Toys for the inner child

At least, if your inner child is a throwback to when you used to get much more excited by the smell of gasoline and dirt than girls (because they had cooties, sillyhead!). I just bought (for $50) a small ATC from the mid-80's. I was GOING to use the tires, differential, front forks, etc to build a wonderfully strong kinetic sculpture to race. (KSR is amphibious people powered racing done by lunatics.... try www.kineticuniverse.com or check out this great "how to" page at www.kinetickingdom.com/KK-how2/index.html. I drove out to Hayden, Idaho to pick it up after work (about 20 miles to the east over the state line) and ended up just tossing it on the back of the car, securing it with double straps so there was no way it could come off, and driving out to my property (about 60 miles to the west). I got a LOT of funny looks on the freeway.

Back at the property, I put air in the front tire and took a look at the condition. With just a little tweaking and some new wires, I got it to sputter under its own power, so I tossed in some gasoline, checked the oil, and pretty soon I was riding up and down the driveway and hills at my property. So, now I have a toy to ride, and if I can get the ORV tag for it I can ride it at the offroad vehicle park a few miles up the road. There are 600 acres of dirt, hills, and trails - something for the slow folk like me as well as the lunatics. Plus - I can do laps in my driveway - it is an eighth mile loop - just for fun.

So..... I have to keep my eyes open for another one - hopefully in not such good shape - to cut up for kinetic sculpture building.