For some reason I have recently run into several old Aurora Thunderbikes, and have become increasing fond of their performance, but especially their engineering. The first thing they all needed were regular tune-ups, but more important was getting new rubber on them, even fronts. The old was hard as talc, and brittle. This article will eventually address that with a quick and easy fix.

Taking the bike apart, and putting it together is not tricky. Standard tuning techniques apply, such as cleaning all slip surfaces, and oiling all frictions areas applies.

In this picture you see the pieces Note there are two clamps. The larger is effectively the same as on a T-jet, because this is a T-jet, only designed to be turned on it's side.

The first thing you will need to do is push the handlebars out, till the body can be slipped off. Then, remove the wheels by separating them from their holes with an Xacto knife.

This is a shot of the magnets and commutator brushes. They are identical to a Thunderjet, in size, if not in performance. I did not take gauss readings for the magnets.

Here is a shot of the pinion, and the armature. Again, I didn't ohm the arm to check it's performance. The reason is that the T-Bike is not about performance, really. Any excessive speed makes it pop out. What it needs is a steady gait, and smooth operation. A 120 ohm controller helps a lot.

Here it is clamped together. Adjusting the pickups is quite different from a standard T-jet, in that these float. In fact, they put very little pressure to the track. Setting them up for a flat footprint in the track rail is the goal here.

If you wonder if the shoes can be replaced, they can, if you have a rivet the right size, and can set it. I don't think you want to overuse these vehicles, though.

HO World Theatre Presentation.