The little engine that could ....kind of

For years kids wished their bikes would magically be transformed into a motorcycle. In the 40's and 50's kids put baseball cards in the spokes to give it that roar. How many Ted Williams, Mickey  Mantle and Stan Musial rookie cards were destroyed in order to sound cool. In the 60's muscle bikes were "inspired by drag racers" but they weren't fooling anyone. It was the wild choppers and bobbers these bikes were really copying. The "big 3" bike American bike companies (Schwinn, Murray & Huffy) didn't want their wholesome product associated with the rebellious bicycle gangs of the era, but every kid pictured himself on a big ol Harlery or a zippy Yamaha or even a practical Honda.

I rode my rollfast scoot until I was way too big for it (I got really tall really fast) wishing I was on one of those AMF Harleys that Evel Kinevel used to jump over things on "Wide World of Sports". 

Sometimes I would pretend I was riding the Honda moped I saw advertised in my brothers Boy's Life magizine. Whatever I was doing, I had a need for speed. 

Motorized bicycles have always been around - the earliest motorcycles were bicycles with an engine but it wasn't until after the war that small engines on bicycle type vehicles took off. Mopeds started as bicycles with engines until they  evolved into the cool (in my opinion) vehicles that they are today.

  The French Velosolex had a lot more bicycle than moped in it but that didn't stop millions from being sold. An engine sat on the front wheel. The engine had a roller on it that when rubbed against the tire would propel a Frenchman at a baguette hurling speed of 18mph. Did you have to pedal? Yep, was it dependable? You bet. Was it fast? Um, no. These weren't made for speed, they were made for the urbanite to get around at a time when vehicles and gasoline were scarce. 

not mine

These bikes were exported all over the world and, after a period where they were made in China, continue to be made in France. I would love to own a Velosolex but I can't justify the expense of finding and restoring one . Maybe someday. 

In the meantime I wanted to try something else. There are dozens of different kinds of bike engine kits. There are electric hub motor kits, super cool but expensive heavy batteries with limited range make it kind of impractical. 

There are in frame gas powered kits. Some are better than others, I've heard nightmare stories of them blowing up on people and storys of people putting thousands of miles on them. They have a belt drive engine but they are pretty spendy and I don't have that kind of scratch laying around. 

I went with the simplicity of a friction drive engine. People love the velosolex so there must be something to this seemingly strange method of moving a bicycle. There are a couple different people supplying these but honestly, they look silly. If you want a lawnmower strapped to the back of your bike, great but I wanted something a little more subtle. 

I decided on a little engine kit called "bumble bee bolt on". It's a 26cc homelite engine that has a simple hinge like bolt on bracket that holds the engine on the bike. It's direct drive, so there's no clutch. You can raise and lower the engine off the tire with a lever contraption. When you stop, the engine stops. You use the lever raise the engine, pedal a little and drop the engine on the tire, then the engine starts and you take off. Top speed on the flats is reported to be 18-20 but I've gotten it up to at least 24mph on a level stretch. I even got it up to 32mph once on a downhill run. That was a scary and stupid thing to do. 

The one issue these friction engine have is that it tears the crap out of tires. I barely made it home one day. Forget about riding it in damp conditions, the roller just spins. I hear some of the better kits will work in wet weather. The Velosolex and AMF roadmaster apparently also held up well in the wet weather. 

I lost interest in the engine after a particularly wet winter and a few worn out tires made me sour on the concept of a friction engine. It sat on a shelf for a while. 

A year or so later I was bored and looking for a new project. I aquired a cool looking folding bike and thought it would be fun to motorize. 

I removed the bar that raised and lowered the engine and replaced it with a lever and cable system. It worked much better than the big metal lever that was really awkward to operate. This bike wasn't well made and kept giving me problems. It got pretty scary a couple times. Next thing you know the engine started acting up and it went by the wayside again. 

I just got a vintage sears free spirit engine  so I never got the need for slightly increased speed out of my system. I'll post a full report when I get everything up and running. 

Until next time - getchermotorunnun!