Taco minibikes are back!
 

Taco Mini Bikes - The Ultimate Mini Bike of the 1960's is back

Anyone else digging these!

Taco polo anyone!!??:D

Back in the early '70s I was kicking around in San Blas and almost bought a well used one, really cheap, from a young Mexican local who was always buzzing around the village on it. I thought it was really cool and fun to ride, but I couldn't fit it into my old VW bus.

At least I'm pretty sure it was a Taco. Were there similar looking scooters back then?

Look like fun...

The originals were called Doddlebugs. They can be had cheap still, but the collectors have had them in their sights for a few years.

Never heard of a Taco, but saw similar hardtail minibikes with a gas rank on the engine. Very cheap and basic.

Always wanted one. :crying:

Yeah! Now I remember the name; it was definitely a Doodlebug.

Will likely be banded in california.

Like birds, right?

Probably 'cause they don't float and the state don't want nobody to get drownded.

What a silly state. :rolleyes:

Just took a look at a Taco website...noticed that this minibike has a Honda engine? It's so wrong (except for reliability). Seems it would be more proper to have a Briggs & Stratton engine. Am I right??? That's what my older brother's minibikes had back in the early 70's.

Taco Polo?! I'm game..... Never had one growing up, moved straight to small derty bikes. A mini bike looks fun tho!

I should have said prohibited. Due to emissions standards.

You're probably right. :(

I don't remember ever riding one with a swingarm frame. How cool is that? Gotta love the leading link fork, too.

I had a Rupp. I can't remember it having any suspension on it at all. A bunch of us rode them to school. Had to hide them in the field behind the school so as not to get caught with them. They'd probably be stolen nowadays!

Some early ones had Clinton engines.

Doodle Bug Scooters - AACA Forums

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1290829628.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1290829784.jpg

How much $$$ fo da Taco Paco?

I had one. I stared at my neighbors neglected bike through the fence for a couple of years until I offered to buy it. He gave it to me instead! Rusty. Missing cables. You know the drill. I fixed it as far as my 12 year old self could but ran out of technical ability. I think my Dad did this purposely as he didn't want me to kill myself. Eventually, the kid down the street got it and had it running. Damn! I always wanted to ride that.

I had a Rupp too. No suspension and a piece of steel that pressed up against the rear wheel as a brake.

I learned to weld because of that bike. I had a habit of breaking the downtube of the frame driving it off curbs and such. Eventually, my dad got tired of doing it and showed me how.

I think it originally had a 2HP Husky motor we blew up, then I put a 5HP Briggs in it.
Anybody else ever rebuild one of those recoil spring pull starts? Chewed up a few fingers doing that..

Brings back memories. I had one in the mid 70s that looked about the same but hard frame. I bought it for $5 with bad motor. I bent the frame open with a bumper jack and crammed in an 8 HP Briggs and Stratton motor off a busted water pump. Used a centrifugal clutch that was not meant for a mini bike as it locked up into 0 slip at 900 RPM or so. The bike would go into warp speed and well past critical wobble stage unless you were careful. The motor stuck so far out to one side that it would fall over unless you were holding it and the spark plug was right next to your leg I zapped myself a few times before I added a block of wood to rest my leg on. I sometimes wonder why I am still alive.

Bah, swing arms and suspension? Kids nowadays are to soft.

My older brothers got one like this when I was 5, I ended up inheriting it about 5 years later when they couldn't get it to start (I could).
Briggs 3 1/2 hp.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1290884446.jpg

When I was 14, a neighbor and I decided it would be a good idea to install an early 60's honda superhawk 300cc engine that his dad had laying around in the mini-bike.

We cut the bike in half and welded some brackets and bolted the front half to the front of the engine and likewise the back end.
it had no clutch or brakes, so we push started it and then shifted up and down and shorted the coil and drug our feet to stop.
What could go wrong? :eek:
That thing nearly tipped over every time we gave it gas and the gear ratio was all wrong, we could hit nearly 50 mph in 2nd! It did not handle well at that speed.

Luckily we broke the frame so badly we couldn't repair it before the darned thing killed us.

Me and my dad used a Rupp for a model (from photos), and had one fabricated from scratch. Rupps were common in the East, and Tacos were unknown to us. He worked for Occidental and a welder friend bent the tubes and welded up the frame and forks, etc. We got the moving parts, wheels, sprockets, halfshaft, etc from a cart shop in town. No brakes. Had a Briggs engine. We had a blast with that thing! I was 12 at the time. I later traded it on an AlaKart Slingshot cart we used to race ('til my brother burned the head with some methanol mixture he was experimenting with).

We called the Doo Doo Bugs....the exhaust sounded like a long continuous fart....

Too funny! :D

Uh-oh-I'm getting old. I sure forgot about the scrub brake! Seems like we welded a lot on mine too.

I had one of those, it had a 3.5 hp Tecumseh engine, would do about 30 mph. I traded a barely-running AMF Roadmaster moped for it.

The minibike was fun as hell, but the twist throttle didn't work, so I had a string attached to the throttle that I would wrap around my right finger, and then I went tearing up and down the streets of my subdivision, it was a lot of fun. There was only one brake and it barely worked but I didn't care, I biffed on a regular basis! The moped could leave the subdivision and go down the main roads in my township, but only when it ran, which wasn't very often, so I guess the trade made sense.

N

When I was a kid I wanted one of these Taco's soooo bad I could taste it. ...Awww, but I never got one. Maybe this is my big chance. LOL

Damn, if those prices on the Taco are real, I know what my next business is.

Mini Bike Kits :: Minibike Minibikes Bikes Azusa Old School Vintage Kit

Tacos are cool, but if I was going to douche-around the neighborhood I'd rather do it on a Z-50 or a CT-70.

Those are cool, but not for that kind of money...:rolleyes:

+1..... In the 70's Honda minis ruled our neck of the woods. Those pull start lawnmower engine bikes were worthless for the kind of riding we did as kids. ;)


These are my daughter's first bikes that I restored from basketcases.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291037070.jpg

And these are the bikes I grew up on in the 70's (not my actual bikes, but mine were identical)

1st
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291037326.jpg

2nd
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291037501.jpg

3rd
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291037526.jpg

Awesome, that brings back memories. The XR75 was my first bike. My mom wanted to get me a 10 speed, and my brother convinced her that a dirt bike would be better. :D

+2 - I spent hours on an XR 75 on my cousins farm as a kid!

I lusted after one of these when I was 11 or 12. Then puberty hit and my attention shifted to girls ;)

I rode one a few times that was owned by a friend. That was a whole lot of fun.
He had an oval track setup next to the creek near his house.

Thanks for posting. :D