~The Clutch~
Heres a few problems I've been up against and a few of the remedies I've come with concerning the
49cc pocket bike centrifigal clutch.
With a stock 49 cc cag, I can take off from a red light at the same time as traffic,
pedal about 4 or 5 cranks with the pedals to help her climb into the
torque rpm range, and help out the clutch also, and very seldom does the regular traffic keep up to me off the line . A quarter to 1/2 block distance is usually when a few will start going by . I'm at approximately
35 mph and getting into the higher rpm range at this time.
I try to always
give it a crank or two with the pedals before accelerating and letting the clutch engage. I've had clutches last approx. 3 months of everyday hard riding before needing replacing.
Biggest problem i've had with the clutches is the
darned springs.
After awhile, ,You'll know right away by the sound and feel of acceleration when a
spring breaks and want to change immediately. as the
schrapneled spring will chew the snot out of the clutch pads and clutchbell aswell!!!
Riding the old chain drive Harleys, It was a given You never left home without a quick connecter for when the chain broke.
Notice I said when, not if??
I NEVER go anywheres without a patch kit,
AND an extra clutch spring.
Well I try not to anyways.
I'm remembering one rainy night ,with a failing clutch, I pedaled up a few alleys looking for something, wasn't sure what at the time until I came across an old washing machine that had been discarded and made up some clutch springs on the spot from the springs I garnered off the washer. I've used springs out of a busted up lap top computer also and a few other unlikely sources.
Much better to
carry a spare
WARNING
Thefollowing deals with experimentation. Theres a good chance You'll wreck a clutch or two if you do this and you might not notice any benifits at all, depending on your riding style. If Your clutch is engaging alright when accelerating and not wearing out real quickly, please DO NOT try the following
Ifyou dont mind pedaling a bit when taking off,and have read the warning above, and
can afford to replace a few clutches, try make some lighter springs that will
engage about 3 ,4000 rpm .
I found this lower engagement suits my riding style and didn't adversely affect the life of the pads once I got making the springs mastered.
I was buying a clutch a week for about a month until I did though so You might not want to try this..
I make a couple dozen or so at a time out of springs with a little less resistance to the stock ones. make a few sets of 6 varying the length a little.
Pretty simple to cut one to size , use torch to heat while bending out the hooks on either end. You wanna nice smooth , even bend to lessen the likelyhood of premature failure.
To get them fairly precice , I use a fish scale, not a scale off a fish, lol ,but a scale designed to wiegh in fish.
Its a hanging scale, hang it off something solid, hang your new spring off it, then attach a couple pounds of weight to it. use some calipers or something to measure the length of spring underload.
Assuming you made them all the same length to start with, and your using the same wieght each time,they should be close under load but sometimes there out a bit. Just make a couple
sets of 5 or 6 ( 3 plus a couple spares) that are pretty even . them make a set
a little lighter, a set
a little stronger .
If some have a bad bend or a kink or what looks like it might be a weak spot ,or
if they fail the length/strength test you did with the wiegh scale ,
Throw these away. I probably toss about a 1/3 when I do my little quality control.
Takes maybe half an hour to make up a few
good sets of 5 or 6.
Try these different strength springs in sets and see what feels Best to You.
These homemade clutch springs are likely to
fail sooner than a manufactured one will so pay attention to any change in engagement or sound(a broken spring will rattle around sounding like a light pinging noise) and one clutch pad will be dragging. You'll feel this but might not recognise it till to late.
Its to late when the
schrapnel from the Broken spring has chewed up not only
your cluth pads but your clutch bell aswell.
Go Spend $50 and replace .
Cheers
~Hagg~