Gophers and Cheese

July was another fun bike night at Forgotten Star , hosted by The Litas Twin Cities .

The last bike night of the season at  Forgotten Star  was hosted by  The Litas Twin Cities  on October 7th.  The days may be shorter now but the weather was nice and dry so the resulting turnout was strong.  I brought the Evil Monkey, my Honda Z50 that's now sporting a new 125cc Lifan motor.

The Evil Monkey got a fresh upgrade!  I've had my 1976 Honda Z50 for nearly 10 years.  It came with the original 50cc motor that I bumped up to 88cc with a big bore kit quite a few years ago.  I've had a brand new Lifan 125cc (4-speed auto) motor sitting around that I was planning to use for another project.  I decided that I'm probably not getting to that other project for a while so I might as well put the motor to good use.

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...

The last bike night that I attended in 2024 was October 1st.  It was held at Forgotten Star Brewing and hosted by The Litas Twin Cities .  It was particularly fun because my son and I both brought bikes.  I had the Evil Monkey (my '76 Honda Z50) and he had his Razor MX350.  Obviously we didn't ride them there, but we did ride around the parking lot and it was a blast.  The Razor was originally my daughter's bike and when she outgrew it, my son rode it a bunch.  Over the past few months, I built him his own custom bike and I'll get to posting about that eventually.

More photos from Pokey Tire Ice Racing 2025!!

Pokey Tire Ice Racing was held on Duck Lake in Madison Lake, MN on February 1, 2025.  It's been going on for a few years, but this was the first time I attended.  It was a cold, cloudy, and windy day out on the lake but it was a lot of fun!  The ice was solid, smooth, and very slippery as there was no snow cover.  I brought the Snowmonkey, which is the winter version of the Evil Monkey, my 1976 Honda Z50.  It has a studded tire in the back and banana ski up front.  It's been about 7 years since I've had it out on a frozen lake and it's as sketchy as it looks.  When I wasn't taking pictures, I did a bunch of laps and I even drag raced a newer 125cc Monkey... twice!!

How about one more event from 2019...   Motosota was held at Bauhaus Brew Labs  September 7, 2019.  It's the annual "farewell to summer", hosted by The Moto Collective .

The 3rd Annual Spare Arts Bike Show was held on August 27th, 2016 down in Austin, MN.  It was organized by Andrew of Hold Fast Motors.  Austin is a cool little town but is probably best known as the home of Spam and the Spam Museum .  If you haven't been, you should definitely go.  The show took place 2 months after Moto Mania 2: The Big Deuce so it was a bit of a reunion of sorts for many who were there.  I drove down to the show with my son and brought the Evil Monkey (my Honda Z50).  After the show we stopped at Elko Speedway for Eve of Destruction featuring (besides regular racing) drifting, figure 8 school bus races, a jet car melting another car, and a transforming robot dinosaur that ate another car.  Needless to say, it was a great day.

I threw the banana ski on the Evil Monkey (my 1976 Honda Z50) and rode around on Saturday.  The snow was deep so I carved a track with my snow thrower.

After watching Flat Out Friday live streaming last night, I think I was inspired to get outside and ride.  I carved a track in the backyard with my snowthrower, put my studded tire on the Evil Monkey, and had a blast.  My daughter took the riding photos.

If you've been following me over on Instagram you know I recently picked up two more late-70s Honda Z50s to add to my Evil Monkey (aka Snow Monkey in the winter).  One clearly caught fire so I call it the Toasted Monkey.  I'm rebuilding that one for my kids (and they're helping!).  The other was pretty much just a frame so it's a blank canvas for me that I'm calling the Monkey Chop.