Hey, new member here, and I'm really not sure where this should be posted so forgive me if this isn't the right place.
TLDR: I wanna take two identical beach cruiser bike frames and weld them together to make a mini-bike dragster/cruiser frame. Is this a terrible idea, and if so, why? Are there any better solutions that would have a similar result?
Background: As far back as I can remember, I've been into rat rods and motorcycles, though I've never had one of either. When choppers got popular, I was way into them, and then bobbers took their place both in popularity and in my heart (they're like rat rod motorcycles!). I can't remember a time when buying or building SOMETHING along these lines wasn't a bucketlist item. Recently, I discovered, and started planning on going to, Wasteland Weekend -- think Mad Max cosplay in the desert, including post-apocalyptic vehicles -- and the idea of building some sort of rat rod motorized bike just fit right into those plans.
So I started looking into motorized bikes... Of course, I'm a big guy (6 foot, 300+ lbs) and I'm worried that a little engine isn't going to be big enough to move me, so I began looking at the Predator 212cc and other Honda Gx200 clones. (I'd totally go for a Predator 420 / Honda Gx390 if there was room.) That lead me to mini-bikes; I don't love mini bikes -- they look fun as heck, but not really my thing -- but they're too small, IMO.
And that got me thinking... I really like the look of motorized cruisers, especially the stretched out cruisers like the Micargi Mustang, so why can't I take two beach cruiser bicycle frames and weld them together to make a mini-bike-ish frame?
Additional plans for this, sticking with the Mad Max feel, would be to make it a quadricycle using a trike conversion kit on the back and a DIY IFS reverse-trike setup in the front (probably adapted from a cross-kart).
As far as skills go, I don't have any, but one of my hot rodding friends is a welder by trade and another is a bicycle mechanic, and they're both down to help make this happen.
So, like I asked above... Is this a terrible idea, and if so, why? Are there any better solutions that would have a similar result?
TLDR: I wanna take two identical beach cruiser bike frames and weld them together to make a mini-bike dragster/cruiser frame. Is this a terrible idea, and if so, why? Are there any better solutions that would have a similar result?
Background: As far back as I can remember, I've been into rat rods and motorcycles, though I've never had one of either. When choppers got popular, I was way into them, and then bobbers took their place both in popularity and in my heart (they're like rat rod motorcycles!). I can't remember a time when buying or building SOMETHING along these lines wasn't a bucketlist item. Recently, I discovered, and started planning on going to, Wasteland Weekend -- think Mad Max cosplay in the desert, including post-apocalyptic vehicles -- and the idea of building some sort of rat rod motorized bike just fit right into those plans.
So I started looking into motorized bikes... Of course, I'm a big guy (6 foot, 300+ lbs) and I'm worried that a little engine isn't going to be big enough to move me, so I began looking at the Predator 212cc and other Honda Gx200 clones. (I'd totally go for a Predator 420 / Honda Gx390 if there was room.) That lead me to mini-bikes; I don't love mini bikes -- they look fun as heck, but not really my thing -- but they're too small, IMO.
And that got me thinking... I really like the look of motorized cruisers, especially the stretched out cruisers like the Micargi Mustang, so why can't I take two beach cruiser bicycle frames and weld them together to make a mini-bike-ish frame?
Additional plans for this, sticking with the Mad Max feel, would be to make it a quadricycle using a trike conversion kit on the back and a DIY IFS reverse-trike setup in the front (probably adapted from a cross-kart).
As far as skills go, I don't have any, but one of my hot rodding friends is a welder by trade and another is a bicycle mechanic, and they're both down to help make this happen.
So, like I asked above... Is this a terrible idea, and if so, why? Are there any better solutions that would have a similar result?
