Stainless Steel Bike

We need a new bike for the shows this year but I do not have 300-400 hours to put into a project right now. I really wanted to build a street legal mini Servi-Car with a titled X-90 that we have in our shop but it will have to wait. I just can not dedicate enough time to fabricate the fiberglass fenders and storage trunk. After looking around I found a set of plans for a Tom Thumb bike in a 1970 Popular Mechanics magazine. This looks like a good project that does not require a lot of time. I am making as much as possible out of polished stainless steel. As soon as the bike is finished I will fabricate a stainless steel sidecar for it. Here are the plans. http://books.google.com/books?id=5dcDAA ... q=&f=false

In 2006 I fabricated the X-90 trailer.



I kept the left over tubing and I am going to use it for this bike. It is 304 prepolished stainless steel.



I dug out my old tubing bender and proceded to make up the frame tubes.



The plans call for the neck to be made from the same tubing as the frame. I thought that it would be better to make my own frame neck with bearings in it.



I grabbed a chunk of 304SS scrap out of the bin and chucked it up in the lathe. After drilling the center hole, I counterbored the ends for the bearings.



Since the tubing is all prepolished I had to buff the neck tube too.



I assembled and tack welded the frame on my lay-out table. You can really get a nice size comparison in this photo.



Here is an article and photos of a completed Tom Thumb bike. http://www.oldminibikes.com/forum/proje ... -mini.html

SS is abit heavy aint it?

[Blaz]

Very cool, what kind of motor do you have in mind?

The tubing is light. I am using 7'8" OD x .065 wall thickness.

Blaz, I have (3) Ohlsson & Rice engines from the 60s that are runners. I figured on black powder coating the starter and heat shields. Fab up a polished stainless steel header and a rear frame mounted stainless gas tank. I also finished the sprocket drawings so I should be able to make stainless sprockets and polish them.

Very cool,but heavy I supose.

Very cool,but heavy I supose.

The finished bike and sidecar should weigh less than 50 lbs.

great fab up work

project. I pulled a small mini-bike out of a pile of trash up in the hill country a few years ago. I've thought about re-makeing it, the fram was seriously bent, but the motor and front end look pretty good. I have some old mo-ped stuff hanging around, like a seat and some controls.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, maybe

[quote="x-90 rider"]The tubing is light. I am using 7'8" OD x .065 wall thickness. O.K I see now.

I finished welding up the frame and then polished out the welds. Can you pronounce sssslllloooowwww?



The neck area was tough because it is hard to get between the tubes and the neck.

[Blaz]

Very nice, you are quit the welder....

Very nice, you are quit the welder....

I was nervous so I watched my old "How to Weld" VHS tape 3 times and took some notes. Then I sharpened up a .040 piece of 2% Thoriated tungsten and locked it into my TIG torch. I had to bring over an extra bottle of Argon so that I could put about 2psi of Argon into the tubes while welding. Once I had everything set-up, I sat down, hit the pedal and let her burn.
Now I have to decide how high to mount the axle to get the desired ground clearance. Then fit the engine so that I can fab and weld in the motor mounting plate. Ah, 1 step at a time.

[Blaz]

Good old VHS....

Damn, I envy you guys who can do this stuff.

To me, it's miraculous what you done. Very impressive.

Looking good, Very Good. I'd like to get a copy of the VHS tape on welding, I had some "Instruction" and a book, but that sounds good, you can watch it over and over.

I started on the front forks today. The first thing was to put a piece of scrap stainless in the CNC machine.



An hour later this is what came out of the machine. Now I just need to prepolish it before welding in the fork tubes.

[Blaz]

Great job X you are quite the fabricator, maybe you could get a job at OCC...

I finished the triple tree plates so now I can start on the fork tubes.

They look GREAT. You lucky bastard, having all that great equipment to work with.

I finally had time to weld up the front forks and try to mock up a roller. I need to buff out the front end welds and then start machining the wheel hubs.

[Blaz]

Great job X I need to get back to work on the LBW bike....

I can see why you like to spend so much time in the shop, nice work and nice weld job.

I mounted the seat and fabbed up a stainless fuel tank. Now I just need to find time to make a stainless billet fuel cap.

[Blaz]

Nice job X great work very impressive!

Thanks, my buddy in Parma, Ohio, did a great job on the seat. I gave him the frame and he matched the frame contour perfectly.

Yeah Man, that looks Great job on the seat and the frame.
About 4 years ago a pulled an old mini-bike out of a pile of junk up in Bristol, N.H. I volunteered to help clean up a yard after a close friend's brother passed away. The Mini-Bike had been run over with a farm tractor, then a tree fell on it crushing the gas tank. Other than NO Seat, it looked complete, Oh yeah, no chain. I stuck it out back but had looked at it once or twice, The motor was locked up and the frame was pretty well bent.
Today I decided to tear it apart to see if, Maybe, it was "Fixable". I first decided to use a small bottle jack and see if I could get the biggest dent out of the frame. Got it to budge a little, but the motor was in the way. Yanked the motor and half tore it apart. Gave it a good soak with half a can of "Rust Buster". I managed to get the frame back close to where it should be but in the process the motor mounts, two strips of 1/8 " x 1" steel got very distorted. I'll hafta cut them out and make new parts there. I removed the pull-cord starter assembly and removed the head. A couple of whacks with a piece of wood and a dead blow hammer and the piston freed up. I cleaned off some of the crap from around the valves and got it to turn over completely. Put the head back on and only 2 - 3 ft. pounds of torque and it has some compression.
There's a tag that says TOYOCO Motors, somewhere in PA. No year on the tag but a short serial number. No sure of the motor but it looks like a small Briggs & Stratton. I'd like to get it going, as it would be a great "Campground" scooter, especially if I ever go back to Strugis.
Anyone ever hear of a TOYOCO mini-bike

I "googled" Toyoco mini-bikes and found several pictures of some made in the 70' & 80's. All have rear suspension. Mine is "Hard tail". I found another site that has a picture of one like mine that's in Australia, called the "Alligator - 100". One shot shows the mfg. tag and it was made at the same place in PA. Both stories mention B & S motors of various H.P. ratings. I should have taken pictures of it before I started to stretch it back into shape.

Today I went to Hudson Small Engines, he identified the motor as a Tecumseh 3.5 horse. He had a better than stock spark plug, but no other parts. He did give me the name of another "Small Engine" guy who I will call later.

Hey Tofeather, great find, once you ride your bike at an event you will wonder why you did not have one sooner. It sure makes getting around a lot more convenient and it is easier to park than a golf cart.

http://www.minidoodle.com/id237.htm

http://www.oldminibikes.com/forum/what/ ... co-pa.html

Thanx X-90, the second link shows the exact bike, only mine has (had) a gas tank on the frame, kinda like a small "Peanut" tank.
I would have loved to have one out in Sturgis, the campground @ Broken Spoke/County Line is HUGE.
I have to fab a new mount for the motor, I'm thinking of a flat steel plate, a little thicker than what's there (two strips across the lower frame), that would have four holes for the motor to mount to.
Any input is greatly appreciated.
Thanx Again.