What Happens When You Turn a Handtruck and a Free Engine Into a Motorcycle?

If you're the do-it-yourself type, then you already know how discarded parts can stack up. Maybe you don't mean for them to, but they always do. That's extra true if you're also the type of ADHD person to have multiple projects going at once, pretty much all the time.

Sometimes that can work out in your favor, though; especially if you tend to work on the same types of projects. Why? Because sometimes, those spare parts from your previous projects can come in handy on your new one. Or sometimes, if you get enough of those spare parts piled somewhere together, you can start to see an entirely new purpose for all of them that you might not have seen if they weren't all right there.

Take this creation, which started life as a simple, unassuming, bright blue hand truck. Lots of steel tubing, some wheels, maybe a little bit of rubber at the handles. Simple, straightforward, ready to pull around whatever someone wished to load onto it, with absolutely zero pretensions of becoming anything else. Except, the Garage Avenger looked at it and saw something else. Kind of like when he looked at a shopping cart and saw a drift kart instead.

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Now, to hear GA tell it, he's not a motorcyclist. He doesn't claim to be a motorcyclist. He just likes building stuff, and he can't help the fact that he looked at this handtruck and saw what eventually turned into the "Handtruck Fatboy," courtesy of a totally free engine he got from someone somewhere along the way. 

Sure, it's got a car tire on the back, and a dirtbike knobby on the front. Sure, it's powered by a little 125cc single-cylinder engine, primarily because he got it for free. 

The main point is, he had the vision, and he roped friends with machining equipment and exhaust-fabricating skills into the build. Most importantly, he saw it through to the end and built the thing. Does it have a kind of funky-looking chain tensioner setup? Yes. But it's a thing, and it's built, and it runs, and it's out in the world. 

In a way, I think that it's builds like this that are extremely eloquent and relatable. It's built by a person having fun, unafraid to try new things even if they have questions or don't completely know what they're doing. That's how you get better; that spirit. Having fun with friends in the garage is also a major part of why it's worth undertaking a project like this, too. 

It's about progress, and fun; not perfection. If you build something cool and you're happy with it at the end, that's just a bonus. This is such a valuable energy to spread in the world, and I hope you think so, too.

Go try something weird and hilarious, even if you don't think you fully know what you're doing. Learn along the way! Rope in your friends. Don't be afraid to just have fun doing things! It's fine, really.

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