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Hello Ernie. Love these trip reports. They're catching on. Maybe we need a new section?

Like you, I have only one bicycle (and too many motorcycles and cars!). But it's very different to your bicycle. It's an old mountain bike - a Trek Amazonas? - which I purchased for about $5 and fitted with one of the Chinese two-stroke kits. It doesn't have a starter of course, but it does have a clutch and retains the original pedals and gear drive. I built one of these up for my father-in-law who loves fishing in distant spots. So now we get FRESH fish! These will do about 30mph and last forever. Mine is backup for the day I lose my road license. Hasn't happened yet, but I still ride it sometimes. Will try to unearth it and post a pic later.

Brian

So between Ernie and I we keep the highways and byways of Scottsdale clogged with Packards. I took my '54 Cavalier out for some exercise this morning, and took a few photos. I've included those in the attached PDF, along with some text to explain the content. In spite of 90F weather it was a quite enjoyable drive. This 'social separation' has one benefit, the roads don't have as much traffic. I refer to the '54 as a big old locomotive, no perceived acceleration, but a few minutes later you look down and somehow it's running along a 50+ mph.

dp

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Good Job dp...Ernie...both in Arizona

Ernie

Here's a pic of my "bicycle". It's missing the lever which works both front and back brake now - cannibalised for father-in-law.

No it's not vintage and it's not a Packard, but there's something to be said for transport which costs about $100 and will run all year on a tank of fuel.

Cheers

Brian

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That's a very cool 'bike' Brian; I could go for one of those! My two-wheel fare is called an 'Autobike' - you guys ever hear of those?? Its a 5-speed and shifts automatically up and down, with the idea that 30 pedal RPM's a minute is the 'ideal' peddling speed, and if you go faster than that, it shifts up, slower, it shifts down. Works very well too. They were made in Canada. I think Autobike was a stand-alone company, not in business anymore, and I have yet to ever see another one of these bikes around. Just curious if anybody else has heard of them??? Chris.

The company I worked for produced a product referred to a 'constant speed drive'. This piece of equipment was driven by the compressor section of a jet engine, which would be a variable speed situation. On the output of our drive was a generator (likely an alternator) that was part of the aircraft's 400 cycle power system, so the output had to maintain a constant speed.

Fast forward to the late 60's early 70's. A few of engineering staff somehow got the funds to build a constant speed drive for a bicycle. The drive pedals were to be driven at a constant X rpm, and the output to drive the rear wheel was adjusted to achieve whatever it took to maintain the input speed. Kind of a constant speed unit in reverse.

So if you pedaled with maximum effort the pedals would never go faster than X rpm, but the bike would go exceedingly fast. Lighten-up on the pedaling effort and the bike would slow down . . . again the pedal speed would be the same. I only remember seeing the bike once inside the plant, and don't remember if they used a derailleur or constantly variable drive it was going at a good clip when I saw it. I do remember the counter weights on the rear wheel were quite pronounced, that is, large weights operating at a large radius. If it did use a derailleur then either the pedal speed was not constant, or there was a limited authority variable ratio device to make the pedal speed so within any one sprocket combination.

There is a possibility that the Canadian company paid for the development, bought the rights to the design, or it was an independent development. Chris was you bike made after the early 70's? If it was made well before the early 70's then the designs may not be connected.

dp

David Packard,

Your description sounds very much like my bike, right down to the large counter weights on the back wheel and I bought it in the '80's. Chris.

Would love to see a picture of your bike, Chris.

Ross, I will take some pics and post. Its in town at my Dad's garage as I am working on this place next door to us that we just bought. We will be building a large garage, once we finish tearing down the old mobile home that was there. With all this lockdown nonsense, we don't go to town any more than necessary, so might be a couple of days. Chris.

Finally stopped raining here in Chicagoland and we had beautiful 65 degree spring day. Time awaken the '53 and bring her home from storage. Daughter number 2 was in the chase car and took some "action" photos.

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