Rail Buggy Info

[Lady Di]

My sister lives in San Francisco and works at Apple Computer in Cupertino.

She wants to buy a small rail buggy, like 250CC size or so.

She would keep it at the parking garage in Cupertino to get out at lunch so it would have to be street legal, but she is basically buying it to dress up and bring with them to Burning Man.
OK TMI...

The main reason for this post is to ask if anyone has any advice as to good places to buy one, or the logistics of registering and tagging it in CA.
TIA! 

[Gittinit]

sorry no rail thingy info but wow I thought my family was spread out. Or are you banned to that side of the country.

[unclejpl4x4]

  I wish i could go 2 a burnning man   her sister is............ wild ya thats it        But the real ? is whats she gona do after it's over and she has a sand rail. 

[kneedownnate]

Me thinks a rail with only 250cc would be little more than garage fodder...

[Lady Di]

  I wish i could go 2 a burnning man   her sister is............ wild ya thats it        But the real ? is whats she gona do after it's over and she has a sand rail. 

Yes, she is wild.   If you got to my myspace and look for black opal, that is her side business.
It sounds like she would keep the rail buggy at the garage in Cupertino, where she works.

sorry no rail thingy info but wow I thought my family was spread out. Or are you banned to that side of the country.

Gittinit - I'm originally from NJ. That's where most of the family is. (an Italian from NJ - what are the odds? )
I moved to FL via San Francisco. I was living there for 3 years, met a guy there from here, moved here, broke up with him and met Mark (readers digest version).
My sister moved to SF a couple years after I moved away, she then moved to AZ, back to SF (Oakland), to KY (where her BF at the time was from) back to SF, broke up with that BF, got a job at Apple Computer and met another guy (Trilo - he's a myspace friend as well).

She has done Burning Man often and was there last year. They want to have a rail buggy to get around this year. The only other vehicle they/she has is a scooter.

[Lady Di]

Me thinks a rail with only 250cc would be little more than garage fodder...

what do you mean by that Nate? It's not much use offroad? I don't know that they would use it much more then putzing around town.

[79coyotefrg]

250cc  wouldnt propell  two people more  than about 10 mph 

well  faster than that  but  dang  cant she get a little bigger engine than 250cc

i have seen one  recently  that was made  with the engine and tranny from a dodge minivan 

it could pop a wheelie 

[Lady Di]

I think she was just looking at prices. She was thinking go-cart to use on the playa, but I don't think you can use something like that on the road.

[kneedownnate]

Honestly, getting something like what you're talking about to be street legal in california is gonna TOUGH!  250cc in a sand rail is gonna be like putting a 22r in a tundra, not much is gonna happen!  Even a "small" engine in a rail is a vw 1300cc.  And finding a street legal rail..........

[Lady Di]

Honestly, getting something like what you're talking about to be street legal in california is gonna TOUGH!  250cc in a sand rail is gonna be like putting a 22r in a tundra, not much is gonna happen!  Even a "small" engine in a rail is a vw 1300cc.  And finding a street legal rail..........

Aside from finding a place to get one inexpensively and what size would be best, that was really the question I had. Cali's vehicular laws seem so strict I didn't know if the logistics of that would be really tough.
She was going to be researching that, but I'll email her what you've said so far.

[BLACKDOG]

I thik her best bet would be to loo for something along the lines of a VW dune buggy.

They are based on a VW size vehicle, usually use mostly VW parts, but have a fiberglass tub, usually convertible, biggere tires, etc.

Something like this:

[snowshoebrue]

those are meyer manx style vw.  most of the times  one that runs well and looks good will cost over 3 grand.  i looked at building one and they can get pricey for ones that are still in good shape.  seeing most of the things that go to burning man i dought it would have to look pretty though

[Lady Di]

She was looking for something on the cheap for sure. I think the one she was looking at, the 250cc was less then 1K. I have a link to that site at work. BUt it was more go-kart then rail buggy.
Putzing around the playa is one thing but I didn't think that that would be something that could be street legal. 
I did suggest she look at some used stuff. I don't know how capable her BF is with vehicles.
I'll find out.

[snowshoebrue]

if her bf is capable heres one of the manx style ones for 800. 
http://sacramento.craigslist.org/car/256257169.html

[BLACKDOG]

those are meyer manx style vw.  most of the times  one that runs well and looks good will cost over 3 grand.  i looked at building one and they can get pricey for ones that are still in good shape.  seeing most of the things that go to burning man i dought it would have to look pretty though

thats what they're called   when I lived in OK, a friends older brother had one.  We loved riding in it, but it spent more time broken than running  (prolly had something to do with his stoner tendencies )

[Lady Di]

I never heard it called anything but a dune buggy.

[kneedownnate]

Here's a cheap sand rail reasonably close, but it probably needs way too much work and may have never been street registered.

http://chico.craigslist.org/car/261837635.html