Motorising a ladies frame???

S

Sianelle

Guest
Now here's a question for you wise gentlemen, - how would I go about successfully motorising a ladies framed bicycle with a Gen II 'Happy Time' type engine? I borrowed this image from a thread in the Picture Gallery because it nicely outlines the dilemia.

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa276/Sianelleofavelorn/tn_ladiesbikewhowantsmotor-2.jpg

For religious reasons I started wearing long 'floor sweeper' skirts this year and while an ordinary ladies framed bicycle is just fine and dandy for me to ride while wearing a long skirt I can see a problem or two should I throw an engine into the mix. In the borrowed picture it's fairly plain that there's no room for the carburettor and while the engine is in a great position for keeping me warm on a cold Winter's day so long as I don't set my skirt on fire, it's not exactly very practical.
I don't really want to put an engine on the rear carrier because I'd want to use that for carrying shopping & etc. And besides I don't like the idea of raising the C of G with a carrier mounted engine on any bicycle of mine. About the only option I can think of that would work would be to return to the past and employ the 'autowheel' solution which by all accounts was very successful.
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa276/Sianelleofavelorn/WallAutowheelDrawing-1.jpg
After doing some messing about with a ruler with the bicycles in my bedroom I've determined that the rear frame portion of a gents bike (diamond frame) could be modified into an autowheel without too much difficulty. In fact I have a once lovely black enamelled and pinstriped Raleigh frame with a horrid bend in the top frame tube that would be just perfect to convert into an auto wheel. Something always stopped me from throwing the frame away and now I've found a use for it :D
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa276/Sianelleofavelorn/AutowheelHowTo.jpg

Please forgive the simplistic drawing, but it's late and it's time for me to go to bed.
offtobed.gif
 
Another SIMPLE option would be to get a kit designed for a front wheel. Only thing, is that I don't know of any that use H.T. engines, so they would cost more [ unless used ] , but certainly be of better quality.
 
When I visited Brisbane some years ago I came across motorized bikes with the motor unit hanging on the right rear wheel.Looked like a factory job,can't remember the make.Just the ticket for CG phobes.Any non-anorexic person raises the CG far,far more than a rear mounted engine would.You should reconsider,then you could go all the way and encase your person in a burka.Skirts can be subject subject to playful updrafts.My mother had heavy clip-on skirt attachments,then there are pantalettes.I ride around on a rear mounted Mitsubishi/NuVinci hub rig,pricey but good in hilly terrain.Works fine.I mounted a cut-down boy scout backpack on the side opposite the engine,and fashioned a front carrier from scrap materials.Looks like an Indiana Jones type rig,ready for the outback.Skirts and engines don't get along, period.I had a Morgan threewheeler in my student days,popular with the adventurous set,has a spur gear& exposed chain drive to the rear wheel.Tore off a good part of girfriend's best English tweed Gorray skirt,definite test for relationship.Best thing:look for another more pant-friendly religion.Hindou ladies got around in stylish extended pedal-pushers.
 
When I visited Brisbane some years ago I came across motorized bikes with the motor unit hanging on the right rear wheel.Looked like a factory job,can't remember the make.Just the ticket for CG phobes.Any non-anorexic person raises the CG far,far more than a rear mounted engine would.You should reconsider,then you could go all the way and encase your person in a burka.Skirts can be subject subject to playful updrafts.My mother had heavy clip-on skirt attachments,then there are pantalettes.I ride around on a rear mounted Mitsubishi/NuVinci hub rig,pricey but good in hilly terrain.Works fine.I mounted a cut-down boy scout backpack on the side opposite the engine,and fashioned a front carrier from scrap materials.Looks like an Indiana Jones type rig,ready for the outback.Skirts and engines don't get along, period.I had a Morgan threewheeler in my student days,popular with the adventurous set,has a spur gear& exposed chain drive to the rear wheel.Tore off a good part of girfriend's best English tweed Gorray skirt,definite test for relationship. Best thing:look for another more pant-friendly religion.Hindou ladies got around in stylish extended pedal-pushers.

:eek: But to have your skirt eaten by a Morgan, - what a privilege!

Actually if a you've got a really well cut long skirt they don't lift while riding a bicycle; - and if they do a simple device made from fishing sinkers and a stout safety pin works wonders. Oh if was so simple as to change one's religion like trading a car for a different make, - but it's not. Which means that I still want to play too and I firmly believe that an intelligent woman should be able to devise herself a useful solution to both plain and modest dressing AND riding a motor-bicycle.
This webpage is of interest btw. Daniel Rebour's drawings are fantastic....

http://www.blackbirdsf.org/rebour/1948.08-09.1.html

I am considering a front wheel drive bike, but something tells me I'll need to dust off the lathe to realise that ambition.
The Rebour drawing in the top left corner is off particular interest to me....

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa276/Sianelleofavelorn/mopeddocuments1151.jpg

Just in case no-one has realised as yet, I am a woman of slender means, but I do have a good workshop and the council recycling depot isn't that far away. Buying anything involves much planning of budgets, but making things from scrap is free :D
 
She certainly did not consider it a privilege,more a calamity and was much vexed.Just a bit too prissy for me I guess.My future wife was not averse to climbing on the back of a motorcycle (not in a skirt though) that's next to impossible.My mother had these heavy brass butterfly thingies she pinned on,quite pretty really, Holland is a rather windy place.
If you can get your hands an old fashioned lady bicycle to work with, skirts would be no problem at all, apart from high aerodynamic drag.That #4 of the French drawings was a dead ringer for what I saw in Queensland.The old French Solex (front roller drive) was also quite skirt-friendly.Was quite popular,I don't know if it's still around,haven't been there in years
 
while still a jr poster
id advise against the front engine deal
and use a rear engine over the wheel and get a little trailer to haul whatever ya want

FWIW
mike
 
Any REASONED objections to a front engine setup?,they used to be quite popular in Europe until people could afford scooters and cars.The Solex used to be very popular,it worked fine and was very quiet.
 
Ah yes, - it's taking me a little while to dig around all the images I have archived, but I'm certain this picture will be of interest......


This is a Villiers engine fitted to a Mongoose bicycle (not mine). It's not the best of conversion jobs and no doubt they used what they had lying around. However the basics are there and I'm sure I could make a much more tidy job of it. I do have one of these engines complete with the original petrol tank and the stainless steel drive sprocket too, -which is actually from an exercycle.
The exhaust needs work and should be a long downward pointing pipe devised to spit petroil goop towards the gutter via a neat outward turn at the end. I am going to build this around my re-framed Rudge because at least then I won't have to worry about fork failure. Rudges do not break their front forks, - ever.
They've mounted their engine much too high on that Mongoose. Look at that delightful French 1922 Labinal Micromoteur in my earlier posting. The engine sits very neatly low over the wheel and it doesn't look like the bicycle is hiding behind it as does the Mongoose conversion.

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa276/Sianelleofavelorn/Villiers1.jpg

Oh well, nothing for it I suppose, - I'll just have to go out to my workshop and make a start on it. Wish me luck :D
 
The Solex has survived but not in La France,quelle horreur !,check out www.veracruz.com,costs a small fortune too, more than a kilobuck.My first creation,a fishmongers 80 cc JLO engine mounted on the rear of one of those indestructible? Dutch bikes plunged me and bike into a canal,broken fork,what's unlikely is not impossible.I never knew Villiers made those kind of engines.
 
Back
Top