Board Track Racer Build

by Brock Ward
(Aliso Viejo California)

My Custom Board Track Racer Build:

Growing up in Southern California have always had a love for bikes of all kinds and was drawn to the style of early American Motorcycles.

I've owned many import bikes over the years but I always wanted a vintage Indian Board Track Racer.

Anyone that has ever tried to find or build one knows a good project bike is hard to find and parts are scarce and expensive.

So I buy myself a cheap welder but I cant weld, and a 70's garage sale girls beach cruiser with only a rough idea of what I want this Frankenstein creation to look like and about 200 hours, 6 spools of welding wire, and a dozen grinding wheels later (about 12 weeks) I roll this monster out of my garage.

Board Track Racers are rare to find and go for big money. Guys built them on farms and garages with what they could find in the early 1900's then took them to places like Davenport Iowa or Beverly Hills California to race on wooded tracks, hitting speeds of 100 MPH.

I took mine for a short run around the area where I live, followed by a friend on a Triumph with a helmet cam and clocked it at 50 MPH up hill, I could have gone way faster but I have to admit that was the most fun, exciting and scary 50 MPH I ever did.

When I got off the bike I was laughing and shaking, it was amazing, I wish there were others around so we could race them on a big banked track like they did 100 years ago!

The engine is a Lifan 125cc, it's a Chinese racing version of Honda engine I bought online for $350.00. I really wanted to use a vintage engine but my budget wouldn't allow it, there are some really cool modern engines out there but they require a lot of machining and I don't have a machine shop so I had to use what I could Get.

The throttle was challenging, I started with a thumb lever type that didn't work very well so I adapted a conventional twist type and combined the two to make one that would work, I ordered both online for about $10.00 ea.

The exhaust is made for God knows what kind of bike I got online for $35.00, I cut it into eleven pieces and welded it to get the bends the way I wanted and repurposed the innards from the glass pack I used for the tank and some washers to make the heat shield, it looked old school and was just good old fashioned dumb luck, I painted it with silver high heat paint.

I'm not a Bike Builder, I consider myself a nutty artist with power tools that loves bikes, the thing I'm shooting for is to minimize the compromise between old and new to make something cool.

I drove around with it in the back of my truck in Southern California where I live and people got out of their cars at busy intersections to take pictures and ask questions, too much fun!