Found this story on the web today and thought it was cool.....
....I was twelve years old and in Grade 7 when the mini-bike craze hit. There were two models to choose from: Bonanza or Keystone. Both were red. The Bonanza had a 2.5hp Briggs and Stratton engine, and sold for $150, while the Keystone had a little 2-stroke engine, and was slightly more sophisticated; it went for $175. Both did 30mph.
I didn't have $150, not even close... so I decided to make my own mini-bike. I heard about a frame for sale, and got a bit excited. When I saw it, the construction was crude, and it was quite unsuitable, so I decided to make my own. I drew a full size sketch on cardboard, and started assembling components. The engine was a 2.5hp Clinton, and the front wheel was off a wheelbarrow. The tubing was pipe, but it was free. My father borrowed a pipe bender from work, and we bent the tubes in the back yard on the lawn. I had no workshop then.
I could buy stuff from a guy who sold mini-bike parts out of his basement in the evenings. There was often a lineup to his counter. A centrifical clutch was $30, so I decided on direct drive with a jackshaft. Single speed, of course. For stopping, a foot operated "spoon brake" pressed against the rear tire; they weren't great. The front number plate was created from thin plywood, and "6x" painted on. I saw it in a motorcycle magazine, and it was cool.
The frame had front suspension. A single spring underneath the head tube (on an extended steerer that didn't run in any kind of bushings or bearings) was designed to ease the shocks. However, because I didn't know what I was doing, the suspension wasn't really suspension at all... In the photo the spring is replaced with a spacer. My learning curve was steep. I hadn't figured out how to stick the tubes together yet, so my welding inspector Father was good enough to coerce a friendly welder to zap the frame for me in exchange for lunch. It took several hours even though it's a simple design.
I think it took about 4 months and cost about $110. I painted it metallic blue, and the seat was red. The photo below is my 13th birthday riding the bike at Jericho Beach, for those of you who know Vancouver. I remember once I rode it a few blocks to the local gas station. I had to sneak down alleys—no licence, no insurance. I told the guy to "fill it up!" and he did. It took 4 cents, so I gave him a nickel and told him to keep the change. Things were different then, right?
Next year I decided to sell it. I put an ad in the local paper for $85. It was summer and I was picking strawberries for $5 a day. When I got home, the bike was gone. My mother told me a young boy had looked at it, liked it, and asked if he could make an offer. She was quite unsure as to what his offer would be... when she asked, he said "eighty-four dollars?" Sold!
It does kinda look like me when I was a yougster:laugh::laugh::laugh: I actually just found a photo of me sitting by my parents new pool in 1962. That would make me 4yrs old then. No mini bike in the photo, so I guess I can't post:wink:
"My first motorcycle was a Mini Bike – a Taco 44 kit that my neighbor and his dad decided was too much of a hassle to build. I traded my electric guitar for it.
My dad and I worked together to collect all the parts needed to build it.
Centrifigal chain drive clutches were popular then but a bit unreliable and noisy, so we engineered a belt drive system with a double pulley jackshaft, and chain drive to the rear sproket.
It was connected to a variable speed clutch, which was installed on a polished and chromed out, performance tuned Briggs & Stratton 5HP engine complete with a Tecumseh down draft carburator and straight pipe exhaust!
We turned the flywheel all the way down to the magnets, milled the head and made our own copper head gasket, as the OEM one was a thick layered sandwich design.
My dad organized a trip to Tijuana Mexico to have our 1969 Dodge Dart reupolstered. I invited two of my grade school buddies, Steve Maxwell and Eddie Fagg from Vista de Valle Elementry School in Claremont CA. Each of us brought our mini bike seats to have them reskined with custom material, button-tucked and finished off with some nice edge piping. The last thing we did before painting the frame gloss black was to redesigned the friction rear brake and custom foot pegs, which we had heliarc welded at Foothill Welding in Claremont, California.
When we picked up the parts from the shop, I was intrigued by the heliarc welds the guy had laid down, so I asked him a couple of questions, and he showed me how to make a few myself!
My friends thought it was all so cool – the bike – the welding. Before long, they had started calling me “Joe Welder”, and I guess it stuck !
I had a lot of fun on that old bike – it was the first time I really learned about engine modifications.
One night my Dad came home and saw me doing a trophy run down the alley behind the workshop. He said there was a long white flame streaming from the exhaust and it smelled like it was burning up.
When I explained how I had added some nitro to the high-octane AvGas, he knew I was ready to move up to a real motorcyle."
This was my first motorcycle, I was 5 years old. It was a 1966 Rupp minibike, it had a 4 hp Tecumseh motor and the brake was a steel paddle that rubbed up against the rear tire to slow you down! My father sold these out of his gas station in St.Louis Michigan...._unknown
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