Good job so far on your Trail King. Your front end is different than mine and must be an improvement to prevent flexing?
They are a very different ride than any mini I have ever ridden as you sit upright. While not dangerous, it does take some skill on your part when off road.
The single leaf-spring does a pretty good job of taking care of the bumps and with the heavily padded seat it rides pretty good. Dropping gthe tire pressure helps a lot.
The bike will climb with the best of them. I still have the two speed oil filled gear box and rarely do I need to go into low gear.
They were designed to carry you and 500 pounds of gear. I'm not sure how the balance would be doing that. I have carried close to 100 pounds on the rack of camping stuff.
I now have two exhaust pipes. One for Winter ( over the rack) that really heats you leg and butt and Summer, under the rack to keep the heat farther away from you. The exhaust note is really low and behind you which is nice when you putting along in the mountains.
I've ridden the bike more than 1,000 miles in my mountains and wore out the original front tire. Finding an original replacement tire was impossible as they quit making them 50 years ago.
I like your "new" rear tire as it will provide really good traction in loose sand. The drive system will not allow a tire like yours to be mounted.
The original Clutch/Brake is amazing. I have only seen one every for sale and it was over a 1,000 bucks new in the box. It senses engine load and when you back off of the throttle the "braking" timing clutch catches and uses the engine as the brake. It works very well and seldom do I need to use the real brakes ( very steep downhills)
There are two brakes that stop the front wheel as you can see and a brake on the transmission input shaft. When applied you had better be ready for a quick stop. Add the engine brake as well and I can clearly see a fully loaded bike stopping on a dime.
In the ad you can read the bikes were not cheap in the 50's. You could buy a nice used car for that price.
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This my buddies Trailking it’s all original
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