Velocette Generator Speed Up

Machining At Sheddington

The generator (dynamo) on the Velocette was reconfigured to 12V before I bought it.

When I last rode the bike I noticed that it did not charge well at low RPM.

A bit of research at the University of Google suggested that the 12V generator needed high RPM before it would charge correctly.

The sheaves (pulleys) were measured and the following ratio was found.

Driver 3.125 Driven 3.000

Giving a step up ratio of 1.13:1.

I decided to aim for a step up ratio of 1.25:1

So the following sheaves were required.

Driver 3.125 Driven 2.500.

The tough part seemed to be finding a drive belt that would accommodate the difference in diameters.

A search of the usual places, Amazon, McMaster Carr etc, did no turn up any suitable candidates.

By chance, I was in the ACE hardware store nearby (Madam does not think that it was chance, as I go there every day)

They had drive belts of the correct cross section and suitable length. I bought the one that seemed to fit the dimensions calculated.

The next step was to make a new driven sheave.

However after some careful calculations, I thought that I could make the new sheave out of the old sheave.

This is what was determined to be the best option to reuse the existing sheave.

A mandrel was made out of a bolt to mount the workpiece and set it up in the lathe chuck.

It is shown here set up in the lathe with the outside diameter already machined to size.
Check the link below.

Machining The Sheave

Here you can see the finished article.

Do you think that Velocette used Mitsuboshi belts?


The installation of the new belt and modified sheave was completed and the results are to be found using the link below.

Up and running.

In this video, the speeds are a bit of a problem due to the reflectivity of the driven sheave.
It throws the measuring device out of whack.
I'll try that again after dulling the surface somehow.
Overall the goal has been accomplished.
More soon an an exciting (well not really) new development in the world of bikes and travel blogs.
As I told a finance guy that I know when he was expounding the excitement factor of tax protocols,
"Pretty girls and fast motorcycles are exciting, tax is just BLAH"

Ciao Bella
Norm

Tuesday Challenges

BMW Modifications

My brother Jimmie has been taking issue with the BMW he recently acquired because of a little annoying safety feature.

If you put the side stand down it shuts off the engine.

So when you roll the scoot out of the garage and need to park it whilst you go back and close the garage door (I know old school, who does that any more, press a button to close the garage door)

So we checked the circuit diagram and found the color of the wires we needed to locate.

After removing 17 screws, I kid you not, we were able to remove the left side fairing and access the side stand switch.

After a brief consultation, we decided to add a jumper in the circuit ahead of the switch but leave the switch in circuit.

The idea being that if the jumper falls off, the bike will still work as intended. Whereas if you cut out the original switch and your jumper falls off you are up shit creek in a barbed wire canoe.

The umbrella is an essential part of our equipment otherwise you risk sunburn on the back of the neck.

The day ended well with the fairing installed and the engine running with the side stand down.

Our only problem was that a nut plate fell off and disappeared somewhere inside the fairing.

Off we went on a trip to the hardware store, where we purchased the necessary bits.

We managed to install a big fender washer and a standard nut on the inside of the fairing, 

We just need to remember that piece of information the next time we take it apart.

I can't figure out why, but the arthritis in my hands has been really bad for the last couple of days, the weather has been really warm and dry so there must be some other reason.

Lack of beer maybe, no probably not, too much beer, no such thing, so maybe it is just old age...

So I got out the hand machine that Barb and Leon gave me.

Looks like I need to go back to using it every day instead of once per week.

Man does this thing do a number on you, but it really works very well.

Thanks again to Barb and Leon for the machine.

Next week we plan to ride a couple of the old bikes down the coast, watch for an update.

Ciao Bella.

Norm