sensationpdx
Member
Hey Dennis, I wanted to post some of our chats here in the forum so others can read and add to the discussion.
Great pictures. Thanks ! I love these things. I had so much fun with mine and am eager to make another, better one as soon as I get my new workshop building erected.
Do the engine mounts stay put with clamping pressure? If so, that will help when it comes time to adjust your chain.
That must be a very good hitch that doesn't twist lengthwise or your engine would make it sway left & right due to being top heavy. Almost all of the weight of the whole trailer is above the line between the hitch and the place the tire touches the ground. The more weight you can get below that line the better. Try to design your next one to be able to stand upright when off the bike & supported only by the hitch. If it leans too much or falls over, it will rely on the hitch too much to keep it upright. If it's a precision, strong hitch you don't have to worry about that too much. It's your call, but I prefer to keep unnecessary stress off the hitch.
I'm sorry if you got faked out by my designs. I used Briggs & Stratton engines that are torquey & 3500 RPM max, so direct drive worked well for me. You could put a 2.5 or 3.5 Briggs on there as is & do pretty well, but the Honda is a much better engine (as long as you haven't broken it in too harshly).
It looks like you could get one of those crank adapters from bicycle places that fit into where the pedal crank used to be. You can build a jackshaft that way that is strong & will hold good bearings. There's info in the forum about that. There's room elsewhere for a jackshaft too. Roughly speaking, I think you only need a further 2 to 1 reduction from whatever you have there now. Do you think that half the speed it's trying to go now would be a reasonable compromise between speed and climbing/acceleration? If so, your jackshaft should have twice the number of teeth on the input sprocket as it does on the output sprocket that drives the chain that goes to the wheel. It doesn't matter much how many teeth as long as the first one is twice the second one. Twice the teeth is also twice the diameter and results in twice the number of engine revolutions for each wheel revolution. If the sprockets are too big, the first one might have clearance problems with the pavement in a left turn. If they're too small, it puts extra strain on the chain, but they generally don't make them too small for the chain size.
Be sure to design independent adjustability into your chains directly or with idler sprockets that adjust to take up the slack on the return sides of the chains.
Using a jackshaft will give you the opportunity to center the engine on the trailer.
Don't use your trailer too much with your present ratio because it will put extra wear on the clutch and it isn't good for a new engine to be lugged down.
Have you solved your forum registration glitch?
For now, you can check out gearboxes at Statoninc.com They're expensive, but extremely durable & the right one would bolt right on to the engine and make a jackshaft unnecessary (except for allowing you to center the engine). We still need to know the number of teeth on your clutch & wheel sprocket & the circumference of your tire to pick out which gearbox to use and which size sprockets to get for the output shaft on the gearbox.
If you used a little bike like this that had a monoshock already, it would probably be too stiff for the lightweight engine to compress it. It was designed for a person's bodyweight, so the attachment point of the shock to the frame would have to be moved to give the swingarm more leverage against the shock. Depending on the particular bike, it would probably need to be moved more than halfway closer to the swingarm pivot. I'll send this now for your reply before it gets too late. I'll be working on another email with a picture of a little monoshock I've got.
You should copy & paste & save to a folder any correspondence, links, forum posts, photos etc. you can find related to this project. You'll be glad you did.
Dennis
P.S. For some reason your name sounds very familiar to me. It will eventually dawn on me why it seems familiar.
Great pictures. Thanks ! I love these things. I had so much fun with mine and am eager to make another, better one as soon as I get my new workshop building erected.
Do the engine mounts stay put with clamping pressure? If so, that will help when it comes time to adjust your chain.
That must be a very good hitch that doesn't twist lengthwise or your engine would make it sway left & right due to being top heavy. Almost all of the weight of the whole trailer is above the line between the hitch and the place the tire touches the ground. The more weight you can get below that line the better. Try to design your next one to be able to stand upright when off the bike & supported only by the hitch. If it leans too much or falls over, it will rely on the hitch too much to keep it upright. If it's a precision, strong hitch you don't have to worry about that too much. It's your call, but I prefer to keep unnecessary stress off the hitch.
I'm sorry if you got faked out by my designs. I used Briggs & Stratton engines that are torquey & 3500 RPM max, so direct drive worked well for me. You could put a 2.5 or 3.5 Briggs on there as is & do pretty well, but the Honda is a much better engine (as long as you haven't broken it in too harshly).
It looks like you could get one of those crank adapters from bicycle places that fit into where the pedal crank used to be. You can build a jackshaft that way that is strong & will hold good bearings. There's info in the forum about that. There's room elsewhere for a jackshaft too. Roughly speaking, I think you only need a further 2 to 1 reduction from whatever you have there now. Do you think that half the speed it's trying to go now would be a reasonable compromise between speed and climbing/acceleration? If so, your jackshaft should have twice the number of teeth on the input sprocket as it does on the output sprocket that drives the chain that goes to the wheel. It doesn't matter much how many teeth as long as the first one is twice the second one. Twice the teeth is also twice the diameter and results in twice the number of engine revolutions for each wheel revolution. If the sprockets are too big, the first one might have clearance problems with the pavement in a left turn. If they're too small, it puts extra strain on the chain, but they generally don't make them too small for the chain size.
Be sure to design independent adjustability into your chains directly or with idler sprockets that adjust to take up the slack on the return sides of the chains.
Using a jackshaft will give you the opportunity to center the engine on the trailer.
Don't use your trailer too much with your present ratio because it will put extra wear on the clutch and it isn't good for a new engine to be lugged down.
Have you solved your forum registration glitch?
For now, you can check out gearboxes at Statoninc.com They're expensive, but extremely durable & the right one would bolt right on to the engine and make a jackshaft unnecessary (except for allowing you to center the engine). We still need to know the number of teeth on your clutch & wheel sprocket & the circumference of your tire to pick out which gearbox to use and which size sprockets to get for the output shaft on the gearbox.
If you used a little bike like this that had a monoshock already, it would probably be too stiff for the lightweight engine to compress it. It was designed for a person's bodyweight, so the attachment point of the shock to the frame would have to be moved to give the swingarm more leverage against the shock. Depending on the particular bike, it would probably need to be moved more than halfway closer to the swingarm pivot. I'll send this now for your reply before it gets too late. I'll be working on another email with a picture of a little monoshock I've got.
You should copy & paste & save to a folder any correspondence, links, forum posts, photos etc. you can find related to this project. You'll be glad you did.
Dennis
P.S. For some reason your name sounds very familiar to me. It will eventually dawn on me why it seems familiar.
