The Hodaka Club Forum

Was the early super rat, 93, ever built and sold with the two part rear sprocket?

Gary Gendron

No
Jack K

The Ace 100's did. They had a 36 tooth rear road sprocket (I think that was the size) and a 50 tooth overlay sprocket to bolt onto the smaller sprocket for dirt use. If you have one on a super rat someone might have taken one off an Ace and put it on.

I have an picture with an early super rat that,I think, shows the two piece overlay sprocket on the rear. The picture says printed in Japan. I have never seen the sprocket on the super rat only the ace models. Just wondering if the overlay sprockets were ever sold with the 93 model.

Paul, look carefully at the rear sprocket on the picture (poster) with Harry Taylor on the Super Rat.What do you think?

Gary

Thanks

I sold a lot of early super rat's none had the overlay rear sprocket. I am very glad they didn't. The overlay sprockets created a lot of problems as they would slip a little and damage the smaller sprocket. Prototype picture ??-------------Clarence

Hi Gary and Merry Christmas.The answer to your question is yes and no. Yes the poster of Harry jumping the tumbleweed on the chrome tank Super Rat does show an overlay sprocket. But no they did not come from the factory with an overlay sprocket.
Good eyes Gary I had never blown the poster up enough to see this previously.
Ed when you get home "you got mail" so you can see too.
Marv took the photo and had drawn a mustache on Harry so that no one would know it was Harry Still looks like Harry with a mustache
The more beer Marv gave him the higher Harry felt he jumped!
Gary I would guess that Harry made that sprocket change himself maybe to give him more overall speed to better jump? Not sure why and unfortunately I cannot call him any longer to ask him.
Also this and most of the early posters were printed in Nagoya Japan. Maurice Lee was the chief engineer for PABATCO . Maurice's in-laws owned the print shop where most posters and early flyers were printed.
Thanks for the smiles.
Paul

Paul,

Thanks for the response. Hope you also had a Merry Christmas. I am getting ready to complete my 93 and I wanted to get a unique details right.

Gary

Paul has suggested the same sort of thought which came to mind for me. I sure didn't think ANY Model 93 Super Rats came from the factory with over-lay sprockets . . . but that doesn't mean that a last version of a prototype . . . or even the first production Rat sent to Athena, didn't get a bit of tweaking while in the R&D shop. It is pretty easy to imagine that more over-lay sprocket sizes might have been in stock in Athena than were available in single piece sprockets when the Rat photo was taken. And I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that Harry would have been fine tuning ALL sorts of things as soon as he got a chance!

Ed

Nice. Thanks Ed.

Gary