Recumbent - I need better chain guide wheels on my burley

I have a burley limbo it uses two idler pulleys for the chain. When you shift toe the second and third chain ring you feel a rumble. I found out it is the chain doing it the rollers on the chain on a flat surface. I think it robs a bit of power too.
http://www.terracycle.com/parts.htm they are nice and locak so ican see them in person but spendy.
I was thinking of making a bracket to hold two pulleys from rd’s and run the chains on them. I would have to play a bit with how the chain runs but think it would work?

I have a burley limbo it uses two idler pulleys for the chain. When you shift toe the second and third chain ring you feel a rumble. I found out it is the chain doing it the rollers on the chain on a flat surface. I think it robs a bit of power too.
http://www.terracycle.com/parts.htm they are nice and locak so ican see them in person but spendy.
I was thinking of making a bracket to hold two pulleys from rd’s and run the chains on them. I would have to play a bit with how the chain runs but think it would work?
I don't think jockey pulleys would hold up very long. Hostelshoppe sells a Greenspeed idler (http://www.hostelshoppe.com/cgi-bin/readitem.pl?Accessory=1050779132), which is a plastic version of the fancier Terracycle one. Or rather, the Terracycle model is an upscale version of the Greenspeed. I'm not sure about ganging two of them on a single shaft, but I suppose it could be done if you use a bushing between them.

why do you think they would wear fast? it seems it would be less stressful then in a rd where they have mroe chainwram and tension. plus they are pretty cheap without a bb only 2.00 I was thinking of making them be able to slide so they could change with the chain angle. I will find out the price on those pulleys.

In a derailleur situation, the chain is only tensioned enough to remove slack, and prevented from derailing by the derailleur cage. If they were on the power side, they'd be totally inadequate. Try them if you want; as you said, they're cheap. Make sure you have a setup to prevent the chain from falling off the pulleys, because the half-teeth alone will not be tall enough to prevent it. Also recommended: get pulleys with real bearings, because the $2.00 cheapies will only have bushings, which will be totally inadequate for the power side of the chain.

If you really begrudge spending money and have access to a deep spare parts bin, you can make idler cogs (http://www.biketcba.org/TRICORR/projects/idler/idler.html) out of some old track cogs. 15-16 tooth cogs are a good compromise between efficiency and convenient size. The result is heavy but will last forever.

yes I had not thought about that. that page is good though I would have to buy all of the parts. some I cna't even find and I doubt it would be cheaper too. bumemr thanks for bursting my bubble (G)

I also had the idea of using the skate wheel and mounting one of these cogs onto it. that would take care of a lot of it with not much effort.

Just trying to save you some hassles. What you might consider doing is look at your current system and see if it's possible to only buy one of the greenspeed idlers. If it looks doable, just replace the power side pulley, since it's the one making the most noise right now.

BTW, the greenspeed idler uses the same 8mm (5/16") bolt. I guess the first-first thing you need to do is see what size bolt the Burley uses. RANS uses rollerblade bearings, which are smaller. I've found my V-Rex makes a little chain noise under high loads, but I can live with it. The RANS idlers have held up well so far - the bearings were replaced at 20K miles but the idlers themselves are still going strong.

the way the burley is setup it uses twin rollers and the chain is crossed over them. so I would need 4 of them to do the job.

well terracycle sure helped out. the ride is so much nicer nwo. no more rumble and no more powerloss
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=85346