So you went with the Wooden Rollers eh....don't suppose you'll be sending me a royality check for
that suggestion eh? I still have a few OAK Rollers from years ago.
Did you ever try the Drive wheel from a MX-5...it moves well in the rain. Just pack metal washers
inside the hollow roller so the PET fits tight.
I gave up on using my Mitsubishi from Robert Felt 2 years ago and have been loyal to E-Motors
since...but I do sometimes miss the raw power of a ICE on my bent.
Next time I go with an ICE it will be a GSX31...would love to slap on a 5 HP. Honda 4 stroker
someday and get bugs in my teeth at 50 mph. "Lorenzo L. Love" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> DrRecumbnt wrote:
> > Lorenzo, Cool website. How much life/miles do you get out of a roller/rear tire? Anything else
> > we should know about the engine kit? Thanks Bob
>
> I use wood rollers so they wear out, not the tires. Apparently no more tire wear then normal. The
> rollers are easy to replace and don't cost much. They look like they are wearing a lot at first,
> but once they wear into the profile of the tire, the wear slows down considerably. Couldn't tell
> you how many miles I get, I swapped around rollers to get different gear ratios and haven't worn
> one out completely. The bigger the roller, the higher the gearing and the higher the top speed,
> smaller rollers give you lower gearing and better climbing. I generally use one that keeps my top
> speed under the legal limit of 30 mph but still gives me good climbing ability. With the 700C
> wheels and the largest roller, it would easily go well over the legal limit for California. Even
> with the same roller, the gear ratio will gradually get lower as the roller wears. The big
> disadvantage of wood rollers is that they slip when wet and can't really be used in the rain. I
> have a Carborundum roller for rain use but never had occasion to use it.
>
> With any roller drive system, you have to be careful on start up to get moveing at a reasonable
> speed before engaging the roller, else you might burn a hole in the tire. I've ruined a tire that
> way, engaging a rapidly spinning roller on to a stationery tire. Not a nice smell.
>
> If I was designing a power assist bike from scratch, having the motor drive a jack shaft would be
> the way to go, although that may cause legal issues. But roller drives are easy to retrofit to
> existing bikes and can be removed with no problem.
>
> Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove
>
> "We recognize, however dimly, that greater efficiency, ease, and security may come at a
> substantial price in freedom, that law and order can be a doublethink version of oppression, that
> individual liberties surrendered for whatever good reason are freedom lost." Walter Cronkite, in
> the preface to the 1984 edition of 1984