My first motorized vehicle was a motorized 2 1/2 horsepower mini bike that could do about 30 mph flat out. It had strange brakes that was basically a piece of metal rubbing against the rear tires or your feet (whichever you needed at the time to stay alive). It had a standard motorcycle throttle on the right handle as you rode. IT was a single gear centrifugal clutch set up chain drive mini bike. I rode this a lot at Glendale High School when I lived 1/2 block away on Harvard from about 1960 to 1964. So, I believe I bought this with money I made working as an electrician's helper in my Dad's business. I made about 2 to 3 dollars and hour working for my dad then which was about 2 to 3 times minimum wage at the time while he was training me as an electrician. It often was dangerous work and I have to wear hearing aids from shooting bolts into cement walls in warehouses now too. But, likely other heavy equipment and chain saws building one of the houses remotely and Led Zeppelin and Moody Blues live concerts didn't help my hearing either long term. So whether it is rifles especially above a .22 in size or any pistols you are shooting be sure to protect your ears. All rock musicians wear hearing protection in live concerts now by the way because of so many who went deaf from the 1960s and 1970s.
Monday, May 10, 2021
wren bird mini bike
My Next motor vehicle I was allowed to use was my Dad's friends Vespa. But, because I was young and inexperienced I burned out the clutch on it because I was riding in deep sand in the desert. A Vespa really isn't built for off road riding. However, most of the time the mini-bike was okay doing down dry sand washes as long as you got going fast enough first. The tires were wide enough to support you over most sandy surfaces as long as the sand wasn't a foot deep or so where you were. My mini-bike looked the most like the metallic blue one at the bottom right that is pulling a little trailer.I kept it from 1960 until the middle 1980s when my father passed away in the desert. I also sold my 1940s World War II BSA Army bike from England then too. IT had been used in North Africa during World War II by the British then. It was a 500 CC gold Star BSA 500 engine with no Shock absorbers and springs only on the drivers seat and on front wheel assembly. So you wouldn't break your back over bumps you rose up on your pegs to go over rough stuff so you could continue to walk afterwards.You could kick start it or bump start it by pushing it and then throwing it into 2nd gear. It had no battery only a magneto which was enough to run a head light at night and keep the engine running after you kick or bump started it.I also had a hill climber Matchless 600 motorcycle from England.This is what this type of motorcycle looked like except this one had knobby tires a huge rear sprocket for hill climbing and a straight pipe so blue flame came out of the pipe at night.It was a 600CC Thumper (thumper just means single cylinder)
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