Been riding my buggy lately...

charleswrivers

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Figured I’d share: The weather been nice and have been riding my old buggy a lot lately.
Its mostly for just running down muddy trails to some fishing holes near my house.

Honda Civic 10th gen Been riding my buggy lately... 24F158CD-DD84-4A57-9A57-F3575B822E8A


These things are great though for those wanting to tinker on the cheap. Swapping cams (they’re under $20 each)... replacing heads/setting timing... replacing pistons/rings/sleeves (I think a piston/cylinder rings set me back $25 or so a few years back... turns out it wasn’t even needed, my rings had just lined their gaps up and made it smoke a little. Replaced it anyways)... adjust valve lash... reading plugs... tuning carbs... taking apart and tuning a CVT for however you want it to deliver power (Done springs, a belt or two, some weights). It may not look like much on paper, but these junky little GY6-powered things just sorta go and go and can be taken apart and put together in minutes, not hours. Great, cheap little things to learn on and get tangible results for very little time and money invested.

It dawned on me as I was taking it out in the last week or so that I bought it back when we only had my oldest daughter. Now we have 3 kids (next oldest is almost 8) and packing in all 3 is pretty much impossible... so I guess I ought to start looking at a stretched 4 seater. Not bad for a thing I bought for $300 not running 8 years ago that I’ve put probably $100-150 in to tune it and fix anything it needed in all that time. I doubt I’ll ever find another deal as good as this one turned out... but it’s actually turned out to be the ‘vehicle’ I’ve owned the longest compared to all my cars. I’d not part with it unless I had a 4-seat replacement. It goes in spots only a dedicated 4x4 vehicle could make it... and in tighter spots than those ever could w/o tearing their sides off.

If anyone ever sees a scooter/buggy going to cheap w/a GY6 and you get a wild hair... go for it. There used to be forums that were a lot more active some years back... but buggymasters is still alive and kicking for technical help.
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BABY NSX

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That buggy is pretty cool! Unfortunately there’s no place around where I am to ride that.
How many cc displacement is that GY6? Are those 50cc or 150cc?

I tinker with cheap go karts and mini bikes. I have a Baja Warrior with the stock engine, 6.5hp, 196cc. Added brake lights and turn signals to it and a torque converter. Been having a hard time starting after I replaced the carb. Have a couple go karts too with similar engine but no torque converter just a centrifugal clutch. They’re in the garage and haven’t had time to work on them but the plan was to use them on the weekends in a local business park parking lot. Had it planned such that where I scooped out has like 4-5 large parking lots that inter connect via small paths that a go kart can traverse. Will be fun to get them running.

Have fun with the buggy!!!
 
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charleswrivers

charleswrivers

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That buggy is pretty cool! Unfortunately there’s no place around where I am to ride that.
How many cc displacement is that GY6? Are those 50cc or 150cc?

I tinker with cheap go karts and mini bikes. I have a Baja Warrior with the stock engine, 6.5hp, 196cc. Added brake lights and turn signals to it and a torque converter. Been having a hard time starting after I replaced the carb. Have a couple go karts too with similar engine but no torque converter just a centrifugal clutch. They’re in the garage and haven’t had time to work on them but the plan was to use them on the weekends in a local business park parking lot. Had it planned such that where I scooped out has like 4-5 large parking lots that inter connect via small paths that a go kart can traverse. Will be fun to get them running.

Have fun with the buggy!!!
Its a 150cc. Pretty much the same as what all the scooters have... only it’s kickstart are removed and there they mount is there the exhaust mounts to the side of the CVT. I had a 5hp B&S-powered go cart with a centrifugal clutch for years as a kid. Tons of good memories. Amazing how much fun you can have as a kid in a dollar or two of gasoline.

Part of growing up is getting and the toys you never got as a kid... or better versions of them... and it’s fun to be able to share it with the kids now. I’ve been looking at something along the lines of one of these 4 seater Trailmasters:

Honda Civic 10th gen Been riding my buggy lately... 03CFB45C-0DEA-4C3B-B5A8-56D8A5160642

...as they’re pretty similar to what I already have. They have 150cc GY6 versions as well as a 300cc version that cost a bit more. I’m not familiar with their engine though. Apparently they’re some sort of Yamaha Linhai clone. Looks like parts availability is a lot less... and they’re much more costly. Water-cooled... though I haven’t had issues with my not-abused air cooled GY6.

I had to replace an electric choke as soon as I got this one as it never worked so it wouldn’t want to start the first time. I did a lot of plug reading and up-jetting. Pretty sure they came with 114 main jet and I’ve got a 130 in it now from a set of them I tried. A little tweaking of the idle mix screw to get it to idle really well and not stumble if you give it a quick stab if the throttle.

They really are fun things. Good luck on your projects!

I’m kind of bummed the buggy/go kart sites kind of died out. They look to have peaked ~10 years ago for a lot of them and rarely have traffic/posts. I’m not sure if scooters/buggys/go karts are on the decline or what. Maybe just a generation of plugged in kids that don’t have wants like go carts and BB guns like I did when I was 8-14 has make the market shrink. When I was a kid I remember go kart racing being a big deal in some family circles who’d travel and their kids would compete and having things like go karts or BB guns were rites of passage into teen-dom.

I do still like mine and, while I’d let this one go for a 4-seater just to not lose all the garage/shed space... I’ll keep it going as long as the frame holds up.
 

BABY NSX

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Yeah I think your right. It’s a generational thing. We had or dreamt of stuff like this as a kid and as you mentioned we grow up and get the stuff we never had as a kid. I’m just a 12 year old in a 52 years old body, Hahhaha!
Yeah my kids aren’t into this stuff. Maybe once it’s up and running they might like the go karts. The mini bike scared them, they weren’t used to the hand controls. The karts might be better suited with the car like controls.

with the weather warming up I wish you many happy trails!
 
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charleswrivers

charleswrivers

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Yeah I think your right. It’s a generational thing. We had or dreamt of stuff like this as a kid and as you mentioned we grow up and get the stuff we never had as a kid. I’m just a 12 year old in a 52 years old body, Hahhaha!
Yeah my kids aren’t into this stuff. Maybe once it’s up and running they might like the go karts. The mini bike scared them, they weren’t used to the hand controls. The karts might be better suited with the car like controls.

with the weather warming up I wish you many happy trails!
Same to you!
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