EBAY MiniBike (April 2004)
MiniBike -- $75 on EBAY (local pickup) As a proud owner of an Uncle Milton Ant Farm and all four original GI Joes (with boxes and dog tags), a vintage 1970s minibike listed on EBAY with local pickup looked appealing. Three days and $75 latter, it was in the garage. Frame rusty, tires rotten, it didn't look cool. It needed to be chopped! |
Pipe Bender -
Pipe that is - not Tubing First step, buy a new tool - Harbor Freight pipe bender to fabricate the new front end. Practice piece of 1 inch gas pipe from Home Depot bent wonderfully. Expensive cold rolled steel tube from Metal Supermarket was a different story. It seems that the outside diameter of PIPE is different than the outside diameter of TUBING. I bought a pipe bender but I wanted a tubing bender. Shucks. Fill with sand, this, that, etc. There were lots of suggestions for making it work. I don't understand why they don't make tubing inserts for it. Oh well. It is now resting quietly in the corner of the garage. |
Front Forks -
Fish Mouth Fittings Next step, buy another tool - Harbor Freight tubing notcher (Harbor Freight just opened a store front locally). The notcher attaches to the drill press and creates perfect fish mouth fittings. Unlike the pipe bender, I was very pleased with the notcher. |
Front Forks -
Too Long? Using the pipe bender, I fabricated a front end. I figured 8 feet was a good length to start with. It looked cool laying out on the driveway but are they too long? Laser cut trees were $10 on EBAY. This is about what I would have spent on saw blades if I had done it myself. |
Front Forks -
Too Long? - YES Yes they are too long. Without changing the rake, the back of your head would drag against the street. A 43 to 45 degree rake looked good. I grinded off the old neck and replaced it with a new one - $10 on EBAY (with bearings). Welding - $10. |
Front Forks -
Just Right Ended up about ten inches over original forks. All sanded and pretty, tacked into place, ready to go to the "real" welder. Welding - $20. I scrapped the original forks (the pipe bender ones) and went with straight drag bars. |
Mock Assembly -
Frame sanded to bare metal and primed. New polished aluminum wheels, tires, and sprocket. Raked neck with new forks extended 10 inches. New seat was too long to use the cool gas tank I found. |
Finished Product -
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Finished Product -
Right |
Custom Exhaust -
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Custom Hood Ornament -
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