I bought a 1981 Honda Hobbit in very rough shape with the plans of making it electric. I was going to use a rear hub motor. Soon after buying it, I realised that the engine is an essential part of the swing arm and won't allow me to use the setup I planned. I was looking for advice on replacing the swing arm with something that will allow me to remove the gas engine completely. Something similar to this.
Does anyone have suggestions on swing arm that might fit or work for what I'm doing?
Do you have a welder?
Yes and I figure I'll need to do some fabrication. Was just wondering if there are any swing arms that that might be a good starting point.
There are a lot of crappy designs for moped swingarms out there. For example Puchs just use a rubber bushing clamped around a pivot post. I'd maybe look into Peugeot swingarms for the hobbit frame, or better yet: https://www.treatland.tv/peugeot-malossi-swing-arm-p/malossi-103-swingarm-485482.htm
Maybe start with a peugeot 103 swingarm?
But it would probably behoove you just to build one from scratch, in terms of having to reverse engineer things to function.
You can make a swingarm work outta any old stuff. you'll probably wanna consider the type of engine you're using and the axle diameter primarily, and also if it's got a torque arm/lever on the motor, where that might affix. A cool option might be using a monoshock type design from a dirtbike.
Or tbh, cheap available and easy - use a mountainbike rear. the cheap shitty ones are cheap and shitty cuz theyre heavy, but it means theyre usually quite strong, and probably close to what the hub motor was designed to fit. you can then easily go up to a 26" wheel. could ge a whole used Walmart full suspension MTB and weld the whole bottom section on.
Some shit I've done, maybe relevant:
Put a small electric hub motor on a garelli - some details on making the axle fit and other considerations: https://www.mopedarmy.com/forums/read.php?1,4228129
Put a bicycle swingarm on a Trac moped:
https://www.mopedarmy.com/forums/read.php?1,3228109
Maybe u picked the wrong moped to do with a rear hub motor. Hobbits as well as vespas have a "subframe" and not a rear swingarm. The fulcrum is either above the engine as in a Vespa or part of the case of the engine ,Hobbit. So now you gotta add something to the sub that defines the pivot and has strengthened the sub like the Hobbit sub does. I think a Puch would be immensely easier to make which is why guys post e mopeds that look like a magnum. But good luck.
Yeah, if I could go back in time I would have picked a different moped as a starting point. I'm in too deep at this point, so I'm going to try fab swing arm. Thanks for all the input. Big help!
Ok then disassemble the motor and remove all items from case. And discard. Put case halves together now and mount. Use the case as the new pivot. No welding or hacking required. Done.
Can you post a photo of where you are at so far?
I have a POS case with head studs not parallel. If u want this case pm me
But I don't understand how a hub motor matches with a Hobbit subframe , how to affix a rear brake etc . Not sure about that and it explains the swingarm desire
Finally got around to working on this. Peugeot swing arm fit pretty well. Now to cram a battery in the tank and mount the controller under the seat pan.
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