Team Go Dog, Go! Modified Partial Streamliners

[wobblywalrus]

The brake disk, spacer, shroud, and retaining ring are on the wheel.  Some space is provided between the shroud and the rim so clean water can be sprayed in there to remove any corrosive salt.

[wobblywalrus]

The shroud needs to be far enough in to miss hitting the back of the brake caliper.  The scale laying on the shroud shows where it is close to the caliper.

[wobblywalrus]

The brake side shroud is installed.  These five spindles connect the sprocket side shroud to it.  The spindles connected to the brake side shroud are shown.

[wobblywalrus]

The spindles are located about an eighth of an inch from the spokes.  A small piece of closed cell foam is put between the spoke and the spindle.  It is held in place by a zip tie.  The sprocket side shroud is attached to the spindles.  The rear wheel shroud is finished.  This is almost identical to the one on the bike during the wind tunnel tests.

[Lemming Motors]

The brake disc in #3570 - you should ask for your money back - it is not round!    

[Peter Jack]

The only question I have is how easily are you going to be able to fit balance weights? With the amount of work you're doing, some of it biased to one side or location, that is going to be critical. At the speeds you're planning it won't take very much speed to create serious wheel balance issues.

Pete

[wobblywalrus]

It is an EBC superbike style disk with some thickness reduction at the center by me.  It is the first time I have tried the wavy pattern.  They use them on race bikes so they should work on this one.  On the salt we do not use the brakes much.  Most slowing down is by sitting up into the wind and rolling off on the throttle.

The spindle screws are loosened, the shroud is pulled back, and the weight is pasted onto the wheel.  We are under a police enforced lockdown here. I need to convince the officer that taking my wheel out for dynamic balancing is a life critical activity.  Not much chance of that so it will be statically balanced at home.  Some pictures will be posted.

[wobblywalrus]

Old engine oil from the Triumphs is in that smoke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrxPpKzsDn8&feature=youtu.be

[Peter Jack]

Steam locomotives are still magic. When I was a kid we used to go to the lake every year in a train pulled by a steam locomotive. The magic disappeared when the steamers were replaced by diesel.

Thanks Wobbly!!!

Pete

[wobblywalrus]

Do they still have the Royal Hudson near Vancouver?  That is a very nice Canadian steamer.

That Southern Pacific engine hauled freight at the end of its life and was painted black.  It sat rusting away in a park in east Oakland and I played on it when I was a child.  It was given or sold to the City of Portland and it was restored.  It ran by our house every few years between 1986 and 1996 when Southern Pacific owned the tracks.  The sound of its whistle and horn were distinctive.  In the video it ran north out of Portland on BNSF tracks, alongside the Columbia River on the north bank in Washington, and up alongside the Deschutes River in Oregon to Bend on BNSF rails.  The Deschutes is the littler river.  It never ran on these rails during its working career.  The folks at BNSF are a nice bunch and they help make all of this possible.           

[WOODY@DDLLC]

When I was a little pup [and yes I was] the Pennsylvania RR still ran one or two steamers. All the town kids would pedal their little keisters off to get downtown because they would slow down and we could see and hear all the steam and mechanical wang-dang-doodle! 
Now where did I put those squashed pennies??

[ggl205]

Had a similar experience, Woody. I grew up in San Gabriel, Ca. Trains ran right through our town and slowed considerably before picking up steam again. During the slow period, we would throw rocks at hobos sitting on top of coal cars and they would throw coal back at us. Easy way to bring back coal for our heaters.

John

[wobblywalrus]

Working steam trains was a lot of years ago.  There was a steamer working near Ely Nevada years ago that we saw on the way back from Bonneville.  It was coal fired.  The Southern Pacific engine in the video uses old motor oil.

It is hard to balance wheels when they pivot around the wheel bearings.  There is friction from the grease in the bearings and the seals on them.  The axle and some dry unsealed bearings in good condition are used for balancing.  There is low friction and it is easy to get the wheel in balance.  The wheel spins freely.  A straight axle is critical when this is done.

The wheel alignment jig is up on saw horses during this wheel work.  The end brackets were removed and it was used to support the wheel for balancing as shown.     

[wobblywalrus]

The balance weights are correct for the case when the shrouds are on the wheel.  They are pinned to the shrouds so they are removed when the shrouds are.  The wheel will be rebalanced if it is used naked.  These are those lightweight ecology friendly steel weights.  The small amount of weight shows that the tire is pretty much in balance as made.  The wheel is spun and the tire is very true.  This is my experience with these Battleaxes.  They are very well made.  Plus, they make front tires with (W) rating in 19 inch rim size and that is my preference for land speed racing.

The attached has a chart for rim vs tire sizes.  The previous rim was acceptable width but not optimal.  Now it is the best width.  The tubes are eliminated which provides some safety benefits in case of a blowout.  The wheels are lighter.  This back wheel is six pounds lighter than the one it replaced.   

http://www.hagon-shocks.co.uk/common/pdf/wheels2011.pdf

[wobblywalrus]

One goal with the bike is to reduce weight.  In many instances the different aluminum alloys are the metals of choice.  We are all familiar with them.  One drawback of these are it is hard to design fatigue resistance to cyclic loading and sometimes more strength is needed than they have.  This is where titanium, both the commercially pure (CP) grades or the alloy grades, are the better choice.

One job is to make two engine mounting bracket plates between the cylinder head and the frame.  0.096 inch thick sheet ti should be strong enough.  They need to be bent.  The 6Al4V structural ti alloy I usually use for machined parts does not form well.  There is sheet in the commercially pure (CP) compositions that will form with no problem.  CP Grade 4 is the strongest of them so the 0.096 sheet is ordered in this alloy.

The next project is to make a frame strengthening plate and a chain guard out of 0.125 inch thick ti.  The metal needs to be strong and formable.  Grade 38 is perfect for this.  It is used for ballistic armor so if it stops bullets it can cope with the chain.

The last job is to make two lower engine mounting plates out of 0.200 inch thick ti.  CP Grade 4 will be used for those.

There are several on-line sites that sell titanium bits.  This is the one I use for everything except round stock.   https://tmstitanium.com/