Bonham dune gote

[dmahan]

was just thinking of my old dune gote and decided to look it up on google. We bought a used one from a dealer in Parker Arizona, and the dealer signed over the whole dealership. Mine had a Briggs and stratton 5 hp motor, and a vbelt cvt type arrangement. It would hit about 30 mph and do it faster than a car. I lived and still do in Mohave valley AZ We had it for several years and put a brand new B@S 5 hp in it when it threw a rod. Took it to the sand dunes about 10 miles south all the time, and one time filled it up with gas 1/2 gal to see how far it would go which ended up being about 55 miles the one you have pictured looks like it must have had the motor replaced also. The dune gote stickers fit in those recessed ovals on the fiberglass body. Ours was a metal flake gold, and had golf cart style flat chevron tires on the back and your basic minibike tire on the front. I took the stock muffler off, and threaded in a short length of electrical conduit ( the thead pattern matched weird) to make it sound cooler and made us think it went faster, but I dont know if it really did. I never could flip it, since your butt is about 3 inches off the ground well maybe 4. After a few years, the rear axle broke, and we gave it to a friend, who welded it back up and rode it for some time. They were trying to come out with a more deluxe model, called the supergote, which looked alot like those vw trikes you see. I think it had a spring front suspension and looked a little bigger. Sure had a lot of fun with it.

[dmahan]

I remember we had the literature around the house with all the different tote gote and the two dune goat models it was called the super gote and I believe it had small adjustable ape hanger looking handlebars, instead if the welded t type front end set up of mine We used to sit up on the top of the body and punch it, and we could actually get it into a wheelie that way Kids do dumb stuff huh We had the front landing wheel of a Piper Tripacer in our garage, ( all that was left of our plane after the crash of 1967) and had we kept the thing, we were goint to weld it onto the front end with modification, as the minibike tire sank into the soft blow sand and bogged you down.

[Richard Trotter]

That's the most information I've heard on the dune gote. I wish you still had the pictures of each model. I'm working on the dune gote I have and would like to see what the rollbar looked like. The only one I've seen with a rollbar was the small dune gote. Also, I need to find out where they put the fuel tank on the larger gote. There is a bracket between the seat and the motor that would fit a tank, but it is lower than the carb. Did they have a fuel pump?

[dmahan]

My Dune Gote did not have any rollbar, and I thought they must be aftermarket when I first saw the pics you guys had. Maybe it was optional The gas tank was below the level of the fiberglass body by the engine on mine also. I wonder if they ever produced the Supergote, as the springer front end version did not look like the literature we received. This was about 1970, so maybe they quit production before it made its debute. I did notice the thin black seat cusion on the one in the picture was correct, there was no back padding. I believe the footpegs were nothing more than handlegrips off a motorcycle or such, slid over the pipe pegs.

[Richard Trotter]

I'm puzzled on how gas got from the tank to the carb. On most bikes, its gravity fed. A local repair shop showed me a fuel pump that worked off the vacuum pulse of the engine. I might try to connect this pump to the breather hose of the old 8hp motor I want to use. I'm trying to keep this authentic for it's age, so I'm using a old 'L' head engine.

[Richard Trotter]

I put the pulse fuel pump on and connected the vacuum line to the intake manifold. It worked fine. We still have a lot of restoration work to do, but this is a milestone

[steven Durham]

Hi Richard : What carburator did you use ? All the two stroke snowmobile engines take their pulse from the crank case and they ues both diaphragm and bowl type carbs like the Machunni. I like the very tuneable Walboro and Tillotson carbs for the snowmobile engines I have used . I have a pair of Machunni bowl type carbs from a Kawaski free air 290cc engine that has a chunk missing where the rewind mounts. I think they are about 32MM . Steve

[Richard Trotter]

I would kike to experiment with a mikuni carb, but i think 32mm might be too big. For now, I'm trying to keep this dune gote authentic for its age. I am using a old 'L' head briggs 8hp with the two piece flojet carb. The flowjets seem to have problems with quick acceleration and mid-range running, but I'm trying to keep this original for now. We have the dune gote running and I am really suprized how sharp it can turn. I didn't expect that.

[steven Durham]

Richard : that up flow Briggs Carb just wasn't made for any thing fast just power. I think the 8 HP Tecumseh with the same type of up flow carb will out perform the Briggs.
About the turning when the Tri-sport TS series came out with 3 Brake levers on the handlebars they had a pair of bands one on each axle like turning brakes, and another band on the jack shaft and that did 85% of all the stopping but it was real hard on the #40 chain. As speeds increased and horsepower went up they went to Hydraulic disc brakes by Kelsey Hays and Borg-Warner and only the smaller machines continued to use band brakes.
Sound like your having some fun and that's great
Steve

[Richard Trotter]

I do have some walbro carbs that came off tecumseh 6hp motors. Don't they have a different bolt pattern than the briggs up-draft carbs. We also tried to rebuild a walbro while back, and had trouble getting the right kits for it. I have a tecumseh on the blue nova in my pictures. After having trouble finding a carb kit, we ordered a whole new carb. To my suprise,It was made in czechoslovakia, but it does work.