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He "Motorizes" Old Bikes
A Minnesota man says his motorized bicycles provide the fun of biking but with a lot less sweat.
Jim Parenteau, of Hugo, converts existing older bikes to gas engine power. He collects old bikes at flea markets and swap meets and makes the conversions strictly as a hobby. The motorized bikes are equipped with kic
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He "Motorizes" Old Bikes AG WORLD 27-6-22 A Minnesota man says his motorized bicycles provide the fun of biking but with a lot less sweat.
Jim Parenteau, of Hugo, converts existing older bikes to gas engine power. He collects old bikes at flea markets and swap meets and makes the conversions strictly as a hobby. The motorized bikes are equipped with kick-start engines and handlebar-mounted, twist-grip throttles just like on real motorcycles. Many, but not all, of the bikes are 3-speed models.
We spotted Parenteau last summer at the Little Log House and Antique Power Show near Hastings, Minn., where he had several motorized bikes on display. Occasionally he would ride one of them around the show grounds.
One was a 1939 Elgin bike painted International Harvester red and powered by a Honda 5 hp gas engine that can be either kick-started or pull-started. The engine chain-drives the rear wheel via a large add-on sprocket. The bike's original sprocket is used only for the rear brake. He cut and bent the frame to make room for the engine and installed a bracket for it. A length of flexible, 1-in. dia. exhaust pipe leads from the engine back to the rear wheel. "The exhaust pipe gives the engine a nice, mellow sound," says Parenteau.
Another model on display was an early 1960's Schwinn powered by a Johnson Iron Horse slanted cylinder, 2 hp gas engine off an old washing machine. It's painted Allis Chalmers orange and has a gas tank that looks like it came off a motorcycle.
Parenteau says motorized bikes aren't new. "Shortly after World War II, Schwinn dealers offered a dealer-installed kit that was designed to retrofit existing bikes with 4 hp gas engines. They also offered a bicycle with a heavy duty frame and wheels and its own engine. It was called the Whizzer and is now quite rare and worth big money. I have a genuine restored Whizzer. A California company is now reproducing the Whizzer, but it's not built as well nor is it as powerful as the original model. It sells for $1,000 to $2,000," he notes.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jim Parenteau, 14118 West Freeway Drive, Hugo, Minn. 55038 (ph 651 464-5961).
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