TrikeKid
Junk Hoarder
My kid's about old enough for a dirt bike, and like everything else I do it's gotta be relatively cheap. Cruising OfferUp one night I find a guy selling a big lot of JR50 parts for $75, half hour later I had a big pile of mini bike stuff, multiple frames, big box of engine parts etc... He'd put one together for his kid and this was the leftovers.
I dug through the boxes and found that I had most of what I needed besides soft parts. Apparently someone had an issue disassembling the other engines, and these bikes suffer from the usual lack of care that comes with kids bikes because out of five or 6 sets, I ended up with one good set of cases, one good right side cover and had to buy a new left side to get ones that weren't broken. The left case came from one that obviously met an untimely end via being left outside
About this time my boss bought us a new parts washer at work, so I got all my good parts nice and clean and along with a really nice bolt kit off of eBay I got a bottom end put together, complete with the first gear mod. For whatever reason Suzuki locks the lower gear out in these from the factory so you have 2nd or neutral to choose from. Easy to ride for a kid but kinda hard on the clutch.
Unfortunately this is where the project kinda stalled for a bit. Turns out tanks, especially steel tanks and good seat pans are hens teeth for these if you don't wanna pay an arm and a dick for them. I'm trying really hard to not spend XR50 money to do this deal. Then I found a "good" complete bike on Offerup and overpaid for it, at least the guy threw in a helmet I guess
Initially I was just going to get this one running and paint it. Then I started tearing into it and found the bottom of the frame ripped clean off where the pegs mount, at this point it became a very expensive parts bike but it had a good tank and a good seat pan/foam, carb and cylinder were also usable.
New seat cover via eBay once again, factory enough for my feeble upholstery skills and plenty good for a kid's mini bike
Tank dents fixed, stripped and painted + new graphics. "Daytona Yellow" engine enamel a little wet sanding and I hit it with some compound and a foam pad on my drill, buffed out good enough for a dirt bike
Threw some new tires on and grabbed some new fenders and front plate from Suzuki. Kinda funny you can buy brand new OEM plastics for what a fucked up used rear fender will bring on eBay. Got the top end put together at some point too. Need to paint the exhaust and black out the under side of the tank then I think we'll be ready for a test fire and training wheel fab.
I dug through the boxes and found that I had most of what I needed besides soft parts. Apparently someone had an issue disassembling the other engines, and these bikes suffer from the usual lack of care that comes with kids bikes because out of five or 6 sets, I ended up with one good set of cases, one good right side cover and had to buy a new left side to get ones that weren't broken. The left case came from one that obviously met an untimely end via being left outside
About this time my boss bought us a new parts washer at work, so I got all my good parts nice and clean and along with a really nice bolt kit off of eBay I got a bottom end put together, complete with the first gear mod. For whatever reason Suzuki locks the lower gear out in these from the factory so you have 2nd or neutral to choose from. Easy to ride for a kid but kinda hard on the clutch.
Unfortunately this is where the project kinda stalled for a bit. Turns out tanks, especially steel tanks and good seat pans are hens teeth for these if you don't wanna pay an arm and a dick for them. I'm trying really hard to not spend XR50 money to do this deal. Then I found a "good" complete bike on Offerup and overpaid for it, at least the guy threw in a helmet I guess
Initially I was just going to get this one running and paint it. Then I started tearing into it and found the bottom of the frame ripped clean off where the pegs mount, at this point it became a very expensive parts bike but it had a good tank and a good seat pan/foam, carb and cylinder were also usable.
New seat cover via eBay once again, factory enough for my feeble upholstery skills and plenty good for a kid's mini bike
Tank dents fixed, stripped and painted + new graphics. "Daytona Yellow" engine enamel a little wet sanding and I hit it with some compound and a foam pad on my drill, buffed out good enough for a dirt bike
Threw some new tires on and grabbed some new fenders and front plate from Suzuki. Kinda funny you can buy brand new OEM plastics for what a fucked up used rear fender will bring on eBay. Got the top end put together at some point too. Need to paint the exhaust and black out the under side of the tank then I think we'll be ready for a test fire and training wheel fab.