Tornado - early Go ped

1. COVER STORY BUILD
MI's
TORNADO!
By John Capotosto
IF YOUR youngster is getting too fast
for his foot-powered scooter, motor-ize
it—and then just try to keep him
away from it. We attached a small, two-cycle
engine to a $5 scooter and, in a
single afternoon, our son became the
most popular kid in the neighborhood.
Popular with other kids, that is. Adults
don't care that much for the roar.
Just a few tools and a minimum of
time are required to transform the
scooter. For simplicity, we used a right-hand
friction drive consisting of a three-in.
rubber-faced driving wheel rubbing
against the outer edge of the front tire.
This design may raise a few eyebrows
in engineering circles, but who cares?
It works fine and eliminates the chains,
sprockets, belts and pulleys which could
prove dangerous where small fry are
involved.
Controls are simple: a throttle to vary
the speed and a switch to cut the igni-tion.
Brakes and kick stand are stand-ard
equipment on most scooters, so no
additional work is involved here. Al-most
any small multi-purpose gasoline
engine can be used to power the scooter.
The mounting shown is for an Ohls-son
& Rice 1-hp Compact engine (Model
100 Mechanix Illustrated

2. J-III; price $55.86) with clutch. The U- longer line may be purchased at any
shape bracket attaches to the body of hobby shop. The tank should be in ap-the
engine and the Z-shape bracket proximate line with the carburetor. The
mounts on the scooter steering column. Z-shape bracket holds the engine at an
A 5/16 " bolt serves as pivot, allowing angle which would allow an imaginary
the engine assembly to swing vertically, line to pass through the engine shaft
with the tension spring assuring contact and the wheel axis.
between driving and driven wheels. In- Leads from the toggle switch mounted
stall the brackets and use lock washers on the handlebar are connected directly
with all bolts. to the low-tension switch on the engine
A one-pint gasoline tank is mounted housing. This eliminates the need for
on the rear of the steering column and stooping over to shut off the engine. If
is held in place with two 1/4 " bolts. If your engine has a high-tension cutout,
the plastic gas line supplied with the the task won't be quite this easy. You
tank doesn't reach the carburetor a will have to locate a low-tension wire,
March, 1966 101

3. Z-SHAPE bracket is attached to steering
column of the scooter; use lock washers.
WASHER and double nuts are to prevent
engine-bracket pivot from working loose.
COMPLETED installation shows position
of drive wheel in respect to driven wheel.
CUTOUT switch is installed on handle bar;
throttle control is attached to the column.
cut it and attach the leads to the toggle
switch.
The driving wheel is fashioned from
a three-in. pulley ringed with rubber
cut from an old V-belt. Cut the belting
so it fits with a neat joint, then secure
it in the groove of the pulley with con-tact
cement. Save the remainder of the
belt for making replacements—before
the metal edges of the pully are exposed.
Top speed of MI's two-wheel Tornado
is a safe 10 mph but this could be in-creased
for older children by using a
larger driving wheel.
Ohlsson & Rice's Model J-III engine
is 5-3/4". high, weighs 3-3/4 lbs. without
the tank and will run approximately an
hour on a pint of gasoline. The address
is Ohlsson & Rice, Inc., 3340 Emery St.,
Los Angeles, Calif. 90023.
One word of caution: this is a back-yard,
private-property scooter. If you
run it on a public street, you'll require
registration and a license plate. •
102 Mechanix Illustrated
V