Post by bobbysox on Nov 14, 2023 2:26:23 GMT -6
I bought a couple bikes many years ago and am now getting to the point where I am starting to restore them. I am starting with a 50 as that was my first bike. It is not MY original bake but one I bought years later. A little history. My father surprised me with a regular old mini bike for my birthday back around 68?? It was the standard 3 1/2 HP BS Doodlebug. We lived in a new plan of homes where there weren't too many people. The road a squarish figure 8 and measured 6 tenths of a mile. I would ride that MB for hours upon hours around the plan. A couple other kid's fathers bought them MB too. We would cruise together and enjoy the time. Guess that was my first MC club...haha. Back then Minis were HUGE. AndI mean a BIG thing...kind of like quads are today. There was even a Mini Bike Guide magazine. Childhood porn. I bought it every month. They usually had reviews of Rupp, Sears and Roebucks, and other bikes. Then Honda and the Japanese started importing small trail bikes to the US. An upstart company called Shin San Tong from Taiwan made their play for the market and introduced the Gemini SST 50. I bought the mag ( with the money my parents gave me of course) and brought it home an poured over the pages. One day I came home from playing outside and my dad was looking over that edition. He asked me what I thought of this Gemini bike. Really, a kick start, clutch, 4 speeds, big tires...it was Raquel Welch with a gas tank and handlebars! Unbeknownst to me he contacted the company and inquired as to what it would take to be a dealer. All you had to do it buy a bike and be a business. He owned a NAPA store so he took the chance. We soon had a gold 50 to try out. Within a week or 2 he ordered another one and we began selling them. We did sell a bunch. At the ripe old age of probably 11 or 12 I learned to work on them. I changed a ton of kick starter springs, that goofy shifter rod with the spool on the end that always broke. My biggest joy was cruising through the Allegheny National Forest either with my dad or alone. This showed up some of the bikes flaws and we learned to always carry a roll of black electrical tape ( duct tape wasn't around then ), some mechanics wire ( basically metal duct tape ), and extra plug or 2, a piece of sand paper, and a rag. This was in addition to the tool kit that came with the bike. We used good gas and a premium 2 cycle oil but after so long the plug would foul. The engine would start running rough and I had to pull off the trail and take the plug out and replace it. That is why you needed the rag. Dang thing was hot. The sand paper was to clean the old plug because you will need it down the road. The jarring of the trail would take its toll. I remember the bracket on the rear fender breaking a lot and the V shaped muffler bracket later on the 80 never lasting too long. When the 80s came out Dad bought 2 for us and a couple to sell. Our 50s he sold as used I am sure. I do thank God that never got myself into too much trouble. I would fill up the tank and head off into the forest. I never told anyone where I was going because I didn't know myself. There were a million "single track logging roads" and miles of dirt that I ran until I ran out of gas. Then I would put it on "reserve" and head back home....fill the tank ( make sure I switched the valve ) and went back out. If I would have had a bad accident or suffered a major breakdown, mu bones would still be out there in the wilderness. The only real issues I remember was the carb getting clogged up. Every so often I would have to tear it down, blow everything out with Gumout, use a thin wire to clean the jets. When I wasn't riding I was working on the bikes for customers. I did pretty much everything except a full tear down. I rebuilt clutches at 12 years old, got my mechanical training from these bikes. The one worse issue that took my dad a long time to figure out was we had a bike that would run at low speed but when you gave it the gas it would only accelerate maybe 1/3 of the way before "lubbing" or faltering. Finally my dad pulled the head and when he looked down the cylinder he saw the exhaust port was so carboned up that it was only half the size it needed to be. The engine couldn't breath. Once that was cleaned it she ran like a queen. I am now 67 and have a 3 year old grandson. I have the "doodlebug" MB I built for his dad in my garage and will redo it for him. But he will get a redone 50 when he is old enough and then a restored 80. I have two 80s. I want to ride through the Allegheny National Forest with him like I did with my dad at least once. I will post pictures of my restore If I can figure our how to post pics. I tried but it said the file was too large. I need to know the size limit. I looked at the forum riues but it doesn't list a max size. Anyone know?
