First bikes

[bingil 6]

When I was a young fella alot of kids around home made there own bikes by grafting lawnmower engines into twenty inch pushbike frames, spreading the back end to take a wheelbarrow wheel , useing direct drive, eventually evolving to the stage where one kid had completely home made twin loop frame with a Pope lawnmower engine, Norton gearbox & clutch great little machines as only the rich kids had the Dexons & Minitrails etc, As my father had a local engineering buisness he ran from home there was a never ending stream of these things coming the gate to get all different bits & pieces weld up, I'll have to see if dad has any old photos of these & the home made go-cart that we hade as kids & scan them for the forum Cheers Lou

[firko]

A mate of mine managed to build a bike based around a 26'' pushbike and a 250 Jawa California engine. It had no brakes at all but went like the power of piss.
I have a lingering memory of him screaming down Fitzgerald Ave, Maroubra towards the beach with a Police Rambler (that dates it to the mid sixties) in hot pursuit. The cops never caught him and he went on to a successful racing career including a couple of Aussie titles. I gave Ray Ryan a photo of the bike but it's gone missing since his sad departure.

[cyclegod]

I bet none looked like this....

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[bingil 6]

Obviously Cyclegod you have posted a photo but it doesn't come up on my screen, Iv'e notice this happening a bit so what could the problem be?

[firko]

The Jawa/Malvern Star did look a lot like that very cool yellow thing Cyclegod. Only shitloads rougher. They were good days.

[vmx42]

Hey Guys,
First bike, nothing quite as romantic as a home made special. My first was an ex Kevin Flood Betric Racing RM125C. What a hoot. A mate of mine has the bike [in bits] awaiting a resto.

Bingil, to see the images you have to log on.

Firko, your image of a pushy with no brakes vs. a Police Rambler is a good one. I imagine that the pushy would probably have handled better, stopped better [even with no brakes] and been more reliable, those Ramblers were a good old US piece of shite!
Haven't seen one in years, thank God.
VMX42

[jimg1au]

my first bike was a triumph tiger cub with a dkw mx front end.Sid Willis built the motor it ran well for years.converted to methanol when i was 15 and rode dirt track at nepean and Griffith.getting to ride in those days helped when your older brother was a grade and your dad was a acu steward.only rode novice races though on club days.no pics of said bike

[TonyB]

Firko, your comment about the Rambler certainly brought back memories for me, my first was a Puch moped 50cc, with front shock so nackered that if you popped a wheelie over a bump the fork would extend flop down and jam itself. The gear shift consisted of taping masking tape around your right big toe and gingerly poking that down amongst chain, gears, levers and god knows what to access a semi internal and semi external?? clevis. Problem was to get gears back down you had to stop insert hooked coat hanger wire and bring gears back to neutral which was at the top. Once got chased by the cops in the rambler Hornet but the trusty old puch manged to slip up an easment which the rambler could'nt access. To my horror at the end of the easment which was 30metres long the bastard cut on me, so it was off in a flash in with the coat hanger wire and back on, and in the chaos me trusty masking tape had slipped off and i grabbed another gear with the toe and chomp, took a nice chunk out. But at least I saved a years worth of pocket money in fines.