busy building a minibike chopper from scratch, check it out!

LOL, man that's small... looking at the pic w/ engine it's like "wow you gotta sit WAY back there?!" then you remember the scale!

Tim

-- "I've got more trophies than Wayne Gretsky and the Pope combined!" - Homer Simpson Website @

Tooo coooool!

You mention "trees" cut from a laser. What part is that? I am cycle illiterate...

Stephen R.

the triple trees are the upper and lower sections of the front fork that holds the two side tubes that extend to the front wheel, then it attaches to the frame at the neck. Because they are made from 3/16" steel, my plasma cutter wouldn't cut them accuratly, so a laser cutting machine does a cleaner job.

walt

Geesus. Too much Amarican Chopper dude. :) I think the pull start handle needs to be a lillte bigger. no, seriously, this is a VERY? cool project, and it looks "clean". So tell me, would a 5-HP engine like that pull around a 205 Lb

i hope it does... i'm a 41 year old 215 pounder and i plan on wheelin' around the neighborhood on it soon. thanks, walt

That's a big pull rope handle, dude. :-)

Actually looks like a cool project.

Gary

Thanks Gary, the recoil handle is a monster. This engine came off of an old snowblower and that was the original handle, i guess i better change it. I have been consumed with this dumb project, looks simple but there was alot of work involved so far. The real fun part was all the tig welding, i could do that all day!

walt

Don't you *dare* remove that handle. That just *makes* the whole project. It is just absurd enough to work visually.

Gary

I agree with Gary! It sets off the bike. I stayed up all night planning to build me a bike now. My wife will hate you by the time I am done. Is the black pipe rigid enough to hold? I have made several things with black pipe and it work great for the projects that I used it for, but for a frame I would think you would want something that did not have the malleability issues BP has. Keep us posted on this as I will be building one too!

Scott Young

I was gonna use some chrome moly pipe but because of the design of this particular frame (small and tight) bp will be fine (plus i'm cheap, wanted to do this on a budget). The only area the bp was going to be a possible problem was with the fork down tubes, that's why i inserted round bar to reinforce it. The largest area of weight (me) will be over the rear wheel where there's vertical pipe and steel plates that will support me. I wouldn't take it off roadin' (ground clearance is about 3") but for just goofing around, it will be fine. It's kind of a cool visual thing as well, it will most likely sit in the garage 95% of the time. walt

Thanks for the info, Walt !!

I'm leaning towards the purchased frame and then doin some OCC kind of customizing on it. This way will be a bit quicker and I won't have to rush out and buy a pipe bender. I also have my eyes on the Hossfeld.... if you haven't already, send for their catalog. It makes for some pretty good drool..Ooops, I mean reading.

And FWIW, I too dig the starter handle ;)

Jeff

Caught my eye in the paper today...

malleability

I was at a motorcycle rally last weekend and there was some guy and his kid zipping around on those small racers. I thought it was a major accident waiting to happen. People were almost getting hit by this goofball. I guess it's the nut behind the bars that causes these problems, a little common sense goes a long way. As far as me riding this in the neighborhood, my neighbors have gotten used to me rebuilding and fixing motorcycles and "road testing them" plus, i built a minibike from used parts a while ago for my kids when they were younger. We still have a go kart my 14 year old got for her first communion... just thank God, you're not one of my neighbors! :) (i bribe them with draft beer... it works!)

walt

That would be cool with me-these kids around here don't make anything. When I was their age I was putting a lawnmower motor on just about anything I could find. Still remember my first go kart, with a Reo engine.

Sure wore out a lot of shoes : )

Its actually further along and the web page is out of date:

More ideas can be had from:

Our bike has a new 90cc Huawei engine, Honda sold their tooling to Korea for the 90-110cc engine. They are identical. Its a 3 speed with automatic clutch and electric start. The engine show on the web page IS the Honda out of the passport, but a good deal came along on the Huawei, so I opted for brand new. It started out as a father/son project but now its just my project. I need to finish mock up and get it to the painters. I'll show it off and then sell it to recoup my investment.....

Marty

Marty Escarcega wrote in news:Xns950E773E7E3BDescarcegacoxnet@68.6.19.6:

Oh yea, still pricey too, watch out for all the little nickel and dime parts. Sprockets, hubs cables seat material etc. Don't even think of starting unless you have at least $500 to get going with..... Much depends on what you already have and how elaborate you want to go....I'm in OVER double that amount and not finished yet..

yeah me too! we used to use scrap wood we scrounged in our garages and make these go karts (had alot of pissed off Fathers when they're lawn mowers were missing wheels!) then graduated to mini bikes, custom bicycles, whatever we could throw together on a hot summer day, couldn't keep us from building something. My favorite memory of those huge go karts was the steering system. We would use an old broom handle fed through a drilled hole in a two by four and another at the end. The front axle had rope attached to each side and wrapped around the broom handle (steering column) it actually worked, not very well, but it worked! Funny how kids dont make stuff like they used too anymore... i think because we were told to "go out and play", afterall, nothing but soap opera on tv back then. walt

Marty, i had seen your site when i got this brilliant idea of building this. Your's is WAY more defined than mine. I wanted to build something cool for as little as possible. (I have thousands invested in my harley... no sense having the Mrs. kill me for building a high budget mini-bike) I fell into a couple hundred bucks and this sounded like fun. With all my parts aquired and paid for, i have a final build tally of $330.95 As far as the painter, "Mr spray can" did the job in flat black for under $4.00!! :) Cant wait to see your finished project, awesome so far!!

walt