Bought a cat

[dwadholm]

I get the argument both ways.

I just think somewhere along the way that cycle has to be broken. I don't think you bought those manuals to make money, you said so yourself. But overtime realizing how much they cost you, and perhaps seeing that others were not freely sharing them you decided to try recoup your investment. But in the long run you bought them for the information. And the good news is that by selling, sharing or even giving them away you are not losing the information. You still get to keep it! But why should you - people have overcharged you, bought & resold ones you spent hours working on cleaning up, and as ding ding said the leg work to find them in the first place. They are yours to do with as you please.

I'm sure you noticed the myriad of internal service manuals on the vintage Snowmobile site I posted. I'm sure there was a time that they were hard to come by as well seeing as many of those companies made Mini Bikes as well...but someone (or many people) decided for the benefit of the community to make them available and I'm sure they are a stronger community because of it.

 

[ArcticMinibike]

Yep, that sums it up pretty good. My goal is to eventually make them free and try to fix that broken system. The funny thing is that most of the manuals I have collected and paid so much for are for models I will probably never own. I specialize in the Sachs models. The rest do me no good other than I want to make them available on the site for historical purposes. My wife wishes I had found a cheaper hobby, lol.

 

[ArcticMinibike]

I bought all this stuff with the end goal of giving it away.. I just can't afford to do that just yet. Lol

 

[ArcticMinibike]

Not a very smart business model on my part.

 

[dwadholm]

Don't let it eat at you.

I'd still appreciate that rear axle diagram / explanation.

 

[markus]

DW, dunno if this will help at all its really basic generalized info out of a mini bike service manual covering all different bikes/brands from the early '70's

I can email you the actual scans that will come out full size if needed, this size is as good as it gets on photobucket, I would not doubt we'll find these "digitally remastered" and available for sale sometime down the road though :doah:

I find this confusing (quotes from ArcticMinibike):

More than once I tried to get a seller to come down to a reasonable price, explaining that I was compiling this for historical purposes and to help people, not as an investment for personal gain. Every one of them refused to budge. It was all about the cash for them.

but then you also said this:

I sell high quality copies, but I scan them at high resolution and digitally remaster them, removing any blemishes in Photoshop.

:laugh: maybe they didn't budge because they knew your story was BS :shrug:

 

[dwadholm]

Markus - thanks for the pictures.

The drawings are really cool but not detailed enough to show the orientation of the spacers.

I am 90% sure I have it correct anyway...the brakes are more linear than ever before and the wheel spins freely in the air with the axle super tight.

Re: ArcticMinibike - he is a good guy. He sold me his last left hand brake bracket when none of the others could come up with one (I emailed all the big guns + some Arctic Cat insiders from my neck of the woods). I just think he feels burned. I see the irony you pointed out...

I just feel like someone around here should sticky a service manual / parts diagram page and see what gets added...Arctic Cat or otherwise.

 

[Ding Ding]

This should help.......:thumbsup:

 

[ArcticMinibike]

Drawings are no substitute for the real thing...


DW, I included this to show you the permanently attached spacer on the Manco brake. Eventually they can break loose. There is a stepped end (not chamfered). the thin 0.100" spacer has a chamfer, so does the long one on the right side. As long as you put the chamfers towards the bearings, everything is fine.

 

[dwadholm]

That is exactly how I set it up. When I was referring to the tower in the brake I was talking about the permanent spacer.

I figured it out because the small spacer outside of the brake is square cut on both sides so I figured the chamfered edge must go against the inner bearing race.

Thanks for the photo...you went above & beyond.

 

[Ding Ding]

The exploded assembly I posted was in reference to the front fender orientation. :smile::laugh:

 

[dwadholm]

The exploded assembly I posted was in reference to the front fender orientation. [emoji2][emoji23]

Now that's funny!

 

[Havasu Dave]

Did you see the one on CL listed in both ND and MN for a measly $6500? LOL.

 

[ArcticMinibike]

...maybe they didn't budge because they knew your story was BS :shrug:

Markus - I can understand the confusion; let me add a couple of details to clear it up. When I started out, there was almost nothing available for Arctic Cat bikes, especially for free. I had a goal to gather and save as much Arctic history as possible before it was gone. Building a dedicated web site was my goal to house it all and offer it for free. Years ago I asked a couple sellers on eBay if they would be willing to discount for a good cause. They declined and I bought the stuff anyway, still with the intent to offer it for free someday. I no longer ask them, haven't for years.

Having spent over $1,000 in the past 6 or 7 years on content alone and around $150 a year for domain registration and hosting for a site I haven’t even had time to officially launch, I started needing a way to offset the cost. I don’t have “supporting members” or a parent company like OMBW to help. I’ve sold a grand total of 1 document in the last year and a half and given away another 2 or 3. One of those guys I trusted with the free copy turned around and started reselling it, profiting off all the hours I spent making a clean digital copy. For the one I sold, I think I charged a whopping $18 for 20 hours of work, minus my cost of $50 for the original document, not to mention the paper and ink cost. I sell the occasional extra part if I don’t need it for my own restorations. I sold DW a bracket and jackshaft for about 50 cents over what I paid for it which covered the cost of the tape I closed the box with and the gas to the post office. I don’t re-sell documents I get for free and rest assured, you won’t ever find your document remastered and for sale sometime down the road, not from me. No BS here, but try starting with the facts.

 

[ArcticMinibike]

dw - This site has been around a long time. If people wanted to give up their “gold”, they would have posted the manuals long ago. The sad truth is most aren’t willing to do it. I'm trying to change that. You’re absolutely right; there is a different vibe in the minibike community vs. the snowmobiles. All my time, effort, expense and willingness to share has gone towards the long term goal of making Arctic history and documentation free to everyone. It doesn’t have the following of the big brands and the info is dying off fast. Unfortunately it costs money to save it.

Nothing personal to anyone here but I noticed I am the only one in this thread who pays to be here as a supporting member. I have since day one. I don’t hold anything against non-paying members, but just remember that hosting is expensive. Keeping the lights on is expensive. Information is free, but delivering it and making it available for free costs money. I’m just exploring the options to help pay for it. I have bent over backwards to help people here but all this BS is making me question why I do it.

I’ve said my peace. Let’s move on.

 

[Ding Ding]

Would it help cool things off if I posted the fender orientation diagram again??:innocent::001_tongue:

 

[ArcticMinibike]

Did you see the one on CL listed in both ND and MN for a measly $6500? LOL.

The one with the foot brake? Yah, I emailed the guy to explain that they were never made that way. My info came straight from the son of the man who designed every Arctic model and still has the original hand-drawn blueprints. Per his dad, who was the lead engineer and in charge of production and design, no Arctic bike was ever made with a foot brake, not even a prototype.

I've seen 3 different examples over the years of Arctics with a foot brake - all of them completely different designs. Clearly added after the fact. Granted, the one for $6,500 looks like they did a great job, but not worth an extra $5,000.

I tried to be cordial to him and offer information, but his response was less than friendly.

BTW, what is up with that avatar Dave? You're looking a little out of shape.

 

[ArcticMinibike]

Would it help cool things off if I posted the fender orientation diagram again??:innocent::001_tongue:

:laugh:

 

[dwadholm]

dw - This site has been around a long time. If people wanted to give up their “gold”, they would have posted the manuals long ago. The sad truth is most aren’t willing to do it. I'm trying to change that. You’re absolutely right; there is a different vibe in the minibike community vs. the snowmobiles. All my time, effort, expense and willingness to share has gone towards the long term goal of making Arctic history and documentation free to everyone. It doesn’t have the following of the big brands and the info is dying off fast. Unfortunately it costs money to save it.

Nothing personal to anyone here but I noticed I am the only one in this thread who pays to be here as a supporting member. I have since day one. I don’t hold anything against non-paying members, but just remember that hosting is expensive. Keeping the lights on is expensive. Information is free, but delivering it and making it available for free costs money. I’m just exploring the options to help pay for it. I have bent over backwards to help people here but all this BS is making me question why I do it.

I’ve said my peace. Let’s move on.

I agree...let's move on. I do want to point out that while I have only been a member for a couple of months now, the site has been great and I will certainly look into becoming a supporting member.

I believe I have been fair in my opinion of the matter of service documents and respectful of you and your opinion. We just disagree and that is OK.

On a side note I run several websites on 1and1 and they have very reasonable hosting and domain costs. That might help defray the costs. Especially while you are compiling content. There are others out there as well that are pretty affordable. Wordpress also offers a free CMS with free templates you can customize (not subdomain wordpress.com but the FTP Wordpress CMS from wordpress.org). Not sure what platform you are on now.

 

[ArcticMinibike]

I used to code static sites by hand, but not anymore. I switched to Joomla as a CMS for this site. I messed around a bit and got my feet wet but just haven't had a chance yet to mess with it. Trying to spend more time on it when I have a second. I think Joomla is a little more up-to date visually, but it's all down to the template, isn't it.