steel chain idlers for cruiser bicycle chain?

[DougC]

For a project I'm working on, I needed a couple of chain idlers
(w/bearings) for a cruiser bike. I don't have the physical room
available in this instance to go cheap and just use a couple old rear hubs.

I looked a couple days online and couldn't turn up a single source of
idlers for 1/2 pitch x 3/16" wide roller chain (with .306" roller dia).
I wanted STEEL idlers w/bearings, but nylon or some other synthetic
might have worked--but I didn't find any idlers for that size chain,
either in steel, acetal, nylon or anything else. ANSI #40 is 5/16" wide
rollers, ANSI #41 is 1/4 wide rollers (both are .306 roller dia) and
McMaster-Carr has them, so I bought a couple #41's and will hand-grind
the edges down a bit until they roll well enough.

I'd have thought that type of bicycle chain would have been some
standard size, but I didn't see anything industrial using it. Did I just
not enter the magic keywords into Google?.....
~

 

[MJP]

"DougC" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> For a project I'm working on, I needed a couple of chain idlers
> (w/bearings) for a cruiser bike. I don't have the physical room available
> in this instance to go cheap and just use a couple old rear hubs.
>
> I looked a couple days online and couldn't turn up a single source of
> idlers for 1/2 pitch x 3/16" wide roller chain (with .306" roller dia). I
> wanted STEEL idlers w/bearings, but nylon or some other synthetic might
> have worked--but I didn't find any idlers for that size chain, either in
> steel, acetal, nylon or anything else. ANSI #40 is 5/16" wide rollers,
> ANSI #41 is 1/4 wide rollers (both are .306 roller dia) and McMaster-Carr
> has them, so I bought a couple #41's and will hand-grind the edges down a
> bit until they roll well enough.
>
> I'd have thought that type of bicycle chain would have been some standard
> size, but I didn't see anything industrial using it. Did I just not enter
> the magic keywords into Google?.....

Can't you just use the "jockey" wheels from a derailleur??

http://tinyurl.com/28j6m5


MJP

 

[DougC]

MJP wrote:
>
> Can't you just use the "jockey" wheels from a derailleur??
>
> http://tinyurl.com/28j6m5
>

....Yea,,, but they're pretty small and built flimsy. They do what
they're /intended/ to do just fine, but they don't really carry much of
a load doing it. For all the trouble it will be to build a bracket to
hold these things where they need to go, I want them to last a LONG time.

The smallest industrial idlers in nylon are at least 2.5 inches
diameter, 1/4-inch thick and have roller or needle bearings on a bore
that's at least 1/2".
~