RichieRichOverdrive's Bikes

So on a recent trip up to New York I finally got the two wheel contraptions I have been dreaming of.

This is my dad's '74 Kawasaki F11 250. Didnt get any pics of before we loaded it, but here's a before and after of it getting rained on.




All I really did to it to get it in running shape was clean the carb, replace an O ring, clean the gas tank, and wire up the kill switch.


Took a lot of kicking to get it going. It fired most of the times I kicked, but it wouldnt stay running til the millionth time. by then the exhaust was filled with gas, which it sprayed out all over everything behind it.


So as of now she's a good running bike. Gas tank needs welded, the epoxy patch dad put on back in 92 or 93 gave out sometime in the past few years and has a consistent drip. I'm running premix in her now, I don't trust the oil injection pump.


Didnt put the side cover back on yet in this pic lol.


I did find some literature for it from back in the 70s. Seems to me like this model was a popular Enduro style bike at the time.




To do list on this bike:
-Patch fuel tank
-Put new brake shoes on the back. These ones have a tendency to cam over and lock until you can roll it backwards
-Change the front tire. The one on it at the moment is an old ice racing tire and it's dry rotted as frig
-Wire up the headlight. Dad said the alternator worked when he ran it.
-Refill the front forks. They bottom out pretty easy, there's not much oil left in them. I think I'm gonna put ATF in them. The rear coilovers could use replaced too, the valves are beat straight out of them.

I really like this bike. It's a bit big for a first bike, even as worn out as it is. You can pin the throttle and she'll still pull you straight up a hill. Dad has a lot of good stories about it too, like running it in the snow back in new york and having the carb ice wide open, laying it over in a foot of snow, and having to find it and dig it out.

Now for the other bike that's actually mine.

Just some little vintage minibike with a 2hp briggs. Kinda cool because it has 10" rims. Maybe I'll put those BMI carts Ag tires on??


I made a new throttle linkage (connecting the butterfly and lever thingy) and put a better return spring on it.


And she did well for a short while...til the slime blew out the patch a second (or third) time...




Plans for this bike:
-Generac Honda clone swap with a Comet CVT
-New wheelbearings
-Proper disc brakes
-New rear tube
-New tires. It'd be cool to have those BMI karts ags on here, but maybe a bit of a rough ride.
-Nice paint job. Red white and blue is cool and all but this is kinda a shabby job. Looks a little better with the 2 stroke mix shining it all up though, lol.

What do you guys think?

Pretty cool couple of rigs. That mini bike is awesome, haha. Bet it's a blast to rip around on. Does it not have foot pegs? Or are they just hard to see in that picture?

It has some footpegs. Wish they were bigger lol

Sounds like you should add foldable extended footpegs to your project list.

Took the tank off. She did have a few good size holes.


Took the patch off with the wire wheel. I was originally thinking about cutting the whole spot and patching it, but now i might actually just pop a few welds on there and see if it holds.


On the minibike i finally got a patch to hold, and i drove the bearings outta the front wheel because they were seized. I'll order some new ones soon.

Wasted a bunch of dawn so i don't blow myself up


Might look like it was patched but it still leaked a ton.


Made a stencil


Trashy welds but it's all plugged now. I just threw some gloss black on it and put it back on the bike.


Aaaand now this tube dumps gas out when I turn the valve on. She still runs though. I think the float is stuck.

I was just going to ask if you if you blew up yet, LOL..

Lol, nope.

Well...the gas tank does still leak. Although its more of a seep than a drip now, and it's definitely cureable by a sealer now. So i say....meh. lol

maybe some rusty bit from the tank got on the needle and seat.  Anyway the leak on the carb should be an easy fix.

Yeah, probably.

Just grab a couple of fire extinguishers and make them into gas tanks. That would be killer.

@prancstaman That'd be cool on the mini bike!

I would have suggested a couple of propane bottles, the long skinny kind, but I don't want Rich to blow up when he is welding on them. Plus they are way thin and too easy to blow a hole through when welding too. I did a couple for my mini bike and was super hard. But I was thinking a double barrel tank on that dirt bike would be cool.

I welded a propane tank exhaust before, it wasn't too bad.

Yesterday i took the front wheel and forks off. Put a tire that was in better shape in and drained and refilled the shocks.

Do you have the forks back on the bike?  How do they feel?

They're back on but the wheel isnt. I pushed them down by hand, they felt a little better than before, but i really won't be able to tell til i actually ride it, which won't be til i clean the carb and put different pads in the rear wheel lol.

Cool sprocket setup. When you take the wheel off and the nut off, everything just slides apart.


Typical drum brake setup


So here's pretty much neutral, no braking.


Here's what would be full braking. The fact that it stuck there without me holding it kinda explains why it was sticking (turns out it wasnt camming over like i thought)


Anyways, i put the spare brake assembly in that everything moved freely in and it all works excellently.

Man, what a good looking bike.


Now all i have to do is clean the carb and she should be trail ready

i got fed up with the F11 and worked on the minibike. I didn't feel like ordering or waiting for bearings so i just cooked these ones with a torch, knocked out as much rust as i could, blew them out, and freed them up. Give em the old the bigger the dob the better the job routine, bam they spin like new (china) bearings. People say messing with old bearings instead of buying new ones is stupid, but I don't really care lol. They'll work for another few years.

So i rode it around, thought ehhh this is boring, so here directly i plan to order up a TAV2 clone to put on er so I can go full retard with the Generac 6.5

That should wake the mini bike up!

It should be insane, considering what it was on my go kart. Just gotta get that CVT.

I dunno what i did but she stopped dumping fuel so I'm not complaining. I'm really excited to ride this thing. It runs great.


So i hooked up a meter to what i assumed was the charging system. One post on the plug puts out abput 14v, and another i think like 6. The meter said AC but it may just be reading that because of a half wave rectifier, it has before. Doesn't matter what it is really, the incandescent headlight will run on about anything you give it. That's what I'll be doing next.

You have some decent area to ride around? I have some on our property but a lot of it is steep and rocky. Had to get a trials bike to make it fun lol.

I have some good trails, and a creek to ride around on.

So this...This is pathetic. First of all, the half inch bore. Second of all, it's cracked and RTVd together. Something must be done! So something, I did...


Picked out some nice allen heads for it...


Totally didn't scab this piece of conduit from Mutts camera mount...whoops.


There's the finished product, for now. Tomorrow I'll RTV all the gaskets, and put together a throttle. Carb is from a generic Honda GX160 clone, brand new too.


Fabricobbled up this propane bottle gas tank. I didnt test it before i put it on and it has a constant drip where i welded the bung on the bottom. And yes, i drilled the cap for a vent.


The fuel tank nestled right up in the front of the frame, so i just zap strapped it and that turned out perfect. This is pretty much it right now, sans the air filter i put on. It does run on choke, leading me to believe either the jets need drilled or there's unmetered air coming through the intake mating surfaces. Probably some (a lot) of both.


I can already feel a lot more power, with it just up on a block and not even running properly. I can't wait to have this thing properly wound out going down the road, lol. Either way, pretty productive for a school night.

Oh and i ordered a CVT for the 212 swap I'm not even sure I'm doing anymore...lol.

Nice work! Do you think you'll have problems running a large carb on a smaller engine? It should improve high speed running. Does the Briggs have a 3/4" shaft? You could fit the CVT to the Briggs if so. I like the red spark plug!

The carb has about the same bore as the intake, i don't think it'll be a problem. And everything under 5hp has 5/8" shaft, torque converter has 3/4".

And the red spark plug is just painted red

Rigged up a hrottle stetup today. Kinda took inspiration from the setup on the clone. Turned out really good.


I also patched the gas tank and took her for a short drive. There's definitely a lot more power now. It wouldn't even pull me up a slight incline without momentum before, now she goes straight up the driveway. I'll do more testing for top speed and such tomorrow.