What did you do to your motorized bike today?

[HeadSmess]

pantograph; ( %$& - ^*^ - *) from greek, meaning "to copy".

no, not a dirty picture


just a bunch of linkages, one point you trace the shape out with, and on another point theres a pencil that draws the exact shape, mirrored shape, smaller/larger shape, etc. replace pencil with plasma torch and cut metal!

also pretty easy to drive with the stepper motors for the CNC

 

[5-7HEAVEN]

Thanks for explaining it.

I got to see an RM125 triple tree bracket.

It is HUGE and weighs 5.6lbs! the steerer tube looks to be a tad over 1". It MIGHT fit my headset. However, I believe its size is not proportional to a bicycle.

Update: RM125 tube WILL slip into a 1" headset. However, the shaft's bottom is tapered to a larger diameter to accept a bigger cone-style bearing. You'd have to machine the tube to accept a standard 1" bottom bearing race, then shorten and rethread the shaft. Too much trouble and expense. Its triple tree bracket alone weighs 5.6lbs.

And I haven't even seen the 35mm fork tubes, which are larger than the 33mm RM80s. All this adds more weight, so I'll stick with installing an RM80 fork with motorcycle disc brake.

RM80s have a 17" front tire, RM125s have 26" tire. With the right axle and bearings, maybe the large wheel will fit in the smaller fork.

Update: YAY! RM80 triple tree fits an early cruiser frame like a glove! It simply needs 38 ball bearings, 19 up/19 below the headset to match your standard cups. Balls are 3/16" size. I'm using the motorcycle's bottom bearing race and its top bearing retainer. Cost is less than $4. Upper bearing retainer must be reamed a fraction of a millimeter to clear the tube's machined shoulder. Instead of rethreading the steerer tube, a few large washers above the retainer will permit the ball bearings to be adjusted. The handlebar clamps are 7/8" and massive; no fear of cracking, and the standard bike handlebar should bolt on with no reaming. Then the RM80's brake lever should bolt onto my MB.

Now I can start hunting for wheels, RM80 forks, axle and its entire front hydraulic brake system.

The first wheel I'll get is the RM125 26" one with disc rotor. Maybe an RM80 axle and bearings will slip onto the wheel.
And maybe the larger wheel's rotor will match the smaller fork's caliper. If that happens, I'm a happy camper. If the larger wheel won't fit, then I'll find
two RM80 17" wheels, one to run as is. The second one is to respoke its hub to the RM125's rim.
If I'm lucky there, the larger wheel's spokes can be re-used.

More researching needed.

 

[mdross1]

Carried most of the Whizzer parts down into our winter retreat for the upcoming restoration.Have so much on the plate this summer no way will the bike be on the road this year.

 

[butterbean]

This weekend I replaced my rear wheel. My old wheel was a Huffy Cranbrook rear wheel with a Howard sprocket adapter (to clarify, my bike is not a cranbrook, only the rear wheel was). I swapped it out for a Wheelmaster wheel with a genuine Shimano CB110 coaster brake hub, and a manic adapter and sprocket. Over the weekend, I also put a little air in my front tire, adjusted my front brake, swapped out my 44t chainring for a 36t chainring to lower my pedal gearing a bit, and made a little modification to my brake lever. My brake lever is off an old moped or scooter, and I had previously removed the horn button and made room for a toggle switch to control my headlight. The problem was that the toggle switch I was using wasnt working, so I decided to swap it out for an automotive toggle switch. I had to do some cutting and grinding with the dremel, and even some filing after I destroyed all the dremel bits (aluminum is very hard on dremel bits), but I was eventually able to get the new toggle switch installed. I still have yet to change my clutch shoes, but I'll do that Tuesday. I have a 4 stroke with a centrifugal clutch, and I installed a heavier spring and now the shoes are too light for the spring, so I got some heavier shoes to hopefully help the clutch engage smoother.

 

[HeadSmess]

moved it off the tractor and leant it on the fence cus i needed the tractor more.

 

[butterbean]

I might have explained this before, but I attempted to build a charging circuit with a bottle generator and a 12v sealed battery. The generator got fried, so I ordered a wall-charger for the battery a couple days ago. I plan to replace the generator and use a bigger drive wheel to make it spin less and hopefully not overheat again, but in the meantime I still need my battery charged. So that's what I did today, charged my battery. I'll be ordering the replacement generator friday, and when it gets here I'll be changing my rear tire, trueing the wheel, then installing the new generator.

 

[HeadSmess]

where are you spinning the generator from?

try using a brushless RC motor, and running it friction drive off the engine flywheel etc... a "squirrel cage" or "outrunner" is perfect, as its the shaft thats held staionary, the casing spins no need to fit a roller!

you will need a rectifier/regulator. either a handful of diodes, and a 7815 regulator with one 1n4007 diode to drop the output to 13.8 ish..., or the nice complete unit off a motorbike. make sure its a 3 phase and not a single phase! 3 in 2 out, not 2 in 2 out...

unfortunately, you cant wire a generator DIRECTLY to a 12v battery. if its a standard cheap bottle dynamo.

the generator more than likely fried not from overspeeding but from overloading. whats its output voltage, and is there any blocking diode to stop the battery discharging into the generator? you need at least 13.8 volts to charge a 12v lead acid battery. if the generator doesnt supply this, easily, then the battery will discharge into it. and theres a 0.6 to 1.2 volt drop across any blocking diodes that needs to be accounted for.

dynamos rarely have internal diodes, as they arent necessary when only running lights. if the dynamo "locks" when spun one way, its got a diode. otherwise it will sorta spin both ways(sorta...you can feel the ratcheting as the magnets attract the core. as per normal) it will lock both ways if you SHORT the wires but magnetic brakes. awesome!
the current induced in the coil, by the rotating magnet, creates its own magnetic field. this magnetic field is equal to but is in reverse to the rotating magnetic field. so it repels the magnet. pushes back with just as much force as its being pushed against. if nature was perfect and the wiring was superconductive, it would be impossible to move at all. (but heres a thing... zero resistance means NO CURRENT regardless of the voltage! or...no voltage regardless of the current! basic maths! cant divide or multiply by 0! so a superconductive winding round a steel core wouldnt create a magnetic field... or be affected by one either. superconductors dont actually "conduct" the way we imagine them to. they sort of...resonate.)

a solar charging regulator would work for the voltage side of things if the genny barely gets over 14 volts at max speed., a simple 1n4007 diode will stop the discharge problem if the generator is supplying enough power.

or try using a 6volt battery, and dont worry if youre trying to pump 12 volts into it. one diode, as a blocker, and one resistor to limit the current. like, 5watt, 1 ohm... wattage to suit total power of lights i guess

 

[butterbean]

Sorry I didn't read your whole post. Dont take it personally, I just have to get ready for work very soon. I'm not running the generator directly to the battery. I have a mini charger from wonderful creations, which has a built-in regulator and rectifier. I've been running the generator off the tire, but plan on running the replacement directly off the rim with a large rubber wheel. I built my charging system correctly, the only thing that went wrong was the generator spun way too fast and overheated. Bottle generators are cheap enough and easy to install. The one I fried was given to me and it was an experimental thing. I know what went wrong and how to eliminate the problem. I could just charge my battery via a wall charger, but the purpose of the charging circuit is to be able to run my lights during the day to be seen and noticed better, without having to plug in 3 or 4 times a week.

 

[butterbean]

I've now had time to read your entire post. Cant use a 6v battery, lights wont run on less than 8, which means every time I stop my lights will either die or get very dim, and if stopped for long enough, I may overheat the battery. The drawback that I see to a solar charger is that if I ever did need to go for a long ride at night and drained my batteries, or more likely forgot to switch my light off, the charger only works during the day, and from what I have read will take a couple days to recharge the battery. Of course, I suppose I could just wall charge at that point, but the other problem is getting a solar charger that supplies enough wattage to power my lights directly. See, the way I've got my charging circuit set up, the generator actually powers the lights when its running. And the higher the wattage of those solar chargers, the more expensive they are, making the generator the cheaper option. I'm not sure if there is a blocking diode in the charger I'm using, but I know that regulators and rectifiers have specific input and output poles, leading one to assume that the current can only travel in one direction. The charger has a built-in regulator and rectifier. And I'm fairly certain that the generator did overheat from being spun too fast, and here is why. First, I know the generator was getting very hot because it was sometimes too hot to touch after a 3 mile ride (the distance from my house to my job). Secondly, the little plastic roller wheel that the generator came with got chewed to bits the first ride I took it on after installing the generator, and I had to come up with a replacement. What I ended up using was a seatpost clamp bolt, the kind that come with quick release seatpost clamps, a very small wheel, so I know that the generator was spinning very fast. In any permanent magnet motor, if the generator spins faster than the amount of rpm's necessary to produce the rated voltage, the brushes start to get very hot and will eventually burn up. I figure that a sidewall generator probably needs between 3k and 3500 rpms to produce 12v, and a 26 inch wheel at 30mph will spin a 2 inch drive wheel about 3500 times. The size of my drive wheel on my generator is probably a half inch, so that's spinning the generator about 4 times faster than it needs to to produce 12v. So it could have been putting out 48v or somewhere close to that. That's a lot of excess energy and a lot of heat. So my working theory is that it overheated from being overspun. The generator I fried was given to me, so replacing it is not costing me extra. If I fry the next one, then I will look at a solar charger. But for clarification, here is how my charging circuit is built. The generator is wired to the mini-charger. I then have a 5 pole powe distributor designed to connect car audio systems to the car's battery. Its a positive pole, not grounded. The charger, the battery, my headlight, and my brake light are all connected to the power distributor, and everything is grounded to my frame.

 

[butterbean]

headsmess, one thing you said definitely clicked with me. What you said about a blocking diode led me to believe that if there were no blocking diode somewhere in the circuit, then you should be able to read the battery voltage by testing the positive wire coming off the charger that goes to the generator, correct? After all, if the current is able to flow in both directions, then it would be flowing from the battery all the time, whether the generator is running or not, correct? So since I currently have the wire disconnected from the generator, I tested it and got nothing. So I'm definitely assuming now that the charger must have a blocking diode in in it.