Since this thread is about old style minibikes and I haven't posted much in a while ...
For anyone interested , I found some info on old style bikes like SSR-125's who I assume is in America ...
Deckson, Deltek and Grand-Prix Mini Bikes
I used to own a Deckson Daredevil (suspension up front and on the seat) with a Victa 125 zip start 2 stroke motor in it ... my mate bought one without the suspended seat and with a Victa 160 in it thinkin' it'd be faster than mine ... but it actually went slower in top speed due to breathing thru the same sized Amal carb and cylinder ports and having the same final drive ratio ... It didn't rev quite as high ...
Another mate had a totally unsuspended Deckson Demon that had a Kirby-Tecumseh 125 4 stroke engine and it was bouncy over bumps but super reliable ...
Another friend had a Deltek Rockhopper with a 147 Kirby 2 stroke motor in it ...
My brother owned a Deckson Hunter with a 172 cc Tecumseh 4 stroke engine in it ... Hunters were a lot like a pitbike with 10/10 wheels and normal type front and rear suspension (twin shock rear) ... They all suffered from a range of problems over time ... Chains broke , centrifugal clutches didn't last long (the brass bushes wore and made a weird noise then tried to sieze and drive the bike , brake shoe-like clutch pads didn't last very long and clutch springs broke) , the frames cracked etc ... but the actual engines were super reliable ... Except the Victa Zip starts which broke cords , wore the alloy cups out etc ...
The Deckson Hunter had what was described as an "Infinitely Variable" belt drive torque converter ... It looked like a jack-shaft and the clutch was a strange V pulley contraption made up of 2 cones that had weights and springs inside ... At idle the cones pulled apart and when the revs started to increase , the front V pulley would close up , grab the belt to drive the bike and as the bike went faster , it clamped together harder gradually pushing the belt out towards the outer diameter of the pulley to increase the gearing ratio ... The rear pulley opened out to decrease it's diameter ... It was like a smooth transtioning auto transmission and was considered to be "high tech" by us at the time
... Deckson hunters could climb steep hills easily and the bike would jump into a wheelstand when the front pully grabbed the belt ... Tightening the springs up turned the auto clutch into a Hi-Stall converter ...
I just found these pics :
http://macbobaust.com/hunter3.html
There was another minibike called a TAS and it had a single speed , manual clutched 2 stroke motorcycle type motor in it ... The wheels were a lot smaller in diameter too ... Then Geminis came on the scene and were a 2 stroke motorcycle but they had bad trannies ...
