Before Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels were making “serious” movies, they gave us one of the funniest road trip films of the early ’90s, Dumb and Dumber. One of the “dumber” antics the duo gets up to along the way — depending on whom you ask — is trading their van for a sweet mini bike “straight up.”
The “hog” gets them out of dire straits with its “70 miles to the gallon” as the two journey from the plains of Nebraska to Aspen, Colorado. I always wondered if such a trip was even possible (or legal) on such a sweet hog, but I don’t have to wonder anymore, because Ari Henning and Zack Courts have recreated it:
You might recognize Henning from the MC Garage, and Courts from MC Commute, but the two are up to other things with RevZilla, now. Namely, answering pressing questions about the limits of friendship and mini bikes.
The next time someone tells you you can’t ride a small bike on a long trip, show them this video of these two doing it on a mini bike with “a one-gallon fuel tank, no suspension, tiny five-inch wheels, and a top speed of only 30 MPH.” Make’s a 250cc bike seem luxurious.
The bike makes a whopping six horsepower, which is apparently enough to haul the 400 pounds of BFF. It turns out, according to the riders, that it wasn’t the acceleration and power output that worried them, but the horrendous stopping power — or lack thereof. Not only did the brakes suck, but the mini bike forced its pilot to go WOT, which is a pain on your wrists. It also ran rich, shook so much the gas tank came loose, and chewed through its lawn mower tires.
Even with those technical difficulties, the two finished the road trip and proved that the movie was surprisingly close with its MPG figures, as the ride log details:
In the end, we logged 382 miles and burned seven gallons of gas; plus two and a half rear tires. In the major motion picture, Lloyd traded Harry’s van for the hog (straight up) and claimed to be able to get 70 mpg with the mini bike. We averaged 54, with what was likely a larger engine and some poor tuning to start. Our most efficient tank was 62 mpg, so if you figure the “kid back in town” had his jetting sorted for 5,000 feet of elevation, 70 mpg seems reasonable.
Oh, and apparently this actually is legal, but it still might not be very considerate to your fellow motorists on those mountain passes.
