Upon learning a doleful story of my pining for a minibike in my youth, Paul Porlier plucked this little gem from one of his buddies where it had apparently been rusting quietly for many moons, exposed to the elements, abandoned to a certain death.
The "little gem" was not quite a turnkey machine, but with some elbow grease and some ebay surfing, this little screamer was lovingly restored to its former glory.
I took delivery in August 2001. Motor was seized, missing scads of parts, no brake, cables, chain, carb completely oxidized shut. Pine needles were found to reside in the crankcase, and a Funky rear wheel replacement from a hand truck must have been installed for wheelies at some point.
Broken clutch too.
It's a PowerDyne Galaxie. Made in Pawtucket Rhode Island. In the 70's?
A strippo I think, no lights, no torque converter, no suspension, and a small 2.5 HP Tecumseh.
After it sat around for almost two years, Tim and I got down to business.
With some sweat and parts procurement, here are the results!
Hot...Blue...and Righteous *
So, what's new? New rims and rear tire. A monster 14 inch diameter Universal tread. Barely fits and boy does it suck down the power. Great top end though! Original front tire was a bee-otch to peel away from the old rusty rim, but, afterall, it's a made-in-the-USA Carlisle and it's in great shape! Seat was scrubbed and it looks great. (I see some people are selling purple metal-flake seats on ebay......hmmmmmm)
Like the wood trim footpegs? Foot pegs and clamps are coming...
Believe it or not, the original engine was salvaged. I took apart the engine and pounded out the piston, sanded the bore with 400 grit, replaced the piston rings, wrist pin, spark plug and ignition assembly with engine parts from a litter of donated tecumsehs. The original crank was sanded and polished, the pine needles and aluminum oxidation was scoured away, and a new carb, air cleaner and muffler were procurred and fitted. The thing runs supah.
Color choice: Hammerite Blue paint for the frame, '67 Pontiac GTO engine paint for the engine (Yea, I'll get to the GTO some day, Mr Dunn). It's an amazing color match!
And since I'm ever the motorhead, I decided to upgrade the muffler. The one I fitted was far too garden variety, so I whipped out my trusty Craftsman MAPP gas torch and fabbed up the beauty shown below with some electrical conduit and, yep, a WD-40 can. I brazed the flange and used solder on the "muffler". I think I should submit this idea to WD-40. Perhaps I'll win a prize.
Can you say burn hazard?
Yep, what a pipe. A one lung-er Harley sound. However, this gem didn't last; it seems Tecumseh engines can generate quite an amount of heat and after about 7 minutes of operation, the "muffler" shot off in a blast of molten solder. I spent a while peeling solder spatters off of the whole backside of the 'bike. So, I brazed everything and also experimented with offsetting the pipes internally to quiet this beast down. Now it emits a nice burbly tone.
This thing is an absolute blast to ride. It's not too zippy off the line, but it wakes up pretty quick after about 5MPH. Hmmm, perhaps an upgrade to a 5HP motor, or a smaller tire for off-the-line smoke shows....
Jenny can just about do wheelies since she's packing 90 lbs less than me.
Here's Tim at WOT...
Here's a "loaded" PowerDyne pic I found on the 'net.
This specimen has a fork with springs, torque converter, and a kick-arse tail pipe, inspiration for my muffler pipe attempt.
Thanks to:
Tim Miles who helped out with the rebuild.
Jenny too for sanding the frame!
Paul Porlier for location service and transportation.
Foggy for the chassis donation.
JClark for the litter of motor parts.
*Thanks to Matt for the name suggestion, ZZ Top for the tune: Hot Blue and Righteous, Tres Hombres album. Vinyl LP. (The remastered ZZ Top albums stink if you ask me, but I digress....)
Visitors Comments:
".....Paul got this bike from me and I got your link from him. It looks great and I'm glad it when to a good home. You did what I wanted to but did it way better. Good luck and enjoy....." M.F.
".....Young Tim looks resplendent upon his charge.. with assuredness and confidence at speed......" L.T.
".....my # 1 son thinks you should stretch out the front forks for a chopper look , and a custom mandrel bent s/s one into one exhaust would be sweet, sick and knarly dude....." Bigdogned
".....Do you really fit on that thing? Needs a 10 horse motor. Where are the flame decals?" P.E.D.
".....AWESOME !! you can wash and rebuild my lawnmower any day !! This thing is a gem, very nice, nitrous oxide would help things out tremendously..." B.D.
".....Let me know who gets the first tragic "muffler burn". I remember my first one... right down to the meat...." T.W.
Links:
Manufacturers Supply Great selection of Mini bike parts
Ebay Type in "mini bike" and marvel at the selection of stuff.
Page created 8/13/03
Updates:
8/24/03 Added more comments and a couple of pix
1/4/04 Small grammer corrections, also new space on web server.
1/10/04 Added the new muffler pictures
Dave Miles
Updated
November 2004