1/8 1970's Vintage Mini Bike Suzuki Trail Hopper

[jerseydevil]

This is a fairly rare kit of the Suzuki Trail Hopper mini bike that was produced by Suzuki in the 1970's The kit was made by a company named Lee out of Taiwan, but I suspect it's a re-pop of either a BlueTank or a Nitto kit. The box art was hideous, but the kit seemed to have some potential. The trail Hopper was powered by a 50 cc engine and had 3 Speed transmission with an automatic clutch. I had some problems before posting with Google photos, so I switched to a different photo hosting service.





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[fordrodnkustom]

Jan 26, 2019 22:21:07 GMT -5 jerseydevil said:

I was into mini bikes when I was a kid, so when I saw this kit on Ebay I just had to pick one up. This is one of the lesser known mini bikes from Suzuki that was sold in the 1970's. The Trail Hopper was a 50 cc bike and competed with the Honda Mini Trail. The kit was made by Lee out of Taiwan, but I believe it was also produced by Nitto as well. 

Hey JD, welcome to the forum. Not sure how you are posting your pics but they aren't visible. Here is a brief tutorial on how to post pics here:

drasticplastics.proboards.com/thread/1747/posting-photos-models-easy

[jerseydevil]

Thanks for letting me know. I am using Google Photos to post because its free, and I don't have to worry about broken links when my subscription expires. One problem I have found with using Google to post is that it doesn't seem to tolerate editing the text in Proboards. I checked the post with two browsers on my computer (Edge and Chrome), and it seemed fine on my end. I also checked with another computer after you posted your message, and I could still see the pictures without a problem. 


Thanks Again!

[Mr.409]

Very nice work! These old Mini Bikes are really cool, and this is the first time when I've ever seen one of these (1:1 scale or model). Suzuki PV that also had a 50cc engine was hugely popular here in Finland as new, but I've never seen one of these Trail Hoppers. Your version is very nicely done, everything looks just right. Makes me want to take a ride with it.

[jerseydevil]

Thank you! I have a few more bikes and some other models I will be posting when I get time to take pictures of them. By the way, I managed to find a picture of the Suzuki PV - very cool! Also, I think the PV was referred to as the Suzuki EPO when it was sold in other markets, and Aoshima made a model of it some years back in 1/12 scale. Now I sort of wish I snapped it up on Ebay when I came across it, but it was a bit too expensive. 

[TooOld]

Love this mini bike ! Definitely a rare one and that kit looks like it builds up really nice !

[fordrodnkustom]

Jan 27, 2019 19:06:23 GMT -5 jerseydevil said:

Thanks for letting me know. I am using Google Photos to post because its free, and I don't have to worry about broken links when my subscription expires. One problem I have found with using Google to post is that it doesn't seem to tolerate editing the text in Proboards. I checked the post with two browsers on my computer (Edge and Chrome), and it seemed fine on my end. I also checked with another computer after you posted your message, and I could still see the pictures without a problem. 


Thanks Again!

All pics are there now. Very sharp work! Looks 1:1!

[jerseydevil]

Thanks again everyone! Its great to have places where you can show off your builds for others to see as opposed to letting them sit on the shelf where they can go unnoticed for months on end!