WV Mountain Climber Pt. 1
I took a stock Coleman CT200UEX mini bike and did a ton of modifications and fabrication. Stage 1 Kit, Torque Converter, Extra Foot Pegs, Muffler Upgrade, Large Sprocket, Front Brake, Front Rack, & Back Rack.
Transcript:
To try and keep this video from dragging on forever, I’m only going to be talking about what I’ve done to this mini bike. I’ll make a separate video going over the reason for all these modifications.
Basic Mini Bike Modifications
Every welder fabricator or tinkerer has some sort of an origin story, and I believe this is mine. This was once a stock Coleman CT 200u-ex Mini Bike. I’ll go ahead and give a shout out to Red Beard’s Garage. This is where I first saw the torque converters that were available through GoPowerSports.
After adding the torque converter, I quickly realized that the seat was horrible. This was my first attempt at fixing the seat. I bought some springs and welded a piece of flat bar to the frame. I added a steel plate between the cushion and the seat plastic. It was an improvement over stock, but it functioned like a lawnmower seat on steroids. I eventually addressed this. I added a stage one kit and swapped to a 72 tooth sprocket. I was climbing a mountain, so all I really cared about was low end torque. I got a free tattoo from the new muffler! He did quick work, but I wasn’t thrilled with the results. You’ll notice I used header wrap (1″ or 2″) on the exhaust from this point on.
Adding a Front Brake to the Coleman CT200u-ex Mini Bike
I added a front brake to the bike. This required ordering a rear rim, brake lever, and brake cable. I shortened the cable and soldered a new barrel to the end. Shout out to Anthony Shelton for his video on adding the front brake, and I’ll be sure to link it in the description.
Mini Bike External Fuel Cannister
Before we go any farther, this is the biggest tip I have for mini bikes. Get yourself a backup fuel canister (MSR Liquid Fuel Bottle – Cheaper Alternative, MUCH larger). This little bottle has saved me a ridiculous amount of times. Okay, here’s where things start to get interesting. I built this bike to take me around a mountain doing Wildlife photography. Most mini bike Mufflers aren’t designed to actually muffle the engine, and I wanted to see how quiet I could make the bike. I paid I think forty dollars for this stock street bike muffler on Facebook Marketplace.
Adding Foot Pegs and Mounting a Rack
Here’s the first iteration of the bike. I added a second set of foot pegs to help on those, somewhat dicey hill climbs. And as you can see, I definitely needed more space. So I came up with some ideas to add a rack onto the front. At this point, I was carrying my camera and a giant lens in a body harness.
I removed the headlight and ran bolts through part of the forks. I used the existing fender mount hole to support the rack, and then reattached the headlight. And here’s the beast all loaded up! I transported it laying on its side in the back of a Subaru station wagon… because of this I knew I had to make the back rack box removable. My solution was to attach an old milk crate and I later came up with a better mounting solution.
The front rack worked out great, and it was almost like it was custom designed to fit my photo backpack. Another key feature I added was a piece of round bar above the header pipe. There’s plenty of header wrap, but sometimes my coveralls got a little warm. I’ll be back with part two of my build soon, and I have a ton of videos in progress right now. Everything from Welding and Fabrication to Tool reviews.