MOPED ARMY

If you have mismatched bushings you can always add hdpe shim to take up the slop. It’s very strong and won’t compress easily.

Double post (edited)

I use almost the exact same set up, but instead of springs I prefer gas shocks, since I can order them in 5lbs increments, though a spring with a tension point would produce the same results

This was my final version for the real moby (in case this is of interest to anyone), it had literal gear shifting with a paddle shifter to lock the gearing on the shaft. I don’t have a crazy amount of variation on this bike, if I switch to a variotop I’d have to change this setup as it would bottom out with spring coil binding too fast (edited)

Using a launch lever brake is the best thing that no one is doing. It gives you so much control, just have to get used to using the left hand as the vari lock control. It’s especially handy if you’re running a high rpm setup.

I need more variation so I switched to a Bx belt. But it’s a drag cuz it’s so thick. I’m using a very cut bell cheek that’s still 15deg like stock but it’s pushed way back into the bell so a wide belt can fit. A wide belt will just variate further.

My issue was the height of the belt so I trimmed the teeth on the bench grinder and dug out some deeper grooves in the belt with a dremel.

Looks great. Now just have to cut the aluminum pulley to allow the wider belt to sit a bit deeper.

Lots of fun working on weird ass French situations

It’s only 14mm, this one is like 16-17mm and it gets down onto the boss of the front vari. I don’t mind cutting belts, you get great rewards for doing weird things

Oh dear I had to change it. Moved the spring mount back into the original big pinto frame holes, made bushings for them out of cutting board, then added a rear hdpe piece in the back of the spring support to keep the now extended 5/16 rod straight in/out of the unit. One small hdpe plate allows it to get off kilter. 2 will solidify the travel to be linear.

And now it’s great. Finally getting decent variation and not topping out at 45.

Man that's wild. I wonder if fudging the taper on the belt would help the misalignment thing, like make it intentionally a bit narrower at the bottom so it has more lead in?

It’s just the big belt guys. If my pulley moves as much as it should I’ll end up being misaligned with the sprockets.

I got it much better with 1/2in belt, had an issue I hate to admit but part of my 1/2in variation prob was actually a standard stock vari issue of dead ending the rollers into the outer wall. It could variate further with cheek spacing , but the rollers wouldn’t allow it.

But WHY?

Well I’m running an Xtreme bell, and had cut the cheek to a new angle, which pushes back the boss and adds length a tad. So now the boss is longer. Then I had to use floating boss washers between the ramp plate and the vari to snug up the 1/2in belt. But guess what that does? It starts your variation much further along the ramps and it will dead end sooner. So my solution was to chop the bell boss on the lathe to be shorter post threads and cut the double D cutouts with a mini cutoff wheel. I had to use a few extra big washers between the ramp plate and vari nut cuz of the space I cut between the ramp dead ending into the boss and the threads on the boss. Worked great and I’m variating much much further now. Might go about 1.5mm further since I still had to use 2 floating boss washers, but 2 is better than like 8.

Yeah I only had the issue after I cut the belt height. So you’re probably right, but a standard BX height is just shitty for variated mopeds. It just works all the components harder throwing around that big hunk of meaty rubber. Vari and bell get hot af with Bx. The belt changes the tune a lot. It wants to move cuz it’s so heavy so u need more spring to stop it. Just a waste of extra forces if you ask me

We moped people are problematic