Perhaps one of the least well documented and easiest mods to do for your hobbit is to create what I like to call "The overdrive". Pull off the variator, and notch the outer cheek. The only special tools you need are a large crescent wrench or perhaps a pipe wrench and either a big bench vice or a thin set of channel locks to grip the shaft so you can loosen the outer cheek variator nut.
Once off, a hack saw quickly notches the aluminum, and then make a nice straight line with a dremel cut off tool, and then simply snap it off with a vice grips. Use a little bit or a hand file to clean up the edges, and reassemble after a good cleaning with brake cleaner. I would have taken the weight retainers out, but i stripped 3 of the 6 phillips screws.
Why do the Japanese love phillips head screws? 50% failure when you use a crappy screw driver like me. After I got this thing back on, I thought perhaps I'd gone alittle too far and taken out too much material, but one trip down the road let me know I was okay. The weights pop out and the bike surges into overdrive with the belt as physically high as it can ride. Luckily, my rear spring is good enough to pull the weights back in after such a ginourmous variation. I love my Hobbit!
Once off, a hack saw quickly notches the aluminum, and then make a nice straight line with a dremel cut off tool, and then simply snap it off with a vice grips. Use a little bit or a hand file to clean up the edges, and reassemble after a good cleaning with brake cleaner. I would have taken the weight retainers out, but i stripped 3 of the 6 phillips screws. 
Why do the Japanese love phillips head screws? 50% failure when you use a crappy screw driver like me. After I got this thing back on, I thought perhaps I'd gone alittle too far and taken out too much material, but one trip down the road let me know I was okay. The weights pop out and the bike surges into overdrive with the belt as physically high as it can ride. Luckily, my rear spring is good enough to pull the weights back in after such a ginourmous variation. I love my Hobbit!
2 comments:
Glad to hear that cutting the variator up worked for you. It didn't go so well with me. The bike would "shift" (at least that's how it felt) into high gear too soon and I would struggle to get up some hills. Not sure how I could have fixed it, it was nice on flats but you know... Seattle's got some hills. I have a Derbi variator going on soon. And stripping the screws that hold in the retainer clips is very easy to do. They are held in there with the force of 100 hungry bulls.
I shift into "overdrive" at 29mph, and come back down into regular mode at 19mph. If I accelerate into OD and then slow down to less than 25, I need to slow down more to get it to shift back into low gear. Have you tried lighter weights?
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