No pictures proof unfortunately but Thursday I was taking a exercise walk when I came upon a parking lot and couple of guys had a vintage 1960's gas powered Go-Kart they were trying to start with a pull cord. After several minutes and dozens of pulls they finally got it started and they took turns speeding around the large lot with great vigor. Then, to my complete shock, the guy turned to me and said "Do YOU want to drive it?" Holy crap, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be asked. So, I said "OK" Short pants, no helmet, what could go wrong, right. Well, this vintage buzz bomb was not gutless at all. Holding the gas pedal all the way down, all I could think was "Feel the tension, man what a ride!!!" I'm so happy the vintage brakes worked. I survived and had a blast. G0-Karts are so cool, and fun. I wish I could go back 55 years and drive one as a 7-year old.
Oh it happened choptop.... luckily , for Tom , I was nearby and I got some pictures...oh ya... I even got a shot of him doing a little stunt driving...ya Tom when you said crap I think it was probably aaashhh...well you know....hey I even got a shot of him when he took off on some kids mini bike....what a day ..and now tom you got pictures to prove it...for the non believers...... Sent from my QTASUN1 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Ive got one of those vintage continental AU8 45 degree 4 cycle single cyl engines that cart racers preferred back in the day. It has 7 head bolts. the carb mounted on top and the exhaust at the bottom. They would modify them to achieve a lot more power. Go karts are great fun. My kids drove them and we still have them. I fully intend to play GO carts with my grand children. The little Urchin on the Go Kart pictured is my middle son Chris. He started driving that Go Kart when he was three.
The rich kids would get them as gifts when I was a kid, then they would crash them or break the motor, we bought a few like that. My neighbor let us use his welding and torch stuff... great fun. I still want to build a vintage motor bike.
I ordered a bike kit off of eBay about a year ago. It was on sale, came from China. It took right much fabrication to make it work but for the $85 it's a blast. No helmet, scary as h*** but that adds to the fun. One I made about 20 years ago was simple, a hinged plate with a lever, a Briggs motor with a pulley on it. Pulley was dished so when it hit the tire it took off. The kill switch on handlebar was a Jake brake. Friend clocked me at 62mph, when I got it home the handlebars fell off, the inner tube had come out beside tire...no helmet.
What memories! When I was a kid my older cousin had racing karts. He let me ride them sometimes but they were way too much for a 10 year old. I had a couple close calls but never crashed real bad. His fastest kart had two McCullough Mac 6 engines that run on hi-test & alcohol mix. My cousin put his buddy on it and had him take it down a long straight stretch with him behind it in his 58 Pontiac. He said when the kart hit 80mph he backed off of it. I had a couple home made karts and mini bikes but I worked on them a lot more than I ever rode them, still had a shit load of fun.
Here's the bike I motorized. As you can see it's on a quality $60 Walmart "Crankbroke". You can't beat the $/fun value. There are YouTube videos of nuts...I mean people riding them with gutted exhaust. I've had it to 40 but that was scary enough for a coaster bike not designed to go over 10!
Some years back, I home-built a go kart for my nephew (he was 4 years old at the time, he's 30 now). Took him to Bremerton Raceway on our set-up day, and let him ride it on the 5300 ft long runway; at one point he got close to where the other active runway intersects, and I had to go get him out of there. A few years after that, I found a production go kart frame, built that one for him, and we gave the other kart to his cousin, my other nephew. He and a friend of his were riding the new kart in a school parking lot, the nephew clipped a concrete parking barrier, and snapped off part of the front axle. That broken pieced sliced into his calf, they hid the kart in some bushes, and an aid car took him to the hospital for suturing. When they came back for the kart, it was gone. A couple of "adult men" had been watching them, and we think they took his kart. What a couple of "tools"! I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
I had a "GoKart" go kart(brand name) in 1964 with a MC 9......Today I race a 1961 McCullouch R 1 Kart with an MC 9. Only difference is....... I'm almost 73. I have a friend in Melvin Village NH who raced (back in the day) and had the foresight to purchase the inventory of many closed go kart shops over the last 20 or more years. He introduced me to Vintage Kart Racing. Who knew......not me. We run at a track in Tamworth, NH.....3 weeks ago 3 other guys showed up with vintage karts.......WHAT A BLAST. My biggest problem isn't driving the kart......it handles great and goes like hell. It's getting out of the kart that's a problem. Crap...... I wish I was 16 again. check out Vintage Karting
I think Go Karts are a good way to get the younger generation involved in mechanical pursuits and hot rodding. My sons would tear up their karts and I helped them fix them. My help was limited to setting there and coaching them on what to do. And they stayed at it because they wanted to drive it some more. and they knew if they didn't fix it dad wasn't going to. Today my eldest son is a Lawyer and also the Superintendent at a State Park. He has several employees to supervise. And Quite often when something needs repaired and his guys say they cant fix it and it needs to be sent out. He will do like his old dad did set there and coach them on what to do. No harm ever came for some kid learning to drive and fix a Go Kart. I new some teens who back in the 60,s installed a very large Sears David Bradley chain saw engine on a home built Go Kart. It wouldn't take off from a standstill. So they both pushed it and got it moving. then jumped in. They got a speeding ticket at Okean Ark where going in excess of 60 mph.
The problem We mostly had was the centrifical slip clutch and chain and sprocket drive. The rear sprocket couldn't be larger than the rear tire. and you can only go so small on a engine drive sprocket. and that setup requires high full throttle rpm to engage the clutch. and the kart went too fast for most little kids especially on rough ground. over the years ive collected and saved parts. ive got a part of frame. a Cushman trans and a continental engine. Im thinking a slip belt drive from the engine to trans. use a third idler pulley to tighten the belt activated by a pedal that must be pushed to activate. Kid lets off the pedal it stops moving. then a chain drive from the trans to the rear axle. Did you all know steering collum shaft makes great rear axles. any road it could be full throttle and still slow speed. My eldest grandson is four so I need to get busy.
Dad built a cart for brother and me when we were kids. It was belt drive with pedal operated idler pulley as you said. It worked well. It didn't have brakes, but something simple like curved plates rubbing back tires would have been fine.
Karts, mini-bikes, and Quarter Midgets were a passion of most of my friends growing up on Long Island from about age 8 to 15 around 1958-9. There were twin MC 10"s or 5's or West Bend's and Clinton's, all two stroke screamers which consumed our pennies and our time. I still have a few of these treasures packed between the hot rods. GoKart, Blitz, and Simplex were our favorite brands but there were also some very creative low $$ rigs as well. One friend mounted a Power Products 2 stroke over the back wheel of an "English" bike after carefully pressing the wooden roller from a reel mower onto the crankshaft. He would pedal off and then drop the lever which engaged the roller to the wheel and away he would go. Later he re-installed the pull starter and would start the engine first because he was burning tires! That damn thing would fly! 35 ++ on a light weight bike seemed like 100. Last year at the Rhinebeck swap I stumbled on Rupp Enduro which needed very little work and a Chinese engined Schwinn re-pop which only needed a clutch. I could not help myself. A couple of drops of castor oil in the fuel mix and it transports you back to Blitz Raceway or the darkened side streets of West Hempstead for a little while. The fun ended when the learner's permits came in the mail as your drivers license could be delayed six months if the police nabbed you!
Just rescued this Mac engine a few weeks ago ...a friend of mine , Im being polite , stopped by and I was looking in the back of his truck, he always has some kind of interesting junk, and I spotted the Mac he says f you like that one you should of saw what I hauled in yesterday...he went on to tell me about this guy's garage that he cleaned out old karts some more Macs , wheels ,old mini bikes ... I said you didn't haul it in did you....he seemed to think no one was in to that stuff any more...... I wanted to back hand him....but I grabbed the Mac and walked away...some people...so I guess I'm putting the engine a head of the cart... something like that.... Sent from my QTASUN1 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Toml, even though pics would be proof, I was riding and grinning right along with you! Are you still smiling? Have you gone by there again? Thanks for the trip back to my yute!
Thirty years ago I took a job at the local scrap car crusher place. I spent most of my paycheck rescuing the good stuff from being turned into Chinese crap.
Very interesting thread, thanks for the memories! I just remembered something my Dad told me years ago. His cousin lived in Richmond, Va and he would visit back in the 30s. One day they had a brainstorm. They had a motor, why not mount it on back of the cousins bicycle with a propeller? Mounting the motor he said was no problem. Making prop was...lot of trial and error until they made one out of wood, balanced, right pitch but it worked! He said take off was slow but once going it would "fly"...which meant who knows...20-30mph? The problem was Dad said was when his cousin lost control and took out most of a neighbors hedge row with it [emoji32]. Somewhere there's a picture of it I saw years ago.
The original karts from the early 60's were really good for driving around parking lots. From the mid 60's on up they really were built more for racing then parking lots. In the late 60's I had what they called lay down karts where you lay back in are very low in the kart and they would range in speed from the 80's to well over 120 mph on the road courses such has Watkins Glen and the old Bridgehampton Raceway and places like V.I.R. and Summit Point, W.V. The shifter karts you see today are capable of speeds over 130 mph and will scare the hell out of you if you ever get a chance to drive one. Going from 0 to 60 mph in about 2 seconds will get your attention real fast with about 20 other karts around you doing the same thing. Jimbo
Not yet...my brother just told me about a old kart that is hanging on a wall in a garage...got to check it out...then who knows... Sent from my QTASUN1 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Ok....thanks.... I don't know what direction I'm going yet with this kart stuff... I have other builds and stuff going on along with them back burner project's ,and I'm running out of burner's, and truth is I probably couldn't get my ...my...ok ..my Fat Ass ...in one....that's why my model -T single seater speedster project is now going to be a model -T one & half seater speedster....but I will keep you in mind if something changes.... Sent from my QTASUN1 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The Jalopy Journal
