# 1975 schwinn speed demon race bike



## bairdco (Dec 21, 2015)

Built this for racing on go kart tracks. Top speed is 45mph. It'd go faster, but geared for the tracks. Modified china motor, custom cannonball tank, cafe seat, welded gussets, weighing in at 48lbs.


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## rocketman (Dec 23, 2015)

Bike has a great attitude to it, neat tank also. Im planning to put together a board track racer from a 20's motorbike frame and will be watching this CABE section for tips and idea's. Im planning to go with the China made 80cc kit and read there are a few things to do to them for improvement. Are you satisfied with the engine and anything I might need to focus on?  Thanks


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## bairdco (Dec 23, 2015)

The engines are junk. That being said, I used to derive some sort of masochistic pleasure out of tweeking every bit of horsepower out of them, modifying them to double and triple their horsepower, only to have them implode into chinese slag at the track.

I've built a ton of crazy motorized bikes, but I'm not interested in pursuing the chinese motor builds anymore due to the crappy design of the motors.

The bike pictured is the last one I have, and when it blows up, I'll sell it, or convert it into a custom pedal bike. 

There's a race april 2 at the Grange kart track outside of Victorville, CA, and I predict that will be my last race on a china motored bike.

I do have a NOS minarelli V1 moped motor I hope to build a completely custom race bike around, and hope to have it together for that race.

As for your motobike build, here's a Colson Flyer I built a few years ago, to give you some ideas...


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## rocketman (Dec 23, 2015)

Awesome Colson, great detail. Are you a pedal to the metal guy where these engines grenade? Would average speed conditions and pm upkeep on them help the motor life? Thanks for your input......Roger


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## bairdco (Dec 24, 2015)

Racing and everday use are totally different. I've built bikes for cruising that have lasted 10k miles, not totally trouble-free, but minor enough problems that were mostly easy fixes.

For race bikes, my reasoning is, if it crosses the finish line (mostly) in one piece,  it's a good day. We've taken the 2.5hp and boosted it up to 10+, with extreme modifications over the past 5 years.

Unfortunately,  I've had more failures than successes, and got tired of DNFs on the track, so I want to go a different route with the italian minarelli motor.

If you're mechanically inclined, these chinese motors can be pretty fun. They're cheap, easy to work on, and there's a lot of really cool builds out there.

There's a wealth of info at motorbicycling.com


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## rocketman (Dec 24, 2015)

thanks for the help and its obvious your a competitor and these little motors should be fine for my needs for my winter build project. I will check out this site you gave me. Thanks, again..................


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## militarymonark (Dec 24, 2015)

have any videos running on the track?


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## bairdco (Dec 24, 2015)

Can't post links on my phone, but if you go on youtube and search "bairdco" you'll find the "death race" main from a few years ago in Phoenix,  where I'm on a bike with an aluminum covered rear wheel.

And search "grange motorized bicycle racing" and a bunch of videos should pop up.


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