With schools closed down due to lockdown, students may have found it tough to spend time indoors

However, for the ones with ideas and the willingness to create something new, the lockdown could actually have been a blessing in disguise. 9th grader Arshad TH from Kochi certainly belongs to the creative class, as he has successfully utilized his free time to custom built a light motorcycle.

For his project, Arshad utilized scrap materials that were available in his father’s automobile workshop. He had wanted to build a motorcycle that looks like a bicycle and the idea started taking shape when he noticed things like a motorcycle engine and iron pipe kept in his father’s workshop. Initially, his father had opposed the idea thinking that it might not work. However, after seeing the progress, his father decided to provide all the help he can.

Arshad sourced parts from various bikes to build his light motorcycle. His father provided him a welding machine, which made it easier to build the custom chassis using the iron pipe. One of the innovative aspects of the motorcycle is that the top pipe frame doubles up as the fuel tank.

This achieves Arshad’s primary objective to make the motorcycle look quite similar to a bicycle. The custom motorcycle utilizes certain bicycle parts as well such as the handlebar, seat, and rear carrier.

According to Arshad, the pipe fuel tank can store one litre of petrol. In normal conditions, the motorcycle can give a mileage of 50 km. This is pretty good for a homemade custom motorcycle built using scrap materials.

Details about the engine used aren’t available at this point of time, but from images it looks like a 100 cc motorcycle engine. It could be from any of the 100 cc motorcycles such as Hero Splendor, HF Deluxe, Bajaj Platina, CT 100, Yamaha RX100, etc.

Arshad has ensured that the custom motorcycle is up-to-date in terms of features as well. It comes with LED headlight and disc brakes. Fabrication work is top class and the paint job appears to be done in a professional manner. However, things like ride quality, balance, and max possible speed would be difficult to ascertain until one gets to ride the custom motorcycle.

It took around 45 days to build the motorcycle and total investment was Rs 10,000. Arshad’s father is currently evaluating the possibility of getting the custom motorcycle formally registered with RTO. In his next project, Arshad is planning to build a trolley. Looking at his light motorcycle, we are quite certain that he will successfully execute his trolley project and any other that may come up after that.