Survival and Emergency Preparedness

bdcochran wrote: ↑Mon Jul 25, 2022 4:35 pm Great workmanship!

Don't look too close

Oh, and I've officially named that one The B.O.M.B. for Bug Out Mini Bike. Will be working on a basket for the rear rack, maybe a front rack and other farkles to make it more bug outable.

Another episode of ORMB!

In this episode I painted all the shinys and the frame black...they'll never see me coming now!




Then I added a leather handlebar tool case I had kicking around the garage...notice the Walker ear muffs hanging on the bars. Fun is riding the MB back to shoot on my range.



A couple weeks ago I burned (2nd degree burn) my leg on the muffler. I leaned the bike over to check something after riding it and touched my leg. The muffler is beneath the seat and gets extremely hot, even with long pants on it is almost unbearable. So I made a heat shield out of corrugated plastic sign sheeting and an folded aluminum pie tin.



The aluminum is on the inside to reflect the heat. Rode the MB for an hour and the shield was just warm to the touch.



So...I'm pretty much done with the MB for now. It's been a lot of fun playing with it.

Wow, that Coleman looks great! I love the rack and painting the frame makes the bike. I'm glad you are having fun with it, customizing is part of what makes these so enjoyable. Now it's time to mount a scabbard beside the fork tube and possibly mounts for the bows on the handle bars...

Was up last weekend and took the Coleman out for a ride. One pull and it went kaplooie. Took the pull starter off and the recoil spring was broke. Oh, well, another thing to put on my list of "things to do".

Update....ordered a new spring.

My brother caught the bug and just bought a pair of used Trailmaster MB200 mini bikes.A guy near my woods house mention on a community facebook page that he had them and was thinking of selling them. I contacted him and went and looked at them. Called my brother who bopped over and got them at a really good price. They run $1200 ea new. He got them both for $1k. I just love spending his money.

Same vintage as mine (2019). Really good condition .

He had so much fun riding mine he just had to have one...or two. Besides riding them in the woods he lives in a resort community where he's allowed to ride them on the streets like any other unlicensed off road vehicle, golf carts etc.

Speaking of mini bikes...I was in Family Farm & Home last Saturday and saw these...The blue one is the new Hurricane model. It has front (and rear) disk brakes and better tires. Normally $1300 so that's a good deal for that model. The regular MB200 just has a rear disk brake. The red one is the regular model, you can see the difference in the tires. Not sure these things needs a front brake, they don't go very fast and one disk brake is plenty of stopping power, but it's nice to have for the same price.

Family farm & home now has the original MB200 on sale for $850 through july 4. Thats what we paid 2 years ago.

In other mini bike news. I changed out the pull starter on the Coleman. It worked but when started it went full throttle, run away. Fortunately it didn't hurt anything and I've pulled the whole throttle assembly apart 3 times before I got it to work properly. Still not sure what was wrong but its up and running again.

UPDATE 1...the throttle linkage is hooked up to the governor/limiter which cuts back the throttle when the engine reaches a certain RPM. It has two springs on it in addition to the regular throttle return spring. One of the governor springs hold the throttle open the other backs it off when it reaches speed. Seems overly complicated to me. They are nearly identical and emanate from the same place. However, they go to two different holes on the throttle arm. I had them switched. Yeah, I know...too much info but at least I got them straightened out.

UPDATE 2: My other brother, his wife, daughter and my daughter came up to the woods house over the weekend. Got everyone on the mini bikes and took a ride. First time for my niece and SIL. Pretty low and slow but we had fun.

The gang getting ready to ride the MBs. If you notice there is a combination of old school helmets and motocross helmets. A couple of the old school ones are at least 40 years old. A couple more are relatively new and the motocross helmets are from when I rode dual sport MCs 10 years ago.


I've been wanting to buy some newer helmets, specifically lighter ones like half helmets. We typically don't go very fast and the full shell and full face helmets are really hot to wear in the summer. I don't typically wear a helmet when bopping around on the property (not required on private property) but they are required when riding on the street and/or trails.

Interestingly you don't have to wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle or moped on the street but you do have to wear one riding an off road vehicle, mini-bike, ATV etc.

Anyway, a quick check on Amazon found these inexpensive half helmets. I didn't buy them because of the somewhat cheesy flag draped eagle ripping through the helmet. I bought them because they were the cheapest half helmet I could find and they got good reviews. I can paint them if I want to.

I'm back...

I may have mentioned I burned out a belt in one of my mini bikes. While looking for belts on amazon I ran across a handle bar riser. My legs are long and my knees hit the HBs. This raises the 1.5" i.e, just enough.



Oh and the new belt really makes a big difference in acceleration. Hadn't realized how sloggy they become. Going to have to change out my other one.

These new changes make the MB more funner to ride.