Making a quad bike

[Imakequadbike]

Hello, I am new to this forum and want to ask you about something

So I want a quad bike, also I want a project to work on

I thought I would make one, or rather, order the parts individually and assemble them.

It says here you can make a vehicle and register it for road use

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-registration/kitbuilt-v...

It doesn't mention quad bikes but it mentions, cars, bikes and tricycles so quad bikes will probably be allowed to I assume

If anyone has any experience building a project vehicle and what it is like to get it road legal, please give me some advice

Also it say's you need a receipt from the manufacterer to register it for the parts you order, surely this is not every part but maybe the bike frame, handlebars, engine etc

I know some of you guys on here are not a fan of quad bikes but I don't have a motorcycle licence

With a quad bike you can ride it with a driving licence

[Olivergt]

I know you want a project to work on, but have you investigated how much this is likely to cost?

Have you looked at the regulations, so you know what you need to include on your quad bike to make it road legal?

You might be better getting an old, maybe in need of some work, quad bike that is already road legal and the "project" is then to get it back into nice working condition.

[Imakequadbike]

Yes exactly, I done some research and found this

Its a frame thats already registered for the road

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164929862927?_trkparms=...

Quad bikes seem to be hard to find in this country, go on gumtree or ebay and theres only around 40 being advertised and most of them are farm quads

Do you know any regulations about what size engine you can put into a frame thats already registered?

[walamai]

You'll need to do a Motorcycle Single Vehicle Approval. A quad is classified as a "quadricycle"

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-approval/motorcycle-sin...

There is a link on that page to the Inspection Manual, which covers everything you'll need to meet. It's fairly comprehensive, but a bit 'easier' than the equivalent IVA for a car.

[SAS Tom]

Surely it’s easier and cheaper to get a bike licence than “make” a quad?

[walamai]

SAS Tom said:

Surely it’s easier and cheaper to get a bike licence than “make” a quad?

Yep for sure! Or get a 50cc bike, or just buying a road legal quad - all which would be cheaper and easier.

You would have to want to do this for the experience of the project itself, rather than because you want cheap/easy transport.

[Imakequadbike]

walamai said:

You would have to want to do this for the experience of the project itself, rather than because you want cheap/easy transport.

Yeah, I want to improve my mechanic skills and build it up piece by piece, I got a lot of tools in the garage and wanna put them to good use

Thanks for the link

SAS Tom said:

Surely it’s easier and cheaper to get a bike licence than “make” a quad?

If I had a van maybe, they charge £90 for a £15 test if you use a bike from the school

They used to let you do a full test on a 125 but then changed the rules

Besides I like quad bikes

Edited by Imakequadbike on Monday 12th July 14:31

Edited by Imakequadbike on Monday 12th July 14:37

[walamai]

Imakequadbike said:

Yeah, I want to improve my mechanic skills and build it up piece by piece, I got a lot of tools in the garage and wanna put them to good use

I think it's a great idea for a project. I'm starting a project to do a scratch build car which needs a full IVA, and it is really daunting. I've actually considered a 'heavy quadricycle' instead just because the certification process is so much easier. But then you are limited to 15kW/400kg's and I want to go bigger than that.

Starting with a quad you would still learn lots of skills, have the satisfaction etc of the finished product. But it would be much easier to get road registered and much cheaper than a full size car. Good luck!

[Olivergt]

OP, you say you have a lot of tools in the garage.

What kind of things have you done before?

Starting from a bare frame, there will be a long way to go...

I till think you are betting getting an already road legal complete quad bike that needs some work.

This for example:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265220633777?hash=item3...

[SAS Tom]

Imakequadbike said:

If I had a van maybe, they charge £90 for a £15 test if you use a bike from the school

They used to let you do a full test on a 125 but then changed the rules

Besides I like quad bikes

Edited by Imakequadbike on Monday 12th July 14:31

Edited by Imakequadbike on Monday 12th July 14:37

£90 is a hell of a lot cheaper than building a quad from scratch.

What are you planning to “make”?

Are you talking about buying a frame etc and putting it together or actually making your own frame?

[Imakequadbike]

Olivergt said:

OP, you say you have a lot of tools in the garage.

What kind of things have you done before?

Starting from a bare frame, there will be a long way to go...

I till think you are betting getting an already road legal complete quad bike that needs some work.

This for example:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265220633777?hash=item3...

Yeah that looks like a decent quad, I might get something like that, hire out a van to bring it back home, as for stuff I've done before, various jobs on the car, changing alternator, fan motor etc

I've done welding and other metalwork but yeah I'll have to learn a bunch of new things to assemble a quad

SAS Tom said:

£90 is a hell of a lot cheaper than building a quad from scratch.

What are you planning to “make”?

Are you talking about buying a frame etc and putting it together or actually making your own frame?

I'll buy the frame, if I can find a decent Japanese frame for example Yamaha, thats already road legal and got the V5, then I can work on sourcing the other parts. I haven't completely decided what to do yet, but I'm not in a rush to get something on the road

[anonymous-user]

A couple of points;

Farmers/Gamekeepers etc tend to offload things when they are no longer working or ideally shortly before they are about to expire. So beware of any project that say doesn't start or has a dicky gearbox, they're usually quite expensive to repair.

Beware of anything with missing parts or cheap chinesium replacements or anything that's been fiddled about with.

[Olivergt]

Imakequadbike said:

Olivergt said:

OP, you say you have a lot of tools in the garage.

What kind of things have you done before?

Starting from a bare frame, there will be a long way to go...

I till think you are betting getting an already road legal complete quad bike that needs some work.

This for example:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265220633777?hash=item3...

Yeah that looks like a decent quad, I might get something like that, hire out a van to bring it back home, as for stuff I've done before, various jobs on the car, changing alternator, fan motor etc

I've done welding and other metalwork but yeah I'll have to learn a bunch of new things to assemble a quad

SAS Tom said:

£90 is a hell of a lot cheaper than building a quad from scratch.

What are you planning to “make”?

Are you talking about buying a frame etc and putting it together or actually making your own frame?

I'll buy the frame, if I can find a decent Japanese frame for example Yamaha, thats already road legal and got the V5, then I can work on sourcing the other parts. I haven't completely decided what to do yet, but I'm not in a rush to get something on the road

I would think that you are going to have a hard enough job getting any parts for the running/road legal quad bike I suggested.

If you are thinking of starting from just the frame, you are going to run in to a world of pain trying to source parts that will fit, or making parts to fit, let alone the cost of sourcing those parts (and don't forget, if the parts are s/h, do they work!).

I would seriously consider something like the one I suggested. Start with it as a small project, if you get it all working and looking nice, and you enjoyed the process, sell it on and find another one that needs a little more work.

Apologies if I sound a bit harsh, but I'm just trying to be realistic here.

[Imakequadbike]

Olivergt said:

I would think that you are going to have a hard enough job getting any parts for the running/road legal quad bike I suggested.

If you are thinking of starting from just the frame, you are going to run in to a world of pain trying to source parts that will fit, or making parts to fit, let alone the cost of sourcing those parts (and don't forget, if the parts are s/h, do they work!).

I would seriously consider something like the one I suggested. Start with it as a small project, if you get it all working and looking nice, and you enjoyed the process, sell it on and find another one that needs a little more work.

Apologies if I sound a bit harsh, but I'm just trying to be realistic here.

Yeah you're probably right about the parts, it'd be a huge list. Probably better just to find a bike that needs some work doing to the engine, do that as a project, although that quad bike you linked me wouldn't be suitable for riding on the road, maybe inbetween sites but the top speed said 30kph

I think its an agricultural quad with some limited road use allowed.

I did find this

https://www.gumtree.com/p/other-vehicles/quad-bike...

He said it's not road legal and I assume it'd be quite hard to get it road registered, I heard its a lot easier to register it for the road if its new

and you have a receipt from the manufacturer