Go carts.

[th62]

A few of the gocarts I built over the years. I built about four for the kids using 125 Victa lawn mower engines. These created a few problems because the crank was full circle and only balanced (sort of) with the the cutting blades on. Not much good for a go cart so I had to disassemble the cranks and cut huge pieces out of the webs to balance them properly. I played with all sorts of mods to get them faster: expansion chambers, port mods, carb mods and so on. The lowish one with the dog sitting on it had a full house: expansion chamber, modified ports, shaved head and twin carbies. The two Victa engine carts were used around the back yard, although, the one with the dog on it frightened them a little as it was too fast for the back yard, so I took it out bush for them. I made a few others, but never took any pictures of them The last one was a bush cart I made for myself for blasting around the gravel tracks at the back of the Tindal RAAF base. Engine was a 60s model Yamaha two stroke twin for which I made two expansion chambers. No reeds in those days so I made do with some port mods. Darn good motor this one, until the exhaust came loose and the pistons melted. I later changed the front wheels to the same size as the rear to make it handle a little better. Biggest problem were the sprockets, could only get certain sizes used for motor bikes. Bikes having much bigger wheels of course meant the gearing for 10" wheels was way to high. I made a sprocket by hand which solved the problem to a degree but geez it chopped up the chains pretty quick. i could only pull three gears, the tall gearing made fourth gear useless. Barrel of fun this one. Nothing like sliding around gravel corners at 80kph +. Not having any brakes doubled the excitement.

[jdurand]

In my youth I found a nice go-cart frame that would be easy to build up, to my parents that I was going to buy it. They had a talk with the seller and it suddenly went off the market (at least for me).

Same thing happened with a one person racing boat hull.

When I wanted a motorcycle they got me a kid's organ. Opening that big package was sure a surprise for me, the box was big enough for a folded up dirt bike but...an organ????

So, when I got older I bought a motorcycle and dated an organist.

Last bike was a Suzuki 1100, had to sell is because the spousal unit objected to me riding.

She's mentioned that maybe I can get a small bike after we move, I'll believe it when I see it.

[hemmjo]

Go-Karts are fun. Lots of good memories for lots of kids who had home made go karts!!!

[TrickieDickie]

For a short time my brother and I had a go-cart with a chainsaw engine, we had to reach around back with one hand to grip the throttle. My last bike was a Kawasaki KZ1300 it was a stripped down street version, that 6 cylinder was smooth.