Return to the Previous Page

A local muffler shop bent 2" mild steel tubing to match my drawings. I cut and hammered and clamped pieces together, aligning by eye and tape measure, and dad used old gas welding skills to bond everything. Here you can see the basic shape, and in the background is the Honda Trail 70 that provided the motor and a few other parts.

Here you can see dad, still wearing office clothes after a day of CMOS chip design, welding steel despite his personal misgivings about the safety of this project.

Motor in place, chain attached, and looking insane. Coasting unpowered down the street confirmed the steering geometry worked. It attracted a lot of attention from curious kids. Neighbors shook their heads and rolled their eyes.

Expanded steel and a safety loop completed the frame. Once fabrication was finished, the frame was stripped down, scoured, and painted with several coat of a Chevy touch-up shade of maroon. The motor was burnished, given a new sparkplug and fresh oil, and a foam breather from a Gold Wing was used as an air filter.

Here's the finished scooter. The black ovoid above the engine is the plastic fuel tank from the CT-70, which was a mistake. Vibration broke it free within a few hours of use. The rest worked pretty well. The wires and cables were hidden inside the frame, and braking was accomplished with bicycle caliper brakes from the local swap meet!

Click here for a high-res version of this pic.

I figured out how to lock the rear coaster-brake hub, then dad brazed it together. A local machinist helped adapt an aluminum sprocket to the hub, plus bent an open exhaust from stainless steel. It sounded pretty cool for a 70cc motor. An extension for the shifter allowed for heel-selection of the three speeds.

Click here for a high-res version of this pic.

Although a little awkward to kick-start from this angle, the Honda motor is basically bulletproof and adapts well to many uses. Three speeds and an automatic clutch make it fun and easy

Note mom's daily driver: 1965 Mustang with a 289 and automatic. Dad had the matching '65 Ranchero.

Here's the maniacal machine being driven at speed out at a dry lake bed. Later testing confirmed a top speed just under 60 mph. I believe new gearing would enable much higher speeds, but for something built with bicycle parts and muffler tubing, it's already too fast.

Several years after this photo was taken (June 1987), the motor was salvaged for another project, and in 2003 the rolling frame was sold to a kid at a Denver flea market for $20. I doubt he'll ever understand what he bought, but I'm certain he's the envy of his neighborhood.