Automania 2017: It’s a bike … a trike … what is it?

By: 
Jill Meier. Journal editor

Andrew Mursick's trike caught the attention of many passersby at Automania on June 30, 2017, in Brandon. Photo by Jill Meier/BV Journal

When Andrew Mursick ended up with “two pieces of junk”, he decided it would be a good idea to meld the two together to make one “hunk of junk.”

And the result, as Mursick defines, is yet to officially be determined.

“What I really consider it is a trike, so I suppose it’s a motorcycle,” informs the 23-year-old Brandon man.

Mursick and his “part” Harley Davidson trike, was one of several automotive oddities on display at last week’s Automania event in Brandon.

“The oddest question (I’ve got tonight) is how did you register it?” he tells. “I’ve gotten that question from a few people. I told them I hadn’t (registered it) but the first question I asked them is, ‘Are you a cop?’”

People, he adds, have also been curious about the engine that makes it go.

“That has been making me laugh,” he said. “It’s a 750 instead of a CV900, and what’s been interesting is right on the neck of the original motorcycle it says it – ‘83 Honda CV.”

The history of Mursick’s creation goes back a couple years when his buddy, Johnny Melsha, was telling him about some junk he had out in his field at his mom’s place. “I was talking about building a go-cart and he tells me about this old ’73 Harley Davidson, something he’s got out in the field, and I said, ‘Well, show me it.’”

Mursick said Melsha’s price of “free” was just the right fit for his budget.

“I drug it home from my buddy’s place and tried to figure out what to do with it and a couple years later another buddy of mine asked me if he could have this three-wheeler that he had sold me, and I said, ‘Well, what are you going to give me for it?’ He had a motorcycle that he couldn’t get a title for it and knew I was looking for a motorcycle.’”

Now positioned with two things he had no idea what he was going to do with, he said, “OK, I got this piece of junk with no engine and I’ve got this piece of junk with no title but it runs, so I just got this wild hair. … I didn’t really come up with a great game plan. I just thought I’d go ahead, throw it at the wall and see what sticks, you know. It was about a year or so ago that I built this, tried it out and it didn’t work with a darn.”

Mursick said parked out in the field, tackled a couple of other projects and then brought it back to the shop. It took him about two months to build and bring it to its current status.

“That probably took me the last month just up to yesterday,” he said. “I’ve got other projects that I had to work on, so I made Automania my deadline, and by golly, I drove her up here from Redwood this morning.”

Technically, paper-wise Mursick’s bike isn’t street-legal yet, “because I didn’t have time in my deadline to go to the courthouse,” he anticipates a few tweaks will need to be made here and there to get it to that status.

“Basically I’ll fill out a form for a re-built title and they’ll come out and inspect it and say ‘We’re happy with it. You have all your street legal equipment on here so we’re going to give you a title number and a VIN number and stamp your VIN plate on here,” he explains. “I’ve never done it, that’s just how it’s been explained to me.”

Mursick, who’s an entry-level technician at Papik Motors in Luverne, Minn., by day, has an inkling he’ll be asked to eliminate the pallet wood seat mount and shrink up the bench seat a little bit.

“She’s going to get parked after this and I’m going to come back to her next year and try to do her a little bit better,” he said.

As for the speed of bike, Mursick is honest in his response, “Good question. I have no idea. Originally, I had a Harley Davidson rear-end that came with a utilicar and it only went 30. I think we figured it did about one-gallon per mile or what was it, I don’t remember what it was, but it would suck down a tank of gas in about five minutes, so we put a ’90 Jeep axle under it. I’ve only had this around the block and this is the first time it went out on the highway.”

Mursick also has plans to “put some kind of body” on it to cover the rear-end.

“I’ve had a few classic cars and I’ve always had a dream of building something from scratch,” Mursick said. “This isn’t from scratch, but I had a lot of junk laying around and I made it work, so good enough.”

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The Brandon Valley Journal

 

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