How-To: Build a Custom Minimoto Rack

[Duck 16]

Thanks to Rich Helms, all of my free time and money is now devoted to the sport of Minimoto. Riding around on go cart tracks or parking lots on impossibly small sportbikes is about as addictive as a one handed activity.

The bikes are about 1 metre long and fit horizontally in the back of the car. However as I am a complete spaz, in doing this I successfully managed to claw up the soft plastic of my boot as roughly as the insides of an undeclawed kitten's carry case. I spilled half a litre of gasoline onto my passenger seat footwell as well and I was not a happy camper.

The logical conclusion? Move it outside.

I had bought the hardware in the winter to build a snowboard rack and successfully pulled that off, so I figured building a rack to hold my Cagliari A2R Air wouldn't be much more difficult. The maximum allowable mass on the basic rack offered by smart is something like 35 kg. At 22 kg, my bike would be getting close to the limit with additional hardware, but in the end I'm confident I'm still under that number (and after all, it's just a number).

So yeah. How do we make this...

...fit onto this.

The answer? We use a lot of extrusion. I disassembled most of my snowboard rack (whatever, I'll rebuild it again in the winter I guess). It came apart very poorly, because I didn't use stainless bolts, and they'd rusted and crumbled to bits. That's hot. I took a metre long piece of 45 mm profile and ran it horizontally across at the level where the two tiny dowel pins are - this is the location I believe the bike rack locks into anyway. Much more sturdy.

It helps to have a fully equiped shop with lots of space to work on this sort of thing!

I then made two forks come out with angle brackets, going back to the original frame. This is incredibly strong, and what I did for my snowboard rack to support the vertical load of the board hanging down. Here, it would have to support the entire mass of the bike, so I had to make sure that this was the strongest part of the rack. The worst thing that could happen would be for the bike to go flying off and hit a bus full of nuns on 401. And then we have nun soup. Yes, Short Circuit is still one of my favourite movies, thank you very much.

Doing a load test on the rack.

I used some formed metal deck plate to make up the base support for the bike. This stuff we had kicking around has a natural lip on both sides for strength and I inverted it and used it in that orientation.

Hi, here's what not to do. Destroy your company's bandsaw. Yeah.

After drilling the holes out that would allow me to bolt the deck plate down onto the rack forks, I ground down the corners on all the edges to make sure no one (me, remember - klutz) would cut themselves on it. Or puncture the tire.

After hunting around the shop for 20 minutes looking for square nuts, I realised that a regular M8 nut (I'd used M8 bolts everywhere to secure the profile sections) will fit perfectly into the Minitec profile. I never knew this! Bonus.

Securing the deck plate to the forks.

The hardest part was figuring out how to stabalize the bike. It's all very well to suport it from below, but without anything to keep it from tiping off the back it'd be pretty useless. The frame of the bike has a long, angled support which runs along the bottom of the fuel tank, from the front forks to the rear wheels at. This is probably the strongest part of the bike and I decided this is what I should aim for in terms of lateral support.

This beam runs collinear to the main support element on the bike frame.

This all seems so simple but it took me several hours to figure all this out and tinker with it to get it to this point. After a quick run to Canadian Tire, I picked up two different kinds of lash straps (bungees I felt would not be sufficient here) and had a go at loading the bike onto the rack.

I'm really happy with how this turned out. It's more secure than my snowboard and after a lot of agressive testing in the industrial park that I work in, the thing is solid as a rock. The only thing I might change is add two chock blocks to guarentee that there's no rocking left or right of the bike at all on the channel deck.

Here are a few additional views:

Even though this little "How To" might only apply to one other person on this forum , I hope it was a fun read anyway to those who made it this far. Happy 6 month anniversary, Nosedive.

-Iain

[smart142 605]

Wow!! Another work of art! And that's the rack and the photos! Well done!

[IMSMRT 0]

Pretty ingenious Duck! Looks great!One question....why mount it all so high up? why not mount the platform down near the bottom of the frame closer to the big bolts? you can't see through the bike anyways and mounting the whole thing lower is easier to load as its not as high a lift....(look after your back now!) and its also outta the draft over the roof....as well as possibly being below the rear window allowing you to see out back.Just a thought...but not sure if there is something obvious that one would only see up close as to why this wouldn't work!Cheers!S

[Duck 16]

This is gonna sound so stupid... but I'm too lazy to move the licence plate. If I put the bike in the middle of the hatch (where, I agree, it would make a lot more sense) - it'd block the licence plate.-Iain

[SmartieParts 12]

Is blocking a plate any more illegal than causing all those accidents as drivers take long 2nd looks to be sure they saw what they thought they saw?

[Duck 16]

Is blocking a plate any more illegal than causing all those accidents as drivers take long 2nd looks to be sure they saw what they thought they saw?

Sorry Steve, I don't quite follow what you mean...?

-Iain

[ValgardForkbeard 2]

Are micro cars carrying micro bikes so common where you are that they don't warrant a second look?

Well done rack, and the concepts would work if anyone else has unique hauling needs.

MG

[Evilution 0]

That is a bit high, rear view must be a little restrictive too.

In a rear shunt i'd prefer the bike to hit the boot than come sailing in through the window.

Could you not have another plate made up that just velcros to the rack base?

[ValgardForkbeard 2]

The plates in Canada don't work that way. To get another one, you would have to get a new registration, replacing the previous one. I believe in the UK the plate is issued to the car, for the life of the car?

MG

[IMSMRT 0]

Is blocking the plate a real worry? Its not like you would be depriving the old photo radar vultures of a tasty meal....I can't remember what Ontario law is...I know that the bike rack I use on my van blocks the plate when in use....

You could take your chances or maybe mount the plate to the rack just above the bike...not that the bike weighs that much but you have a high centre of gravity and like it was stated above it would be better to take the hit to the bike down low rather than through the window..

but like you said motivation is a factor here

[Evilution 0]

What a strange system, so if someone steals one of your number plates you can't get a replacement, you have to get a totally different number?

[SmartieParts 12]

People steal license plates?

In Canada (or BC at least) the plate goes with the insurance policy, which is more the person than the car. I suppose if a plate got stolen, they wouldn't want to issue another one anyway... safer to issue a completely different plate I would think. That way, the police aren't constantly pulling you over at gunpoint ordering you out of your stolen car.

- Steven

[RichHelms 1]

This is just like the bicycle rack. It also has the bike high as in most of Europe it is against the law to block the license plate or the tail lights. This way it is above both

The only problem is you have to lift the bike high to put it on

[Speedie 4]

What a strange system, so if someone steals one of your number plates you can't get a replacement, you have to get a totally different number?

Yep - you get a new plate - it is quite common for crooks here to steal car - find a similar vehicle and steal the plate and attach - that way - the car appears normal (i.e. you are more likely to notice your car gone and report it stolen than your plate missing). A lot of people are turning to security bolts on thier plates to try and keep them on the car. Costs something like $36 bucks for a new set.

Also road conditions can be a bit hard on plates over here (i.e. my Jeep needs a new set - the front has been mushed around the bumper a few times and the rear sticks out and makes contact with passing brush).

Cheers,

Cameron

[bilgladstone 13]

What a strange system, so if someone steals one of your number plates you can't get a replacement, you have to get a totally different number?

Yes, that's right. $25 to replace both plates as I recall. And you get a new number.

The insurance/registration renewal stickers are just peel/stick little decals in 12 different monthly colours that rotate each year, plus a smaller date-of-the-month sticker. Each year, you stick the new one on top of the old one. On my last car, this pile of sticker-on-sticker was almost 3/8 inch deep!

These "proof that I'm insured" stickers (I'm talking about British Columbia) go only on the rear plate, so that is the most commonly stolen plate; the thieves can then drive to "work" without being pulled over by the Police for displaying an expired license. There is also amateur traffic in digitally-forged stickers now that quality colour printing is so simple.

In younger days I had odd friends who would stick Dentyne Chewing Gum wrappers in place of the coloured registration stickers, picking the flavour by the appropriate colour packaging for one of this year's monthly colours. At a distance, you couldn't tell that it wasn't the proper, approved sticker.

Definitely not worth doing, but then the majority of criminals aren't the brightest bulbs on the tree.

[mixed 1]

Looks good duck ................ I happened to see it in person Saturday as you turned from 6 onto the 401 at about 3:00 pm .......... I was sitting at the opposite light..........

[mattdaddy 0]

Hehe, I love Duck's howtos!

Imagine if the timer on his camera were to ever break? What kind of vein would pop in that melon of his?

[Speedie 4]

That rack of extrusion in the background certainly is enough to pop a vein for! Once again - great job Duck and thanks for sharing it with us.

Cheers,

Cameron

[darren 192]

That.

Is.

AWESOME!

Iain, you HAVE to get your minimoto painted Stream Green + Black.

darren.

[Duck 16]

Is blocking a plate any more illegal than causing all those accidents as drivers take long 2nd looks to be sure they saw what they thought they saw?

Hey Steve, what do you mean? People drive off the side of 401 when I wear my helmet too but that's their problem not mine. : shrug :

-Iain

[SmartieParts 12]

Was just a joke

[darren 192]

People drive off the side of 401 when I wear my helmet too but that's their problem not mine. : shrug :

Do you regularly drive around doing your imitation of The Stig?

[Duck 16]

Just a newer shot:

While I had planned on converting this back into my snowboard rack for the winter, now that I am pretty heavily involved in the OPBRL winter series I am going to leave it together. I can slip my board in across the folded down passenger seat anyway. And my lone snowboarding buddy Elisa has moved out to Seattle, so I don't need a rack really anymore. Ah well.

-Iain

[Guest |Eric|]

Well done nice howto & rackjust a litle insight your plate doesnt have to be bolted im memory serves ... just get one of those plate holders Dealers use it just hangs from the back ...

[Duck 16]

What's to stop someone nipping off with your plate then while you're not around -Iain