Roger Hillman and I on our minibikes, ready to go up Traduce Canyon to camp. This was about 1968 I think. Our family's '57 Chevy Bel Air station wagon can be seen behind Roger on the right.
My brother John and I bought a used minibike when I was about 13, using paper route money. After a while I figured I could make one myself. I got a lawn mower engine from a neighbor, and went down to the metal supply place on Manchester and Lincoln for pipe and a pipe bender. I bent the pipe, hacksawed and drilled holes as I needed, and I got wheels/tires, springs for the shock absorbers, and other stuff from Linbrook and the hardware store downtown. I used handlebars from a stingray bike. I bought an arc welder and used the manual that came with it to weld all the pipes together. Real welders would laugh uproariously at my work, I'm sure, but my welds never broke so I was happy.
We'd ride them around the neighborhood, but mostly in the vacant lots that we had around our home in Anaheim at that time. I don't know how the neighbors put up with the noise. We also made some excursions, once to the Anaheim Hills area, a couple times up to the desert along 395 north of the Cajon Pass, and once along the railroad tracks near our house to see where they went. They went all the way to Huntington Beach!
When I got the arc welder, Dad had to put in a 220 outlet for it. He installed something in the fuse box, and ran wire into the garage for me to use. I'm not sure how he knew what to do, or if there were any code issues he had to deal with. Looking back on it, it all seems pretty unbelievable.
In the photo, I'm wearing a white t-shirt, Levis, black socks and green deck shoes. This was my standard get-up in those days.
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