Had great fun with the rental solexes yesterday.. Full throttle, engine down and lifting the front end slightly whith the wheel in a puddle of water/wet gras/mud/hitting the license plate of the on in front of you/and so on...

One collegue lost his pedal when he wanted to pull off at a crosswalk..
But great fun to Solex for a few hours since more than a year... Going to start on the Solexes here in a few days I guess

Going to the RDW/DVLA to get my Solex licensed tomorrow, but dont have a Bike Carrier.. I do have a Ami break, so tried out if the Solex fits in the back of the Ami. And it did, only had to remove the front wheel:

They approved the Slowlex.. Now I have to wait untill the papers get here, make a license plate.. Then driving it

All I know about it;

It was built by my DT teacher (Whilst I was building my plywood 2cv).

Yes, the bike is a 250 superdream, the engine is from an diesel generator, off the top of my head I think it was a 7.5Kva but I may be wrong and the plan was to put a bigger one in anyway. I'm not sure about it's capacity, but the one I build will have to be 125 unless I take a full test.
It runs of used chip oil, which is in the main tank, however the engine needs to warm up before it will run off it, so there is a separate diesel tank which you switch off after a couple of minutes. The exhaust goes through a heat exchanger to warm up the incoming fuel.
Modified engine mounting brackets, exhaust chopped up and bent around a bit, very ingenious transmission housing, 4 different chain covers tig'ed together?

I think it does about 45 mph, but that was when it first came into being, so has probably been fiddled about with somewhat since then. Would be fine up hills, except the (Cork) clutch plates are located inside the transmission housing, which is filled with oil! It certainly gives a very smooth ride!

Anything else you want to know?

Shouldn't be a huge problem. I think cork clutches rely on the surface tension of the oil sandwiched in between the cork and plain plates, rather than any real friction provided by the linings, like the synthetic materials used in a 2cv or mobylette clutch! Perhaps the spring tension can be increased? Looks like an entertaining machine anyway, perhaps I should consider similar as a performance upgrade for my cossack?!

EDIT: for synthetic clutches, which might be better run dry, but can't be for the sake of a chain, etc. ATF works well

Interesting stuff Gas Mark, I'm guessing the engine's probably a 10hp, I bet the fuel economy is good, and combined with the veg oil, it must be very cheap to run. I've thought about a diesel bike before, I like the idea of 100+mpg, but I'm not sure I'd be happy with 10hp. The citroen/peugeot 1.4/1.5D looks tempting, they're alu blocked, I wonder what they weigh.

There're quite a few diesel bikes on you tube

how do you process your veg oil, do you use chemicals?? i hope not, i know of a much cheaper free solution

my friend and i have spent years fiddling and playing to get his truck to happily run on veg oil with no problems just about sucedeeded

Luke,
cork friction plates were ( maybe still are?) very common on motorcycles.
The coefficient of friction between cork and steel is high, however it's rather vulnerable to high temperatures hence the use of an oil bath to cool it, as well as lube the chain...

The dry technical angle,
< http://www.roymech.co.uk/Useful_Tables/ ... h_mat.html >

and the more entertaining 'how to' angle...
< http://www.bluepoof.com/motorcycles/how ... placement/ >

Check out the mechanic's nail varnish.

ken

So basically, I was talking rubbish?! Some interesting figures there.

You learn something new every day!
What's a 2cv clutch made of then?
Presumably some different material if it doesn't need oil?
Why don't bikes use the same material?
And how can her hands possibly be that clean after replacing the friction pads??

It probably is around 10 hp, 7.5kVa is about 8.somethingHP
But presumably as it came from a generator the kVa is the output, so the engine will be more than that due to losses converting to electrical energy

As for the fuel, the school gets through chip oil, and by now there are gallons of the stuff, stored somewhere in the school. I'm pretty sure he just scoops the largest chips out and pours it straight in!

While 10hp isn't all that much, it would certainly be an upgrade from my 1.5 HP I currently have! And I could get up hills without pedalling!