"THE CHRISTMAS TRIKE" Redux

D D Mini Cycle

D D Mini Cycle

#1
#1



When I first joined the forum some years ago, one of the members that immediately caught my attention was Steve Durham. All of his posts seemed well thought out, friendly…..and very informative. Once I found out he and his family actually owned and operated their own “Mini-Bike” shop back in the 60’s and 70’s….I really became a fan.
While looking through his photo album I spotted the little “Christmas Trike” and just thought it was the neatest thing! I sent him a PM telling him so, and he gave me the history behind it…where the idea came from, when it was built, and who it was built for. There were even plans made to mass produce the little trike and market it to young riders age 5-10…but it never came to fruition.

The proto-type was the one and only ever built… given to young Stevie Durham, Christmas morning 1972.

It’s a great story but with a mysterious ending….somehow over the years, the little trike was lost to time. Steve has questioned various family members trying to track it down......but no one seems to recall what became of it.

I told Steve couple of years ago that I would love to build a replica and asked his permission to work off the original design. Then I got sidetracked…got working on some other projects …….but the Christmas Trike was always there in the back of my mind…."someday".. I kept saying.


Well "someday is here"……..The Christmas Trike Redux.

-KK Kid
 
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D D Mini Cycle

D D Mini Cycle

#2
#2


The History of the Christmas Trike : Well in my shop we had made up 10 little yard karts for the Christmas ahead of us, and then we wanted to make a pair of trikes for my son Steven and my brother in law Danny's son Billy.
So we went out to the shop and cut down two Axel's put together the wheels and just started bending up the frames and worked out the alignment of the engine and had to add an Idler sprocket. We had the front ends already made just had to shorten them to make the trike level. We sanded the frame parts and mixed up some paint and primer-ed the parts. I cut out plywood forms for the seats and was going to take them to our upholstery guy.
Next night we started to paint the frames and one frame got a big sag in the seat loop and we messed with it and made it worse. It was 2 days till Christmas so the one trike got finished and my Nephew Billy got the Indian Mini Mini.
This picture is of my nephew David Daniels and he was hell on wheels. That trike was a 100% success never any issues ever. All kids just loved to ride it I took it to Pismo Beach, California where you can ride every thing on the beach and it did real good on the wet sand.
I have always threatened to build another one but my youngest grandchild is now 12.
-Steve Durham :scooter:






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D D Mini Cycle

D D Mini Cycle

#3
#3


An unpublished draft of the promotional ad from American Vehicle Corporation who had planned to market the trike....it never came to be.


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firemarshal71

firemarshal71

#5
#5
that is a nice design. I had a homebuilt trike in the early seventies but had 2 wheels up front and a large paddle wheel in the back. I am trying to locate pictures of it now but last remembered it being sold at my dad's estate auction several years ago in the detroit area. I look forward to seeing this one complete.
 
boatguy

boatguy

#8
#8
That is a great story and you guys are to be congratulated in starting this project. Look forward to future reads on this and best of luck to both of you.:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
D D Mini Cycle

D D Mini Cycle

#11
#11
Well kind of a lame monthly update....but half the battle on this little guy has been trying to round up all the period correct parts that were originally used.

We're almost there:




Found a vintage stepped live axle and matching Azusa kart wheels with stepped hubs . The axle is 1" but steps down to 3/4" on the end....each wheel has 2 different halves to accomodate and lock onto the ends. Also pictured is an NOS AZUSA vari-hub for mounting the sprocket, NOS AZUSA motor plate...grips, brake handle, bearing flanges etc...

Just to add authenticity, some of the parts come directly from Steve's own private stash leftover from his old store.

We'd also like to thank MAC for digging this little gem out of his treasure trove:





This oddball 5-1/2 " AZUSA drum brake for live axles has long been out of production and was proving rather difficult to locate....MAC contacted us that he had one and cut us a super deal on it....:thumbsup:

It would have been easy to just fake it and use whatever parts were readily available...but we don't do easy!!


So that's it for now....next up...laying out the frame.
 
steven Durham

steven Durham

#15
#15
Well sitting on the sideline way out in Portland,Oregon I feel like the project is going just great and finding things today that were just off the shelf parts back in the early 1970's
Has had it's ups and downs, but calling on resources like Mac's treasure trove of parts has been the solution to big additions to the projects parts list.
I think if it was done today there would be a big market for this great little machine that provided so much fun.
Steve :scooter:
 
Peekster

Peekster

#16
#16
Steve you are the brains behind this build. Finding the right parts is hard part. Hope I dont have to take a road trip to NJ to see it.:thumbsup:
 
D D Mini Cycle

D D Mini Cycle

#17
#17
Anyway...another lame update...still rounding up parts, just located an nos 1970's 5" Azusa Tri-Star rim for the front:



Also id'd the tire tread as AZUSA Turf Savers...



Steve said he thought they were AZUSA and he has not been wrong yet.. ...good news is they are still available.

Maybe the best news is I got a set of hand drawn frame sketches complete with notes from Steve hisself....





Note that Steve thinks he used a 5" TACO wheel for the front, although he doesn't quite remember why.

We're going under the assumption that he was building it 2 days before Christmas and that's what he had in stock.

We'll take the liberty of swapping in the matching 5" Tri-Star I just found.


From the drawings I made a crude computer sketch and filled in some dimensions as per his suggestions...


So yeah a lot of talk and no action, but I hope that is about to change now that we've cleared some other stuff off the plate.

Half the battle was finding some of those old orginal parts so now I'm really feeling motivated to get going...

Stay tuned for more frequent updates.....:scooter:

 
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TANKSAREUS

TANKSAREUS

#20
#20
This is most impressive and I can't believe your going to get it so close to original.
She's gonna be an absolute beauty when done.

Slowly slowly catch the monkey :lol:
 
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