Tool Talk
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: EVILDR235 on August 23, 2020, 05:42:02 PM
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Well back in March I started a mini bike project. I finished it about 2 months ago. Most of the parts I already had. I worked on it a little each day not pushing myself to hard. Every night I would sit in front of the computer digging pieces of metal out of my hands. It is a Mongoose bicycle frame that I cut up and re-constructed. 3 hp Briggs engine with a home made intake manifold so I could use a NOS Tecumseh H35 side draft carb which is better suited for this that the original Briggs carb. I snuck it out one night for a test ride. The electronic speed sign said I was going 27 MPH when I passed it. It does need better brakes which I now have. Maybe this week I will redo the brakes before any more late night rides. The last mini bike was in 1965. My friend owned the bike and I owned the engine. My friend now owns 2 ex CHP Harleys and I am still riding a mini bike. As far as my garage, it is ever changing as I add more stuff. I recently picked up a 1944 Briggs model N and a 1960 Apache lawnmower in good working condition with all the original paperwork. You all stay safe.
EvilDr235
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what was the yellow gas tank?
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I rode and repaired motorcycles for many years, but never had a minibike. My two sons also never had one. The oldest started on a Honda MR50 at about 5 years old and rode quite a few bikes after that , but the younger son never did ride any bike at all.
I never got along with lawnmowers.
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A propane bottle. I have a second remote one I use so I can start any engine in the shop that doesn't have a fuel tank or a fuel tank with bad gas. I have changed the carb and can't use the original tank anymore. I built this bike for riding around the yard and driveway.
EvilDr235
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I grew up in the 1960's when we were flooded with small imported bikes. Everybody had a Honda Cub 50. In 1965 I got a Sears Allstate moped and discovered motorcycles can hurt you. I have chunk of meat missing from my left leg the size and shape of a orange slice because I was riding it with the flywheel cover removed and crashed into my friends garage when the throttle stuck wide open and it tried to eat me. I was lucky, I know 3 people that weren't.
EvilDr235
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My friend and I had two matching minibikes. Square tube chopper frames and forks made in the welding shop we worked at. Steering and front wheels from bicycles picked up along the road as I drove the company truck. I sourced rear drive wheels from an industrial second hand shop. Sears reel mower engines from the flea market -$5 each. No clutch - push it along and jump on the seat to spin the rear wheel and go. We would take them to the Interama tract in North Miami to ride them. A buddy clocked me at 33mph.
So how do weld or braze a propane tank safely?
Al
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My Honda 50 story is secondhand. When I was young and living in Ann Arbor, MI, a coworker was being wooed by a guy who lived in Toronto, about 450 miles away. He would drive his road Honda 50 (the kind with the plastic lower fairing, centrifugal clutch, three-speed transmission, top road speed downhill of about 50 mph) down every few weekends, spend a day trying to get Dorothy's attention, then drive back. I imagine he spent the next week vibrating gently from the journey.
Between my first time there and my return a couple of years later, he'd given up, Dorothy never having been convinced that he was her shining prince.
I hope he found somebody. That kind of determination deserves to be rewarded.
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Making the fuel tank I took a empty propane bottle and removed the two one way valves. I then pumped a lot of air thru it for a few minutes. I then drilled the fill hole in the middle of the side and drilled a smaller hole for the fuel petcock. I then drilled out the threads where the gas originally came out and cut new threads and then screwed in a piece of brass rod and cut it flush and soldered it in place. I then drilled out the threads in the other smaller hole and threaded it and screwed in a piece of brass rod and left it longer so I could use it for mounting the tank at the rear and soldered it also. On the original bottom of the propane bottle there is a hollow phony bottom that I pop riveted a another bracket to also for mounting.
EvilDr235