Atlas Questions

It came off yesterday, and that's when I found the cable had snapped. I had not put that peg into its hole ages back, but that got sorted, the drive works well now. But with it moving with the wheel rotation from horizontal to vertical, there is nothing stopping it from happening so it must have put the cable into a position just beyond its happy spot and it broke. Adding a cable tie will fix that movement.
 
Last edited:
Have you sussed what's supposed to retain that speedo drive housing? should be either pegged to the fork leg or pinched up tight by the axle (a la your 3C) - definitely NOT loose and able to rotate.
 
No, I haven't found any mechanism to stop it from rotating other than it being pinched to the fork leg. Andy, I might look at one of those multifunction pushbike speedos, if I can find a spot somewhere. The trip to Gowanlochs wasn't very fruitful, Dharma or Pantah speedo cables fit but they are 70mm too short. Plan B is in motion, there is a place in the outerwest of Sydney called Con Wire that makes cables and has been in the same place since WW2. They did the control wires for the Bowfighter War Bird. My outer is fine so they are making me a new inner. I am going to make inquiries about the Veglia Speedo drive, I think Triumph used them as well.
 
So much fun, what bike does that Speedo drive fit? Do you have a part number, the spares bloke is 14 and a half and knows nothing, it's a Veglia Speedo drive very generic and has probably been used on dozens of bikes over the years. Sergeant Schultz has compction. With some chasing, the one used on the Triumph T140 is a different axle size. I did a bit more Googling and should have remembered Phil at Road and Race. He had 3 different types for 18-inch and 19-inch wheels and funnily enough a drive used on Cagive's 21-inch wheel so that's coming soon. Q it just crept around till the cable got tight and stopped, it must have had a point where it had considerable drag occurring. I had cleaned it and lubed it, but it didn't come apart easily so this time I soaked it in petrol and now it's like stirring concrete, notchy as hell so I ordered a new one.
 
Last edited:
Well, thats not a win. The Cagiva Speedo drive is different, the biggest issue is its wrong handed. The Atlas one mounts on the right side of the hub, and the Cargiva one mounts on the left side. Easy to see where the cable connects, plus the Atlas one has a 17mm axial hole that tapers out to 23.5mm on the hub side. The Cagive one is 19mm and parallel all the way through. Looks like Veglia made lots of different types to suit various models.
 
I think we are talking at cross purposes Q. The actual axil shaft has a step, the speedo drive box hole that the axil passes through is not the same size from inside to outside. I think I can resurrect the original Speedo drive, soaked it overnight in petrol and stripped it as much as I dare without risking damage and found a metal splinter that might have caused issues with relation, it stuck in my finger. Hopefully with it pumped full of water-resistant boat trailer grease it will spin smoothly in both directions, it was a bit notchy in reverse.
 
My head hurts, the front wheel is back on but no matter what I do with the lower fork pinch bolts, 2 on the left and one on the right, when I put any tension on the big axil nut it locks the whole speedo drive body in place and it rotates with the wheel both the speedo drive housing and the inner bit, as well as there suddenly having massive wheel bearing drag. it's like I am missing a wheel spacer.The exploded diagram shows the obvious spacer between the wheel bearings and a washer under the big axil nut and no other spacers. I would have assumed nipping up the big axil nut should have everything aligned in position including just enough side load to hold the speed drive box in place but still allow the inner bit to rotate freely with no pressure against the speedo drive housing. I will leave it alone for now and have a think about what the hell is happening. Something is not spaced correctly.
 
It's forking annoying, that's for sure. I think I will pull it all off again and assemble it away from the forks and check its spacing. What I don't understand is for it to be tight it must be bigger, how does it get bigger and take up more space? It's more logical to be warn smaller and allow wheel play laterally. I tried using the axil clamping bolts to stop it being pulled together and nipping up but that did nothing. There is some oscillation in the Speedo drive I noticed like it's slightly offset, maybe the shoulder in the axial isn't slipping into the Speedo drive hole cleanly and pulling it a bit off-set and hard against the wheel hub, check that out tomorrow.
 
I am thinking my guess is I have misaligned that shoulder on the axil and its bearing on it instead of passing through the speedo housing. That accounts for the extra material plus the wobble of the Speedo drive housing. If that doesn't help I will take your advice, Andy. BTW fitting the new Speedo cable to the Speedo was far from fun, you need 300mm long fingers with 3 finger joints to get at its connection.
 
Well, that isn't an option, the shoulder on the axle does not pass through the Speedo Drive. So it mades solid contact with the shoulder of the axil and bears hard against the outside of the speed drive and the inside face of the Speedo drive bears hard against the wheel bearing all pulled tight together by the big axil nut but still allowing the bit of the Speedo that turns with the wheel to move freely, except it doesn't. The Speedo is now pulled that close and tight to the wheel hub it allows zero movement of any bit. It's so tight that the Speedo cable nut touches hard against the hub as well. I think its internal bearing has collapsed reducing its size to where it just won't spin or space the wheel correctly without locking up. Hopefully, Piet has Speedo Drives.
 
To make this clear, it should load up right down the inner but allow the outer bit to spin with the wheel, and it's not doing that. So it's allowing the whole thing to get squeezed, even the bits that should move. So something is either crushed or missing.
 
Is it crimped or peened over Vince? Can't get in there at all? There's probably a spacer that's ben squashed and reduced the nec width, allowing contact where there should be none.
 
It looks like it has 2 wire circlips that but ends together, they ark around 180 deg opposite to each other. Not something I have seen before. I was reluctant to attack it too hard. Hopefully, it can be replaced.
 
I just had a look at the Atlas Owners site and they list a replacement Speedo Drive that needs some deciphering. Verbatim it says
Velos-Mots Burkhalter
Fahrnerweg 6
CH-3045 Meikirch
Switzerland
Price includes adapted speedo cable 120-SFR/85E plus shipping.
Bit of Googling found a bike shop in Switzerland hopefully I get a return email.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top