Western Flyer motorized bike

[merlin]

So, just ordered all the parts for my build.

I have a 40's or 50's western Flyer that I found under junk in a one room schoolhouse.

Antique parts: I have ordered antique wheels, a battered rear fender, a chain guard from the wrong bike but I like it, and a 1940's pedal assembly.

New parts: Ordered a Repop headlight and delt tail light. Swing down rear stand (from Spooky Tooth) Cannot remember what else.

Engine: Friction drive (yup, I will have to a cut a hole in the rear fender) Simple Simon Setup with Mitsubishi motor.

What have I done so far?
-stripped bike down of its parts. Still wrestling with head assmbly and front fender.
-managed to clean down original paint on tank and frame enought that it is salvagable. Dove grey frame with red tank.
-dismantled seat so I can sandblast and then recover it.

This will be fun for wandering around town!

Pictures will come as soon as I upload them to my site.

-Merlin

 

[icyuod2]

just a couple things to keep in mind with these motorized bicycles.

theres a lot of horror stories bout motorized bicycles and fenders. i'm not saying not to use em, but you should be careful.

since you mentioned using a beat up old fender, be sure washers are used to prevent screws from pulling thought weakened fenders. lock tite everything! and make sure there good and solid. the last thing you want to do is fold back a front fender at 40mph cause it caught the thread.

triple check that old frame for fatigue. westerns where cheaply made in there day. i've bent a couple frames from everyday riding.

looking forward to seeing the build pic's

 

[merlin]

Frame welds are all good, frame steel has no rust, it is in surprisingly good shape. The "beat up" fender just has surface rust. I may do some welding of the rear fender to strengthen around areas I have to cut. My main concern is braking power and how to improve it. I may take some cues from one of my antique motorcycles.
thanks, and have fun
-Merlin

http://www.hansonmechanical.com
http://www.theatercar.com

 

[willysfan]

My son wanted to do that exact thing, fix up a Western Flyer X-53 and put a motor on it. After he had the X together he decided he liked it too much to risk dropping it with the motor... So we dug up a frame from the garbage heap. Here are the bikes, the X-53 is in the background, the huffy on the left is what was left over from putting the X-53 together and the one on the right is......well its together thats what it is.

Side note, my son has the 49cc on his bike and I have the 80cc on mine, get the 80.

and here is the Western flyer

 

[xHOBOPHOBIAx]

please tell me you are going to convert that tank to a gas tank.

 

[willysfan]

Sorry my boy is leaving it like it is. I will be building a tank for the huffy though.

 

[icyuod2]

ran mine with nothing more than a coaster brake.
the hand levers are gas and clutch.

 

[Gdcast]

Wow, the perfect thread!
I´ll be building sort of a motorized board track racer very soon and:
Meriln, did not find the pics of your project, in which I´m very interested, but I found pics of a Cj2 modified to look like a MB and got hooked, cause is exactlly the case with mine... more on that?
Willysfan, what about yours? Cj3A or M38?
I love bikes but when It comes to jeeps I´m nuts.
Mine...

 

[merlin]

I'll get some photos up soon. I seem to restore Jeeps and motorcycles through my business Hanson Mechanical.com I have a '44 MB which is titled as a CJ2A, no CJ2A left though. I currently have a backlog of five Jeep restorations for customers....just lost my apprentice though which makes things go slower. I am currently working on my MB engine as the compression is quite low.

 

[merlin]

Oh, and I love that Western Flyer. The board track build is amazing though. Thanks for the info on the coaster brake!

 

[merlin]

Here are some pictures of the project so far. I have repainted the frame, recovered the seat, oiled and greased anything that moves, sandblasted some part etc.. I am waiting for more parts to come in right now. yes, it is next to a 1956 Porsche 356 I am working on...it was my dad's first car.

 

[icyuod2]

looking good!

 

[merlin]

latest picture below. I just finished redesigning a rear fender and making new brackets so the fender works around the motor setup. Waiting for a few more parts and we'll see how this works

 

[59punk]

ran mine with nothing more than a coaster brake.
the hand levers are gas and clutch.

I love this build!!! I always look at this under the boardtrack gallery, so nice! :mrgreen: