Zig-Zag and I started this business years ago from the back yard of my Bean St. house. Since then we’ve had a bohemian shop on St. Mary’s, changed a state law, and legalized alt. transportation bikes in our city. I don’t think any of those milestones are as important as what I am about to share with you.

I want to tell you about what I have been working on. Our new patent pending bicycle engine transfer case is complete. This is a new design that the world has never seen before. This motorized bicycle engine should, hopefully, change the face of… everything?

The transfer case is designed around the Robin-Subaru EHO35 engine. With our system, power is transferred from the engine to centrifugal clutch. From there, an inner chain drive transfers power to a timing belt pulley which then runs to another timing belt sprocket mounted to the rear wheel.

The little Subaru motor comes with a 1 year warranty and an iron lined cylinder. I hear anecdotal stories of some Robin-Subaru powered motorized bicycles, mounted with the competition’s design, having 50,000+ miles and not ever having to even change a spark plug. That’s what we are shooting for.

The Subaru transfer case design has 2 mounting positions for a bicycle.

First mount position is in the middle of the frame, like our normal Spooky Tooth motor-bicycles.

The second mounting position is above the rear wheel allowing adaptation to a full suspension mountain bike, Golden Eagle Bike Engine style.

The patent for this design is based on the unique freewheeling inner chain drive system which transfers power via a timing belt to a rear wheel when the engine is mounted in the mid-frame of a bicycle.

This system should run at 30 mph and get 200-300 mpg(?). With a variable size of pulley on the output shaft, gear ratio changes from 12:1 all the way up to 25:1 can be made easily. All parts have been designed and will be machined in Tucson by professional machinists out of solid aluminum with high quality sealed cartridge bearings.

To test this, Larry and I are planning a test run of a pair of engines on a bicycle trip up to Canada. This is kind of a big deal as well. Our take off date is scheduled for this week. We will be writing about our adventures in the Blog section of www.spookytoothcycles.com. We will be gone a month riding from Mexico to Canada on the old Highway 89, but the shop will still be open.

Please keep in touch with our website over the following weeks to stay updated with our meanderings.

Cheers, Roland