The Official Minibike Thread! Who's into Mini's?

Anyone else into collecting and playing with Minibikes? I used to collect vintage Honda's years ago and have recently started playing with them again. I love Mini's...they are a blast!

Here's a picture of my front yard about 15 years ago. I used to be big into hunting down old Honda's and went all over the PNW in my VW Diesel Pickup to bring them home. I eventually sold the entire collection to a guy back east and moved on to other hobbies.




Lately I've started playing with Mini's again. My Father picked up this 69 Honda Z50 K1, we will carry this on our VW Bus so he can ride it at shows . I'll be tearing this one down to the bare frame soon and will be doing a full restoration on it for him with correct candy paint etc.






86 Honda Z50RD Christmas Special. I had one of these in my collection 15 years ago but sold it and always wished I would have hung onto it. Last weekend at a local car show a guy came up to me and said he had a old Honda mini that he would sell, ended up being a Special! Honda only made the special in 1986 for Christmas, the story goes each dealer was allowed two of them so they are fairly hard to come across. They are solid balls of chrome, everything is chromed...frame, sprockets, wheels etc. Love the looks of these!






Tom Thumb Minibike. My father and I built this Mini from plans out of a 1970 popular mechanics magazine. I have the build thread on the Tom Thumb Here: CLICK HERE








DB30 Builds. My father and I build two 6.5hp DB30 Minibikes to ride on the Alvord dry lake bed when we go camping down there. These things are a blast and have WAY more HP than they should have . The variable speed torque converters are the ticket....these things are fast! Build thread here: CLICK HERE. These bikes will be up for sale soon to fund other Minibike projects






Let's see your Mini's!


Hodakaguy

Thats quite a collection you had! I picked up a little whirlwind a few years ago but got rid of it when I got the bw80. Not sure the bw is tecnically a "mini" but its my mini.



When I got the bw80:


As it sits now:

Love the Z50 Honda "Monkey Bikes" as I grew up with them, learned bike riding on them at the age of 3 and wish I still owned the two CZ100 my parents and grandparents had when I was a young lad.
Below two custom Z50's we build over the last 10 years and still own and ride them....

High performance 154cc Z50 with a few mods.







Here is the other custom Z50 bike (sidecar) great shopping trolley and turns quite a few heads riding down the road in Shanghai.

I've got a few!

Sweet, love this thread. I just got this for my wife to ride. Needs some love but will be super fun to ride. She's gonna flip when she see's the the pic of that sidecar. Look's like I will be building a Trail 70 sidecar.

Neat little bikes! Anyone have a 1960's Rupp mini-bike? My first two wheeler was one of those, Christmas of 1965. It had a gas tank in front of the seat like a real motorcycle, I thought that was totally cool.

Wow. What memories.

Heli, any chance you would grab and post up some more pics of that Kawasaki MC1-M 90? Was my first MC.

BP

Rupp was my first bike also. This pic show's my next three bikes. (hand me down's) I can't find any pictures of my ol' Rupp.

Awesome thread!!!!

Miss my Honda trail 70, have thought about restoring a pair of them for camping, vacations, etc.

My first bike was a 3.5 H.P. Tecemseh & my first "motorcycle" was also a '75 MC-1 in candy sea blue.

My daughters first bike is the KLX 140L. LOVE the KLX (we call it "the Little Monster") which has the same top speed as the MC-1 but, waaay more torque & much better suspension. It's heavier than the MC-1 but still IMO a much better bike to learn on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_dbIlcepcw

Here's the KLX with my 220 Lb. a$$ blasting around Loretta Lynn's 2012 Fall trail ride. The bike was an absolute HOOT out there & took everything L.L.s could throw at it but, I did notice a blown fork seal about 2 months & a couple of rides later. That daughter of mine is rough on a bike.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP8-fr84H0c

Those are way cool! I've thought about making a side car for the Tom Thumb as well

Hodakaguy

Picked up a Honda Z50Z Monkey bike . These were a Japanese Domestic market bike and were never imported here, someone brought this one to the good ol USA at some point. They are very close to the American Z50A but had numerous small differences. The K1 models came with oval badges instead of round ones like the US Z50's. Other differences include the Center stand instead of kick stand, blinkers and horn, tool tube on the rear taillight assy, round air filter like a CT70 (removed in this pic), cover/side panel for battery, detachable front end with quick release cables as well as fold down bars like the US models, smooth tread tires, heal toe shifter, speedometer.

It's in pretty decent cond for original paint, to nice to restore in my opinion. It's still on it's original NITTO tires. I'll replace the tires with new ones and replace the seat with a new Honda unit before riding (I'll keep the original seat and tires in a box for safe keeping). Can't wait to get it running and ride it around

Bumping this old thread, just picked up this cheapy minibike for $60. Seeing these Z50 models all tricked out makes me want one!

Not sure if it counts but my current mini/go down to the lake/neighbor hood machine is a drz125. Super tough motor with a giant bottom end. Not especially fast but if you get rid of some of the restriction from the muffler, pod filter, and jet accordingly it is a really enjoyable bike. Never liked the front end since every time I dropped it the forks would tweak and the top triple seemed incredibly weak. Eventually changed the front end and love it.

I still have my 2nd bike (mid 60's) mini bike with 5hp tecumsah..my 1st bike we sold after I brought it home in crates and dad helped me do a resto..all I have are mini bikes and hodaka's..1 old honda xl175 is tossed in..

Honda loves to dump end of run inventory into Canada; which is why they were sold as new models up to '86 here.

My 1983 CT70

Street legal and ready to rock.

Stroked and poked to 108cc, 4 speed, manual clutch...

I know its an old post, but what front end is that?

It's a cr85 with the Drz stem pushed into the triples.




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