Brian Cleverly wrote in
:

CVTs (continuously variable transmissions) are being used in
cars
currently on the market. My Honda Civic Hybrid has one for
example.



My 250cc Honda Reflex motor scooter has a variable V-belt drive
on it. The pulleys are about 6" in diameter and have two sets of
3 weights in them that are rollers. When the pulleys come up to
speed, geared to the rear wheel, one set of weights flies out at
around 40 mph. The second, lighter set, flies out around 50.
This is dependent on how much throttle you feed it, how much
power it's transmitting to the wheel. If you are easy on it, it,
the ratio changes more quickly than if you are harder on it,
which puts pressure on the V-belt and keeps the pulley apart
(like lower gear) making the transitions come on later at higher
speeds. There's a clutch inside the engine that applies power to
the v-belt drive around 2200 RPM, 1800 RPM is idle on the 1-cyl,
250CC, OHV, 4-stroke engine you can hardly hear run or feel in
the handlebars. It's a beautiful piece of engineering, very
simple in design. Honda spoils it all by trying to get $83.16
plus tax out of the damned common small 18mm v-belt it runs on.
It took me a while to get the specs on the belt, having to
threaten them with a Magnusson-Moss legal action if they required
me to use only their way-overpriced OEM belt. I got a better
belt than the cheaply made OEM one for $11.29 at Advance Auto, a
more reasonable price. It's double-cogged, steel cored. I'll
change it when Honda says at 12,000 miles. I built the pulley
removal tool already from a website on the net. I'm also playing
around with different WIDTH belts, which will change the gear
ratio of the system. Wider belts will run at lower ratios,
increasing mileage past the 80 mpg I'm getting now at the expense
of takeoff power, which at 62 years old doesn't impress me like
it used to...(c; I'm looking for the LONG RUN on the engine,
even though it's a Honda.

I remember Dutch-made DAF cars from the 50's and 60's that had
two belts with a central cross-shaft drives on them. Their
pulleys varied in width, too, on v-belts. The belts were LONG as
I think the cars were rear-wheel-drive. Belt drive is nothing
new.

The Honda Silver Wing 600cc scooter also has v-belt automatic
drive. I rode one but didn't like so much engine weight in the
back. It's really stern heavy. The 250cc will go about 85 mph
on its rev limiter. That's probably fast enough around the
city....(c;

Larry
--
Honda red, of course, just like my Honda 305 Dream was....(c;