Mini-Bike

 

Surly bought himself a mini-bike recently. He and a couple of his buddies have decided to fool around with these things and see who will be the first one to break a wrist or a collar bone. I picked one up years ago when he was a pup, fixed it up to give it to him for Christmas. I ran it down the sidewalk and figured it was an accident waiting to happen, so I got rid of it.

The one in the photo is a Ruttman Spyder, or was originally. It has been modified some and we modified it more yesterday. Actually, what we did was more on the order of getting things straightened out, both functionally and cosmetically.

The original braking was with a drum brake in the rear wheel. Someone added a scrub brake on the rear wheel that was somewhat functional but butt-ugly. We made a new lever, added a better set-up for the return spring and added a stop bolt to adjust the resting position of the lever. I cut a couple of brackets off and extended the kick stand. That should be all of the fabricating.

Surly will have a nice little rig when he gets it all done. I had a great time working in the shop with him yesterday - it's been a while since we've worked on a project together.