History Found the Holy Grail.....

....of mini bikes while cleaning out my garage.

Here are some pics of this most unusual little 2-wheeler:







Remove a quick-pin and the seat flips up.....



.....so you can fill 'er up with premix, it's a 2-stroke. The bottle-shaped frame tubes double as the fuel tank, bitchin' little feature.





West Bend Power Bee.



Unusual rear suspension, cast aluminum swing arm. Has brackets for a rear fender that was removed by a cool kid, obviously.





A lot of fairly complicated and clever engineering went into this little jewel.

Anyone here ever seen one of these?

I've owned this little sweetheart since the early '80s.

 

Dude that is awesome.

 

Cool looks like a hole lot of fun .

 

WOW never seen one like that. I want one of those now. KOOL That one looks like it is in good shape too. Neat lil mini. I like the tank and seat idea.

 

A few more shots:





Nice folding footpegs, cast aluminum and steel construction.

 

Sweet Bike...how did that survive?

 

Probably 1 too many burnt inner thighs and then in the back of the garage it went.

Cool little bike though for sure. Is it my imagination or are the front forks bent inwards - like might have hit a curb a little too fast at some point?

 

Do you know how many were made?

 

Looks like a fun way to take off some knee-caps!

 

Last ones, I took 15 shots :

Another look at the rear springs arrangement, the rear pivot points on both sides have zerk fittings so you can grease 'em up.



Clear evidence of a mishap, some poor kid must have found a curb or something. Yeah, they're a little bent. A little gas welding was done on the front forks, just adds to the patina.





Carb came without any air filter, I fashioned a stainless steel flange so I could hose clamp a universal filter onto it. There's a rubber plug in the carb flange so I could wash the little critter for the big photo shoot.

Chrome plated tee handle to drop the handle bars and make the bike a little more compact. Dad could toss this toy in the trunk of his Impala (didn't everyone have one of those?) and take Junior out to a remote parking lot or to a nice vacant lot for some real living, kid-style.

 

Only one.

I really have no idea, this is the only one I've ever seen.

Got it from my brother about 25 years ago, he owed me some bucks so I confiscated this lil' devil.

He saw it here a week ago and was surprised that I still had it buried in my stash.

 

Dude the frame is also the gas tank !! That will be a bitch to clean out if it's varnished up with skanky gas !! I used to have this pos mini called a Kit Kat. You could actually fold it up and put it in an airport locker as the owners manual had this in the pics. I can just see some dumb ass shutting one of these in an airport locker and fuel is pouring out all over hell. The thing was fun as hell to race INDOORS >>>>.

 

Love the engineering behind it!!

 

West bend with a tilliston carb!! Life is good!!
West bend had a left & right side motor, Guys would put them togetehr on go karts, called "Siamese" very fast for there time.
JimV

 

Had a mini with that same engine (MC-9) but no suspention Etc. That engine puts out increadible power for it's size! I remember sore fingers from it kicking back when trying to start it.

 

that is a sweet little mini bike

 

Found a couple of shots on the 'net of a Quarter Horse mini bike fully dressed:





So now there are two.

Looks pretty uncool with all that stuff on it, first thing I'd have done as a youngster woulda been to strip it down just like mine.

 

An amazing little bike. The trailing arms look to be cast alluminum. Must have been a few dollars when new. How fast will it go?

 

Without a speedo or someone pacing me in a car I'm not sure.

Seems like it can go somewhere between 30 and 40.

It always seems faster than you're really going when you're riding one of these dangerous little bikes though.

 

that thing is so cool iv never seen anything like that, and im into minibikes.

 

That thing is "Little Mike" size.

I wonder how many pedal cars Mike could jump on that?

 

Very cool, I love to have it too.

 

I remember those... Right out of the Montgomery Ward catalog! Or was it the Green Stamp catalog? Whichever it was I remember drooling over it and thinking how I could budget to get one!

 

After reading that monster mini bike thread here on the HAMB I was itching to show off this unique little machine.

I knew you guys would dig it as much as I do.

 

You know its bad when you find a mini bike in your garage.....I know someone like that. He said the other day he found a 427 side oiler in there under a bench....ask I speewed soda from my nose.

 

The "MC-9" is the McCulloch motor, Both great motors.
JimV

 

I actually held the Holy Grail in the summer of 1973. It had H-O-N-D-A on the side. It was red and was a 50. Don't know what you have there, but put a kid on it asap.

 

1st gen buell

 

I know it's been a while, just saw this. Anyway when I was about 10 my friend's dad bought two of these Quarter Horse minibikes with the West Bend engines, just like yours. We rode those things all over town for years before they finally died when we graduated to motorcycles. Awesome bikes, virtually indestructible and very comfortable to ride. Wish I still had one!

 

Thats sweet...