Whinning Tire Noise From Friction Drives

[Porkchop]

This is a heads up for folks with friction drives that have not experienced this factor. I have about 200 miles on my BMP friction drive set up. My bike had semi aggressive knobby tires on it. When riding, it had an un Godly high pitch sound coming form the rear tire. I could barely hear the engine. I drove into my mom's drive way several days ago and she said it sounded like a siren.
Anyway, I had a flat tire yesterday. Had already bought some spare tires several weeks ago. I decided to try one of my new, almost slick tread design tires on the bike while I had the wheel taken apart for flat repair. I just got through a 3 mile trip and no tire noise at all !!!!!
Point being, for all that are new to this stuff, if you have a lot of tire noise and don't like it, maybe you need to change to a less aggressive tread tire or even a slick, which is great for dry concrete and asphalt anyway. A slipping rolleron a knobby tire will eat the knobs up in just a few seconds also. The smoother the tire tread the better the grip of the roller and the longer the tire will last. Not to mention now that I have no tire noise I can hear my Honda GX35 engine, it is surprising quiet.
Hope someone finds this tid bit of info useful ! I know all to well about having to learn things the hard way.

..... PC .....

 

[Mountainman]

hey PC
yes sometimes we just need to learn the hard way
but
I know that you are enjoying your new sounding THING soooo much now
good the knobs are gone -- don't think they are great on the bearings either
learning THINGS the hard way ?? hey -- sounds like me at times !!!

as we all love to ride those THINGS

 

[Porkchop]

This might be a little off subject, but then again, maybe not. Talk about luck ! Yesterday I rode for about 5 or 6 miles. Came home and parked my bike in the driveway rather than in the garage because I was going to take my lawn mower in there to work on it. Less than 5 minutes after parking the bike, I went to move it and it felt and sounded funky. I though maybe I had left the friction drive engaged. Not ! The darn thing had a flat. I looked and saw nothing in the tire. Pulled it apart this morning and it had a small slit on the inner side of the tube, the surface that's against the rim. The rubber band that covers the spoke nipples looks good to me. I didn't really bother to check if the hole in the ube was directly over a nipple or not. Who knows ? Might have just been something freaky. I replaced the tube with thicker aone that has Slime in it. Hated to replace my other tire, which is in great shape though. Then again, after hearing the noise difference, I'll probably never use it again. But I am big time glad and lucky the flat didn't happen while I was a couple of miles from home. To far and hot to push a bike ! Anyway, tire tread pattern can obviously make a big difference with friction drives.

..... PC .....

 

[Pirate88179]

Porkchop:

That makes good sense to me. My cruiser tires are what I would call medium tread...not aggressive but not really smooth either. Do they actually make a slick in 26"? If they do, to me that would be the way to go... more contact area as it would be more parallel to the roller it seems.

I didn't get to order my drive kit yet.....waiting for more work to come in for more money. It is going to be a tight month either way it appears.

Bill

 

[Mountainman]

it's a fine line !!

more contact area as it would be more parallel to the roller it seems.

more contact ?? better ?? not always

because as we ride these little THINGS more and more
we realize that the least amount of contact with out slipping
is what we are in search of

slight touch = faster
crank that baby down too tight -- will notice the difference -- slower

MM

 

[Pirate88179]

That's because of the pressure from the distortion of the tire. If we had real slicks like back in the 60's on our bikes, we would have more contact area and much less pressure needed which gives less distortion and therefore less bogging of the system. I am speaking of the slicks that used to come on the Stingray. They had a flat surface and not a round profile.

Here is what I could find for 26" slicks on the net so far:

http://www.everybicycletire.com/Shopping/pc-802-18-26-x-200-schwalbe-kojak-559.aspx

This is not what I was hopping for as these have a radius profile and not flat.
MM, do you remember the real slicks I am speaking of?

Bill

 

[Porkchop]

Pirate8817 and I talked about some of these issues last week. I'm not real savy on the co-efficient of friction equations, but I do remember a lot of it from college physics. You have square surface and pressure involved it. Why do race cars 99% of the time run slick tires ? Why do tires have tread in them anyway Why do drag race cars have wide tires on them ? I'm speaking in general freindy temrs here, not trying to open up a can of worms or anything. I know the answers to all those questions. Believe me, If I could find the slicks like Pirate mentioned, (which I remember quite well) with rounded transition from tread to sidewall, I'd definitely have them on my pavement pounder ! Not just because for the friction drive, but just in general. To me, it's no big deal. If my bike is dependable and gets over 100mpg, I'm happy

 

[Porkchop]

O.K Pirate88179, after the conversations you and I have had in the last week or so, and reading your posts on this forum, I can see where you're headed. Looks like this forum has you hooked and reeled inlike the rest of us 'lil fishies in the deep blue sea ! Ha ! Ha ! Just going on with you a little. No offense. Welcome aboard. I'm still a newbie myself. Look how many times Moutainmoan has posted. I told hm before I don't see where he finds time to ride !!!!
No reply necessary, but feel free to. Just polking you guys in the ribs a little !

 

[Mountainman]

I remember those old time Stingray slicks all so very well
my buddy way back in the sixties built up a 45 speed String Ray
it was a cool little THING of a shift that THING all over the place
rumor has it that the first Stingray was built by a father and son team
right here in Hillcrest, San Diego
Swchinn stole the idea
gave the father and son team the first one off the production line for free
gave it to them for free !! WOW -- what a special THING to do........

inbetween these fun posts -- I still have plenty of time to ride those THINGS a lot......

 

[Pirate88179]

Mountain Man:

Yes, only a few lucky kids on my block had the Stingray and the rest of us wanted one, ha ha. I heard a similar story about its development. I hope it is not true but it probably is.

So, does anyone make a flat slick like that these days? Even if I had to swap to 20" on the rear (it would lower it) would not bother me all that much. I have just not been able to find any on the net yet. I didn't notice what the newer Stingray's have on the rear. I just hope they are out there somewhere.

I have read many of your posts while searching around this forum and I enjoy them. Be careful out there.

Bill