Planet Minis

makotosun

My son turns 6 in about a month and he has been riding a TRX70 for nearly a year, but is still a bit shaky on two wheels. I purchased an old beater Z50R several years ago, before I realized how much I overpaid for it (before I joined here!) and am now starting on the rebuild for him to learn to ride on.

I tore it down to the frame a week or two ago, and have been painting, cleaning, etc. so I thought I'd start a thread on the build for anyone who cares.

The before pics:









It looks bad, but it actually does run. The tank was full of rust and is probably not salvageable.

Here is the intended recipient during disassembly:



Plans are for a strip down, repair/replace as needed, detail as much as possible, and since my boy wants it to look like my old Yamaha Enduro, it has to be YELLOW

The bike will get new trailwings, a new chain/sprockets, new front fork internals and rebuild, seat cover, new tank, new handlebars, and except for the tank, a mostly fizzy can paint job. Remember, he is learning to ride on this, so I anticipate another redo in a year or two. It just needs to look reasonably good and run reasonably well. Along those lines, it is probably gonna get a china motor for now since I have one on the shelf. Gonna rebuild the stocker for the next rebuild.

Progress so far:

Some of the paint:



Some detailing:





Some new bars (Fly mini bend shortend by 6" overall):



Keeping the stickers:



And the frame ready for assembly:



Lots more to do of course, but I will keep posting as the build goes along. Final specs will be posted after it is complete.

filthyboatguy

Cool.

mini_thump

Sweet! My best friend growing up has a Z that looks just like yours, only its pretty beat to death. He refuses to sell it to me though.

I like the black and yellow look, post some up of your Enduro too.

SUZUKIRM12594

WOOOW!!! Looks like its comming along great. I know your boy will enjoy.

mikev

Looks awesome!

I'm half tempted to keep my hardtail around for my 5 year old, too.

tmas

Going to be nice,Your a good Dad.
tmas

aaron33_dg@f

looks sick!!

what motor r u puting in it??
stock...

vegatron75

Looks good! Is that a 6v motor in there? I thought all those style z's came w/ cdi 12v motors.

chasetheface123

sweet lookinig z post a vid when your done

iskatealot33

looks great!

Z

Great project. I'm doing the same thing over the winter for my 7 year old.

klx 110 master

that Z is looking good

matty88

nice, i think you should keep the honda motor though but slowly build it up as he gets better and needs more power

FastMC

I like the look on your boys face in that pic...He must be excited. Should be fun.

makotosun

Thanks for the postive responses. Lots to do still I have a Fast Fifties seat cover for the seat, and will be adding a headlight and taillight kind of like Portland did with his eventually. For now I just want to get it all together and moving under it's own power and fix the major problems.

The motor in it is incorrect for the bike, it is a 6 volt points motor. Unless I find a deal on a later model motor, I will probably just build it up - probably an 88 or something. I have a new china 50 I got almost free that will move it along for now while I build the Honda motor.

The Yamaha that he likes is here:



'75 DT400 that I took on a 1500 mile backroads trip from Monticello, UT to Port Orford, OR on the Trans America Trail last spring. More details on the trip and the bike are HERE.

ShortysPop1

thats so cool... .... so ur goin for a mini version of that dt400... thats so cool... kinda like model ship building... expet not totaly gay.....

.... this is cool cause its a mini dirtbike... heheh.... cool good luck.

makotosun

Worked on the darned thing most of the day - painting, repairing, locating stuff I misplaced when I took it apart . . .

The original plastic was pretty scrungy, and of course, the wrong color. I used some of the Krylon Fusion paint to make it right:





I have used this stuff before on some other bike projects, and it is amazingly durable. We shall see if it as strong in the face of a determined 5 year old!

I still have to do the shocks so I made up some struts so I could get the thing back to being a roller. Plus the plastics needed to be test fit.



I located some yellow and black grips at Bent Bike in Seattle - they are vintage with the black being a sort of foam rubbery stuff.



This shot makes it look a lot bigger than it really is:



And of course, it seems to be meeting the approval of the future owner!



Hopefully tomorrow I may get some more done on it, but who knows. Probably will need to so some honeydo jar tasks.

More when I get more done.

Lair

Looks like a fun father/son project.

He'll remember it for the rest of his life.

SUZUKIRM12594

Daaaam!!! That is one lucky kid. The thing is a piece of art. Props man.

ShortysPop1

HAHAH WOW that thing is looking so fun... man... ive got two project bikes already... STOP POSTING SUCH COOL SH*T... dont make me do something ill regret! hahaha