in the early 60's in one of the mags, might have been Car Craft, a guy built one that would fit in a big lunch box. Had a soda can for a fuel tank. He sure looked funny ridin' it!
It was Popular Mechanics. Showed a pic of the kid putting his minibike in his school locker. I may have a copy of the plans somewhere. Here's a pic of one built:
WOW Porsche930dude....now THAT's a small mini-bike! too f'n cool!! what kinda motor is that, and shouldn't there be some sorta seat for ya??
Dunno what that engine is. Too small to sit down on i guess. Heres som more random pics i have Dont know if i posted it before but heres a chopper i made mostly from old bicycle frames. Thinking of selling it Heres another i built. This bike is tiny but still very rideable i love it. thinking about building a springer fork
I have a frame that is being powdercoated this week. Had it for years but just getting around to doing something with it. Pict later. (I hope)
Here's a picture of my unrestored Keystone 50. I've had it since I was around 7 years old. I'm 40 now and one day we'll restore it properly. Right now the only thing not OEM is the paint and bars. We dragged it out of the garage after it sat for 20 years and had it running in a couple hours. Couldn't believe it started as easy as it did.
Does anyone remember these. I grew up in Tulsa, Ok and the micro-cycle® was popular around here. This one shown in the article was the "bigger" one. I had the normal smaller one. They had a cool little tank and front springs. Mine was equipped with a Macullogh 5 hp 2 cycle and was impossible to keep running. But when it did! Brakes were never good enough. A buddy worked at the factory sanding frames and also had one. Anyways if anyone has any info on them and their history please pass it on. I would sure like to find one again. Seems like the shop that made them burned or went bankrupt?
I remember the Micro-cycle very well. As popular as these were in this area, you would think that one would surface occasionally. But, I haven't seen one in probably over 30 years. These photos you just posted are the first that I've seen on the Web, ever. The way I remember it, Micro-cycle dropped out pretty early in the minibike craze, and I don't remember why. They were a quality unit and yeah, those tanks were very cool. I don't remember seeing a Sachs powered Micro as pictured here. The magazine is dated '62, and I'm thinking that they may have not lasted much longer than that. I'm wondering if the Sachs model was ever really in production. Quite cutting edge really. The Bonanza Hodakas didn't come along 'til much later, IIRC.
Is that some type of disc brake on the front? From the photo is looks like a pad would press up to the rotor on one side only? Nice job on the restoration. click to enlarge
Thanks for the response Rick Sis, I agree I think this was somewhat of a prototype model. I just drove by the old location of the shop the other day. I know there has to be some of the bikes around here in someone's garage somewhere. I'm keeping my eyes open for one. Again if anyone knows the whereabouts??
watch out for those choppers! Had one of those was cranking down the road ,steering with one hand and adjusting the high speed with the other. developed a high speed wobble. Dumped it right in front of the house. With the wife and kids watching. After I jumped up and said I was OK they got one hell of a laugh. All I got was road burn! Dean
picked up one over the weekend at the portland swapmeet... 3.5HP tecumseh. needs a carb... no clue where to find one yet. don't know the year, but the guy said he's had it since 1972 or so when he bought it at a garage sale.
Looks like you've got a bird. Early 60's I think. You could probably find a roto tiller motor cheaper than a carb. I've seen used tillers for $20 to $30 bucks that run. I have two birds, one is just like yours, but I lowered it. Dean (ps) the red one is like yours, and check out this site. http://www.oldminibikes.com/ The last pic is the red one when I bought it. Both of them are running 5hp Briggs motors.
^ rad... the red one does look like it... i pillaged the carb off of my lawn mower. it's definitely not sized/jetted right, but enough to get the engine started. we've got a couple ghetto lawn mower repair shops nearby, i may stop in and rummage through their stuff... or just pick up a complete tiller/mower/something with a running motor. my 4 year old daughter has been calling it her motorcycle... "poppa got me a motorcycle! it's MY SIZE!!!" guess i do look kinda like an ape raping a football on the thing...
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