Belt drive with a frame mount?

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Has anyone converted a typical cheap frame mount motor to work with the gebe/whizzer style belt drive? I don't want to get into the $ of a full whizzer set up but I would like to cut out all of the chain/gear box noise of a chain drive system. I've searched the previous posts, all I came up with was DougC's bike, he used the Gebe rack mout motor but modified it into a frame mount. He had a nice picure of the front pulley mounted on the engine. I currently have a 50cc, pull start, 4stroke (fake Honda), which I would like to use. Obviously the belt pulley on the rear wheel is no problem. What about mounting that front pulley onto a different motor? Anyone looked into or done this?
 
Wow, Ironwarlocks bike took some serious metal skills and equipment. Very impressive but a way bigger commitment than I can make. I'm hoping that the gebe front pulley/plate assembly will fit my motor/clutch.
 
Wow, Ironwarlocks bike took some serious metal skills and equipment. Very impressive but a way bigger commitment than I can make. I'm hoping that the gebe front pulley/plate assembly will fit my motor/clutch.

I've been exploring a belt drive frame mount drive train for some time now and would like to offer some insights.

First: I believe you will find that the GEBE housing will require an adapter to fit the Honda clone motor you have. Luckly such an adaptor is already made from Staton Inc. http://www.staton-inc.com/Details.asp?ProductID=3210
If at this point the GEBE housing won't fit Staton also has a housing that does
http://www.staton-inc.com/Details.asp?ProductID=2662 The problem you run into with all of this is how wide the engine gets. The Honda or its clone with the Grubee gearbox mounted measures 9&1/2in. wide. The set up described above will come in approx. 1 in. - 1&1/2 in. wider. So in the 10&1/2 - 11 in. wide.

Second: Where do you get a crankset that will clear all this extra width? I think you will have to build your own.

Third: Proper length belt? Assuming you can solve the hurdles above will you be able to get the engine mounted in the frame at the same distance from the drive ring to be able to use the GEBE belt. If not you will have to purchase a different length belt. I'm sure you will be able to find a belt of the proper length but it won't be the Kevlar reinforced belt that GEBE offers and these toothed belts aren't cheap.

Forth: All of the above is quite a bit more expensive than the build kit you can purchase from bicycle-engines.com

Don't take this wrong. I think what you are attempting to accomplish is a great drive train, and can be done. It's just going to be relativily expensive.

ocscully
 
Nice info,thanks, eexxxactly what I was hoping might be out there, looks really high quality too. You're right, it would be pricey - $55+79+front pulley+rear pulley+belt+tensioner.
Golden eagle has a gebe kit (minus the engine) for $310-330. Which could be adapted to frame mount...as DougC did.
I have yet to find anybody selling the rear pulley, belts, etc peice meal.
My engine kit is very similar to the one on bike-engines.com, I can use it as a chain drive if I want. My kit came with three peice cranks with arms that are bent out, along with a bottom bracket kit I bought, the insides of the arms are about "9 1/4. The engine kit is about "9 1/2 as you pointed out. My engine is actually mounted up high enough that the cranks clear undr it even though they aren't quite wide enough. With an additional 1-1.5 inches of engine width it would probably still work as is.
 
New Information/Products

I was doing some searches today on centrifugal clutches and jackshafts and came across some clutches that I didn't know existed that would make the purchase of the Staton adapter and its clutch housing unnecessary.
First item is from hetters.com http://www.heeters.com/kartclutches.shtml#jackshaft scroll about half way down the page to the Centrifugal Belt Drive Clutch. This clutch could be mounted directly to the output shaft of a Honda GXH50 or one of the clones. It would require a shim though as its for a 3/4 shaft. It would probably require a jackshaft as well to get the total amount of reduction necessary. This clutch mounted directly to the honda output shaft with the HTD pully inboard would also really reduce the overall width of the 4-stroke engine and bring the mounting of the engine back closer to the center line of the bike frame.

If the toothed timing belt isn't your Idea of the way to go Hetters also has clutches with V-Belt pullys. (Same link as above) Look for Centrifugal Pulley Clutches They have two different models of these one at $70.00 and one at $110.00 and both of these come with 5/8 bores so no shim would be required.

maxtorque.com http://www.maxtorque.com/html/htd_clutch.html also has clutches available that are made to work with HTD Timing Belts They also have a Jackshaft set-up they call a Reducer http://www.maxtorque.com/html/reducers.html that seems to me folks here might find interesting.

Just thought tese items might be of interest to you for putting together an alternative drive train for your project.

ocscully
 
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