I posted this earlier on the Hamb board, but it may be more appropriate here... or not
I was walking through my neighborhood Harbor Freight the other day and the 6 1/2 Hp Predator engine was on sale for under 100.00. If you know about this engine, it's damn nice. Pretty much a ripoff of the Honda.
I got to thinking about how much I loved my minibike as a youngster and thought " Lets do this!"
So I thought that maybe I could manufacture frames and send them off. They'd be drilled and fitted for the Harbor Freight Predator engine and the tires they also sell at Harbor Freight for 13.00 each. So you'd get a frame kit with accessories, go to HF and purchase an engine and tires spend a weekend assembling and painting and end up with a good minibke for a nice savings.
So I sat down and designed a frame on my cheapie DELTACAD program, purchased some 7/8 steel tubing and set to work.
Here's the drawing of the frame I'll bend my tubing from.
I have a Tubeshark bender which is an awesome tool. I marked the tubing from the drawing and bent a frame side.
Then another
Since this is to be a prototype, things are always subject to change. .....And they did. My buddy Dana came over with a peanut gas tank he recovered from an abandoned storage unit. I love it!
I was going to just narrow the frame sides from the seat to the steering pivot like lots of minibikes, but the tank wont fit over the tapered frame rails. So I bent a 180 degree arc and brought the frame rails side by side to the front.
When I join tubing, I always insert a smaller diameter of tubing inside the splice to aid in alignment and strength as well.
Here's a photo of the basic frame tack welded into form
The supports for the front forks are cut from 1/8 steel. Here's a drawing on the plate.
Whenever you make two identical pieces, spot weld them together. They can then be drilled and shaped together. when you're done, split them apart and you have two IDENTICAL pieces
I welded the handlebars into position, and welded two short pieces of tubing at the ends of the fork shafts to hold the axle.
Here's a photo of the complete basic frame.
Its all been a lot more work than I figgured, so I'll probably abandon the idea of producing them for sale, but it was a real interesting exercise and a lot of fun. I'll post the rest of the project as it progresses.
I was walking through my neighborhood Harbor Freight the other day and the 6 1/2 Hp Predator engine was on sale for under 100.00. If you know about this engine, it's damn nice. Pretty much a ripoff of the Honda.
I got to thinking about how much I loved my minibike as a youngster and thought " Lets do this!"
So I thought that maybe I could manufacture frames and send them off. They'd be drilled and fitted for the Harbor Freight Predator engine and the tires they also sell at Harbor Freight for 13.00 each. So you'd get a frame kit with accessories, go to HF and purchase an engine and tires spend a weekend assembling and painting and end up with a good minibke for a nice savings.
So I sat down and designed a frame on my cheapie DELTACAD program, purchased some 7/8 steel tubing and set to work.
Here's the drawing of the frame I'll bend my tubing from.
I have a Tubeshark bender which is an awesome tool. I marked the tubing from the drawing and bent a frame side.
Then another
Since this is to be a prototype, things are always subject to change. .....And they did. My buddy Dana came over with a peanut gas tank he recovered from an abandoned storage unit. I love it!
I was going to just narrow the frame sides from the seat to the steering pivot like lots of minibikes, but the tank wont fit over the tapered frame rails. So I bent a 180 degree arc and brought the frame rails side by side to the front.
When I join tubing, I always insert a smaller diameter of tubing inside the splice to aid in alignment and strength as well.
Here's a photo of the basic frame tack welded into form
The supports for the front forks are cut from 1/8 steel. Here's a drawing on the plate.
Whenever you make two identical pieces, spot weld them together. They can then be drilled and shaped together. when you're done, split them apart and you have two IDENTICAL pieces
I welded the handlebars into position, and welded two short pieces of tubing at the ends of the fork shafts to hold the axle.
Here's a photo of the complete basic frame.
Its all been a lot more work than I figgured, so I'll probably abandon the idea of producing them for sale, but it was a real interesting exercise and a lot of fun. I'll post the rest of the project as it progresses.
Last edited:
ut: