I bought this bike from Harley's Papa, who was nice enough to bring it back to CT for me from Iron Honky. I need to build a motocross style minibike but after building my drag bike, money is not at a premium. So I already have this roller, it has big wheels/tires on it and front and rear drum brakes. Forks are sprung, nothing too spectacular but they are not rigid. Probably a couple inches of travel, internal springs.
When I first bought the bike, there was a thread on here about the bike, it was Italian but don't think it was a Benelli, Harley's Papa had PM'd me the link to the thread. But when the site changed over I lost all PM's and the link has been lost. I think IIRC it had a yellow gas tank at one time. The wheels attach to the frame like a bicycle and not like a minibike, which worries me since I will need this bike to be sturdy enough so that I don't fly 10 ft over the handlebars again.
The frame looks to me to be bent from possibly being jumped or ridden hard by a heavier or older person. You can tell, the bends at the rear of the frame are just a little too bent. Some of the welds look pretty shoddy, there looks to be a small hole in the frame and there is no real motor plate to speak of.
The way the frame is now, it is too short to put any flathead, even my H35 is too tall. I thought about a 2 stroke but do not like the hassle of mixing fuel and the noise and smoke. I was thinking of trying to jack the frame square and see where that gets me?
This bike could be possibly be ridden at the dirt track plus the minibike massacre so it would be a good build to do.
However-
I do have some forks that have shocks, I got them from Gerald and got PW80 fork legs.
They are the same as these: http://www.oldminibikes.com/forum/m...ustom-triple-trees-universal.html#post1029558
That would be pretty sweet except they won't fit the Italian head tube, and I would have to drill out the axle holes in the forks in order to fit the Italian axles.
I also have an old Trail Horse frame that Gumpit gave to me a few years ago that needs repair, I could fix that and use it and the head tube would fit. But then the Italian wheels won't fit the Trail Horse frame.
So you can see what I am up against here, I basically am at a fork in the road and I need to decide which way to go.
I am leaning towards the Italian bike, just because a lot of it is there. But the frame is really narrow and not sure how big a motor I can run. I do have that HS50 - I just got a new block for it. It better be in great shape because it was expensive.
But I bet I could make an HS50 fit that frame, but what if it doesn't? 2 stroke will drive my neighbors bananas and rightly so.
Am I better off selling everything and just getting a turnkey running motocross style bike? Is the Italian bike some wicked rare bike that I shouldn't be modifying? Any advice would be appreciated
Thanks guys (and gals)
When I first bought the bike, there was a thread on here about the bike, it was Italian but don't think it was a Benelli, Harley's Papa had PM'd me the link to the thread. But when the site changed over I lost all PM's and the link has been lost. I think IIRC it had a yellow gas tank at one time. The wheels attach to the frame like a bicycle and not like a minibike, which worries me since I will need this bike to be sturdy enough so that I don't fly 10 ft over the handlebars again.
The frame looks to me to be bent from possibly being jumped or ridden hard by a heavier or older person. You can tell, the bends at the rear of the frame are just a little too bent. Some of the welds look pretty shoddy, there looks to be a small hole in the frame and there is no real motor plate to speak of.
The way the frame is now, it is too short to put any flathead, even my H35 is too tall. I thought about a 2 stroke but do not like the hassle of mixing fuel and the noise and smoke. I was thinking of trying to jack the frame square and see where that gets me?
This bike could be possibly be ridden at the dirt track plus the minibike massacre so it would be a good build to do.
However-
I do have some forks that have shocks, I got them from Gerald and got PW80 fork legs.
They are the same as these: http://www.oldminibikes.com/forum/m...ustom-triple-trees-universal.html#post1029558
That would be pretty sweet except they won't fit the Italian head tube, and I would have to drill out the axle holes in the forks in order to fit the Italian axles.
I also have an old Trail Horse frame that Gumpit gave to me a few years ago that needs repair, I could fix that and use it and the head tube would fit. But then the Italian wheels won't fit the Trail Horse frame.
So you can see what I am up against here, I basically am at a fork in the road and I need to decide which way to go.
I am leaning towards the Italian bike, just because a lot of it is there. But the frame is really narrow and not sure how big a motor I can run. I do have that HS50 - I just got a new block for it. It better be in great shape because it was expensive.
But I bet I could make an HS50 fit that frame, but what if it doesn't? 2 stroke will drive my neighbors bananas and rightly so.
Am I better off selling everything and just getting a turnkey running motocross style bike? Is the Italian bike some wicked rare bike that I shouldn't be modifying? Any advice would be appreciated
Thanks guys (and gals)
