Tw o SCOOTERS This one is made of STEEL
T
Fueled up, the featherweight Popcycle is ready for a day
of cruising almost anywhere. Only exceptions are certain high-speed superhighways. Below: rear-axle arrangement with engine removed. Bike generator, shown on swivel mount, rides on engine pulley to supply suppl y electricity for lights. Main frame tubing is from auto propeller shaft.
WENTY-FIVE pounds of used auto and bike parts bought at a salvage yard for 7 cents a pound ($1.75 total) make up the frame of my Popcycle scooter. You can easily build one like it, if you have access to welding equipment and a lathe. My rig is powered by a three-horse Briggs & Stratton mill, but any lightweight engine will do. A four-cycle four-cycle job is best for easy starting, smooth running at low speeds, and the convenience of not having to mix gasoline and oil. Avoid Avoid a heavy, cast-iron model. Its off-c off-cent enter er weight makes balancing and steering difficul difficult. t. And be sure to use pneumatic-tired wheels with precision ball or roller bearings, unless you whip up a junior scooter for speeds below 15 m.p.h. Tire diameter is optional; I settled for 11", but the integral half-forks and axles can be modified for larger sizes. Another option is the drive. Unless you live where the hills are steep, a low-cost hookup with good dig-out characteristics involves no more than a V-Plex clutch, a heavy-duty neoprene V belt,
Y o u C a n B u ild This one is made of WOOD
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O WELDING rig in your shop? shop ? You You can still build your own transportation, as I did, using simple hand tools, wood, and readily available hardware. Most of the scooter frame is made of 1-3/4-square oak oak and l-3/4"x3/4" oak. You'll You'll need nee d 28' of the former, 34' of the latter. Following the layout plan on the next page, saw out the members. Make only only one each of parts 7, 16, and 19; four of 9, 12. 15 and 17; two each of the others. Bore Bore holes as indicated (unless specially noted, the diameter is 5/ 16 ") . Omit Omit the interintermediate holes in two of parts 17 and 9. Assemble the frame with 5/16" carriage bolts. Form the seat parts as shown. After After tacking down down the canvas, glue the covered pad in place. Cut out and screw footboard 18 to parts 1. Glue maple dowels in the ends of handlebar part 19. Slip steel tubes over these, cementing the left one to the dowel with epoxy epoxy glue. The one on the right is worked to a free fit for a twist throttle (note setup in plan pl an). ). Run Run
Road-tested for 300 fun miles, this wood scooter is a curbside
rolled steel, cut a 27" steering column, an 8" front axle, and an 18 " rear axle. Insert Inser t the top of the column in the handlebar hole and drill through it for a bolt (see draw dr awin ing) g).. Sli Slip p a collar collar on the column column and work the shaft through the hole in 16. Where it passes through 7, apply a bushing, followed followed by steel and rubber rub ber washers. Oakfork parts 20 and 21 are assembled with epoxy glue and threaded rods and nuts. The drive is through a centrifugal clutch —your choice of a chain or belt connection to the rear wheel. A drawing shows shows the braking. braki ng. If you use pulley wheels instead of slim sprockets for the drive, you may have to recess the inboard axle collar on the left into frame part 1 to give clearance for for drum and hangers. Finally, strap the headlight battery to 13. Named Pioneer, the wood scooter tips the beam at 120 pounds, carries twice its weight in riders. A special servicing note: Snug up the carriage bolts after you've rolled tip the first 50 miles.
"Ape-hanger" handlebars qualify you to ride with the wild ones—but for transport in a car or boat, you may prefer the conventional butterfly
clutch, the alignment between engine and driven pulley pulley is not as critical. For mountain climbing, however, use a kart clutch, sprockets, and chain. A 1:6 1:6 reduction reductio n ratio is fine. The assembly and detail drawings show the adaptation of junked parts to the scooter frame. Both the th e front-for front-fork k and rear-axle assembly assembly are made from from 3/4" auto sway-bar stock, which must be heated cherry red and straightened, then slowly cooled, before machining machining and shaping. To reharden, reharde n, the completed parts are reheated salmon red and quenched quen ched in oil. Let a pro do this. To meet the licensing demands of my state, I've equipped my scooter with a bicycle headlight, tail and stop lights, a bulbtype horn, and a rear-view mirror. Juice for the lights is supplied by a generator set driven driven by the engine pulley. That Tha t way, there's no blackout while I'm idling at an
type. Slim Slim contour of Popcyc Popcycle le is eye-catching. Both the front and the rear wheels are mounted on integral axles and half-forks. intersection. intersectio n. The stopli stopligh ght—a t—a 2" Delta tail lamp—is actuated by a brake-pedal-mounted switch made from a set of discarded Ford breaker points (see detail drawi dra wing) ng).. I have also placed a 4" truck-type reflector on the Popcycle's posterior. END
