The original mini bopchop

The weekend is approaching rapidly and hopefully i'll be going to Shakespeare county raceway this Saturday. It's a Test and tune weekend but we are only going for the day. With any luck the weather will be good and i'll finally get my license runs out of the way!

I've been messing with photoshop to create "racing Johann!"






From what i hear, eurodragster.com will be covering the weekend as it's also a round for ACU supertwins and junior dragbike. So the Webcam will be in action taking still images from the track every 60 seconds. Race results should be updated regularly too, but i don't know if that will include RWYB times.

You may wonder why I've called the bike the bopchop..... well it's all down to a bike I built over 10 years ago. Built for a 6 yr old, i styled it after some of the dragbikes of the day. Using a Honda C90 engine and monkey bike rear wheel it was quite a funky machine that we nicknamed the mini bop chop. Now some 10 years later i have what is essentially a bigger version, they don't exactly look the same but when i bought it it was the same colour, and so it is - in essence the big bop chop.

I keep looking at my spare engine and thinking i should build it up as my next race motor. I don't have a lot else to do so i keep looking on ebay and dragbike.com to get an idea of prices for parts.
It will need a lot doing as it's a standard engine. Getting a straight cut gear fitted and the crank trued and welded will probably be quite expensive. But things like a big bore kit can be had for a couple of hundred quid. And a good used big block and pistons from the US can be bought for about £300.... and that would be much bigger, somewhere in the 1400cc+ region.
I'll keep my eyes open for parts and see if i can save some cash to buy them.

I've been getting things ready for the weekend, charging the starter cart batteries and the bike battery, gathering tools etc, but really i haven't bothered unpacking since the Easter Thunderball so there's not a great deal to do. I checked a few things, gapped the spark plugs and went over the whole bike checking for lose nuts and bolts, of which i found none. Amazing really considering several things fell to bits at the dyno.

If i remember to charge and take my camcorder i should have some new Pictures, video and timeslips to post at the weekend.
Watch this space!>>>>