Cyclekart Introduction

Cyclekarts are compact, lightweight, sports machines, home and hand made by their drivers for the pursuit of classic motoring sporting excitement. They're not built to be serious race machines or show cars. They're built purely for the personal satisfaction and fun and of driving a machine you've built yourself. As driving machine, the CycleKart formula loosely limits certain aspects of the machines to maintain good sporting performance without jeopardising the light-hearted nature of these machines and the people who build them.

CycleKarts and their builders don't like to take things too seriously, but do encourage good, sporting competitions for fun. The Cyclekart specifications allow for all the cars built being similar in performance, without strictly governing the rules.

Cyclekarts are generally not for sale, as they should be an expression of the owner's individual styling interests as well as sharing the pride in building one's own unique kart. Cyclekarts are built for the pleasure of the imagination, the design and the building of the kart. Cyclekats are based on the styling of 1920s and 1930s race cars to pre WWII. Making it look good is fundamental, performance is secondary in the Cyclekarting community.

Cyclekart Specifications

A single seat ½ scale home built car, built to the following loose specifications:

• Styling - 1920s and 1930s race cars, maximum pre WWII. Make it look good. Performance is secondary
• Overall Maximum Length - 98", 2490mm
• Overall Maximum Width - 40", 1020mm
• Wheel Base - 66", 1675mm
• Track - 38", 965mm
• Chassis Frame Rails – 2 x 1"X3", 25mm x 75mm steel
• Body Work – 1/4" (6mm) plywood and 3/4" (18mm) plywood Monocoque box, or metal work
• Body Width - 14" (355mm) wide at front axle, 20" (510mm) wide at seat back
• Front Axle – 1 5/8" O.D. tubing, and is dropped to accommodate the leaf springs. 41.5mm
• Rear Axle - 1" X 36" long axle, 25mm x 915mm
• Front springs - 24" X 1 1/4", 2 leaf 1/2 elliptic, 610mm x 38mm
• Wheels and tyres – Honda 17"x 1 3/4", 177mm x 44.5mm
• Minimum Weight – N/A
• Maximum Weight - 250lbs, 113.6kg
• Engine - 200cc, single cylinder 6.5 hp Honda OHV engine (GX200)
• Engine Location – Rear
• Drive - Comet TAV-30 (or similar) unit to one wheel only
• Drive Chain - #40 chain, 72 tooth main sprocket
• Braking – Single rear wheel by mechanical disc. No front brakes allowed
• Variation – Adjust all or any specifications above as required or desired

A great introduction video to member Stephen Cameron's CycleKart build:

Special Thanks

Thanks to Dave Arundel for giving us permission to use the photo of his beautiful yellow CycleKart in this website's page design, and David Lake for writing the intro text and helping to get this community started. And of course thanks to all CycleKarters out there keeping the spirit of motorsport alive!