The Design is Complete

Looks good, Tom. It's nice that the counter will be oriented correctly for the rider to see without cranking his/her head sideways.

Have you tried it on a number of different bike wheel/forks?

What is the gear ratio? I can't see all the teeth but it looks like 11 teeth on the small gear and, perhaps, 33 on the large one resulting in a count of 30 for each revolution. Sounds good.

Alan

We have not tried it on a lot of forks, but its cross-sectional silhouette is virtually identical to the original, thus we think it will fit any bike that the original will fit. We know it will not fit them all.

The big gear has 26 teeth, and the small gear 11, yielding a ratio of 23.636363... counts per revolution. This is the same ratio as the original JO counter. The odd ratio equalizes wear on the teeth.

I like it. Simple and elegant, both hallmarks of good design.

Now to find someone to stamp the suckers out...

We've got someone to stamp them out. The three individual pieces will be stamped and formed, and swaged together to make the gear assembly.

Once a supply of gear assemblies has been delivered, Tom will assemble counters to the gear assemblies and do the shipping.

The small gear is made of Delrin and will be obtained from another supplier.

As I recall, wasn't one of the issues with the J/O Counter the problem of getting the Delrin counter assembly to adhere to the gear assembly? I think Paul Oerth found some Super Super Glue that did the trick. The only failure I've ever seen in a J/O was due to that, and why I still keep (and treasure) my original wired-on Jones Counter.

Any potential problems in this area with the JR?

The only Delrin-to-metal assembly contact occurs where the small gear is mounted to the counter shaft. In the Model JR this will be a press fit. The hole in the gear will be undersized, and the gear will be pressed onto the shaft. We believe this will work - the 500 mile endurance test showed no tendency for the joint to loosen, and it takes quite a bit of prying to remove the gear from the shaft.

As a fallback position, we can always add a setscrew, but this will probably not be necessary.

The counter will attach to the gear drive with two small bolts. No glue will be used.

I've sent the design off to the manufacturer for pricing. The pricing will take a couple weeks, then once I've accepted the quote, I'll have to pay for the dies and engineering up-front to get the ball rolling. Then, It'll take 6-8 weeks for them to produce the dies and about 10 samples. If everything is right, I'll order a thousand units, which will take another coulple weeks to make.
I'll post updates as they occur.

I've requested an add price to go to stainless steel, but after talking to the representative, it may not be a viable option. Deep drawing parts such as the retainer-cup is extremely difficult to do without cracking, and tooling overall is much more expensive. Pre-heating may be required, and cold-forming is preferred.

The dozen or so pre-production samples will be made available, but it will be hard to choose amongst the many who are truly worthy. Special consideration will be given to those I've had the distinct pleasure of working with, and learning from. I hope to give at least a couple out to be tested to destruction, just to see how far they go, and how they fail under normal riding conditions.

I just followed up my request for quote on the new JC. I'm told it's in the works, and I may have an answer early next week.

Quotations were received yesterday from the fabricator, in two different gauges of stainless steel. We await the quote for units made from galvanized steel. If things go well, next week we will place an order for the setup charge and fabrication of 1000 gear drives.

Delivery time is quoted as 10 weeks.

Tom will be visiting us for Thanksgiving and we will thrash out some details.

Whoops. Called the fabricator with a question. They misunderstood part of the job. We expect a new quote Monday or Tuesday.

Received a body blow from the fabricator. Their initial quote was about $2200 for tooling to make the parts.

Now we learn that they misunderstood what we wanted, and were quoting for only one part, and not the complete chassis assembly. The complete tooling is now in the $7000 range.

Tom and I are rethinking our options. More when I know more.

The primary hiccup in the mis-communication revolves around what they were quoting. I had asked for a quote on providing assembled units, and the prices quoted were only for the individual components.

I've sent the design off to a couple more fabricators, and hope to see results soon. if no options for assembled units become available, I'll have to do the assembly in-house with glue, or some other option.

Tom

I've placed the order with the metal manufacturer, and the tooling-up contract is a go. I was told the drafting process will take another 4-6 weeks, at which time I will order the run. Another 2-4 weeks after that, the pieces will be available. 8-10 weeks total.

The plastic gears will come from a separate supplier, but the lead-time on that is only a week to 10 days.

I hope to be in production by late Febuary.

Kudos on all the Riegels' hard work. I am looking forward to a new counter, as I am now relying on a Veeder-Root.

Good luck on the production and assembly of all parts! Hope it is smooth from here forward.

Well I have a new JR and it's a great design. Easy to read and fits on the bike without any problems. I suugest that you place your order and I'm sure Tom well get it out ASP at -->
http:/www.jonescounter.com