Monster Moto Classic Mini Bike - Ride Review

With the rumor mill suggesting that the Honda Monkey bike is set to return, it would appear that mini bikes are all the rage. So we decided to take a look at one that comes from a place a little closer to home.

If you are looking for the maximum fun per cubic centimeter, cubic dollar, or by the pound, the pull-start 80cc Classic Mini Bike from Monster Moto is hard to beat.

These bikes follow the same basic formula minibikes have used since the 1960s (lawnmower motor, wheelbarrow wheels, welded bent tube frame) updated a bit for the 21st century. Plus Monster Moto assembles all of their machines in Trail Ruston, Louisiana (with foreign parts), and tests them before shipping them out directly to you via UPS.

Alex Keechle, CEO of Monster Moto, is on something of a goodwill tour to promote the fact that the company's 100,000 square-foot headquarters/factory is finished, and the American assembly line is now humming. He brought two of the 80cc Classic mini bikes, a 80cc mini go-kart, and the electric micro mini to RideApart's Southern California stomping grounds to demonstrate last week.

In the spirit of classic mini bikes, we illegally commandeered a city park near the office, just like the bad kids in some 1980s movie, and wasted a good two hours of work time playing with them. I'll concentrate on the 80cc pull-start mini bike, but first let's touch on the e-Mini and the 80cc Go Kart.

Classic Go Kart


Admittedly, this go-kart is not designed for adults, as you can see from this picture, with 6-foot-tall regular-sized Rudy driving it. But it is still plenty of fun once you squeeze into it. The other testers, at 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 8 inches, both had a blast and looked less awkward.

The go-kart features the same 80cc 2.5 horsepower overhead valve Lifan engine as the mini bike, only with a jackshaft for lower final drive and better acceleration. Even after hauling around us big kids for over an hour, the motors started right up and ran fine. The gas and brake pedals are color coded (green means go, red means stop), so you should be able to get kids going in seconds.

It includes a seat belt, Nerf-like bars, kid-height roll bar, and a disc brake acting on the live rear axle, so it is 100-percent safer than any go-kart I recall from my childhood. With an 18 mph top speed, this is the perfect step up from a Power Wheels, and the seat adjusts for small kids with as little as 28 inches between seat back and pedals.

It is only 54 inches in total length, 32 inches wide, with a wheelbase of just 36 inches, but even on that tiny wheelbase the frame geometry and low center of gravity work to keep it on four wheels and drifting, not about to roll over or go up on two wheels. If you were to have some sort of incident, the whole thing weighs just 140 pounds ready to ride.

Classic e-Mini

It is hard to understand how small this micro mini is without a real-sized rider on it, so here is 5-feet-6-inches Angela for comparison. The whole bike is just 36 inches long, with an 18-inch seat height, and 26-inch wheelbase. Unlike the go-kart, I did have a go on this one, and though I looked like a circus clown, it was still fun.

These tiny silent bikes would be perfect for settling interoffice rivalries actually inside the office. These also feature a fully welded steel frame with a disc brake on the back and alloy wheels. A simple switch allows you to limit top speed to 7 mph while teaching kids to ride; full speed is still just 11 mph. A full charge takes several hours, but provides 45 minutes of continuous full throttle ride time. Weighing in at about 50 lbs, this bike is plenty tiny for any school-aged kid and rated for up to 130 lbs, but it will take twice that easily.

Classic Mini Bike


The 80cc mini bike is still aimed at kids, but it is the size you expect a minibike (like 

COLEMAN MINI BIKE )to be, and adults fit just fine. Fully welded steel tube frame, with nothing but the balloon tires to soak up bumps. Pull-start lawn mower-type engine with centripetal clutch for gas-and-go action. Mechanical disc brake on the back wheel, connected to the left handle, for better stopping than we ever had back in the day.

Ready to ride this bike still weighs in at substantially less than 100 lbs, so it can easily be transported even if you don't have a pickup truck. Top speed is a respectable 23 mph, plenty fast for such a small bike, though it takes its time to get there.

The frame design, including the front end geometry, is also way above what old school bikes were made with. You can see with Manuel (5 feet 8 inches tall) on the bike how much rake that front fork has, but it needs it to have any sort of stability with such small tires.

With just 2.5 hp this bike is never going to have blistering acceleration, but Alex assured me the clutch installed was chosen because of its slow and gradual engagement, to make it less intimidating for kids to ride.

I'm a 6 feet 2 inches tall, 250+ lbs bear of a man, and I'm fairly certain I got it up to full speed in the little park we had set up our course in. I even took it off some sweet jumps, and found it stable and forgiving, even with just the tires as suspension. It never felt sketchy or unstable, and I am sure I could have beat on it harder, if we had had the room.

If you have priced vintage mini bikes lately you may have noticed that just a frame from a Taco or a Rupp can run you $200, which makes the Monster Moto MSRP of $399 seem like an awesome deal.

The Classic mini has a 36-inch wheelbase, with a 23-inch seat height, and measures 50 inches total end to end. It comes in the pink and black "Muddy Girl" camo, and American Flag graphics shown, as well as a Realtree camo, and a classic black and red. The fenders, number plate, "tank" panels, seat, etc are available separately as well, so you can try your hand at custom paint.

The frames are powder coated for longevity, and the graphics are applied with water transfer, not paint or decals, to make them much harder to scratch off. And to address the number one old-school minibike problem, there is an adjustable chain tensioner to prevent you losing races because the chain came off. Monster Moto also thoughtfully wired up the bike with an on/off kill switch next to the throttle - which works every time - to prevent panicked runaway riders.

Think this bike is too slow for you? Or want an electric mini bike in the bigger size? Monster Moto has both more powerful gas versions of this bike, and an electric one in the works. Their new facility in Louisiana has plenty of room for them to grow, and plenty of dirt to ride on right outside the doors.

The aim, according to Alex, is to have 300 people working there assembling and testing bikes, as well as designing and evolving new product. You can expect more on RideApart about this bike, as they are sending us a long-term test bike to be able to race and ride as we wish.

New water-cooling solar panels could lower the cost of air conditioning by 20%

Most of us have heard of solar water heaters. Now there’s a solar water cooler, and the technology may sharply lower the cost of industrial-scale air conditioning and refrigeration.

The new water coolers are panels (for example: SUNJACK 14W PORTABLE SOLAR CHARGER )
 that sit atop a roof, and they’re made of three components. The first is a plastic layer topped with a silver coating that reflects nearly all incoming sunlight, keeping the panel from heating up in the summer sun. The plastic layer sits atop the second component, a snaking copper tube. Water is piped through the tube, where it sheds heat to the plastic. That heat is then radiated out by the plastic at a wavelength in the middle region of the infrared (IR) spectrum, which is not absorbed by the atmosphere and instead travels all the way to outer space. Finally, the whole panel is encased in a thermally insulating plastic housing that ensures nearly all the heat radiated away comes from the circulating water and not the surrounding air.

Researchers at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, recently placed three water cooling panels—each 0.37 square meters—atop a building on campus and circulated water through them at a rate of 0.2 liters every minute. They report today in Nature Energy that their setup cooled the water as much as 5°C below the ambient temperature over 3 days of testing. They then modeled how their panels would behave if integrated into a typical air conditioning unit for a two-story building in Las Vegas, Nevada. The results: Their setup would lower the building’s air conditioning electrical demand by 21% over the summer.

“It’s an excellent paper,” says Ronggui Yang, a mechanical engineer at the University of Colorado in Boulder, who earlier this year reported the development of a plastic film that cools everything it touches up to 10°C. Because the plastic IR-emitting materials are commercially available in large quantities, it shows that the technology has the potential to be scaled up, Yang says. “It shows a promising direction for real world use.”

Aaswath Raman, a physicist and member of the Stanford team, says that since conducting this initial experiment, he and his colleagues formed a startup company called SkyCool Systems in Burlingame, California, to commercialize the technology. The company has scaled up the panels to 1.65 square meters each, and is now conducting a larger field trial in Davis, California. Because cooling systems consume roughly 15% of all electricity and account for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, Raman says, the new water coolers could make a dramatic impact on global energy use.

MOULTRIE A-30 GAME CAMERA

Moultrie, the best-selling brand of trail cameras, game feeders and wildlife management products, introduces the MOULTRIE A-30 GAME CAMERA a the “spiritual successor” to the wildly popular A-5 and A-20 game cameras, which earned accolades with hardcore scouting camera users due to its exceptional quality at a tremendous value. ‬‬

Moultrie’s A-30 is an everyday scouting tool and game camera designed around affordability—and the ability to take hard use and keep snapping pictures and video as you run it as hard as you dare.
Moultrie A-30 Camera

The A-30 is an all-purpose trail camera for ensuring you capture game activity with high-quality images in the daytime, and enjoy the scouting benefits of a long-range infrared flash with a 70-foot range and an Illumi-night sensor that improves image quality at night to exceptional recon on your hit list bucks.

The A-30 game camera has a 12-megapixel resolution with less than a 0.7 second trigger speed that will detect game up to 60 feet away.

The compact A-30 runs on 8-AA batteries, and it is backed by Moultrie’s industry leading 2-year warranty for extra peace of mind for you.



Moultrie A-30 Highlighted Features:

INFRARED FLASH
A flash equipped with 24 LEDs and long-range infrared flash technology illuminates up to 70 feet away in total darkness—for maximum coverage with minimal intrusion.
PHOTO AND VIDEO RESOLUTION
Manage image quality and storage with 2 resolution settings, low (1920×1080) and high (4608×2592), and high-definition 15 second videos.
RUGGED HOUSING
A sturdy case with a weatherproof plastic exterior comes with standard 1/4″-20 threaded insert on bottom, and a 72-inch mounting strap is included.
MEMORY CARD COMPATIBILITY
Works with SD/SDHC Class 4 cards or higher and can handle up to 32 GB. Memory cards sold separately.
INCREDIBLE BATTERY LIFE
Requires 8-AA batteries and captures approximately 17,000 images. Lithium batteries extend battery life in harsh weather conditions.


Highlighted Specifications:

Resolution: 12.0 MP
Trigger speed: less than 0.7 seconds
Flash range: 70 feet
Illumination type: Long Range Infrared Flash (24 LED)
Detection range: 60 feet
HD Video
Photo Resolution: Low, 2MP – 1920×1080 / High, 12MP – 4608×2592
SD Card: 32 GB Max
Warranty: 2 years
Moultrie Mobile Compatible
72-inch Mounting Strap included

Amish Quilts Gain Attention Abroad

TARRYTOWN, N.Y., April 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Amish Spirit Quilts, a purveyor of authentic Amish quilts based in Tarrytown, NY, has seen a large spike in international orders. Amish Spirit Quilts works with artists within the Pennsylvania Amish community to bring handmade quilts to the international market. The quilt making season is about to begin and already Amish Spirit has seen orders from as far off as Australia.

Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140410/NY02759

Amish Spirit Quilts source their quilts from members of a small Amish community in Pennsylvania. This community has been creating beautiful quilts for generations and their work stacks up against some of the best made quilts in the world. Each quilt produced in the Amish community is a one of kind piece which takes at least two months to produce. Stitched together from thousands of pieces of material and made of the finest grade cotton, each Amish quilter only produces five or six finished quilts per year. Spring marks the start of the quilt selling season. Amish women do the actual cutting, piecing and quilting over the winter and this past winter was a long one in Pennsylvania.

One of the reasons for the spike in international orders no doubt stems from the fact that handmade quilts are an affordable piece of art. Most large American fine art museums hold handmade quilts as part of their permanent collection with exhibitions showcasing particular quilting styles or themes not uncommon. This year, Amish Spirit Quilts has seen international orders come in from Switzerland, Turkey, Australia and even the Onondoga Nation. The Amish quilts for sale this year will showcase different patterns including Log Cabins, Tumbling Blocks, a one of a kind Moonglow patterned quilt, a 10 stitch per inch Queen Ann's Star, and a masterpiece Tree of Life quilt. Amish Spirit expects this year's stock to be their strongest and most beautiful yet. They are delighted that people from abroad are beginning to recognize the artistry and beauty of authentic Amish quilts.

Amish Spirit Quilts is a purveyor of handmade quilts produced by the Pennsylvania Amish community. Amish Spirit works with the Amish quilters to bring one of a kind hand stitched traditional Amish quilts to the international market.

Bright Blue Global is a New York Advertising Agency specializing in small to medium sized businesses. Founded in 2007, Bright Blue Global provides a wide range of public relations, marketing, and advertising services in the New York City area.

SOURCE Amish Spirit Quilts

How To Start Flower Export Business With Low Investment

Are you searching for the flower export business plan sample template? Find here a comprehensive flower export business plan for your ready reference

Flowers are the highly perishable items. Therefore, the flower demands a high-quality post harvest management including packaging and storage. Different types of cut flowers exporting is a profitable business. However, there are several aspects you must consider before starting the business.

If you are living in a high-quality flower growing area then only you can consider starting this business. In addition, you must identify the potential overseas markets for those specific flowers.


Generally, you can start flower exporting business by two ways. In the first option, you buy the flowers from the growers and sell them to your clients at your own price. In another option, you sell the flowers directly from the growers. And you enjoy a certain amount of transaction fees.

The first option demands substantial capital investment and a large infrastructure. Definitely, you can earn more profit here. On the other hand, the second option demands small capital investment and also offers small profits. If you are an absolute beginner in this business, it is better to start with the second option.

Flower Export Business Step-by-step Guide

How To Start LED Light Manufacturing Business

LED stands for light emitting diode. LED lights are gaining huge popularity these days. The product has the great domestic and export potential also. Find here a detailed LED light manufacturing business plan sample checklist for your ready reference.

LED lights are available in wide range of colors from 2700K to 6500K which are dark, yellow, mild yellow and ultra white. Generally, LED consumes low energy and gives brighter performance compared to a bulb, CFL or tube light.

Any individual can start LED manufacturing business as medium or large scale basis. Definitely, the business demands a substantial startup capital investment. However, LED manufacturing is a highly profitable business as well.

12 Things To Consider In Starting LED Light Manufacturing

How To Start Paper Cup Making Business

The paper cup is a disposable item and the demand is increasing rapidly. Any individual can start this business with a small startup capital investment. Additionally, if you have some space, you can start this business even from home. Here in this post, find paper cup making business plan sample checklist for your ready reference.

In the small scale manufacturing segment, paper cup production is the comparatively easy business to start. Additionally, you can start the business from the both location rural and city. Even, it is a great option as the part-time income opportunity.

Paper Cup Making Business Business Plan