The Vintage Mini Bike Family Photo Scrapbook
- Thread starter KustomKartKid
- Start date
I went to visit my parents the other day and my mother hands me an envelope. Inside were three pictures of me on my first mini bike. It is a 1968 Rupp with disc brakes, my father bought it from a small engine repair shop for $25. All he checked for was spark. He did the rest to get it rest to get it ready to ride.
The picture show that there is still snow on the ground, must of been around March of 1971.
So that is what started my addiction to mini bikes.....
The picture show that there is still snow on the ground, must of been around March of 1971.
So that is what started my addiction to mini bikes.....
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My brother Dain Ekas on the mini-bike was sick with Cancer. My Father bought him this Bandit II mini-bike because he wasn't going to be with us much longer. That is me Derek Ekas on the Sting-Ray and some of our friends on the Street like the Bradfords (Greg Bradford in the blue shirt became an Actor and starred in a few movies) and the Stewarts, and Peterman, etc.. When Dain became too weak to ride (and my parents thought it was too dangerous for him), my Dad modified my Sting-Ray for him in about 1967, making what I think was the first BMX bike ever made from a Schwinn Sting Ray. We lived in Carson, California (which is next to Gardena famous for Ascot Speedway)and next to Jack Rabbit Hill where everyone rode in later years, and next to the swamp before that was converted to a concrete flood channel by Avalon Boulevard across the 405 Freeway from the Goodyear Blimp.
We used to take the mini-bike and the BMX bikes and my Dad's motorcycle up to Escape Country and Saddleback in later years, where other kids and father's saw the Sting-Ray and copied it (I will have to dig up a picture of it). My father took motorcycle handle bars with grips and motoX plates, put knobby type tires on it from something?, put a Schwinn 10 speed Derailer seat on it, painted it black. This picture was I think Christmas 1966. The Coppertone Sting-Ray was a 1964 bought at Christmas two years previously.
The next picture is a 1968/9? Suzuki TS-90 modified into a full motocross bike from an enduro. In the family it replaced the Mini-bike as we got older. In the background you see the second Schwinn Sting Ray that was modified by my Father James Ekas for my next younger brother Daron Ekas (he wanted the drag race look).
My brother Dain Ekas on the mini-bike was sick with Cancer. My Father bought him this Bandit II mini-bike because he wasn't going to be with us much longer. That is me Derek Ekas on the Sting-Ray and some of our friends on the Street like the Bradfords (Greg Bradford in the blue shirt became an Actor and starred in a few movies) and the Stewarts, and Peterman, etc.. When Dain became too weak to ride (and my parents thought it was too dangerous for him), my Dad modified my Sting-Ray for him in about 1967, making what I think was the first BMX bike ever made from a Schwinn Sting Ray. We lived in Carson, California (which is next to Gardena famous for Ascot Speedway)and next to Jack Rabbit Hill where everyone rode in later years, and next to the swamp before that was converted to a concrete flood channel by Avalon Boulevard across the 405 Freeway from the Goodyear Blimp.
We used to take the mini-bike and the BMX bikes and my Dad's motorcycle up to Escape Country and Saddleback in later years, where other kids and father's saw the Sting-Ray and copied it (I will have to dig up a picture of it). My father took motorcycle handle bars with grips and motoX plates, put knobby type tires on it from something?, put a Schwinn 10 speed Derailer seat on it, painted it black. This picture was I think Christmas 1966. The Coppertone Sting-Ray was a 1964 bought at Christmas two years previously.
The next picture is a 1968/9? Suzuki TS-90 modified into a full motocross bike from an enduro. In the family it replaced the Mini-bike as we got older. In the background you see the second Schwinn Sting Ray that was modified by my Father James Ekas for my next younger brother Daron Ekas (he wanted the drag race look).
