Sears Mini-Bike

[WardenRoss]

Around 1968 my Dad purchased me a Sears Mini-Bike. I was top-dog around my neighborhood and the envy of all my buds. The Mini-Bike started my lifelong motorcycle riding adventures.

I finally figured out that this unusual gift was actually to improve my production running around and working on my Grandparent's farm. Either way, it was a blast.

Great memories and it made for some great summers. I ran across these pictures on the internet. Her name was "Slick" and she had a metal-flake, purple seat.

Gotta love the internet!

 

[loknload]

Back in the day I could only have wished for one of those! my cousin had one plus a homemade go cart, my uncle use to like to mess around with things like that. During the summer months when I would visit I always got my share of ride time!

 

[Erich]

What a great post - I always wanted one (and never got one), but seeing this brought that thrill back to my heart.

Cooler than a fan!

 

[MSgt G]

I had a blue Honda 50 and my sister had a red one. My three cousins had the same model too. Boy, did we have some great times!

 

[G-Mac]

WardenRoss, do you still have it?

My friends had that model, but in different colors. My dad almost bought me a Rupp Scrambler, but he ended up buying me a Suzuki 50.

 

[plano]

I had a sears/allstate moped, the one with the pedals. Since I lived in very rural AL., lot's of field roads! It took a heck of a beatin and just kept going! Thanks, brought back memories.

 

[DeadAye]

The Allstate scooters and motorcycles were my favorite part of the outhouse reading/working material growing up. We never could afford one though.... Our family money went to more important things - The Railroad Tap comes to mind

 

[Aticus]

What I like about those and the other mini-bikes of that era is the brakes. Man they had some super stopping power!

 

[Brian41]

Brings back good memories as I had a Rupp that I bought with my own money for $200 and that was a lot of lawn mowing and paper deliveries.
It got me into motorcycles and owned a few of those too.

 

[oneflycowboy]

I had one that looked exactly like this one when I was a kid.

I never lost the itch for small fun little mini bikes.

Here are a few I currently own.

Piranha 140

Pitster Pro LXR 155 and a Kawasaki 110

 

[Kernel Crittenden]

Around 1968 my Dad purchased me a Sears Mini-Bike. I was top-dog around my neighborhood and the envy of all my buds.

"Mom, I'm going over to play at Ross's house."

 

[Fishinfool]

Back around 1969 or so, I got a Rupp Roadster for my birthday. Loved that little bike, with its chromed gas tank. Used to feel real bad a**, riding it to the local town swimming pool...lol

My mother blamed that Rupp as being a bad influence when I purchased a new Harley Superglide in 1977 at 18.

By the way, I think the Rupp was more reliable...

Larry

 

[arjay]

In '68 a friend of mine got a tote goat for his birthday.I bought his old mini bike,an old stingray bike with a 3 horse B&S engine and a go cart wheel on the back.My parents hated that thing lol.Cost me $23.

 

[soFlaNative]

Hey Ross, killer handlebars, man!

 

[KLYDE]

Great post. I spent many evenings drooling over articles in Mini Bike Guide magazine. I started out with a QA50 then graduated to a CT70. (Always purchased by me with paper route money.) The Honda bikes were hands down a better machine than your standard mini bike. For some reason the crude Briggs or Tachumseh minis with the centrifugal clutches were usually a bit faster. Boy were those some fun times.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

They had ape hangers even back then! . I remember going over to Audubon Park and riding go carts and mini bikes all day long! Fun times indeed!!

 

[Just another 22 shooter]

Brings back memories of going to Tractor Supply with my dad. They had mini bikes setting up front...first thing you saw when you came in the store. I usually never got past them; just sat on them ,dreaming, until Dad was done getting whatever he needed for the farm. At age 17 I bought a Yamaha 250 Enduro. The fun I had on it made up for not having a mini bike in my younger years.

 

[Marshwheeling]

1958-63 were the years when mini bikes reigned supreme in my neighborhood. I never got my hands on one of my own, although my brother and I did get a pair of 5hp Briggs-powered quarter midgets.

I don't remember mini bikes in the Sears catalog in those years. We all lusted after the Puch and Gilera Allstate bikes we saw in the catalog, and the collarbone-breaking Piaggio Vespas that seemed to fall down whenever they encountered a little sand on the pavement.

By 1968, I had a real motorcycle, a 305cc Yamaha twin. i did pick up a couple of Vespas over the years, but it wasn't until the late '70s that I finally got a 50cc Sears Sabre, a fan-cooled Puch 2-stroke. Later on I acquired a 106cc Allstate Gilera, and finally, around the mid-90s, a 250cc Allstate Puch split single.

Obviously, by that time I had newer and better bikes, but I still lusted after the bikes of my youthful dreams, not the only objects of lust in the Sears catalog, but the only ones that still haunted my sleepless hours years later.

 

[WardenRoss]

WardenRoss, do you still have it?...

Sorry to say, no. Found the pictures above searching the web.

After my Dad died, we sold the home place and all the junk around back. The old mini-bike was still there, less the motor.

Looking back, I should have salvaged it. Too much to do in those sad days.

I've got some pictures of me riding it, around here somewhere. All the girls in my neighborhood waited in line to ride pillion. Great times!

 

[S&W Fan]

Back around 1969 or so, I got a Rupp Roadster for my birthday. Loved that little bike, with its chromed gas tank. Used to feel real bad a**, riding it to the local town swimming pool...lol

My mother blamed that Rupp as being a bad influence when I purchased a new Harley Superglide in 1977 at 18.

By the way, I think the Rupp was more reliable...

Larry

Hah! I had a Rupp too! 1968, we had just moved to Tucson and there was a shop on Speedway called Motorsport Supply. The big trick was taking off the muffler and screwing in a straight pipe to make it sound "bad" lol.

A year later I got a Honda CT-70 H (1970 model actually, clutch & 4 speed). That was the start on a very long two-wheeled road. Just bought my younger son the Basic Rider Course for his upcoming 27th birthday-any bike purchase is up to him haha.