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Egor
Guest
Steve I am working on a recumbent, it will most likely have a friction kit on it. I like your bike and the fact that you made the drive your self. Have fun, Dave
7-31
Hi, Dave
Thanks!
I'd love to see pictures of the recumbent when you have time.
I made a long (for me) trip yesterday to run errands in town with the Rans recumbent. I carefully filled the gas tank and put 16 miles on the bike and then carefully re-filled the tank to the same point. It took 1 cup.
I believe there are 16 cups in a gallon. So, I went 16 miles on 1/16th of a gallon or 256 mpg! This was with a new (to me) 1" drive roller instead of my normal 1.3" roller. Big difference going up hills! MUCH better at going up hills with the 1" roller.
I am VERY pleased with the recumbent overall. I never break a sweat if I don't want to and it's very comfortable.
The down side is the instability and it's hard to carry stuff on the recumbent. With the friction drive installed, there's not a lot of places left to put a bag. I finally found a short, wide bag designed for holding tools that I hung off the back of the seat and it works pretty well.
The other minor problem is that my 'clutch' arrangement isn't quite strong enough to lift the rack off the tire when I have it 'tied' down with elastic cords. It's a very fine line between enough down force on the spindle for hills and not too much down force for my clutch cable/handle to be able to pull it up when needed.
I'd like a centrifugal clutch for idling at stop lights, signs, etc. but that's been a problem with the Ryobi clutch housing design so far. I'm working on a solution for that but I suspect it will have its own set of problems.
For now, I've solved it by reaching back with my hand and lifting on the rack as I pull the clutch handle. This works well to overcome the down force and then the clutch cable is able to hold the rack up until I release it. But, it's not ideal to have your hand off the handle bars and it's a blind move so I could get my hand caught up in something back there and that would be trouble...
I suspect one of the better friction drive kits would have this problem solved with a nice centrifugal clutch. But, I REALLY enjoyed building my bikes and the cost was very minimal.
Finally, I don't know how it will do if there's any water on the road. Do you have any experience with that? I don't plan to ride in the rain but in Oregon, you can get caught.
Good luck with your recumbent and thanks for kind words!
Please feel free to offer any advice or ideas you might have.
Steve G
Grants Pass, Oregon
Hi, Dave
Thanks!
I'd love to see pictures of the recumbent when you have time.
I made a long (for me) trip yesterday to run errands in town with the Rans recumbent. I carefully filled the gas tank and put 16 miles on the bike and then carefully re-filled the tank to the same point. It took 1 cup.
I believe there are 16 cups in a gallon. So, I went 16 miles on 1/16th of a gallon or 256 mpg! This was with a new (to me) 1" drive roller instead of my normal 1.3" roller. Big difference going up hills! MUCH better at going up hills with the 1" roller.
I am VERY pleased with the recumbent overall. I never break a sweat if I don't want to and it's very comfortable.
The down side is the instability and it's hard to carry stuff on the recumbent. With the friction drive installed, there's not a lot of places left to put a bag. I finally found a short, wide bag designed for holding tools that I hung off the back of the seat and it works pretty well.
The other minor problem is that my 'clutch' arrangement isn't quite strong enough to lift the rack off the tire when I have it 'tied' down with elastic cords. It's a very fine line between enough down force on the spindle for hills and not too much down force for my clutch cable/handle to be able to pull it up when needed.
I'd like a centrifugal clutch for idling at stop lights, signs, etc. but that's been a problem with the Ryobi clutch housing design so far. I'm working on a solution for that but I suspect it will have its own set of problems.
For now, I've solved it by reaching back with my hand and lifting on the rack as I pull the clutch handle. This works well to overcome the down force and then the clutch cable is able to hold the rack up until I release it. But, it's not ideal to have your hand off the handle bars and it's a blind move so I could get my hand caught up in something back there and that would be trouble...
I suspect one of the better friction drive kits would have this problem solved with a nice centrifugal clutch. But, I REALLY enjoyed building my bikes and the cost was very minimal.
Finally, I don't know how it will do if there's any water on the road. Do you have any experience with that? I don't plan to ride in the rain but in Oregon, you can get caught.
Good luck with your recumbent and thanks for kind words!
Please feel free to offer any advice or ideas you might have.
Steve G
Grants Pass, Oregon
pumpbuilder
Member
Dimension Edge sells a Drive roller for use in the rain with friction drives. Don't know if it would fit your engine or not by on the Misu 43 only takes me about 1 or 2 minites to change with an allen wrench to lock it and a 1/2 " to remove and replace.
You can still go full speed in the rain with that on.
You can still go full speed in the rain with that on.
Seabillco,
I got caught in the rain last week with my friction drive. Here's what I found.
1. No problems with slippage! I was quite surprised and relieved, even on some good hills, especially since I really wanted to get it and me home.
2. Was concerned about brakes being wet. Again, no problem. They stopped me just fine.
3. Fenders were an enormous + !
4. Rain STINGS! LOL
On the minus side--
1. Ruined a (supposedly) sealed bearing.
2. Bottom bracket dripped water for about 30 min. after I got home. Yeah, R&R.
3. Major bike cleanup. Well, I'm a neat freak.
4. I wear goggles. Need I say more? Visability stank.
Did I mention that rain stings?
I got caught in the rain last week with my friction drive. Here's what I found.
1. No problems with slippage! I was quite surprised and relieved, even on some good hills, especially since I really wanted to get it and me home.
2. Was concerned about brakes being wet. Again, no problem. They stopped me just fine.
3. Fenders were an enormous + !
4. Rain STINGS! LOL
On the minus side--
1. Ruined a (supposedly) sealed bearing.
2. Bottom bracket dripped water for about 30 min. after I got home. Yeah, R&R.
3. Major bike cleanup. Well, I'm a neat freak.
4. I wear goggles. Need I say more? Visability stank.
Did I mention that rain stings?
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Seabillco,
I'm running a stock Staton friction drive setup 1-1/8" roller. See attached photo. I picked up some replacement bearings locally for spares. I don't trust the Staton parts any more. A sealed bearing should not go bad from some rain spray if in fact that is what did it in. Also, like many others here, I had trouble with the kill switch right out of the box. Staton uses an inferior quality kill switch. Found another button type momentary switch for $2.00 to replace it with. Love the Subaru engine tho. Thank God Staton doesn't build those. My opinions only.
I'm running a stock Staton friction drive setup 1-1/8" roller. See attached photo. I picked up some replacement bearings locally for spares. I don't trust the Staton parts any more. A sealed bearing should not go bad from some rain spray if in fact that is what did it in. Also, like many others here, I had trouble with the kill switch right out of the box. Staton uses an inferior quality kill switch. Found another button type momentary switch for $2.00 to replace it with. Love the Subaru engine tho. Thank God Staton doesn't build those. My opinions only.
Attachments
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Alaskavan
Guest
My experience with the Staton rollers is: They work well in the rain until the roller starts getting worn. Then performance degrades as the wear gets worse.
Hi, Nuttsy
Thanks for the great photo and info.
And, what a beautiful build you've got there.
It's so clean, I could eat off it!
I don't see how a SEALED bearing could fail from some light rain spray. That doesn't seem right to me. Isn't that the point of a SEALED bearing?
I'm also glad to hear about the Subaru/Robin engine. I almost got one of those the other day for $100 on craigslist but I missed it.
I think that would be a GREAT system.
FWIW, I'm sold on the friction drive system at this point.
Steve G.
Grants Pass, Oregon
Thanks for the great photo and info.
And, what a beautiful build you've got there.
It's so clean, I could eat off it!
I don't see how a SEALED bearing could fail from some light rain spray. That doesn't seem right to me. Isn't that the point of a SEALED bearing?
I'm also glad to hear about the Subaru/Robin engine. I almost got one of those the other day for $100 on craigslist but I missed it.
I think that would be a GREAT system.
FWIW, I'm sold on the friction drive system at this point.
Steve G.
Grants Pass, Oregon
