Early Sears drover

#1
Well after a long winter stretch I broke down and bought my first real Mini bike of the year. Early sears roper. Sparkle vinyl seat and all. There is a Alexander Reynolds sticker on the engine? Beat up engine but the frame looks to be true. If anyone sees anything else from the pic please share. :laugh:
 
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#11
That's a Bird one. It's older than the Ropers. The swingarm/engine plate is rounded at the front, neck gussets, and a couple of other things are different too, like the lower shock mounts, jackshaft mounts. It does look like the fork springs are compressed.
 
#13
The forks can fixed by the lowers being WD40'd and left to sit and then unfortunately the fender bracket needs to be cut in the center. That will allow you to work each lower. I use a propane torch to heat the hell out of the lower then twist gently, most times they will come off and others you have to add more oil and heat. You can then clean the surfaces and assemble with grease, the springs may bounce back but if not you can replace them.
 
#15
You might be able to get the front suspension to work if you spray some Aero Kroil or similar product on to the tubes and let sit a while . It has worked for me on these bikes . Having the 2 bolt holes in the scrub brake mounts means this bike probably was the 2 speed model . Nice find . Should be a a nice riding bike .
 
#16
The holes for jackshaft mounts were on the single and two speed models of the Birds and Ropers. Having front suspension would increase the chances of it being a two speed though.
 
#18
The first thing that comes to mind is the seat. It definitely has the correct shape for a Sears of this nature but I haven't seen one in those colors till this one. The second thing would be the jack shaft plates that are welded to the swing arm. That wasn't what they did on any of the bikes I'm familiar with. Sears used the cage style but maybe they did something different on earlier bikes. The rear fender bracket is welded on and was usually bolted on but once again, did they do things differently on their earliest bikes? What does the clutch guard look like? I can just see it through the frame.
 

markus

Well-Known Member
#19
The first thing that comes to mind is the seat. It definitely has the correct shape for a Sears of this nature but I haven't seen one in those colors till this one. The second thing would be the jack shaft plates that are welded to the swing arm. That wasn't what they did on any of the bikes I'm familiar with. Sears used the cage style but maybe they did something different on earlier bikes. The rear fender bracket is welded on and was usually bolted on but once again, did they do things differently on their earliest bikes? What does the clutch guard look like? I can just see it through the frame.
that bike is pretty correct, right down to the pinstriping. They were VERY different from the later ropers.


one of MarkG's photos (pretty sure the correct chainguard is sitting loose on the engine plate)

 
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