Freewheel adaptors

How to design, build, and race a sculpture
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Elliot
Posts: 49
Joined: 10 Jan 2011, 1:31 pm

Freewheel adaptors

Post by Elliot »

:idea:
Every Kinetic Racing Sculpture needs a freewheel for each Pilot. This allows the Pilots to pedal independently of each other, which includes rest-and-coast as desired. Even solo Pilots need a freewheel so they can coast. You may also need to "ratchet" the pedals on a steep hill. I have ridden two vehicles without freewheels, and it works very poorly. We found ourselves "fighting" each other. Much practice would be needed to coordinate the pedaling, the way seasoned tandem bicycle riders do.

And there is the safety hazard -- I have seen a man get an eight-stitch gash in the back of his shin when the rider behind him stared pedaling before him.

If you use bicycle rear wheel hubs, then you already have freewheels. But if you want to put freewheels on industrial type shafts, perhaps 3/4 inch, then you need adapters.

Many racers have paid large sums to professional machine shops to make adapters. That is no longer necessary:

There is now good availability of freewheel adapters. An outfit on the interweb, Staton-Inc, sells quite a variety of them in sizes up to 1”, all with standard square keyway. Staton has them with the usual set screws, and also narrow versions without set screws – if you should have a use for that.

The following link – if I do this right, which is not certain – should take you straight to Staton’s “category 14” where the freewheel adapters are scattered over 11 pages of "Drive Components". They have a myriad of other nifty hardware also, such as chain idler/tensioner wheels.

http://www.staton-inc.com/store/catalog ... -27-1.html

By the way, the standard thread for spin-on/screw-on/threaded freewheels is 1.375 inch with 24 threads per inch. Watch out for a smaller thread which does exist -- primarily on BMX bicycles, I believe.

The threaded freewheels themselves are readily available on eBay. They come with 5 to 9 cogs, and also in 1-speed.

Oooh, one more thing: There are also freewheel adapters with a mounting flange for bicycle disc brake rotor. These are from Atomic Zombie -- the pretty well known all-kinds-of-cool-modified-and-hand-made bikes-and-trikes people. Shouldn't be hard to find on the interweb.

For The Glory!
Elliot
Posts: 49
Joined: 10 Jan 2011, 1:31 pm

Re: Freewheel adaptors

Post by Elliot »

Update:
Staton has rearranged their website a bit, and freewheel adapters now seem to be in category 24.

http://www.staton-inc.com/store/index.p ... nt=73&pg=1

"Rearranging" does not appear to include "organizing more logically for KSR purposes", so you still want to enjoy some quality time digging around their site for goodies.
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