Further discussion having been championed above, I note that most of the mini bikes described in the last few posts are equipped with "toy" shock absorbers, relying on a spring. The exception to that is the vintage Benelli shock I sent Danford the ebay link to a few months ago. It is an oleo shock. I would have disassembled it, replaced the seals, and replaced the oil. After 40 plus years of life, the oil is gone and it's a pure spring shock now.
Like I did for the
Tote Gote Nova with the same shocks in 2014.
I could ride this anywhere.
Of course the Powells were already mentioned. The rear shock was just a spring, but the front end contained an internal spring riding on bronze bushings, and with decent DOT rated tires, handled like a Harley.
Speaking of riding smooth, and yes, I too am tired of seeing these bikes in a transparent attempt at "show and tell" this Mini Gote rides extremely well, despite being equipped with the toy shocks. Originally, it also had the Italian oleo shocks, but I thought I'd see how these worked. Another internal spring, bronze bushing front end, and DOT tires, just make all the difference in the world, as well as having some "weight" to it. I had to bump the power up on this one, but it's a great rider.
There is absolutely no comparison between a Rupp "anything" and an oleo equipped machine. The Cat Endura line has the same shock absorber system, but since they aren't "popular" like the over priced Rupps are, no one mentioned them. LOL!! (They appeared to be a Rupp copy) This is the Endura I restored a few years ago.
The bottom end of the Endura line was this Wildcat that wanted to be a swing arm bike, but extending the forks with a couple of springs made it cheaper than the other Enduras.
Speaking of which, the first time I used those Ebay vintage Italian shock absorbers was on this Taco 99. With the Trail Tamer front end, it was probably the best handing "small bike" I ever had. It was also very quick for a grocery getter with the tweaked out flattie.
One of my worst handling front-suspension bikes was the Cat Hustler. I always felt that I was falling off of it, the front end vibrated, and of course all of my weight was on the rear tire.
As far as lame attempts at suspension though, the Cat 400-series bikes offered almost nothing.
So I figure these are mini bikes, and never designed to be motorcycles. When this Flexo came out,
or this Stellar,
no one was making suspended bikes we kids could ride, except in Japan and Europe, and those were 125cc street pigs.
There were always the lower end models of Cat to chose from, some even equipped with an almost non-functioning spring below the trees,
and some even cheaper where they didn't even bother with suspension.
So I too am hoping to benefit all and sundry from all of this bragging- er....information. And note, none of these bikes have OHV engines. Where I needed more horsepower, I built flatheads to provide it, except in two cases where I bought a long block and a complete engine. And yes, I am laughing my ass off right now. And shaking my head.