The Doctor of Belts, the Master of poly urethane, the god of
Cottonwood, Phil Ross or Spacer, to the bros who know...
This is wild. I've known Phil Ross (or Spacer), one of the
original belt drive masters for almost 35 years. I think I ran one
of his primary drives in the late '70s. I have one of his narrow
primary drives in my '48 Pan tin primaries. You can't see it, and
it will virtually last forever.
Phil has always been a one-man show, building quality
products wherever he could set up a smoky shop, first in
Gardena, California, then near Bakersfield in California Hot
Springs in a cabin. Then he escaped California for Montana, but
couldn't handle the winters and returned west to Cottonwood,
Arizona the home of the SmokeOut West. Fortunately, his web
site doesn't move.
Phil learned much of his trade from Dick Allen. Here's Dick
and his trike that big Daddy Ed Roth and Dick built. This was a
crazy ride. (He is holding his pet Ocelot.) Phil upholstered this
seat, as well as most of the early chopper seats in the south bay
in the '60s. Phil
and Dick made the very first "Cobra seat for Dick's chrome
framed Knuckle in '65
Phil is the only guy on the planet to make cast poly-
urethane pulleys. One day a customer asked Phil, "Can you fix
this pulley?"
Phil tried to sell him one his own custom pulleys. He
makes several. "But it doesn't match my wheels, besides I spent
over $500 on this damn thing. I can't shit-can it." Phil picked up
the pulley and pondered his options. It dawned on him like a
bolt of lightning to a disciple of the House of custom lords. He
could save expensive custom pulleys and be knighted into the
highest ranks of the Kustomdom round billet table. Phil didn't
stop at just one or two miracle cures, but studied stock pulleys,
Victory pulleys and anything pulley oriented. He researched
pitch and wear.
"The stock pitch for the rest of the industry is HTD (round
tooth)," Phil said, "which requires bow-
string tight belts to prevent squeaking." Phil's transmission
pulleys are
configured at R/T tooth profile, so belts can run less tension,
preventing bearing
stress damage, or belt wear. "Plus the pulleys will last forever."
Super Max rear wheel pulleys are the HTD tooth profile also
but their tranny pulleys utilize a "R/T" tooth profile which is a
prioritory tooth profile offered only by Super Max...The off-ramp
on the tranny pulleys is only 2 degrees and offer a trash groove
to eliminate damage from small road waste meaning that the
belt tension can be much less than with the HTD round tooth
pulleys.
He wanted his pulley to outlast the new metal ones. He
promised to insure they would never squeak. He can fix 61, 64,
65,
and 70-tooth pulleys and even Gilroy Indian jobs, some Victory
and most aftermarket pulleys. Shortly he'll
be set up to mend 72-tooth pulleys.
Keep in mind, if you roll through this process, that Phil
is sorta the Gepetto watchmaker of the pulley world. Each
pulley is hand made, hand repaired and hand shipped back to
you. Let's follow Phil's rules for pulley repair:
SuperMax offers an assortment of pulley
colors.
First things first...Customer e-mails or phones Super
Max
and describes exactly what he has and wants. They will instruct
you as to how to execute your order. Super Max is a specialty
shop and all parts are pretty much made to order for each
customer.
Here's a worn out pulley ready for the operating
room.
The pulley is removed from the bike and shipped off to the
machine shop, with a description of what the customer wants
such as a special color.
Machining off worn teeth.
When it arrives at the machine shop SuperMax removes the
worn or damaged teeth and the pulley is machined to a specified
size. The Over-Lay is then securely applied, and Phil blesses
each part before it's prepared for shipment. All pulleys are
modified by appointment.
The Over-Lay's are expanded by heat and a super special
secret cement is applied to the Carrier and the inside of the
over-lay . The over-lay is then shrunk fitted onto the carrier to
clamp down on it and then they install stainless steel set screws
to insure "No spin-offs."
Here's a completed pulley ready to be shipped.
Next step is to clean it up and get it in the box.
There you have it, seven years of research and development,
and
most pulley can now last forever. Phil or Spacer also builds
transmission pulleys in 31, 32, 33, and 34-tooth configurations.
They have the modified pitch for less strain on belts and
bearings, won't squeak and weigh only around 2 pounds,
amazing.
Here's a stock tranny pulley on a scale.
An amazing Super Max tranny pulley in the color
of choice, on the same scale.
He
also makes a 35-tooth pulley for kick-only bikes. He is the
master. Check him out at the 10th Anniversary Smoke Out West
in May or click on his banner below for quick response.
We offered Phil either the Rivy or the girl. We're still waiting
on an answer.
NOTE FROM THE MASTER: Went into Bikernet
archives and the rear wheel pulley fix is in the news...But it still
has
my Montana phone # in there 406 is Montana but our new # in
Arizona is 928-649-2836...Spacer
