HEAVY METAL: The Re-Cycle

[SpyGuy]

The footpegs for this little beast - can anyone guess what they are?



If you guessed the ends from a fireplace set, you're right! A couple of large bolts were found and welded to the frame, and the fireplace ends plus some jam nuts to keep them from rotating were screwed on.




No need for a kickstand - the pegs sit out just far enough, and it's not like I'm going to be doing any sharp cornering .....

[SpyGuy]

Finally got around to doing the forks so I could turn. Having those big plates bang into the frame and gas tank wasn't any fun, so I grabbed my 4" grinder with the cutting wheel, and went to town:



And a shot from the front:



Turned out I'd goofed on the height of the wheel when welding up the front end, so the wheel rubbed against the bottom of the triple trees. About five minutes and several careful cuts later, problem solved.

[SpyGuy]

Okay, so I know you're sitting there looking at this, thinking, "Well, just how big IS this thing, anyway?" Good question, and one I'll answer right now with a couple more comparison shots. As shown by my handy-dandy tape measure, a standard license plate is 12" long. (Got it in Vegas last time I was there ....)



Now, standing on end next to the bike:



Here's that Cag again, head to head on my truck bed:



And the difference between the wheel sizes:



The standard minimoto pocketbike as shown is approximately 36" long, stands 22" high, and has wheels that are 11" tall from ground to top of tire. By comparison, The Re-Cycle is 28" long, 20" tall (at top of handlebars - seat height is 15"), and wheel height is 9".

[SpyGuy]

MOved on to the rear end, and the brakes. (Figured those MIGHT be important later on down the line ....) Since the frame was all custom-built, I needed to find a way to mount the rear brakes so they would properly grab the disc. A standard brake bracket was attached to the rear axle, then a tab was welded to the frame so the brakes could be mounted correctly.



The chain had to be specially cut to fit - there's not a lot of slack nor room for adjustment, but it seems to work just fine.



Throttle and brake levers in place. These were a major pain to figure out, as the tire irons were smaller than a regular handlebar. The brake lever was from a pocketbike, and had a broken perch (the piece that holds the lever and clamps to the bar), so it was made to fit using a thin strip of steel and bolted in place. The throttle lever is from the same wrecked goped I got the wheels from, and has a bent washer sitting on a nut underneath to keep it solidly in place. Sounds ghetto, but it doesn't move at all.

[SpyGuy]

Now, I needed an exhaust pipe. A regular pocketbike pipe wouldn't fit, as those run over the top of the engine, and the motorized bicycle pipe I had hung way too low, and would be more of a stand to pick up the rear of the frame. The goped can exhaust I had would work, BUT ... the bolt holes were just slightly off, maybe about 1/4"-1/2" from the ones in the cylinder. Great .......... now I have to fab one. Using an old trashed pb exhaust pipe, I sliced off the header end, then welded a large washer to the stubby pipe. Nuts were added on either side to attach the goped can exhaust.




And mounted up to the engine:




Admittedly, the pipe hangs a little lower than I'd like. It works fine as is, and I'll be mainly riding on smooth pavement, but I think I'll be fabbing up another pipe to replace this one.

[SpyGuy]

Does it run? Yes, and quite well. Poured some gas in the tank, flipped the choke lever up, turned on the gas, gave it four quick pulls, and VROOM! Loose brakes, no killswitch (well, okay, I had a bare wire), wobbled some, carb leaked (don't they all?), but ****, it runs! Woohoo! Took it for a quick spin around my driveway, running circles around the drieway in front of my two-car garage, then took it for a quick run back and forth in front of the house. The CVT provides a surprising amount of torque, and I was able to get up to a decent 10mph with lots of throttle to go (didn't want to go any faster because of the brake issue ....) Not like it's going to run much faster than that, since I mainly made it for a fairgrounds / swap meet cruiser ....

On Halloween, The Re-Cycle made its first public appearance. My friends and I were holding a mini track meet at a local motorcycle shop that allows us to use its rear parking lot as a racetrack - we just block off the entrances, set up a bunch of cones, and roll out the bikes. EVERYBODY thought the bike was really cool, and couldn't believe that it was all made from tire irons and scrap metal! After a leaky carburetor was changed out and the idle adjusted, the bike fired every time after three hard pulls. It wound up being used as a mini-pitbike to run from one end of the track to the other, and performed flawlessly each and every time. That CVT makes the bike pull like a freight train, and just keeps on pulling during acceleration. I have to say I'm VERY happy with its performance, and glad I took the time to take on this challenge.

One of the guys on another forum (pocketbikeplanet.com) is trying to talk me into putting a mini-sidecar on it. Well, okay .... I already have the receiver mounts all set up for the sidecar when I get around to building it, which will also be made of mostly scrap metal. The only "bought" parts for the sidecar have been the outside wheel (Harbor Freight) and the receiver tubes.

Currently, The Re-Cycle is in the process of being painted FFB (Flat Effin' Black, the ONLY color for something like this) with red rims. Am waiting on a new rear rim to show up, though, as I unfortunately shattered the rim by tightening it up too much on a stepped axle ...

[monte55]

Looks like you had fun building. If you scroll through all the photos real fast.....it's like a movie

[Diverdude]

Awsome job, I love creative stuff like that. Shows some real imaganitive thinking.

[SpyGuy]

I had a lot of fun building it, and learned a lot along the way. Obviously, I still have a few bugs to work out on the bike here and there, but everything else seems to be very solidly put together. (The frame is definitely solid - I accidentally knocked it off the table a couple of times, and no stress fractures from falling, so I guess I did okay....) There are a few things I would have done differently if I were to do it all over again, but I'm pretty happy with the results. About a month's time went into the build, with a good two weeks worth of planning and cutting material before I ever picked up the torch.

Even including the cost of the wrecked goped I got the wheels and controls from ($50), plus the cost of the CVT ($40) and assorted hardware, nuts and bolts, I'd say I've got less than $150 into the bike. The engine was a running donor from one of my other pocketbikes, and will be going back into that bike once I build up an engine for this one.

A few things have been added since the last update, such as an upper engine mount made from a pair of 1/4" wrenches with the head of a 9/16" wrench welded between for support, and a killswitch. The killswitch is mounted on the lower part of the seatpost, being the ONLY "standard" sized pipe on the entire bike to mount it! As I mentioned earlier, a pair of receivers have been welded underneath the frame (middle of the engine and underneath the air cleaner) for adding a "re-cycled" mini-sidecar at a later date. I'll get a few more pictures up soon ....

[makindue]

Haha. You have a great job. I love to recycle also mine. That is a good bike!