Weed Eater Friction Drive Bicycle

[landuse]

Ok...so I decided to use a smaller diameter roller to give me more torque. I have also figures out that the carb on this weedeater is non-adjusting, so I have to use whatever setting they set at the factory.

I decided on a new roller design. I took a pipe nipple that was an inch outer diameter, and had thread cut on the one end. I then bought a pipe end that could screw onto that side. I will drill a hole (hopefully dead centre) in the cap, which will then be secured to the weedeater shaft. I will then screw the pipe (which I have scored with some lines with my angle grinder) onto that, using some loctite.

Hopefully this will help with the torque issue I have at the moment. If this doesn't work, I am going to abandon this project.

 

[Simon Thomas]

Landuse,

I like your current works and enjoy reading the progress.

 

[landuse]

Sorry that I haven't updated in a while...

I decided to go to a machine shop a week or so ago, and ask them to make a roller for me. I decided this was the best way to go, as the pipe nipple would probably not have worked so well.

I drew up some plans that I gave to them. I asked them that I need a 110mm long piece of 1 inch diameter round bar, with a 9.5mm diameter hole, drilled 55mm into the bar. I then need a further hole of 22mm which is threaded with an 8X1 thread.

The first drawing below shows the bar that I need made, and the second drawing shows the shaft that it is going to slide over and screw onto.

It cost me about $11

I eventually got my roller that I had made at a machinist. It looks really nice. This was last week thursday. I wasn't able to test it out until monday because we went away to the beach for the weekend.

When we got back, I screwed it on, using a few spacers because they couldn't tap the full length of the roller due to its length and a short tap. It works really well, much better than the bike peg. I have got enough torque to keep me going after pedaling a little bit. I will never be able to get up any sort of steep hill without pedaling, but any weedeater engine would be the same. I had to get smaller turnbuckles to compensate for the smaller diameter, but that wasn't too expensive.

Here are a couple of pics of the roller. All I have to do now is fabricate a clutch for myself that will lift the engine off the wheel when I want to stop. I will use a scissor lift and some cable. I have added an example pic of what it will look like.

 

[Jake.B]

i built a simmilar idea its chaindriven and its a chainsaw, You may already know this but for your throttle you can use a shifter for a mountain bike, just pull it apart and theres a metal peice that causes the clicking and pullit out and put back togethere then it is a smooth twist. I understand the motor is on a mountain bike so there probably is not enough room for a throttle thatstyle, you can always use the good ole brake lever for throttle.


also you can buy rubber tube ore hose and they even make rubber tube that slips on to rollers. you can get these in all different hardnesses. You want the rubber to be as close as you can to the same material as a bike tire. Rubber on rubber is 50 times more "gripier" that steel or metal on rubber meaning there is alot less slipage. another problem you probably will encounter is because steel is so much harder than rubber it eats the hell out of those rubber tires. Therefore rubber on rubber is also a pluse because ith is not hard on the tire.

 

[landuse]

Jake.B, here is a pic of what I was talking about regarding a clutch lever between your legs

You can see on the engine mount there is a piece of metal sticking up with a cable attached to it. This runs to a lever between your legs that you can pull to lift the engine and then engage the lever it on some hook of something

 

[landuse]

Hey Crazyman. Here are the pics of my carb we PM'ed each other about. It looks like it is non adjustable. Can anyone tell me about it?

 

[bighead]

Great job on the bike Landuse.

 

[landuse]

Great job on the bike Landuse.

Thanks

 

[Jake.B]

Doesent look like its adjustable to me either, ive taken a few of these little 2-stoke carbs apart. Look up your engine on the web maybe theres some more info on it.