Project for my grandson

[Sparky24]

Hi everyone,
My 6 year old grandson came to me and asked if we could build him a minibike. He said we need a winter project to work on. I would do anything for this little guy so I asked him if he would rather have a trike and he agreed. I just feel better if he had 3 wheels under him insted of 2. I have an old minibike frame but I was wondering if anyone would have plans that I could use to transform this minibike frame into a trike. I will be using my syn 180 tig on this. It will have a small 3.5 hp Briggs on it. I know I will have to go and get a bender from HF and get him some welding safety gear before we start but for now I would like some plans or some ideas from the experts. I just want it to be safe for him and to make a 6 yr old happy.

Thanks in advance
Bob

[dabar39]

I could help with mini bike and mini chopper plans but don't have any for a trike. Sounds like a great project to get the little one involved with though, get him addicted to metal early on in life. Sorry I couldn't help more. Dave

[fun4now]

i think you will find 3 wheels much more dangerous then 2. it creates a false séance of security. many states have outlawed 3 wheelers due to there unseen or unrealized dangers. just some thing to think about. i think i would go with a quad or a go cart before a 3 wheeler, or back to the original idea of a mini-bike. bee shore to keep us all posted.

[Sparky24]

Fun4now you really have me thinking about the 3 wheels and the false sense of security. The little guy loves motorcycles so maybe I will try the minibike. Everytime he goes to my garage he has to sit on one of my Harleys and pretend he is riding so maybe it is time to teach him to ride on 2 wheels.

dabar39 if you do have plans for a mini chopper could I get them from you? I will even pay you for them. Just let me know where to send the money and how much.

I will try and post some pictures of our build (if I can figure out to post them)but it will be a month or so before we get started. We are just in the planning stage right now and the hopefully we will have it done when nice weather rolls around. It's going to be a fun project and hopfully he will grow up to love burning, beating and bending metal. I only get to spend 1 day a week with him because of my work and he is back and forth between his parents so anything I can do with him while he is young is worth more to me then anything in this world.

Thanks guys
Bob

[fun4now]

glad to see you are close enough to spend time with the lil guy. my grand parents were always too far away to see but once every few years.
i know the idea of 3 wheels seems good but a mini-bike is just like his bike without the pedals so he should be fine. i had one at 6, but i was also riding my dad's 370 at the same time. he would get me started and jump off. us boys would putt them around to break in the new rebuild on the motor. later on we just broke the motor's.
as long as you lock the throttle to keep the speed down wile he gets the hang of it he should be fine.
keep in mind if you go mini-chopper, don't rake it too much or he will have trouble turning. keep the rake short and it will be more fun.
Every time he goes to my garage he has to sit on one of my Harley's and pretend he is riding
lol i do the same thing at the Harley shop.
oh well maybe some day i'll get to build me one.

the time you spend with him now will always be with him and certainly some of his best childhood memory's. good to see you having the opportunity and the interest.

[dabar39]

Help

Does any one know how to open a zip file, one of the girls I had working in the office loaded these plans to disc as a zip file and now I can't get them to open. On my old computer I would pop in the disc and the pages would come right up, on this newer computer it will not let me open them up. Any suggestions? Dave

[Steven DeMmars]

Three Wheels?

We all know that three wheeled ATVs are no longer being made due to safety concerns.

My wife and I have three wheeled recumbent trikes we ride for exercise. They are "tadpole" style. Two wheels in the front provide steering & one in the rear provides the power.

Even in this configuration, they can be unpredictable at speeds in the low twenties. What makes a three wheeled vehicle so unstable is the fact that the amount of force required to roll one is not uniform throughout the entire roll over. It tends to take off (snap) at some point. Very hard to sense.

Had the same experience with old 45cc three wheeled Harleys . .

[Sparky24]

Well now that I got the plans from dabar39 I guess the next trip is to go to HF and pick up a bender and then to the scrap yard. He will be all excited when I show him the plans and he will want to go get to the scrap yard right away so we can get started.

Yea Fun4now I will not rake it too much for him. I know the longer the rake the harder it is to turn and yes I will lock the throttle. I know he will be careful he does take safety serious. Sometimes when I get on the bike to make a quick run to the store and I don't put my helment on he will grab it off the work bench and hand it to me and tells me Pappy you need to wear this so I put it on just for him. Heck he even wears one when he rides his battery operated Harley. Fun4now I was the same as you. I always wanted a Harley and finally got one and then another so don't give up hope you never know what is waiting for you. Someday you will go to that Harley shop and one will be sitting there with your name on it.

Thanks for all your help.
Can't wait to get started.

Bob

[fun4now]

dabar39 Help

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Does any one know how to open a zip file,
do a search for win-zip its a old file i used to use with windows 98 to open zip files, now with winXP de-zipping is built in, all you do is click on it and tell it to unzip.
i may have a copy of win-zip in my old files i'll see if i can find it for you.

[fun4now]

Sparky24
have you looked into options for tires and breaks and such yet ?? my Nice's boyfriend told me there are a lot of sites with parts for the lil-pocket rockets that have decent prices on the rim and tires and such. i can see if he has a site or 2 for you to check out if you need it.

[Sparky24]

Fun4now
No I didn't check into tires, rims or brakes so if you have a site for them that would be a great help.

Thank you

Bob

[fun4now]

i'll see what i can find out.

i'll see if i can get ahold of him tomarow. i know he is trying to supe up one he has, just not shore what all he is looking at/for. but he told me the wheel & rim's were not bad $ wise.

[wireburner]

sounds like a Cool project!

[Rodsticker]

3 wheels, NO

2,4,6 and so on! Never 1,3,5 and so on!!!!

[Sparky24]

Showed my grandson the plans today and he is all kinds of excited. He wanted to start on it today. He even looked at me with a big grin and said Pappy I'm going to have a chopper before you do. Go figure