CVT sources (was Re: )

["PETER VANDERWAL" <peterv@peoplepc.com>]

> Does anyone know if any motorcycles or scooters were ever built with CVT
> drivetrains? I'm working on the design of an Electrathon-size chassis for
a
> mobile kinetic sculpture to be electrically driven, and I'd like to use a
> manually-shifted CVT to give it more flexibility of range and power. I
> suppose the sort of drive used in a variable speed bandsaw would be beefy
> enough -- maybe. Thoughts?
>

Sorry, computer problems have kept me off the list for the last week or I
would have responded sooner.

In case you are still looking for a manually controlled CVT, I'd suggest you
try looking at garden tractors and riding lawnmowers.  My mom has a large
riding mower with a manually controlled CVT, basically it's just a belt
drive with two variable diameter pulleys.   A lever on the side has 8 or 9
notches and controls the size of the drive pulley, the driven pulley is
spring loaded and automatically adjusts.

The "Clutch" in just a spring loaded idler pulley, pushing down on it
releases tension on the belt.  When you let up on the clutch it starts to
press on the belt.  Now the really cool thing is that you can put it in any
speed (any of the 8-9 notches) and when you release the clutch, it puts
tension on the belt and the spring loaded driven pulley starts to adjust
(gets smaller).  This means that the ratio automatically starts high and
adjusts down low, so the mower takes off slowly and then smoothly speeds up.