Stainless minibikes

[rocketkart]

These are kind of cool. Just did some Horse trading and got them. There frames are made of stainless steel. Cool background story. A machinist at NASA made them to run on the beach back in the 70s what I was told.

 

[Denny]

Cool, what kind of engines are on those? Those are cool, polish the frames.

 

[Willie1]

Cool background story. A machinist at NASA made them to run on the beach back in the 70s what I was told.

Cool machines and a neat background story, and I'm NOT saying it isn't true.
But . . .
The "Flawed Logic" elf (first cousin to my "sarcasm" elf and stepbrother to my "village idiot" elves) just tapped me on the shoulder and whispered into my ear "I'm glad he was just a machinist and not an engineer". Usually anything built to use in sand has large, hi flotation and traction tires to stay on top of the sand, not sink into it. I remember in my Florida visits that there is hard packed beach sand, but I kinda remember having to go across loose boundry sand to get to it. It would be neat to find out that those were the prototypes to later ones with balloon tires.

Yeah, they would be neat to polish the frames, get running and enjoy - have fun with your bikes.

 

[Denny]

Back in the late 60s and early 70s there was no such thing as high flotation tires unless you count those tires the I think Goodyear made on to 3” rims. On those there was no place to mount a sprocket or brake drum. I gotta kinda believe the story. High flotation tires or ATV tires did not come out until Honda and Kawasaki brought out their 3 wheelers around 73 or so.

 

[Willie1]

Just referring to a tire that has a larger footprint as a "hi flotation" tire.
I got a broken arm from riding (rolling over) in a ARGO 6 wheeled Amphicat in 1968,
so they obviously had "hi flotation" style tires then.
Point was that anything with the small tires that the minibike has probably wouldn't do well in loose sand -
not to mention they have almost no ground clearance.

 

[madprofessor]

Florida boy here with first-hand experience.............Know where NHRA got started? Running on the hard-pack sand at Daytona Beach. Know what happens when you drop a bike at 30mph on near-water beach sand? Road rash pizza skin with bonus pepperoni. Dropping a bike in sugar sand? You don't, it sinks down and stands there without a kickstand. After digging to a stop so fast you're launched over the handlebars. Top a 30' high blind sand dune at 35mph? You obviously climbed the leeward side, because the windward side's a near-vertical dropoff. Landing in the sugar sand from that height and speed ain't as soft. Snapped the frame of a Kawasaki 350 Bighorn thumper bike right through both neckbone gusset plates. Think you stretched out your chain by running in Florida sand? Nope. You ate it up so bad that every link wore down loose, made chain longer just with the slop, not by any stretching.
EDIT: Balloon tires not required on sugar sand if you're going fast enough, it's like slalom water skiing. My Bighorn had common tires in width, just a 4.50 knobby "tread". Enough raw torque (thumper) and you can get up and float, with a 60' roostertail chasing you.

 

[Denny]

I know of what you speak, I live on and in some of the finest sugar sand Indiana has to offer. And I ain’t near a lake!

 

[Willie1]

I live 5 miles from Lake Erie with 2 state parks that have sandy beaches within 10 miles either direction.
Also used to go to Silver Lake Dunes on the other side of the state (Michigan) a lot. Sand there was a lot different
than ours - needed more power to get around on the dunes than on our beaches. Swapping the 40 hp VW engine
out for a 300+ hp turbocharged Subaru WRX drivetrain fixed that.

 

[Scottaf1006]

Just referring to a tire that has a larger footprint as a "hi flotation" tire.
I got a broken arm from riding (rolling over) in a ARGO 6 wheeled Amphicat in 1968,
so they obviously had "hi flotation" style tires then.
Point was that anything with the small tires that the minibike has probably wouldn't do well in loose sand -
not to mention they have almost no ground clearance.

Or maybe just To cruise around at the beach and not actually on the sand,.... I don't know but good find those are nice