Hey Fellas, I've been working on this one for a little while. I almost entered it in the build off but I was a little busy and didn't want a deadline. :facepalm:
A middle school kid from church, familiar with my mini bike hobby, started asking about mini bikes. He's one of my good friend's sons, so I told him I'd let him ride one sometime. He said, "no, I don't want to just ride one...I want to make one". So, that's where this all started. The next thing you know, I have a squad of middle school dudes wanting to get in on it. I had a little circle of them around me after church every Sunday. They are all sons of good friends of mine.
I chose to resurrect an old Hornet that I had laying around. It was in bad shape...like, really bad shape! I called a few OldMiniBikes pals, and it wasn't long before I had enough parts to put together a rider. This thing has parts from K&S, Bonanza, Rupp, Fox, Arctic Cat, as well as some custom parts. The whole top of the frame had to come off, so I decided to lower it a couple inches. I had to make a new eingine mounting plate, as well as the head (fork) tube on the front of the frame. But, once the fab was done the fellas came over for the prebuild. Some of these guys hadn't used a ratchet before. The assembled the wheels and tires, jockeyed for whose turn it was for the next steps, and had a pretty good time. It's almost ready now...we'll be getting together for a ride pretty soon. I need to figure out how to adjust the throttle so I can start them off really slow, then when they have the hang of it, I can speed them up a bit.
So here's some pics...
A middle school kid from church, familiar with my mini bike hobby, started asking about mini bikes. He's one of my good friend's sons, so I told him I'd let him ride one sometime. He said, "no, I don't want to just ride one...I want to make one". So, that's where this all started. The next thing you know, I have a squad of middle school dudes wanting to get in on it. I had a little circle of them around me after church every Sunday. They are all sons of good friends of mine.
I chose to resurrect an old Hornet that I had laying around. It was in bad shape...like, really bad shape! I called a few OldMiniBikes pals, and it wasn't long before I had enough parts to put together a rider. This thing has parts from K&S, Bonanza, Rupp, Fox, Arctic Cat, as well as some custom parts. The whole top of the frame had to come off, so I decided to lower it a couple inches. I had to make a new eingine mounting plate, as well as the head (fork) tube on the front of the frame. But, once the fab was done the fellas came over for the prebuild. Some of these guys hadn't used a ratchet before. The assembled the wheels and tires, jockeyed for whose turn it was for the next steps, and had a pretty good time. It's almost ready now...we'll be getting together for a ride pretty soon. I need to figure out how to adjust the throttle so I can start them off really slow, then when they have the hang of it, I can speed them up a bit.
So here's some pics...
