Fuel consumption was about half of the 5hp 2 stroke outboard that came with the boat. I was running a Robin 4 stroke tiller engine for the alt. Any way was just a thought.

 

[deacon]

I might revisit it someday.

 

[deacon]

today i rode the Bam bike to home depot. a brace came off and I had to repair it in their parking lot. I was able to get the right nut there so it was lucky.

When I got home I found the one of my welds had broke as well. I have always bolted and welded my corners so when both failed I was a little concerned. I rebolted the corner and rewelded it as well. The engine has a lot of vibration because the drive wheel it not balanced, so I decided to try one more thing. I used my angle grinder to cut off the surplus bolts sticking through the nuts all over the mount. Then I took my welder and I welded the top of the nut and bolt together. I am hoping it will prevent the nuts from backing off due to vibrations. I double bolted some but this just seemed easier to be honest.

I love this bike but I'm expecting it to be disposable, I am already planning what I will do next for a big bike.

Oh yeah I ordered a used cop motorcycle brain bucket to wear while riding my gasoline bike. It is DOT approved so I am going to be clean that way, and it doesn't make me look foolish as if I were trying to pretend to be a real motorcycle rider. Unlike most of you my motor bike will do about 25mph max. I know people who can pedal a bike that fast.

 

[deacon]

The bumble bee bike is making me crazy. I took it out today to ride around the park. It is the most challenging test ride I have. It is almost all a gentle up hill grade and the bike did okay, but then I hit the moderate to steep 6 block climb. The bike starts off fine. I go down a gear and it still does pretty good, but then about a block and a half from the end of the grade. I am through and so is the engine. It chokes down completely.

So I push it to the end of the grade and I'm ready to put a match to the gas tank. I pedal it a few times to get it moving on the flat, then I drop the motor onto the tire and it start up. Not only that but it climbs a one block hill just fine. I run the darn thing all the way home no sweat.

When I got home, I pulled the BAM bike out and ran the same route. Not a problem one with the hill. I'm thinking that hill will just kill any helper motor. It is going to take a real motor not a helper to climb it. Instead of more tension it probably needs less to keep the bog down effect from killing the engine. Just let is slip over the tire. Maybe if it does that it will be enough help to get me up the hill while pedaling in a lower gear. I did put it on a bike with gears for that purpose.

I think that is probably what I need to do release the tension.

 

[deacon]

I loved that bumble bee till I built the BAM.. I spent all day trying to do things to make the bee better but nothing helped. Now I'm thinking when I finally do to the four cycle engine, I will use that big old bumble bee mount to hold that big old engine. I might see what I can do with the small engine hooked up to a rear scooter wheel. for a friction drive. That might be an interesting project..

 

[deacon]

File under dumb butt "Deacon"

I head off for a long test ride of the BAM bike today. I get about two blocks and it wont take gas any more. I'm cussin' as I take the bike home. I rewire the throttle since it seems that the throttle isn't working right either. I look to make sure there is gas. I worked on the bike abou four hours then I notice that there is gasoline smears here and there. Thats when I find the air leak I had been looking for. The gas line was split. There was air and gas entering the carb thought he gas line as best I can tell. I have it running now but It won't idle. When I got this used motor someone had already screwed up the carb linkage so to adust the idle, I have to adjust the cable tension. I got tired and just quit. Tomorrows job will be to change the throttle yet again.

What I really wanted to say was when you can't find the illusive air leak, check the gas line first. Probably won't be the problem but who knows. I never even considered it. I was looking for more exotic things.

 

[virginian]

Unlike most of you my motor bike will do about 25mph max. I know people who can pedal a bike that fast.

Thirty years ago I could pedal a mile sprint at 30 mph and pedal several miles at 25. Now my sprint is 20 mph and my cruising speed is under 15.

That's why I love my MB. I love to go fast and now I'm the fastest cyclist on the road!

 

[deacon]

I could never pedal a bike that fast, but I still love my motor bike. I am not allowed to drive a car, so it gets me from AtoB. Even though it isn't always exactly when I want to do it. Rain, cold, and sunlight dictate the times for me.

 

[deacon]

I have given up, at least for now, trying to set the idle on my BAM bike with the throttle cable. Somebody ahead of me messed the linkage up so a part needed for a throttle stop is gone. The way I have it set now, when I raise the motor and release the throttle it starts to die. I can keep it going with the throttle but if I'm not careful it does. The up side is that it drag starts really easily. If it dies, I just pedal it a few times, then drop the engine and it fires right up. I would rather have it die than race, I think. Those seem to be the only options at the moment. Something else migh come to be but it hasn't so far