I haven't been on the HAMB in probably 15 years, and the first thing I see is Micky Rupp passed away. I haven't been able to find any pics of my Rupp C350 by itself. But, I found one of me and my little sister on it. I'm posting it as a thank you to Micky, for all the fun he provided me with, and the basis for my love of any thing that can be made to go faster. RIP Micky.
How it looked when I got it from a friend who has since passed away at 75 years he got it as a 10 year old.
Thinking about letting go of my late uncle’s Mustang mini bike. It has just been sitting and not getting appreciated like it should. I have too many other cars and bikes, and this one needs to find itself a new home. Don’t know how much interest there is in these bikes anymore. Does anyone on the HAMB have their finger on the pulse of the current mini bike market? I’ll make someone a smoking deal on this one if anyone is interested.
How about the Vintage Motor Bike Club in Portland, Indiana? That's the best show we do all year! You're right though, the guys like us are getting few and far between. This is by far the best though...
Everyone in my neighborhood had one when I was in elementary to middle school, but mom never let me have one because "They're illegal, you're going to get arrested". (the "but everyone has one" argument fell on deaf ears) It seemed every day you could hear the engines buzzing around the streets. I hardly ever see them around anymore, everyone I knew moved away or just seemed to disappear without a trace. The ones you see these days are the store-bought Coleman ones, my friend across the street had a homemade one, he got the frame from a junkyard and pulled the engine out of a riding tractor. Another kid that was around had a lime green Taco, it was pretty sweet. I'd buy one now but there's really no point
I’m right there with ya man I wasn’t allowed to have one either. I found a frame & wheels in the garbage and dragged it home but I didn’t have any means to build it, not even sure what I did with it after that. It It wasn’t until I was 33 and going through a divorce that my buddy gave me a frame because he suggested I needed a hobby. He was right. Long story short I still have my one and only widowmaker.
Here’s a few bonanza mx 1510s I found a few weeks ago. I’m in the process of restoring one at the moment.
My Lil’Indian mini-bike. It had a 2 1/2 HP motor but that was not fast enough so I took the 6 HP off our snow blower as shown below. It would fly!!….until I sent the connecting rod through the front of the block. Good thing my dad was a hot rodder so he didn’t get too upset. I had to remove the spark plug to put that 6HP in the mini- bike frame and then reinstall the plug after the motor was in. I also learned some early hot rod fabrication skills making a bracket for the gas tank which normally hung on the front of the motor. One day after my friends and I had been cruising the neighborhood on our mini-bikes we stopped for awhile and sat in the driveway about where the mini- bike is in this photo. Suddenly we heard a loud SNAP as we looked up all of that 8,000lbs of 1958 Buick was rolling straight at us and our parked mini- bikes. There was no driver in the car. We scrabbled to get out of the way just as it rolled exactly where we were. It almost hit my house but then rolled down our driveway back into the middle of the street. I went across the street and told the neighbor. Their response was “ oh no not again!” So that’s the day my buddy’s and I almost got killed on our min-bikes.
'Dune buggies, sandhills, Kurnell, December 1967' - photo by R. Donaldson; ACP/CP; Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales [photo is copyright but can be used]
Ahh that's right, those sand dunes were down near the oil refinery, and you just jogged my memory and answered my post on another thread, cheers
Rupp Continental Custom! As a Kid in 1968 I bought the chrome Pipe @ Western Auto and Fabbed the Bracket to mount it. Guess this was where it started.