Every project begins with an idea and this one is no different. When I was a kid we had a Heathkit Boonie Bike around the farm and although it was rarely in working condition, it was good fun when it was. It looked like this, but not nearly in this good of condition.
Recently, while thinking of ways to pack the snow on a single track mountain bike trail for fat bikes to ride, I thought of the old Boonie Bike. Despite the large tires, it wasn't great in the snow, but the idea of a mini-bike with big tires that could go anywhere got me thinking. Thanks to the internet, I found a few examples of this idea taken to the next level.There are kits available to make something very similar to the Boonie Bike and I found that Coleman still produces something like it for sale, but for it to work in my application I had to have the largest tires I could get (within reason) and it had to be cheap. Plus, I wanted the enjoyment of designing and building it myself. This brought me to the idea of converting an old three wheeler to a mini bike. This has been done countless times by others, so it's not a new idea at all. This is good, since that means other examples exist to gain ideas from. This blog is a a document of the process I took to create a very fat tire mini-bike. Perhaps it will help inspire someone else to take on a similar project.
I stated watching Craigslist and ebay for cheap 3 wheelers in my area that still had some meat on the bone. I didn't care about pristine body work or condition of the seat, etc since I was going to scrap much of those items during the conversion anyway.
Finally after looking at a few, I found one I thought would work.
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| (photo from oldminibikes.com) |
Recently, while thinking of ways to pack the snow on a single track mountain bike trail for fat bikes to ride, I thought of the old Boonie Bike. Despite the large tires, it wasn't great in the snow, but the idea of a mini-bike with big tires that could go anywhere got me thinking. Thanks to the internet, I found a few examples of this idea taken to the next level.There are kits available to make something very similar to the Boonie Bike and I found that Coleman still produces something like it for sale, but for it to work in my application I had to have the largest tires I could get (within reason) and it had to be cheap. Plus, I wanted the enjoyment of designing and building it myself. This brought me to the idea of converting an old three wheeler to a mini bike. This has been done countless times by others, so it's not a new idea at all. This is good, since that means other examples exist to gain ideas from. This blog is a a document of the process I took to create a very fat tire mini-bike. Perhaps it will help inspire someone else to take on a similar project.
I stated watching Craigslist and ebay for cheap 3 wheelers in my area that still had some meat on the bone. I didn't care about pristine body work or condition of the seat, etc since I was going to scrap much of those items during the conversion anyway.
Finally after looking at a few, I found one I thought would work.
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