Oh, sorry if I mislead you. This is not my creation. It is from
A folding bike built in Launceston using ZBox Super 66-3 engine - John from Launceston 2010, you will see it at the bottom of the page. I stumbled upon it when I did a google image search for motorising a mixte (which you can see on page two of the above gallery).
It's funny as last year, after I finished my first build, I aquired this bike - a NZ Made Healing Cruiser, very similar to a Raleigh 20 :
When I got it I thought about motorising it, but couldn't see how to fit a V-Frame centre mount motor and maintain a low centre of gravity. What I did really like was that the rear carrier rack is welded on, and could easily be converted to accomodate tank and a hinged seat, similar to a factory moped, adding security for the fuel, and a mor relaxed riding position. Anyhow, I restored it as a singlespeed bicycle and sold it the other month.
My girlfriend has a bike like this :
which she's restored, in the process, she picked up a parts bike, actually, the one pictured, which she put all the b-grade gear on and sold a couple of months ago. I talked to her about a frame swap, as I figured the lo-line was ideal for the v-frame mount, she was open to it, but as I was a bit cash strapped that week, and have quite a few other frames to choose from I went for the quick buck as the 70's NZ Made bikes are reasonably in vouge with the early 20's hipsters lately.
I do have a 16" version of the lo-line stored away, but the rear triangle has seen better days, I'm looking for a way to bring that back up to scratch, but in the mean time I picked up a bike at the tip for $15, with a bunch of parts I wanted. I set the frame up on some old spare wheels and listed it for sale, but there was little interest, so I used the handle bars on another bike which I knew would sell like hotcakes, so I'm back to being stuck with this frame :
made by Lespo, who incidentaly do mini velo, and some pretty cool fold up bikes. Originally I thought about a chop and fitting the 16" loline front end onto this.... to keep this entry brief - I stumbled onto the z-box site, and the picture in the original post, and as I have three motors in storage, I thought I'd work on a fun project this winter (southern hemisphere) and aim to hit the holiday market with it come october to offset the cost on my other serious projects....
So, finally to answer your question fm2200, how much does it wiegh? I've got no idea.
Neat times - thanks for your reply, advice and wisdom, it's much appreciated, and funnily enough, more or less the answer I was hoping for. With my original build, in album on my profile, I was riding to work last summer daily, I've clocked around 1500miles and have learnt a few of the basics now... more the point of this story is that one of my old firms clients was a pilot, and he was enquiring as to whether a folder could be built to fit in a single or two seater aircraft, as once he reached his destination he would then have to travel by foot everywhere. When he asked me I did recall my father telling me about the bikes the paratroopers had back in the day, and I did tell the pilot bloke that one way or another I was sure it was achievable. Good to hear you have a reliable solution to this challenge. Out here there seems to be a lack of availability of this kind of thing, as the market base is sooo small. We're looking at national population of about 4Million, where as two thousand kms to the west that's just a normal sized city... I'll bear the rear mount in mind, and if I see a fold up going for the right price I'll then be on the hunt for an old weedeater or similar, then briskly off to the landing strip at one of those 'gated community' type beach towns
So... back on track with the thread topic. Sound's like all I need to do is modify my inlet with a bit of brazing. Cool, now I feel I have some creative direction for the next few months. I'll try to remember to add some build pics up as I go, I'm normally very slack about documenting the process, but will make an effort to share the details. Thanks a bunch for your feedback guys.
M
