the sportsman flyer company started as pat dolan’s hobby.
having built and collected cars and bicycles for years, he always wanted to add an old schwinn whizzer to his collection.
while seeking the right bike he started noticing motorized bicycles all around with newer two stroke engines so he decided to build one for himself. starting with a vintage schwinn panther frame, commonly called a “straight bar frame” because of it’s unique middle tube in front which is very similar to early motorcycle design.
gas tanks were slid into the pocket between the top and middle frame tubes on early motorcycles, so pat felt it made sense to build a gas tank to fit the panther frame in the same fashion. using his fabrication and computer-aided design (cad) skills, he designed and built his first in-frame gas tank that fit the panther frame perfectly and soon he had people asking if he could build more.
as pat continued with his own build he quickly discovered that most of the unique vintage style parts he needed were not available. this led to the development of a series of parts while others began requesting custom frame and tank kits, as well as seats, handlebars, wheels, and mounts for more powerful engines. the sportsman flyer company was born.
a basic frame, fork, tank and handlebar kits start at $1,200. turn-key bikes do not come with engines, and are between $2,000 to $2,400.
pat is in the middle of five builds at the moment, and all will be set up for the honda gx200 four stroke kart racing engines which put out between 8 and 15 horsepower, depending on tuning. pat says, “for a bicycle, these things haul ***!”
visit sportsmanflyer.com for the latest bikes, parts, and news.
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