Nice transmission choice. Heavy duty steel dropouts make a lot of sense now. Wondering what you will use for a shifter. Could the skunkworks project have something to do with that?.....
RRBBO13 Q U O I S E
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The Renaissance Man
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Yep.Wondering what you will use for a shifter. Could the skunkworks project have something to do with that?.....
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Had a few beers and a great visit with @Falstaff and his wonderful young wife today! It's nice to hang out with fellow RRB'ers and have conversation that doesn't involve a keyboard or screen. I regret not thinking to get a photo of them together on our ride. Such a great couple!
Jan did think to snap this picture for me with my phone. Thanks and stop again anytime!
Couple of cool dudes and some sweet rides! ^
It's great that you were on the Falstaff 2018 Tour too. And appropriate that you rode a bike that also made the trip from SAV to ToA. Jim and Jan are what we call "good people." It's always cool to see RRBers connect face to face and bike to bike.
The Renaissance Man
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I thought about the Savannah (Kingfish) connection when I decided which bike to ride. But mainly chose it for the wheelies!
Glad y'all thought to come through here. Also glad that Jan got this shot after we swapped bikes! Mercury Rising is a cool bike to ride and that was a good wheelie!
Wheelie action trumps fountains any day! 
Wheelie action trumps fountains any day!
Sounds like we need a wheelie in front of a fountain....
...good pic...looks like you guys had some fun.
The Renaissance Man
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@Chad T figured out that the skunkworks project is for the shifter so here goes...
The seven speed rear hub came with a grip shift so I've been working on converting it to a stick shift. I'm certainly not the first to make this type of conversion but I have some specific ideas in mind that require quite a bit of modifications and fabrications.
Here's how it started. First step, take it apart to see how it works!
Next step, start eliminating stuff that I won't need.
The seven speed rear hub came with a grip shift so I've been working on converting it to a stick shift. I'm certainly not the first to make this type of conversion but I have some specific ideas in mind that require quite a bit of modifications and fabrications.
Here's how it started. First step, take it apart to see how it works!
Next step, start eliminating stuff that I won't need.
The Renaissance Man
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Next up, I needed to make something to replace the rubber grip that I can work with. So this happened...
The aluminum piece that I showed in my hint earlier turned into this.
After getting the aluminum disc to fit, I eliminated some more of the original shifter.
Now it's getting more manageable!
More to come later!
The aluminum piece that I showed in my hint earlier turned into this.
After getting the aluminum disc to fit, I eliminated some more of the original shifter.
Now it's getting more manageable!
More to come later!
I have to do this task soon for BO13, so I'm paying attention to this part!
I don't remember who makes it but, there is an old grip shift that shoots the cable "down" towards the ground instead of "sideways" along the handle bars and the parts are metal instead of plastic. Harder to find but I think one of @Pookie42 's bikes has one. They make a slick conversion starting point because you don't have to change the orientation of the wire. Just mount a bar stub and slide the piece on, add your stick and... yeah it's still a lot of work but that's where I'm at too. Still looking for the shifter... Lucky RenMan is showing us how to convert a modern grip shifter.
Carl.
That collar looks great! If I had the capability (or patience to use the hand tool alternative), I'd have made a fitted collar like that instead of the shaft collars I ended up using on Retro Rocket.
That looks like a decent grip shifter, will it require a tensioner to stay together without a handlebar grip to hold it?
That looks like a decent grip shifter, will it require a tensioner to stay together without a handlebar grip to hold it?
The Renaissance Man
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Hopefully there will be at least something that will be helpful! I'll be interested to see yours also.
That would make things much easier! I thought about trying to find something that would require less modification but decided to stick with the shifter that was with the hub since it is indexed and worked great before I took it off the bike. I was also surprised to find that the main body of this one is metal.
Thanks.
That's a good observation. The black plastic part that I cut off is actually two pieces. The inside piece has four 'tabs' that snap over the splined outer piece to hold it in place. After cutting it off there is nothing to hold it together. So to keep things from coming apart, I bolted a fender washer over the end.
The plan is for the shifter to be hidden inside of the tank. Here's a crude mockup to see how much room I have inside and it's not much! The temporary white plastic was roughly cut and bolted in the tank to have something to bolt the shifter to.
I'm no Sherlock for noticing—that was a battle with RR I have almost resolved with my second design (still ghost shifts on occasion, but a little more fine tuning should finally solve it). Interested in seeing how the tank looks with a shifter on the side and what you do with it.
The Renaissance Man
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That would probably look pretty good, but the plan is for the shifter to come through the centerline of the tank.
There's one little problem though. I've had this idea for a while, but had thought I would use a three speed. The seven speed (as it turns out) requires more rotation to catch all or the gears.
Here's the first and seventh gear positions.
But I have a plan!
Just lose the shifter lever and put a vintage oven knob out the side of the tank.
Maybe flip it around and move it back?
What about: shifter curve, toward front, & or.. entire shifter rotated: counterclockwise ?
