Hello this is my 1st post, and I have a story. When I was a poor kid growing up in southern Florida, somehow my dad got me this old mini bike. I really liked that thing and rode it as much as I could. Problem was the clutch was on its last leg, and we never got a new one for it, so... I really dont know what ever happened to it.
During the 40+ years since then I had always thought about getting a motorcycle, but my lack of coordination and strength made that a bad idea... so I never did. I have owned restored and modified a lot of cars in those years and really appreciate a cool modified vehicle.
About 5 years ago, on a whim and to relive the minibike years I purchased a Coleman BT200 made a few changes to it and would ride it around my neigborhood not doing anything crazy but pretty much just cruising. I live in like a regular platt community in Ohio with sidewalks and etc. I really enjoyed it, however, I had to have knee replacement, and then less than a year after that a hip replacement on the same leg. With that it seemed like riding the minibike may not be a good idea, because if anything were to go wrong, I may use use of one of my legs.
Still itching to ride, I came up with the idea that a trike might be a "safe" alternative. So I set into building one, purchasing a raw frame and parts to put one together. I have a hemi predator left over from the previous mini and initially planned on using it for the trike. Then I saw the HF Ghost so I had to have one of those. After I got all the parts together I spent a few weeks painting and assembling the thing and it came out looking really cool.
So version 1 of this has the Ghost, a live axle, torque conv, and for some reason a bad attitude. The HF Ghost engine was too much for me to pull start on initial startup (I am also not real strong) so my wife went and got my helpful neighbor and he came over and after a few pulls it started, and idled well. Then we blip the throttle and right away the torque conv grabs and it tries to run over us. We kill it, and then lesson learned we start it up again... and I promptly run the thing into one of my wife's flowerbeds and the chain comes loose, the thing is really hard to steer.
The wife is watching this the whole time... so none of this is cool... so I park it for the night.
Over the next few days I put the chain back on it and setup the hydraulic brakes parking brake. So my wife and I struggle pushing this thing from the backyard and into the front driveway so I have a little more room and I am able to get it started myself and it idles well and sounds really good. I reach down to do something on the bike and accidentally hit the throttle and off it goes again!!! burning rubber and going in a large arc right into the garage door! Its crazy! there is no reason why this thing should just grab and take off like that. So now the wife is at DEFCON 1, so we push it back and chain the thing up and cover it and I get to work fixing the garage door.
I will come back and post some pics of Ver 1. of this thing and continue the story...
During the 40+ years since then I had always thought about getting a motorcycle, but my lack of coordination and strength made that a bad idea... so I never did. I have owned restored and modified a lot of cars in those years and really appreciate a cool modified vehicle.
About 5 years ago, on a whim and to relive the minibike years I purchased a Coleman BT200 made a few changes to it and would ride it around my neigborhood not doing anything crazy but pretty much just cruising. I live in like a regular platt community in Ohio with sidewalks and etc. I really enjoyed it, however, I had to have knee replacement, and then less than a year after that a hip replacement on the same leg. With that it seemed like riding the minibike may not be a good idea, because if anything were to go wrong, I may use use of one of my legs.
Still itching to ride, I came up with the idea that a trike might be a "safe" alternative. So I set into building one, purchasing a raw frame and parts to put one together. I have a hemi predator left over from the previous mini and initially planned on using it for the trike. Then I saw the HF Ghost so I had to have one of those. After I got all the parts together I spent a few weeks painting and assembling the thing and it came out looking really cool.
So version 1 of this has the Ghost, a live axle, torque conv, and for some reason a bad attitude. The HF Ghost engine was too much for me to pull start on initial startup (I am also not real strong) so my wife went and got my helpful neighbor and he came over and after a few pulls it started, and idled well. Then we blip the throttle and right away the torque conv grabs and it tries to run over us. We kill it, and then lesson learned we start it up again... and I promptly run the thing into one of my wife's flowerbeds and the chain comes loose, the thing is really hard to steer.
The wife is watching this the whole time... so none of this is cool... so I park it for the night.
Over the next few days I put the chain back on it and setup the hydraulic brakes parking brake. So my wife and I struggle pushing this thing from the backyard and into the front driveway so I have a little more room and I am able to get it started myself and it idles well and sounds really good. I reach down to do something on the bike and accidentally hit the throttle and off it goes again!!! burning rubber and going in a large arc right into the garage door! Its crazy! there is no reason why this thing should just grab and take off like that. So now the wife is at DEFCON 1, so we push it back and chain the thing up and cover it and I get to work fixing the garage door.
I will come back and post some pics of Ver 1. of this thing and continue the story...