Introduction

In the fall of 2021, me and one of my friend’s decided to create a motorized scooter, out of one of those kids pink razor scooters. Long story short this scooter was a mess! You couldn’t even walk this creation and have it roll smoothly. It would randomly jolt and twist while rideing it (without the engine on). It really was not a functional vehicle or toy and it was pretty dangerous. The sprocket would whiggle off when the scooter was running. See a picture bellow of the whole scooter.

</div>

Bad pink scooter :(

Well while this scooter was a disaster I still had my mind set on createing my own ridable scooter. This is that story.

2023 Scooter

Frame

First the scooters frame was made out of 1” by 1” square steel tubeing 1/8in thick. This gave it more then enough rigidity. A picture of the frame is bellow.

</div>

(Ignore the gas can in the back. My saftey standards have become alot better since then. ;~;)

Nothing special about the frame really. It is 10” wide measured from the outside of each tube. At the time of writeing this i cant remember if it is 4 feet or 4 1/2 feet long. Non the less that was more then enough room for my project.

Rear end

After I completed the entire frame the rear end was next. I dont really know much about workflow and where to start regarding diy vehicles but this was the right starting point looking back. The rear end for me was the most difficult part of this it had the most moveing parts and required the most precision, which isnt easy to get diy. First step was to extend the read end, as you can see in the frame my cross bars come in a bit this came useful when welding my extender. I welded a steel bracket to extend my rear end on ethier side. (That is what the flat stock is on the rear end picture.) Once I had completed the extension next up came the engine mount. The engine mount was pretty easy hardest part was making the risers level with just a angle grinder.

Risers being fitted up

Finished engine mount. Under it i have multiple brakets attached to the frame for better support

One more difficult part of the rear end was mounting the engine on the plate. I used a piece of paper and poked holes into it then loosely taped the paper on the engine. Once I had the engine aligned I taped the paper on the mounting plate and took the engine off of the paper. This allowed me to get semi accurate holes for drilling. If you are doing your own project I recomend you give some tolerance to this. But non the less the engine got aligned.

Front End

After the rear end was completed next step was the front end. This part of the project was probably the funnest and honestly most goofy part. For awhile I was wondering what I was going to do about my front end and how it will all work. Then out of the blue my aunt texted me that there were 2 electric razor scooters in her neighbors trash. They looked like the one in the image bellow.

After that text my parents went and picked them up. One pink one red. This gave me a eurika moment! The frame of one of those E scooters was the perfect size for a front fork on my gas scooter. Some welding and angle grinding later I pretty much flipped the frame 90 degrees. At this point my project had really turned into a mad max esk project As if it already wasnt.

Once i had the front end fully assembled the moment of truth. Was the scooter rideable? It was! The scooter rode greater then expected with just my own kicking powering it. It was now time for the engine and floorboard. ## Floor Board The floor board was something I had in the back of my mind but didnt decide what it would be until I found out about the composite materials merit badge. After discovering that merit badge I decided to make it out of carbon fiber for one of the requirements. This was a really fun project that anyone can do. I used KARBXON KBX-11 Ultra Bond - Epoxy Resin Kit I think I got 12oz. Also make sure you do this project on glass, I did it on a painted piece of wood. Even though I applied mold release I still had to pry off the carbon fiber. Also make sure you are in area that can get messy. I found out the hard way that working with eboxy is messy. And apply epoxy to the surface you are doing your lay for a better result. Inorder to put the carbon fiber on the scooter, I drilled a hole lied up with one of my support crossbars and bolted it in.

Once the floorboard was complete all was left was breaks, throttle, chain tensioner. ## Break, Throttle, Chain Tensioner The breaks is just a bar attached to a handbreak that if pulled pushes onto the top of the wheel. This breaking system works ok for right now but I am planning to switch to a pedel or go for a lever attached to the handle bar. For the throttle I just scraped the break lever from the electric scooter, and created it. Throttle cables can be really tricky. Once I got my length cut I melted mechanical solder into a large hex nut and then dipped the tip of the cable in. Once it was solid I pulled it out. Now there is just a ton of fileing todo! My last work on the scooter was making the chain tensioner. I went through 2 iterations and stuck with the 2nd. The pictures of both are bellow.

The first itteration failed was due to a mechincal issue. The problem was with my sprocket it is slightly off, which tightens and looses the chain. I know the symptoms but I dont know the cause even today 3 months after. The 2nd tensioner is smaller and has a lighter spring attached to it allowing it to tighten and loosen when needed and keep a constant tension. I learned quite a bit from makeing this scooter. It was a project that I wont forget and it definitely gives me some more dad lore. Right now my future project that I will work on is a single screw extruder. This extruder will be used to make 3d printing filament and allow me to add my own composites. Thank you for reading. Here are pictures of the finished scooter.

>