Wisil page "making an idler wheel"

[[email protected]]

On Mon, 3 Jan 2005 18:02:04 -0500, "Ken Marcet" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>I have been looking for a chain roller solution for my first homebuilt. I
>found this page http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/idler/idler.htm and
>was wondering how many people use this method and what kind
>of results they get. I want something that is fairly easy to fabricate but
>at the same time somewhat durable. I don't want to have to change wheels
>every 100 miles or less.
>
>Ken

Check out this solution: http://geocities.com/throwaway888/

 

[hhu]

My old hypercycle came with two derailleur jockey wheels in a little
metal frame. I hated it from day one- it wasn't smooth and made a lot
of noise. I solved the problem by cutting an old rear wheel hub from
a 10 speed bike right behind the spoke flange on the drive side. I
then drilled it to install mounting bolts to the bike frame (I had
some tabs welded to the frame for the purpose). I opened up the
freewheel, removed the pawls so it would spin freely in both
directions, and took off most of the cogs. Then the long chain became
two chains- one between the crank in front and the freewheel, and the
other between the freewheel and the rear end of the bike.

Totally smooth, totally silent, and virtually infinite life. Added
benefit- the gears on the freewheel are different sizes, so you can do
all sorts of interesting things with the bike gearing. You can use a
relatively small chain ring up front and have the freewheel step it up
to look like a much larger chain ring.

The shifting on the rear derailleur was much improved by having a
shortened chain.

The old wheel I destroyed was free because it was potato-chipped in a
wreck.

You can see a picture of the bike here- unfortunately I do not have a
close up of the idler, but you can see part of it...

http://www.rehorst.com/mrehorst/Milwaukee_Photos/040718-194022.jpg

The rear end of the bike has a Sachs 2 speed hub with a 6 gear cluster
(and drum brake) so no front derailleur was needed.

TD

 

[skip]

"hhu" <uuhh> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> My old hypercycle came with two derailleur jockey wheels in a little
> metal frame. I hated it from day one- it wasn't smooth and made a lot
> of noise. I solved the problem by cutting an old rear wheel hub from
> a 10 speed bike right behind the spoke flange on the drive side. I
> then drilled it to install mounting bolts to the bike frame (I had
> some tabs welded to the frame for the purpose). I opened up the
> freewheel, removed the pawls so it would spin freely in both
> directions, and took off most of the cogs. Then the long chain became
> two chains- one between the crank in front and the freewheel, and the
> other between the freewheel and the rear end of the bike.
>
> Totally smooth, totally silent, and virtually infinite life. Added
> benefit- the gears on the freewheel are different sizes, so you can do
> all sorts of interesting things with the bike gearing. You can use a
> relatively small chain ring up front and have the freewheel step it up
> to look like a much larger chain ring.
>
> The shifting on the rear derailleur was much improved by having a
> shortened chain.
>
> The old wheel I destroyed was free because it was potato-chipped in a
> wreck.
>
> You can see a picture of the bike here- unfortunately I do not have a
> close up of the idler, but you can see part of it...
>
> http://www.rehorst.com/mrehorst/Milwaukee_Photos/040718-194022.jpg
>
> The rear end of the bike has a Sachs 2 speed hub with a 6 gear cluster
> (and drum brake) so no front derailleur was needed.
>
> TD

Yours may be the nicest Hypercycle ever. Years ago a friend moved and left
his Hypercycle with me to hopefully sell for him. I was surprised how easy
it was to ride. I had people who had never ridden a recumbent, much less a
USS recumbent, do parking lot rides with no problem.

The absence of a front derailleur and the very real drive train issues that
I had no idea how to cure (which you solved in a creative fashion) keep me
from buying it myself.

Recumbent people think Hypercycles were unridable because of handling
problems when actually it was the drive train that caused the problem.

Do you still own the bike?

skip

 

[[email protected]]

BikingBill wrote:
> The Scion Xa IS the Echo Wagon.
>
> FYI: I just turned over 107k miles on that 2000 Echo. Nary a
problem,
> 41 mpg all the time.
> Just drove 1400+ miles in Baja. It's decent off road.

And the Toyota Matrix is a Corolla wagon. Our is pretty nice- but we're
putting about half as many miles as Bill is- 30,000 in 32 months.
Jeff

 

[[email protected]]

hhu wrote:
>
> You can see a picture of the bike here- unfortunately I do not have a
> close up of the idler, but you can see part of it...
>

WISIL has instructions on building similar devices:
http://www.recumbents.com/wisil/jackshaft/jackshaft.htm

Jeff

 

[Tom Sherman]

[email protected] wrote:

> hhu wrote:
>
>>You can see a picture of the bike here- unfortunately I do not have a
>>close up of the idler, but you can see part of it...
>
> WISIL has instructions on building similar devices:
> http://www.recumbents.com/wisil/jackshaft/jackshaft.htm

Note that this page is by Warren Beauchamp. Warren copied the Ross
Festina frame for his Barracuda streamliner chassis. However, he
modified the design in several important ways: indirect steering, a
monostrut instead of the Festina's fork, and a step-up jackshaft. When
the frame was being constructed, it was observed by Shean Bjoralt who
incorporated the monostrut and jackshaft design features into his
lowracer [1].

[End recumbent history lesson]

[1] Pictured in this link: <http://snipurl.com/bsyq>.

--
Tom Sherman - Near Rock Island

 

[Tom Sherman]

hhu wrote:

> My old hypercycle came with two derailleur jockey wheels in a little
> metal frame. I hated it from day one- it wasn't smooth and made a lot
> of noise. I solved the problem by cutting an old rear wheel hub from
> a 10 speed bike right behind the spoke flange on the drive side. I
> then drilled it to install mounting bolts to the bike frame (I had
> some tabs welded to the frame for the purpose). I opened up the
> freewheel, removed the pawls so it would spin freely in both
> directions, and took off most of the cogs. Then the long chain became
> two chains- one between the crank in front and the freewheel, and the
> other between the freewheel and the rear end of the bike.
>
> Totally smooth, totally silent, and virtually infinite life. Added
> benefit- the gears on the freewheel are different sizes, so you can do
> all sorts of interesting things with the bike gearing. You can use a
> relatively small chain ring up front and have the freewheel step it up
> to look like a much larger chain ring.
>
> The shifting on the rear derailleur was much improved by having a
> shortened chain....

Two chains and modifying the overall gearing by the choice of driven and
drive cog sizes on a jackshaft - how ridiculous!

My bike at <http://snipurl.com/bsyq>.

--
Tom Sherman - Near Rock Island

 

[hhu]

>
>Recumbent people think Hypercycles were unridable because of handling
>problems when actually it was the drive train that caused the problem.
>
>Do you still own the bike?
>
>skip
>

Yes I do. That photo is my neice riding it last summer. It is
currently in my father's garage in Milwaukee. He likes to ride it
around the neighborhood- he's 76 years old!

As for stability- I never had any such problems. I am tall so the
seat is as far back as it can go which may help reduce the load on the
front wheel a bit, and I notice that if I almost take my hands off the
steering at any speed above about 10 mph it starts to wobble, but with
normal hand weight on the steering, it never wobbles at any speed.

That bike has a very short wheelbase and dives into turns and then
right back out. If you aren't used to such rapid steering response, I
suppose it might scare you. It is no problem at all to hold a
straight line on it. If you ride one for a while, it is nothing but
fun.

TD

 

[hhu]

Oh yeah? I did it to my bike 20 years ago!

I actually stole the idea from a bike I saw at the LaJolla HPV rally
one year. They used an entire rear wheel hub and mounted it to the
frame in a pillow block type bracket with a QR skewer and everything.

Here's something I tried on the hypercycle before I made the
"jackshaft": http://www.rehorst.com/mrehorst/mark_pace.JPG
This was built using a 46 tooth chain ring, some aluminum plate and
nothing but an electric drill and a coping saw. I used this chain
ring on a 75 mile ride from Tecate to Ensenada one year and it worked
great! I didn't get out of the seat once on the entire ride. The
exagerated "elipse" made pedaling feel like walking up stairs.

TD