Front Drive Question

lowracer

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Has anyone ever mounted an engine on the lower section of an MTB front suspension fork? Will it mess up the forks in any way? I have a Marzocchi Junior T w/ a 20mm thru axle that I may try this on.
 
I'm not comfortable with too much weight carried low on the front of a two wheeler. The mass makes steering and handling sketchy. Try mounting a roughly similar weight to the same area of your bike you intend mounting your engine (hurrah for ductape) and see how it handles.
 
Wheelbender, what you say is true, but the weight is centered between the forks and is also centered at the point of rotation on the axle. Moving the weight to the side and off the center of rotation has a vastly different effect on handling. It involves inertia, center of mass, polar moment of inertia, etc. etc. like I said earlier, try it and see. Experimentation is the heart of knowledge.
 
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I installed 2.2hp Mitsubishi engines on Staton friction drive, front and rear. It was easy to install the drive on a solid fork. Then I took a few months to figure out how to place the front drive onto a ROCKSHOX fork. The setup worked very well for me. It took a while to get used to walking the front-loaded bike. Once it got rolling, you couldn't tell that you had a front motor.
 
I installed 2.2hp Mitsubishi engines on Staton friction drive, front and rear. It was easy to install the drive on a solid fork. Then I took a few months to figure out how to place the front drive onto a ROCKSHOX fork. The setup worked very well for me. It took a while to get used to walking the front-loaded bike. Once it got rolling, you couldn't tell that you had a front motor.

5-7, how do you like those Mitsu engines so far? That's what I'm using on my bike, too. I probably only have about 500 miles on the engine....just wondering how you like them. It seems like a good little engine. If I remember correctly, you did some hop-up work on yours, no? Mine is all stock....with the exception of a 2nd muffler to quiet it down a bit.

Let me know and thanks,

Warner
 
Thank you for the replies on this topic.

I'm going to be using a Subaru-Robin EH035 with a Staton clutch housing & 1/2" shaft. A 1" v-belt pulley from Mcmaster-Carr & JB Weld to join a 26" (559) rim hoop to the 559 front wheel for belt drive. I'll buy some aluminum bar at Home Depot/Loews to fabricate a triangular motor mount connecting the 20mm thru axle ends to the unused V-brake bolts (bike has Hayes hydraulic discs). I want to fashion some kind of cable operated spring tensioner with one of them brake levers that have a locking button to hold the cable in a pulled position. Unlocking the button will allow easy belt removal for pedal only w/ no drag...Its a triple clamp fork that looks like what comes on a Motorcross dirtbike.

---> Has anybody added an aftermarket muffler to a Robin EH035 to direct the spent gasses downward & hopefully make it as quiet as possible without killing the power?
 
Thank you for the replies on this topic.

I'm going to be using a Subaru-Robin EH035 with a Staton clutch housing & 1/2" shaft. A 1" v-belt pulley from Mcmaster-Carr & JB Weld to join a 26" (559) rim hoop to the 559 front wheel for belt drive. I'll buy some aluminum bar at Home Depot/Loews to fabricate a triangular motor mount connecting the 20mm thru axle ends to the unused V-brake bolts (bike has Hayes hydraulic discs). I want to fashion some kind of cable operated spring tensioner with one of them brake levers that have a locking button to hold the cable in a pulled position. Unlocking the button will allow easy belt removal for pedal only w/ no drag...Its a triple clamp fork that looks like what comes on a Motorcross dirtbike.

---> Has anybody added an aftermarket muffler to a Robin EH035 to direct the spent gasses downward & hopefully make it as quiet as possible without killing the power?


Is there a way to use the staton hub/freewheel and a chain for the front? That would seem like a simpler and better system to me....if it could be make to work. Maybe I'm not thinking about something design wise, though....

Warner
 
Gearing would be an issue using a Staton chain hub/freewheel. You'd need to have a Staton gearbox to reduce the gearing from the 7000 rpm motor to the small chainwheel & it is costly. My goal for this project is do it as cheaply as possible with as little permanent alteration to the bike as possible. Only permanent change here is the rim JB welded to the wheel.
 
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