What is a Cyclekart
CycleKarts are small, lightweight, nimble machines made by their drivers for the pursuit of motoring fun. They're not serious speed-machines or status-generating show cars. They are built purely for the fun of building them and driven purely for the gritty fun and satisfaction of tearing around in a machine you've built yourself. They are not racing cars, nor is CycleKarting a competitive motorsport.
Cyclekarts are based on the aesthetics of the CycleCARS of the 1920's and 1930's that used motorcycle engines and a lightweight chassis to create massive power-to weight ratios to outpace their heavier contemporaries.
CycleKARTS on the other hand are built to an approximate 2:1 scale using go-kart running gear and motorcycle wheels. They are basically a speed limited go-kart with a body style that is built as a tribute to a CycleCar or vintage open wheeled race car of old. They can resemble any era of open wheeled car and often draw from specific historical cars as inspiration.
As a class of driving machine, these are home built DIY machines that are not designed and built with full speed racing in mind. They are definitely NOT racing cars. The CycleKart specifications limit certain aspects of the design to maintain good sporting performance but ensure a level of safety without jeopardising the light-hearted nature of the sport. This is achieved by using the go-kart mechanicals and a nominated engine, which keeps speeds to a safer less fatal level. Whilst it is possible to use motorcycle engines, manual gearboxes, uprated suspension and other modifications to go super fast, once you move away from using go-kart components and following the basic CycleKart formula, it is no longer regarded as a CycleKart and is essentially a true CycleCar.
CycleKarts and their builders / drivers don't like to take things too seriously, and certainly not themselves or each other. Overzealous competitiveness is frowned upon, and a win-at-any-cost attitude is not really the ethos of CycleKarting. Good gentlemanly (and ladylike) sporting behaviour and conduct is encouraged, with the main aim simply being to have fun. If you are not smiling then put simply - 'you are not doing it right'.
A good way to look at CycleKarting is first and foremost as a hobby and build community much like the vintage car or hot rod scenes and not as a true competitive motorsport. Aesthetics and community are far more important than speed and winning. If you think of CycleKarts as art on wheels and Cyclekarting events as a form of display, then you will not go too far wrong. To quote Kelly Woods "we are making art, not lap times".