New Member: Rupp Rider 52

#1
Hello Everyone,

Just a short intro about my interest in Mini Bikes. I began riding at age 10 on a old used Fox Mini Bike that I purchased from my sister's husband for $50.00 dollars. That was 1962. I converted the straight chain drive to a Jack Shaft Drive for better acceleration. Our back yard was large which allowed me to ride on weekends once all of my homework was completed.

The Fox served me well for several years. In 1967 my parents surprised me with a new Rupp Continental Electra that they had purchased from Uncle Don's Toy Store in Palm Springs. Uncle Don was a terrific person. Since my parents had a home in Palm Springs, I had the chance to drop in every now and then to say hello. When new Rupp Bikes came into the store, Uncle Don would pull one outside and allow me to ride it around the back streets of Palm Springs.

I still have the Rupp Continental Electra [1967]. The bike came with a chrome exhaust pipe, but Uncle Don put a chrome cover over the pipe to protect my legs. We also added a rear view mirror.

I still have many fond memories of riding the Rupp along the sandy trails, and the many dirt roads, that lined the desert behind Palm Springs from 1967 to 1970.
 

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#4
Thank you for the compliment. I still have the original receipt, owners manual for the Rupp and Engine, and my Bell Equipment Catalog that I received at Uncle Don's. I ordered my first Bell Helmet through that catalog.
 
#10
Thanks for joining, I also have my first rupp a 1970 rupp Enduro that I had since 1977. The exhaust pipe on the 67, blackwidow motorsports would like to reproduce them if you would lend them yours for a template , thanks again for being part of the hobby Von
 

markus

Well-Known Member
#12
Thats a great bike, Get some pore pics of that beauty up!!! Its great for reference since it stil retains the original parts/setup. Set of those optional fork boots just sold on ebay NOS in package. You dont see them on the bikes too much.

Your bike even though its a little later version reminds me of the bike with one of the Hurst girls on it :drool:

 
#14
My Thanks To All Who Have Shown Interest in My Old Rupp

I was not expecting any responses to my post/thread. Now I need to learn how to communicate with everyone effecrtively.

I posted several more photographs today. I am sure that some of you will find them interesting as all parts on my bike are original from 1967.

As mentioned in my opening statement, the only modification that I made was to add a rear view mirror to the right handle bar.

Markus: I agree, the girl on the mini-bike in your photo looks a lot like my Rupp. The chrome exhaust cover is different. Mine has perforations [small holes] along the length, and flares toward the end. That cover came in pretty handy.

Again, thanks to all.
 

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markus

Well-Known Member
#17
Really cool! thank you for posting the extra photo's. Shows alot of the little things that get overlooked like the way the throttle linkage were setup on the earlier bikes etc,. That CEV switch is good to note as well for the '67, I think thats the first "lighted" engines as well? I think Rupp was one of the first utilizing them for the most part, 1968 was the major turning point from battery powered lights to lighted coil engines on most other bikes being made at that time.

I don't know if Rupp specifically sold the exhaust heat guards, but they were a hot (no pun intended) accessory back then and a smart add on! The Rupp assessory pipe itself was something copied from Fox which they used on the Campus bikes but were S shaped to fit the Briggs engines, when they (Fox) went to Tecumseh engines so they could have lighting coils in 1968 they virtually copied The rupp single bend though to fit the Tecumseh engines. Fox did offer the accessory heat guards in their catalogs though and they were actually coming from a company called Dixie international which was a huge motorcyclist accessory source in the 60's that sadly closed up its doors just recently from what I heard.

I bought a box lot of NOS Fox parts and accessories awhile back for a 1967 Campus I am rebuilding and it came with some of the ones like your forward one, in a Fox bag, but the paper wrapping it was in was marked Dixie :thumbsup:

 
#18
Thanks Markus for posting the Fox Catalog. Boy, does that bring back memories. The exhaust pipe is a one piece chrome on my Rupp. It looked cool, but was extremely hot. Lucky for me, Uncle Don [of Uncle Don's Toys in Palm Springs] had the answer. A two piece chrome cover that fit perfectly to the stock Rupp Chrome Exhaust. He dropped by the house later to see how the piece looked, and how I liked it. I then added the rear view mirror and horn.

Since the bike sat in the heat of Palm Springs for weeks at a time, I found that I had to remove the carburetor for cleaning before I could ride the bike. The float inside the carburetor would sometimes get stuck as the gas evaporated. By the time I was 12 years old I could tear the engine down pretty quickly.

The lighting system was great for me. No battery to worry about. Headlight put out a decent beam. Interesting note, the Rupp would not drift through turns like my old Fox would. You could lay the Fox over hard and never let off the throttle, while the Rupp wanted to right itself. Both were incredibly reliable bikes.
 
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