Strange Vintage 2 Speed Mini-Bike

[Rotore]

thats awsome lmao

 

[r97]

this mini bike talk is tempting me to make a mini (ill be broke in no time! lol)

 

[porsche930dude]

its a Sears / Roper bike

 

[Blazkowiez]

What specifically leads you to that conclusion 930? I know in karts there are many distinguishing features that helps us identify makers and models but on mini-bikes in that era there were well over 80 companies so it is fantastically difficult for me to differentiate.

 

[porsche930dude]

well theres only a few brands that have the back end of the frame like that wards/gilson and sears/roper are the ones that came to mind. Then i looked a little closer and it just didnt seem like a wards rear end so i looked on oldminibikes.com where i was logged on anyway. And i saw the stripes and front decal just like the sears bikes on omb.

 

[Blazkowiez]

Cool deal man, thanks.

 

[hawk1093]

Yes, they did. Comet made these, many heath kit bikes came with them but after 1960 they died out very quickly.

Why did this design die out?
Not cost effective?
Didn't work?
Because it looks like this would work

 

[Blazkowiez]

It did work, it worked very well but torque converters were much better.

 

[hawk1093]

That's what I figured. Still It's a cool design

 

[Rotore]

Can these things be made from scratch?

 

[Blazkowiez]

I don't see why you couldn't order all the parts individually... I believe the secondary clutch was a Comet product but there may be other manufacturers or some still around on one of these online retailers.

 

[Rotore]

That's cool

 

[porsche930dude]

you can still get the dual sprocket clutch i think but you have to search a little for the 2 speed jackshaft. They are still out there though. Your talkin 80$ for the clutch and at the very least 90$ for the jackshaft assembly. There was a guy on oldminibikes.com a little while back that had a bunch of new ones for sale.
To make one from scratch really would be quite a bit harder than it seems at first glance. If you got a bunch of old clutches and stuff around its worth a try i suppose. Iv been thinking about it since i first saw a 2 speed.

 

[Mac]

You can still find some of the two-speed automatic shift jackshafts around.
The two-speed manual shift is slightly harder to find.