Joe’s Mini Bike Reunion ’19

imagine

all of the hype that you’ve heard over the years about Born Free: the Southern California bucket-list, must-do, can’t-miss-it free-for-all that ALL bikers and chopper fans are required to attend at least once. it’s a show of the customest of customs, the radicalest of radicals. all of the names in custom motorcycle culture show up every year and you can rub elbows with the most chopular builders on Instagram.

now

imagine all of that shrunk down by 80%, but nearly twice as cool and 150% more custom. now imagine yourself on a much cooler day than Born Free’s middle-of-summer schedule provides, and you’ve successfully transported yourself to Joe’s Mini Bike Reunion in La Crescenta, Calif.

yes, it’s held in a park in a canyon, but that’s about where the similarities with the Born Free Show end. this pint-sized Born Free has half the pretentiousness and two hundred times the customization… as in EVERYTHING has to be built by hand.

almost nothing is the same.
there are universal frame and engine manufacturers, like every other two-wheeled segment, but many mini bikes are kits, so the combinations are endless.

another difference between Joe’s and most of the other rallies is the amount of race bikes. usually you have to be at a race event to see a number of race bikes in a show, but JMBR has all sorts. there’s something for every taste and style.
from classic stockers to turbocharged strokers, Joe’s gathering in the park DID NOT disappoint!

last year when i visited Steady Garage, Kevin told me all about Joe and his love of mini bikes. i knew then that i had to check out the show, if not to relive a missed part of my youth, then to check out what grown-ass people are doing with a craze that should have died out 35 years ago.

i found out that a lot of the builders at Joe’s Mini Bike Reunion have restored or rescued vintage bikes from the scrap pile, and most of the other ones are either custom built from scratch or a kit. some of the kits come from go-kart companies, and the cross over was incredible. some of the bikes had three wheels or more. some of the builders had three testicles or more.

i had no idea how the race bikes work, and to see turbos crammed onto these miniature rockets was pretty insane. it is kind of like seeing a donkey that has a chance at winning a race at Santa Anita. the technology for racing was also new to me. i’d never seen some of the fueling systems, and the fact that these little motors are even less complicated than a standard motorcycle was nuts. the simpler the motor, the fewer parts you have to accomplish the same functions. to overcome that, a bunch of wacky pulse pumps and ignitions have been designed to fit the mini machines.

i am familiar with scooter design, but mini bikes are definitely NOT scooters. there were some cvt-style belt driven trannies, there were many chains and i think i might have even seen a shaft drive on one. there were also many scooters and mopeds present.
the clutches are your basic centrifugal type, and the race bikes have different weights to set the stall limits. the race bikes were anything but simple. i spoke with Jay from AVRacing club, and he walked me through some of the finer points of the race builds.

according to Jay, the sky is the limit when it comes to building a drag bike. he is the one that told me about the cross-over between karting and mini bikes. the use of performance parts for karts translates easily to the bikes. from drivetrain to engine parts, there are tons of universal designs. he also told me that some of the race motors are used in Junior Dragsters, although they may just as likely come from a rototiller or old generator. he said that the only real barrier was your financial fortitude, and your ability to hustle.

there was even a two-stroke Suzuki dirt bike motor crammed into a clean little rig as though it was made for it from the factory. when you’re building from scratch, i guess things are made to look like they belong. it also means that you’ll find all sorts of motors as long as they fit. i saw tiny two-stroke singles and some weird 650cc utility motor-turned-hot rod. it was rad seeing so many variations compared to the “i customized a Harley-Davidson” scene. i guess now it’s “i built a BMW R65 scrambler”

another patron of the show who i interviewed was Yeti from Yeti’s minibike repair. a diesel mechanic by trade, he got into mini bikes a few years ago and has gone nuts on one of my favorite bikes at the show. it’s not a bike show unless there are antlers and mini bikes trailering other mini bikes. and a stop sign thrown in for leg protection

if his setup looks like it’s from a dystopian future, that because it is…… sort of. he designed a mini bike for travel around the Wasteland Weekend. it’s a post-apocalyptic festival that takes place in the mojave desert. and who the fuck wants to walk around the desert while your drunk? or at all really. i can see the necessity of this baby.
the little bike on the trailer won loudest pipe at this year’s JMBR, and he’s got plans for more crazy builds in the near future. we wanna see more like this!

thanks to Kevin from Steady Garage for telling me about this. it was good to see him at the show, and Steady is there every year, just to support and propagate the lifestyle. thanks to Joe Sebergandio for putting on such a great event, which has been going on for almost a decade now. i plan on returning next year, whether it’s as a spectator or participant.
-Junky