MOPED ARMY

I saw one about 12 years ago.. and talked to the guy.. but not much.

We (about 6 guys) were out on a lake at night in Oakland County on snowmobiles and pulled up at the boat dock in front of a big fancy house to crack open some beers and BS for a while.

A few minutes later we hear this burbling droning noise and look up to see a jiggling headlight approaching thru the snowflakes.. and up rides this guy on one of those Chrysler Sno-Runners.. Wow!.. No kidding.. none of us had actually seen one before.

He says... Hi.. Do you guys know Laimbeer?..

We say.. No.. Why?

He.... This is Bill Laimbeer's house. (pro basketball player)

We... Oh.. Didn't know that.. That is one of those Chrysler Sno- Runners.. isn't it?

He.... Yep

We.... How good does that thing work ?

He.... Oh.. It's alright.. It's not very fast.. and it won't go thru very deep snow very well.. it doesn't have enough power.. it's much better on packed snow trails.

We offered him a beer and he declined .. and off he rode into the dark.

The whole process of riding looked a bit unstable and wiggly.. but that could have been the conditions that night.

The motor was a 2 stroke manufactured by Chrysler.. they (Chrys) made mini-bikes with that same motor way back in the seventies.. and made outboard boat motors also... I think they might still be making them (outboards).. but now they are called "Force".

That's all I know about them..

Simon,

I had no idea that these things existed until last summer when I went to AMA Vintage Days at Mid-Ohio. I saw 2 for sale at the (gigantic) swap meet. I think they were both under $1000.00 and I don't think they sold.

Ron

Not exactly - but it is hardcore...Dan's been doing lots of research on this and said that there are bicycles that have a ski in the front and the driver wears small skis on their feet so that they can keep their feet down.

What would be neat is to get small skis so that you could use your feet to balance, but not cause much drag on your moped. -- Might defeat the entire purpose of putting the feet down though now that I think about it.

Vintage Motorcycle Days is an AMA and AHRMA motorcycle event run at the Mid-Ohio race facility in Mansfield Ohio (170 miles from Detroit) that might be the biggest Vintage Motorcycle event on the planet... with an estimated 20,000 plus people from all over the country attending over a 4 day period in July.

There are a myriad of activities and races over the weekend.

A swap meet that covers about 5 outdoor acres.

Motorcycle roadracing on the professional RR track with bikes from all the way back to the 30's.. in many different classes all weekend.. speeds over 150 MPH for the fast ones.

A dynamometer trailer that runs almost continuously all weekend with people putting any kind of bike you can imagine up on the dyno to get a computer printout of their bikes HP and torque curves... $20... somebody told me they have put a Spree up on it.. and 200 HP bikes also.

Motocross races for old bikes running all weekend.

A bike judging show for old bikes judging their state of originality and condition.. with many brand new looking 20 to 50 year old bikes.

And one of my favorites.. a trick riding exibition by former World Trials Champion Tommi Ahvala from Finland.. he puts on this exhibition about 4 times a day.. don't miss it..wheelies, stoppies, jumping, balancing... Would you lay flat on the ground and allow one of the best riders in the world to ride right at you and 3 of your best friends lying hip to hip at 20 MPH and "jump" the bike over you with no take off ramp?.. Happens 4 times a day.. no shortage of volunteers.

Overnite camping, campfires, partying...$28 to get in for the weekend.. I don't know about camping.

Many bike specific clubs hold yearly meets together there.. and all congregate in one area.. like the 'Honda CBX Club"..etc... The Moped Army ?????

The access roads around the facility cover about 4 miles and one of the main forms of transport are... you guessed it.. mopeds.. and motorcycles of all types..it is a madhouse of two wheels.

A bizarre rule >>> no bicycles allowed !!!... weird.. and don't challenge the cops or security.. they can be dicks if you are breaking the rules.

Mid-Ohio, and the AMA, and AHRMA, all have websites.

Other than that.. I don't know a thing about it.

Here is another one on e-Bay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/aw-cgi/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=534214990&r=0&t=0

The sno-ped (no motor) that dan created is definetly solid, if we could find a way to propel that it would work just fine....If we could get a SnoRunner and reverse engineer it - that I think would work.

I think we could just order a sno runner track, and bodge that up, but i have my doubts that a 50cc engine could deal with a track. the snow runner has a 134cc engine, and i hear it is not that powerful. it's top speed is 30mph. there is a lot more surface area on a track than a tire.

dan

moped army

swarm and destroy

I see the surface area problem ... but I don't think the track has to be that long, just enough to move over the snow, right? I think a regular wheel would work for that. Just replace the tire tube w/ some sort of track-like thread that would rotate. You'd get the same surface area of a tire, but the "track" should move over snow just fine.

Keep in mind that I think the SnoRunner was designed for off-road snow use. I'm not thinking of an off-road Snow-ped, only one that can ride on regular streets before they are fully plowed. So small track area should work fine on thin but densely packed snow. After all, my regular tires did fine the few times I rode in lots of snow.

This way we could still use a regular, fully working moped. It would simpy require replacing the rear wheel w/ the one above and the front wheel w/ a ski. Of course, I'd still recommend putting little skis on the sides of the rear for balance.

Just some ideas.

Sorry, I'm not hiding, the previous post was mine also.

This name appears along with mine when I click the "Your Name" box. I usually click the correct name.

Does anyone know how to get rid of this other name?

Hi,

I have been following your thread on this moped/snoped thing,

I think the way to deal with the clean, dry road crossings would be to leave your front tire on, design your front ski like those on some airplanes. The front ski will mount via struts to the front forks and have a slot that allowes the front tire to extend an inch or so below the running surface of the ski! The tire will loose contact with the ground when the snow is deeper than an inch and act like a rib to help the tracking.

BTW if ya want a copy of a snorunner manual, let me know, I'll make ya a copy.

Spence

Glad that You found my website! (http://hometown.aol.com/nuckem/index.html) We currently own 8 Snorunners and all are up and running.

SnoRunners are quite a lot of fun. They use the Chrysler Power bee 134cc engine that produced 7 hp. Of course, there are mods that can be performed to bump up the hp. Or, you can adapt a US Motor 820 Go Kart racing engine that puts out 11 hp.

SnoRunners perform pretty well in under 8" of snow, but tend to bog down in anything deeper. Of course, it depends if it's a dry snow or a snow that packs down. One of their limitations is that they appear to always have carb related problems from venturi icing to just needing a rebuild.

I think the Moped/sno-ped idea sounds pretty good. I'd guess it's an easy adaptaion for a front ski, and the rear could use a homemade type "paddle" tire, kinda like sand racers use. I'd love to see what someone comes up with!

Chad

Simon,

Every time someone tells me to do something that simple, I get very irate and wonder why they think I am that stupid.

I have been working on computers since before you were born and am not incompetent!

Of course, it worked.

Thanks,

Ron

my friends dad knows a guy that has a snowrunner. i have been telling him to get it from or buy it form the guy. there a sweet little bike or moped. well snorunner i guess is all that you could call them.

Scott H

How much are you asking? Where are they located? russ wrote:

How much do you want for your sno runners? russ wrote: