Little stuff for free

[Kludge]

Here's a find that seems to go in the opposite direction of most - i.e., it's small. Better yet, it was free. Bicycle repair shops often have spokes that are bent/broken or are otherwise unsuitable for use on a bike. They come in a small variety of steel alloys (including stainless) and a limited number of diameters and some even have their threaded ends for adjustment purposes. What they have in common is that they're all in the bin for either dumping or recycling.

Upon visiting a shop looking for a sturdy trike frame for motorizing (yet another use for lawn trimmer engines), I managed a double handful for the asking (I didn't even have to play the "disabled vet" card!) which will provide things like wrist pins, connecting rods (complete with a means of adjusting them), tiny jack screws (short piece of threaded spoke and the adjuster combined) and other mechanical marvels for the rest of my unnatural life.

Oh, why a trike? I used to ride motorcycles but an inner ear problem has my sense of balance pretty well whacked. I've not found a trike or reverse trike frame to build a new bike around so, for now, I'll deal with a motorized tricycle to terrorize the neighbors. They'll support my weight a bit better than a regular three-wheel moped and there's room to play with different power plants. (I wonder how they'd measure the displacement of a turboshaft engine.)

Best regards,

Kludge

 

[Brass_Machine]

That is actually a long term project of mine... a reverse trike. I am in the middle of designing the frame right now. Will be street legal and powered by a 1000cc motorcycle engine. ;D That is one of the main reasons I started the other board.

Eric


BTW... I think I found what you were looking for. Check your PMS at MM

 

[Bogstandard]

Morgan Motors of hand built sports car fame in the UK, built their reputation on as you call them 'reverse trikes'. But in car form. The layout could easily be modified to mo'sickle engines.

http://www.morgan3w.de/

The engines used will make the V-twin enthusiasts drool.

Because of their quirky handling characteristics (also a lot more stable than a twin rear wheeled trike), you could kick the back end around, just by the correct use of the throttle, they became a classic machine for hill climbing and racing, and dominated the scene for many years, and many of these classics are still used today.

The other popular one in the 50's and 60's was the Meschersmitt bubble car, they came in canopy, cabriolet and they even did a four wheeled version. to reverse, you stopped the engine and started it in reverse, so you had the full range of gears going backwards. I nearly bought one of these in the late sixties for £50, but after coming out of my drunken stupor, I changed my mind. No fun in it for a young man, the passenger sat behind you, but it was nice watching them trying to get in one in their mini skirts and hot pants


[ame]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lWgqJSDkZaw[/ame]


John

 

[kustomkb]

Heres one I built around a honda 70, It is a free leaning design.

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=6636067717591910300&ei=2K2hSMefEZOc-QHQyc02&q=kbkustoms&hl=en

 

[Kludge]

Morgan Motors of hand built sports car fame in the UK, built their reputation on as you call them 'reverse trikes'. But in car form. The layout could easily be modified to mo'sickle engines.

I remember a couple of them owned by Carnegie Tech (now CMU) students moons ago. Didn't they have a wooden frame? I know they were drool-worthy machines back then and are no less so now, just my own personal "frame" doesn't allow for such delights anymore.

Best regards,

Kludge

 

[Kludge]

That is actually a long term project of mine... a reverse trike. I am in the middle of designing the frame right now. Will be street legal and powered by a 1000cc motorcycle engine.

I don't need anything ubercool at the moment, just enough to hit the local shops and get home with a minimum of personal injury. A basic trike with something scooterish up to maybe dirt bike size (or twin/triple moped engines - I'm all about experimenting ) for an engine would be good.

If I were to build my own (not gonna happen since I don't have access to shop facilities and can't afford to even think about it) it would be more like a cross between a Morgan (non-leaning frame, stretched with a proper seat and somewhere to put things) and a motorcycle (bugs in teeth, engine between legs, bars instead of a wheel) with a somewhat more sedate engine than yours - something like a Honda CB-450 up to a CB-750, dependent on final weight. That should get me on the interstate (on which we can't even get to the next county!) to the VA clinic. The real test, I guess, would be the Likelike which has a good pull up one side of the mountain and a need for good braking on the other. If I can keep up with traffic on that, it'll go about anywhere without tying up traffic. Of course, if I were to seriously fantasize, I'd wrap it around a GL-1800 and give the local bikers a treat.

Oh, well ... no can do even in the more sedate version so no use dreaming about a bigger one.

That is one of the main reasons I started the other board.

Other board? :big:

BTW... I think I found what you were looking for. Check your PMS at MM

Done and replied.

BEst regards,

Kludge

 

[kustomkb]

Hi Dick,

I was inspired by this design concept,

http://members.iinet.net.au/~jsulman/tracer/

But otherwise the design is my own. It handles great once the steep learning curve has been conquered and a little
blood had been shed. Here are a couple pics of my top test pilot.

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.ca/kustomkb/MiniChoppersTrike/photo#5233999694787265570"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/kustomkb/SKLm_dJMRCI/AAAAAAAAAEo/R2XIQogXXRI/s400/DSC00851.JPG" /></a>

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.ca/kustomkb/MiniChoppersTrike/photo#5233999693156585650"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/kustomkb/SKLm_XEaELI/AAAAAAAAAEw/TpyUUVnHw3Q/s400/salmonfest147.jpg" /></a>

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.ca/kustomkb/MiniChoppersTrike/photo#5233999687927380690"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/kustomkb/SKLm_DlqutI/AAAAAAAAAEg/rtNUTqw9bhQ/s400/DSC00850.JPG" /></a>

Some more build pics here:

www3.telus.net/kbkustoms

Thanks for the interest.

 

[Cedge]

Kludge
I took your advice and dropped in on the local bicycle shop, looking for used spokes. After dealing with the "why would anyone want those" questions, they got engaged with the idea and we dug around in their back room for a bit. I walked out with a few spokes that hadn't been trashed, a length of very fine and highly flexible braided stainless cable and a pair of cam locks in like new condition. Price.... 4 bucks.... for the pair of clamps.

I left there and stopped in at the local Yamaha Motorcycle shop and repeated theperformance, but with an ace up my sleeve. I had my little Water pressure Engine with me. I know.... it's a little like hunting a baited field where gear heads are gathered, but hey....at least I'm not using a spotlight at night...so no harm no foul...LOL.

These guys spent the next hour rainstorming to come up old guys in hidden machine shops who absolutely "needed" to see that little engine. I wound up with some very usable spokes and a promise to save me some more, anytime I needed them. Plus, I had to promise to drop in with any future projects.

Only one fly in the whole jug of ointment. I stopped in the Suzuki shop where they concentrate on making fast bikes insanely so. The shop foreman put me with a poster boy for pimple medications who fished a paper bag of cut spokes from the trash can, plopped them in my hand and demanded $10.00. I was nice, but the kid sort of got the idea where I wanted him to put his $10.00 used spokes, as I walked out laughing.

Bottom line... two sources and two sizes, both perfect for small linkage needs.

Thanks for the idea...
Steve

 

[bentprop]

Good on Ya,cedge,for telling pimple boy where to store his spokes.I have used spokes for years in my RC model airplanes,where they make handy dandy connectors to wooden pushrods.When a local cycle wholesaler closed down his repair department, i was given a bucket full of spokes of every possible cycle thread known to man.
Even the short ends are used,as epoxy stirrers 8).In little engines,they can be used for all manner of places where a small pin is needed.

 

[Kludge]

Good on Ya,cedge,for telling pimple boy where to store his spokes.

I think the only change I would have made would have been to get him started ... with my best "I eat Marines for munchies" look. (No one has to know I'm actually a huge teddy bear. )

I have used spokes for years in my RC model airplanes,where they make handy dandy connectors to wooden pushrods.

Or short pushrods in their own right. On another appendage to be identified later, now that I've gone and gotten Nick Ziroli's giant scale (101" span) B-25, I have to rethink this whole pushrod thing due to the huge loads on the control surfaces.

Even the short ends are used,as epoxy stirrers 8).In little engines,they can be used for all manner of places where a small pin is needed.

As I mentioned earlier, short threaded ends and adjuster thingies make really cool mini-jacks (like for leveling) and slightly longer ones can be used to make adjustable connecting rods.

Which reminds me, does anyone happen to know what threads are used on these things? About all I've found is that they were originally rolled & not cut but nothing about the actual threads. That's of no help when sketching out things other than the adjuster thingies (okay, nipples) to screw onto the already threaded portions.

Best regards,

Kludge

 

[Bluechip]

Hi Kludge

Probably not relevant in your case, but here are British M/Cycle spoke threads from days gone ..

dia[ins.] ...... tpi

.056 62
.064 62
.072 62
.080 62
.092 56
.104 44

The diameters are from the S.W.G. series. [Standard Wire Guage], one of the many 'Standard' :big: wire guages in UK over the centuries.

Series of threads named Cycle Engineers Institute Standard Thread.

Regards

Dave.

 

[Kludge]

Probably not relevant in your case, but here are British M/Cycle spoke threads from days gone ..

Clipped and saved to my ever growing pile of digital notes. (I really do need to get them organized someday.) Thank you!

The diameters are from the S.W.G. series. [Standard Wire Guage], one of the many 'Standard' :big: wire guages in UK over the centuries.

That's a neat thing about standards, there are so many to choose from :big:

We colonists tend to borrow from England ("Two countries separated by a common language" - Oscar Wilde, I think) a lot so it wouldn't surprise me that these work for the spokes I have now.

Thanks again.

BEst regards,

Kludge

 

[Dhow Nunda wallah]

"We colonists"?
Go with your roots Kludge
(inasfar as they have been determined)

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."
GBS

Slainte
Lin

 

[Kludge]

Go with your roots Kludge
(inasfar as they have been determined)

Which ones - Irish, Scots, Welsh, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Polish, Czechoslovakian or Bohemian (from when it was still a country)? And those are just the ones I remember! Given history's example, I have a number of skirmishes, border incidents and outright wars going on in that mix.

Locally, it's called being "chop suey" (and the ones I don't remember are "too manini to mention") but "Euromutt" or "pure bred mongrel" work just as well.

Locals think of me as just haole until I start rattling off the list. About half way through some get this kind of cross-eyed glassy stare but when I'm done, they understand that just 'cuz I'm caucasian doesn't mean I don't have as much of a mix - if not more of one - as most locals. Add to that my ohana (adoptive family) is 100% Filipino and that, sadly for my waistline, I haven't found anything in the way of local food I don't like, and I'm more local than some locals.

I make no claims to speaking Hawaiian pidgin but I do understand it. This catches some off guard when they think they're getting something past the "lolo haole".

But then, I was in a Filipino restaurant once where the waiter who took my order passed it on using words I definitely would not use in church. I went over to him and the group he was with and told him that if he ever called me a [phrase deleted per forum language requirements - besides I don't use language like that anyway] again, he and I would have a short but emphatic meeting behind the building. The fact that I had my best "I eat Marines for munchies" expression going kind of emphasized the point. Funny that. I suddenly became their most favorite customer.

What this has to do with bicycle spokes? Guess where I got the info about what shops to check for tricycle frames!

BEst regards,

Kludge

 

[Dhow Nunda wallah]

There's a lot to be said for hybrid vigour

 

[Kludge]

There's a lot to be said for hybrid vigour

Yes, it tends to keep us on our toes and off of ... ummm ... ours. ;D

Best regards,

Kludge

 

[Dhow Nunda wallah]

one o' these mornings
gonna rise up singin

Maybe even get down to the lathe.

Te waka
haere mai

 

[Kludge]

While this started off talking about bicycle spokes and has evolved a number of times, I'm now trying to sort out some other little stuff - well, tiny stuff - which is being a bit of a bear.

A good part of my mechanical parts came from things like old camcorders et al that outlived their usefulness on down to watch parts including gears (which watchmakers insist on calling "wheels") that my magnifying glass needs a magnifying glass to see. Doing so has presented a problem of sorts due to the range of sizes.

When I still built microbots, they were done entirely on the electronics side of the shop while larger projects were on the machine side where the lathes et al live. There were no gears or anything like that, just motors and really strange linkages made from 1/32" & 1/16" bare welding rod. The motors and RC servoes I used all lived there so it wasn't a real problem to add the electronics and figure out some cool way to make them do fun things.

Only now, the 6mm lathe and the Clisby go to the electronics side along with a few other things like an alcohol lamp & blow tube (connected to a small compressor rather than using lung power) to fabricate little machines. (By the way, brazing and silver soldering with an alcohol lamp and blow tube is doable if you're not looking to heat really big things.) This has upset the normal course of things somewhat and caused me to rethink the whole which side gets what thing.

As of this moment and subject to change as I think about things more, I think the larger components from the camcorders and other donors will go to the mechanical side of the house while the smaller parts from watches and similar sized bits will go to the electronics side. I still need to figure out how to separate the hand tools so, for now, most will wind up on the machine side then the ones mostly used on the electronics side will slowly drift there for a permanent home ... unless I just buy duplicates. In any case, this has somewhat upset the sort order for the tools as well which is rather frustrating.

WHY do I do these things to myself? ???