Sweden’s John Aaman builds a turbocharged, snow-going, fat-tire mini scrambler!

There are builders who model everything in 3D before they ever loosen a single bolt. They have the entire project conceptualized, the materials sourced, the files ready for CAD or 3D-printing. Then there are those builders like our new friend John Aaman of northern Sweden who trudge out to the shop, flick on the lights, set their hands on their hips, and have a hard look at what they have lying around the place:

“I had a set of lawnmower wheels and a spare 125cc engine and thought: what can I build out of these?”

John has a long history with garage-engineered machines, building his first chainsaw-powered minibike at 13.

“Since then, I’ve had several custom projects like trikes, cars, minibikes and riding lawnmowers, etc.”

Now he’s documenting his builds on Youtube (channel: John Makes), including this turbocharged fat-tire pitbike. The donor frame is a 2014 Orion FX-PRO 125. We don’t know much about these machines, but John says it’s the “cheapest of Chinese pitbikes.” Perfect, ha!

To fit the wide lawnmower wheels, he built a custom swing arm and wider triple clamp. The gas tank is from a Yamaha DT50, the seat a dirt bike saddle sawed in half and re-upholstered, and John fabricated the handlebar from scratch. He rode the bike for two years before realizing it was missing something…boost.

For the turbo, John opted for a draw-through setup using a 30mm Powerjet carb mounted directly on a Garrett GT15 turbocharger, peaking at 0.5 bar (7.25 psi) of boost. He’s running a 2.5” exhaust with no muffler:

“The spooling sounds are loud and clear!”

As for the riding experience, John says it’s definitely “unique.” While plenty of people have commented the bike “will only go in a straight line,” that hasn’t been his experience. Plus, as you can see from the video below, performs great on the snow — a big advantage for a resident of northern Sweden!

“The handling is fine, you just gotta get used to the wide and flat tyres carving the ground. The wheels themselves allow for good hillclimbing and it even floats on snowmobile trails in the winter.”

Builder Interview you can read on bikebound

#PitBike #Custom #Moto