Dang It. Another Thing Followed Me Home.
 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psfubstxat.jpg

It's an Electra Mini Chopper. Also sold through Pep Boys as a Harley Mini chopper. 43 cc electric start along with front and rear suspension. And the dual rear wheels are stock. I guess this puts me back in as a real Chinabike owner.:lmao:
As you can see, it has been 'worked on'(?) before.:ohno: I'm only interested in the frame and fork, so that didn't enter into it. Right now, plans are to rip out the rest of the electrics, loose the engine for a 6hp Briggs Intek I have and to convert the dual rear wheels to a wide single. And to do it as cheaply as possible.

Until I have two working feet, though, the CX and the chopper will be bonding in the garage.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psipjxbg6a.jpg

Cheesy, you outdid yourself. That odd ball machine has to be the answer to a question that I never imagined much less asked. Excellent project. We all look forward to seeing it to completion.

As I slowly scrolled down (for maximum drama), I spotted the handlebars and thought it was a mobility scooter.


My geek factor just went way up. I love minibikes and I have a ton of silly ideas floating around in my cranium. I might even have some parts for you. What is the displacement of your Briggs?

Weld-I think the engine may be 212cc. And it's 5.5hp, not 6. Because of the 0.4hp output of the stock engine, I might need to beef up the frame just a bit. I did find an owners manual online and according to the lawyer pages, you probably shouldn't even ride it.:hehe:

Advertised top end was a blistering 14mph. Either of the Solexes would kill it in a drag race.

I have found a boatload of mini bike parts online, so stuff is available.

What a cool project!...and you already have a motor. Nice........

Old school minibikes is a website that will have info on lawn mower engine powered bikes ,personally I would put a honda pitbike type engine in it and be done with it .About how wide would you like the rear tire to be ?I might have a wheel from something like a super pocket bike that might fit the bill ,and I have the matching front wheel as well if I have the rear ,I usually strip those bikes for the racing engines and pile them in the back for scrap .

Thanks for the offer, Bruce.
I still need to get out to the garage to stare at the little booger for a while and think about what exactly I'm going to do. When I get a better handle on that, I will let you know about the tires. A pitbike engine would be something, but the Briggs I have is a new take-off engine with 0 hours, that my boss told me to 'Make it go away'. So I did.
I plan to have a basic centrifugal clutch drive system and decent brakes that I do some minor off road stuff and that the grandkids can putz around the yard on.

I do think that I will steepen up the head tube a couple degrees and shorten the front fork to bring the front wheel in a bit. I also see some issues with the design of the swing arm that will need to be ironed out. Plus, the wimpy the 12mm rear axle will be replaced by a 5/8" one. So, opportunities to use the plasma cutters and welders abound.

Also, the grandson has insisted that I paint it blue.

I used part of a Quadrajet linkage on a Briggs mini that I built about 10 years ago, along with the Quadrajet return spring. While that worked relatively well, if I had it to do over again, I'd buy or fabricate an intake tube that would accept a conventional motorcycle carb. Since you're dealing with a 212cc mill, I suspect that a 30mm Mikuni (which I believe to actually be 26mm) would work well. It's cheap enough to try.

That's something to keep in mind, Weld.:tup:

I stripped the little beast down today to see what I am up against. Lots of stuff that can be cut off.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps9n91wjf1.jpg

This is what I pulled off.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pscd1xtu4w.jpg
I'm keeping the seat and some of the electrical bits. There's a starter relay, turn signal relay, and a small cdi. I may see if I can adapt the cdi to a Solex. Some of the connectors may come in handy, too.

I did find this wonderful example of how not to weld.:wtf:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pssww7o79w.jpg

In order to use the briggs, I'm going to have to use a remote fuel tank and remove the muffler guard. Maybe raise the back end of the upper frame an inch or so to gain some clearance. Probably just make my own exhaust pipe to fit a spark arresting muffler, too.

There's a motorcycle swap meet tomorrow that Mrs. C has agreed to take me to. It's been 18 months since I've been to one. Maybe I'll find some goodies. Probably CX parts galore as I won't be looking for any.

Wow, that was a weed eater motor!

With electric start and gear reduction.:hehe:

Hahahahaha!!!!! How cute.

Well, after all, 2 strokers were the kings of motorsports

That looks like my messes, someone used a stick of dynamite and lit the fuse.

Sounds like a fun outing Cheesy. I bet you'll find some good bits.

A remote tank means you'll need a carb with a float.


Rather than de-raking the front end, have you considered simply switching to low bars?

The swap was a dud. The threat of rain, along with the heat and high humidity, kept the bulk of the vendors away. Mrs. C went along and noted that while the bulk of the parts for sale were HD, the bikes for sale were everything but. I just remained non-committal.:hmm:;)

Weld-The Briggs is already fit with a float style carb. No worries there. I do plan on shortening the bars as they are part and parcel of the forks. The headtube angle itself is a tad laid back for my taste. We will see how things pan out.

This is gonna be good. As a kid I could never convince my parents/grandparents of the necessity of a mini bike :cry:

Me neither.

I bought my own ! I traded an Estes rocket for a 1967 honda minitrail 50 ,no parents involved with the deal ,paid about $5.00 for the rocket kit ,then figured out that I didn't want to spend a dollar every time I lit it off ,so after the first 3 pack of engines it became a honda .That honda today would be very high dollars ,like $5-7 thousand in the condition it was in .

Some parts accumulation happened. Scored a clutch on amazon for $21 AAANNNDD a friend of one of the guys that works for me gave me a brand new 5" wheel with the rear hub and bearings. It has 5/8" ID bearings and I happen to have about 8' of 5/8" cold rolled round stock in my stash, so free rear axle.

Also ended up with about a thousand pieces of 1.5" x 1.5" x .125" steel plate with a .5" hole at work this week. Stuff that was leftover from a different project I wasn't involved in but I ended up with the extra hardware and was told to do anything I wanted with it.

Anywho, I figure I can pop the .5" hole to 16mm in four pieces and weld those to the swing arm for the axle to slide through. I plan on having the axle position fixed and use a tensioner to take up chain slack. It works in my minds' eye, anyway.

Ran into the first of what I suspect will be many reworks of the original design. The swing arm pivot has no bushings. It never had any. As such, there is about a 1/2" of play at the end of the swing arm. The pivot axle is only 12mm, too. Time to make use of some more of that 5/8 stock I have laying around.

Note to self. Do not wear shorts while using plasma cutter.

I will own a plasma cutter one day...someday :hmm: jealous

They refuse to make a sub $500 model.

Campbell Hausfeld discontinued their dandy little unit last year and it was the sub $500 one you were looking for. I got mine on closeout at Menards for under $400 and it has been worth every penny.

I was using my Thermodynamics Dragonfire, or tail, or breath, or whatever it's called when the shorts incident occurred. It's completely portable with it's own compressor and was a lot more than $500. Not to me but the guy I got it from.

https://www.menards.com/main/tools-h...4426149352.htm

Wow, this is nice to see they are finally coming down. Have not seen this, thanks. $444 this is approaching "do-able".

Maybe you can trim some bronze bushings for the swingarm pivot.

I spent some money at Mcmaster-Carr and got some 3/4" ID tubing and 3/4" x 5/8" bushings, along with some other stuff.

I did some investigating, i.e. actually looking, and found that the swing arm axle was a long 3/8" replacement, sitting inside a 12mm ID tube. Hence the slop.

No more work on this for a while. The World's Greatest Granddaughter will be here, sans parental units, for two weeks, starting Sunday. We have some serious fishing, birding, and science to do.

That sounds like a properly sorted priority. I'll just wait here until you get back on the mini chopper project.

The Worlds' Greatest Granddaughter has been returned to her other grand parents and will be back at her parents house on Wednesday. It was quite a trip for someone not quite eight years old and to be away from home for a month. Maine to Pennsylvania to Illinois to Northern Wisconsin. Back to Illinois to Pennsylvania to Maine. I know that I'm beat, having put 4500 miles on the Chevy.

No work was done on the minibike but there were trips to Brookfield Zoo, Blackberry Farms, and the Kane County Fair. There was one trip, however, that was just the two of us.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psdbivp14e.jpg
She caught her first fish and was excited as all get out.:tup:

So, it is very quiet at Chez Fromage at the moment. Mrs. C and I are reveling in it. Work on the mini bike is still on hold while I'm wearing the aircast. I'm pretty sure that it and welding won't mix. It's also ungodly hot and humid. My friend in Finland IM'd me this morning to tell me how warm it was at his place; 25C. Told him he loses because it was already 30C here and heading to 35C. He agreed.

While the mini bike is on hold, I came across the basis for another future project. Work was scrapping a nearly new Lambordini single cylinder diesel engine, with electric start. I had them scrap it into the back of the Chevy. I think it is in about the 12-15hp range. So, how about something like an old CB350 frame with a torque converter drive? Huh huh?:D

Okay, pics of the little diesel that's not going on the minibike.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psawtf4qym.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pshgnpuucs.jpg

I made a liar out of myself and over estimated the hp rating because I transposed the kw rating. It's 4.8, not 8.4.:doh: Anyway, it works out to about 6.5hp@3600rpm. 315cc displacement, 1" output shaft. Kohler bought Lombardini around 2008 and the engine is still in production as the KD315. This engine is a 2004 with MAYBE three hours on it. It just needs air and fuel filters then it's ready to rattle the neighborhood. These little boogers are loud, with the accompanying diesel rattle and stink.

Work got done on this gorgeous weekend at Chez Fromage.

Finished up the new swing arm pivot. Some of the stick welds were pretty embarrassing but things got better as the day went on. Most of the places where I used the flux core welder actually looked like I knew what I was doing.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psksm6mzrv.jpg

Here's the rear wheel mocked up in place. It's actually starting to look like something.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psjsvim4yg.jpg

I think I'll throw a gusset on each of the chain stays just to be on the safe side.