Part pit bike, part trike - but all attitude! We take a look the Frankinfurter.
MY RIDE
What:Lifan Pit bike.
Who:Jacob Allison
Where I bought it:eBay
How Much:$540
Why I bought it: It all started as a joke with a group of friends I go riding with, to buy a few pit bikes and ride them around like out of control gorillas. The first time I took it out in the scrub while it was still a two-wheeler, there were four of us on the same bikes and it didn’t take long for the dust demons to give out from the extra weight. I figured I should just stick to my Honda CRF450X so I let my little brothers ride it around while I made a little motorbike track in the back yard (which didn’t impress the wife at all). Since the bike was slowly falling apart and we had been kicked out of the back yard we decided to convert one into a ride on Esky and thus, the Frankinfurter was born!
How she’s performed: It’s a heap of fun to ride when your giving it some gas but you have to be on your toes as she’s a bit unpredictable with the turning and has no back brakes yet. She can fit a full carton of “New” in the back and a bag of ice, so I can’t complain! We had to shorten the muffler so the Esky would fit and now it’s a bit on the loud side. It’s definitely a head turner.
The Maintenance Regime: Keep the tank full of juice and the Esky full of beer!
Should you buy one? Why not? If you have a bit of time and the mates to help out I recommend building a Frankinfurter. It’s a lot of fun and the sky’s the limit when it comes to modifying bikes. You’ll have the satisfaction of owning a one-of-a-kind creation an never being short of a brew. One of my mates brought an automatic four wheeler Esky with a pull start off eBay for about $1000. It’s a bit different but that’s a lot of fun as well!
WHAT I DID: I striped the bike down at a mate’s work shop, and once we had a few Bundies and drew some pictures, we got into it. We purchased a complete rear section off a Japanese look-a-like quad bike and welded extra supports to add the new swing arm assembly onto the existing frame. We made a metal-framed basket which holds the trusty 26L Willow Esky and welded it to the frame. We found that the Esky doubles as a seat or you can squish forward and sit on the original seat if you want to carry a passenger from camp to camp. I still have to fix the muffler, back brakes and would like to get some ape hanger handlebars just for looks. All in good time.