I've only managed to make it to one bike night so far this year... I went to Forgotten Star Bike night hosted by The Litas Twin Cities on June 3rd. An appropriate blogpost for Father's Day... My son debuted the 1978 Honda Z50 we worked on together late last year that I finished up with custom painted wheels and fresh tires in the spring. I had been sitting on various parts from a non-running Z50 since 2018 and the project was long overdue. It's a one-of-a-kind 48V electric conversion using a mix of original & new Z50 parts and all sorts of custom & modified parts by yours truly. The bars are by Zombie Performance. After a couple of issues frying and melting electrical bits, I'm thrilled with the way it turned out and my son loves it. The electric Z50 is quiet, fast, and has good range. He and I ride around our neighborhood together all the time and he was pumped to ride it into bike night. Unsurprisingly, quite a few people were peppering him with questions about it.
Erik's Triumph:
Modern Monkey:
For a sticker that big, I would have expected more than 10HP.
For the record, burnouts and stunting are discouraged at this event.
Again, I'm just really happy with how the electric Z50 turned out. I tried to save some weight with aluminum but I don't have the equipment or skills to weld aluminum so it was all done with cuts, notches, bends, bolts, rivets, and riv-nuts. There are a few steel pieces that I welded including the light brackets, electronic controller bracket (hidden), and extended kickstand. It was also a HUGE challenge to cram all the required parts into such a small frame and not make it look bad or make the fasteners impossible to access. I wanted to retain as much of the original Z50 vibe as I could. It's a Gophers and Cheese original. You will never see another one quite like it unless someone copies me and to that I wish you luck.
Canadian wildfire smoke was in the air, making for more dramatic sunsets.
Forgotten Star Bike Nights are the first Tuesday of the month from June through October, so the next one is July 1st.
