The Vintage Mini Bike Family Photo Scrapbook

PatrickCraik

Well-Known Member

"My dad built this bike for me around 1967. We didn’t know bikes like this existed, only knew about the typical 3HP minibike. Not to be outdone he decided 8HP would be better for his kid and purchased a brand new B & S recoil start engine. Then he built a heavy frame in the same shape as the little bikes, just bigger. An engineer, he duplicated the single coil spring front end that many of them had. We had a couple of Piper Cub wheels and tires laying around his “junkyard”, so those became the minibike wheels after he welded a huge sprocket on the back one. A heavy duty chain went to a jackshaft on the frame, then he engineered the ultimate “transmission”, a foot controlled variable ratio belt drive torque converter. Slight pressure on the pedal gave low gearing for fast starts, then you gradually increased pressure for higher gearing. The 0-35 mph time was about a half second."

-Fred W
Great story and pic. 8 HP! That had to almost scary.lol
 

GustoGuy

Well-Known Member
Awesome Photos. I am in my mid 50's and when I was a kid there were no video games and one of my neighbors had a Harley Davidson 90cc and another neighbor kid owned a Rupp Roadster and still another had a Yamaha YZ 80 and I wanted one so badly but my parents would not let me. My youngest brother just went out and bought a motorcycle when he turned 18 because he saw that I could not convince my parents so when he had the money he just bought one. So now I own 2 minibikes and a roller Rupp which I will be restoring. I have a personal watercraft and 3 snowmobiles and a boat and I like toys that I was not allowed to have when I was a kid. Those photos bring back memories
 

PatrickCraik

Well-Known Member
Man that's great! I only have one blurry photo of my Wren Mini in 1965 with my friend Eric riding it. I took the photo with a Polaroid B&W "Swinger" camera.
View attachment 245045
Cool pic,blur and all,lol. How old were you guys? Are you still in touch with your friend? I have one friend only from my childhood,we talk a couple of times a year on the phone. He brought up my Brand X purple mini bike from the 60's last we spoke. I had all but forgotten that one.
 
Greetings all! I've been wanting to go down this path for quite a few years. My dad bought this Alexander Reynolds mini bike when he was a teen at a True Value Hardware store that sold all sorts of outdoor power equipment and mini bikes. He used to go see my mom on it when they were dating. He and his buddies would ride the things all over the county back roads- they thought they were real bikers.

I started riding it when I was about 5 and until I was about 10. I absolutely rode the wheels off of it- mainly in fields and up the road to my buddy's house. One time, I'm guessing about 1981, my dad was riding his yellow Honda Odyssey and his buddy was riding a Suzuki 250 dirt bike down an old gravel road. I couldn't keep up and thought they were leaving me in an area I didn't know. As a 5 year old, I remember crying and the tears were so big I couldn't see. I hit a huge pot hole in the old road that sent me and the bike in all sorts of directions.....seems like I remember digging gravel out of lots of places in my body. What I remember most, was mom being ticked-off that dad "let me" tear a large hole in my new coat. You only got ONE winter coat for the year. It was a great mini bike and lead me down the path of ATV's, dirt bikes, street bikes, old hot rods and working on about anything that burns fuel. What a great time!

Dad has been cleaning out his garage and this is one of the things he told me to come and get. Dad doesn't get rid of ANYTHING. I had mentioned it to him for years. So, it's sort of a big deal to drag this out and start down the path of bringing it back to life. It has all come full circle as I have 3 kids that I'm sure will enjoy it too. Hopefully it never winds up in this condition, again.

Here are some pics of me on it circa about 1980.



 
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novadose74

Well-Known Member
Me at 14, in 1988, now 45. This is me on my ARCO II chopper. This is my first Minibike I ever built. This pic was taken by my mom about 5 minutes of me getting it running, the 1st run!! All I had was the frame, front forks , seat n sissy bar. The rear wheel came from a Honda CT70. That wheel is still on today. The engine is a Robin 2 stroke, same as the ones on the moto-skeeter. The engine mount was a VW bug front bumper cut out to make a mount plate. E52C8A5D-C4C1-4566-A2F7-248566A86637.jpeg
 
that is a great Photo, any chance I could get your secret of where you found it? I have 2 of those Benelli Hurricanes :thumbsup:. Reminds me, I need to call the lady I bought the one off of and see If she ever found any pics for me. She was the original owner of the bike-got it when she was like 12.
Own one too... Red and chrome..
 
Wow! what memories! my 1st Minibike was an old home made one a stepfather brought home,ugly as sin and heavy,rode it for about 6 months and then got into dirtbikes [Yuma,AZ late 60's] but I remember all the kids that rode and the neatness of it.now at 62 I ride Minibikes again :)
 
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