TheRadBaron
09-15-2011, 10:13 PM
Hey guys. I've been riding dirt bikes my whole life, mostly '70s and '80s Japanese stuff. Lately I started thinking about getting a 3-wheeler for utility around the property, playing around on, using as a parts-getter at swap meets, etc. Plus, living in a safety-obsessed society gets more frustrating every day and it makes me want to behave as unsafely as possible just to spite them. Not to say that trikes are unsafe, but people think that they are, hence the "aren't those things illegal"?
Anyway, a guy I work with tells me that he's selling an old Honda 3-wheeler, so I go and take a look at it. At this point I know next to nothing about trikes, but I can tell that it's a 200 from the numbers cast into the cylinder. It's ugly and neglected but it fires right up and rides around pretty good. I buy it for $250 and it becomes not only my first 3-wheeler but the first motorcycle (okay, ATV) that actually ran when I bought it.
I tried to look up some info on it online but my rural internet is brutally slow and the net isn't exactly awash with trike info.
Being familiar with small Honda singles, I immediately pull the clutch cover off to clean the oil slinger. I change the oil, air filter, etc. Everything seems to be in good shape. I take it to my its first swap meet (the AMCA meet in Davenport, IA) and it's a smashing success. Since then I've been blasting around the property on it and learning the techniques of trike riding, and I must say that I'm hooked. These things are a blast!
The poor thing has had the usual mistreatment of everything being rattlecanned gloss black, numerous botched repairs, etc., and it had big John Deere logos on the gas tank when I got it. I took those off immediately. I have nothing against John Deere, but a Honda is not a John Deere.
I plan on putting some work into it over the next few months to get it into a condition that I like. Not a restoration, just getting it mechanically sound and not poorly done gloss black. Using the VIN decoder link on this site I determined that it's a '85 ATC200S, so now I can start looking for parts. I'm glad to find a resource for these cool, politically incorrect, machines. Here are a few pics.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h219/blackguard77/IMG_2083.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h219/blackguard77/IMG_2084.jpg
Anyway, a guy I work with tells me that he's selling an old Honda 3-wheeler, so I go and take a look at it. At this point I know next to nothing about trikes, but I can tell that it's a 200 from the numbers cast into the cylinder. It's ugly and neglected but it fires right up and rides around pretty good. I buy it for $250 and it becomes not only my first 3-wheeler but the first motorcycle (okay, ATV) that actually ran when I bought it.
I tried to look up some info on it online but my rural internet is brutally slow and the net isn't exactly awash with trike info.
Being familiar with small Honda singles, I immediately pull the clutch cover off to clean the oil slinger. I change the oil, air filter, etc. Everything seems to be in good shape. I take it to my its first swap meet (the AMCA meet in Davenport, IA) and it's a smashing success. Since then I've been blasting around the property on it and learning the techniques of trike riding, and I must say that I'm hooked. These things are a blast!
The poor thing has had the usual mistreatment of everything being rattlecanned gloss black, numerous botched repairs, etc., and it had big John Deere logos on the gas tank when I got it. I took those off immediately. I have nothing against John Deere, but a Honda is not a John Deere.
I plan on putting some work into it over the next few months to get it into a condition that I like. Not a restoration, just getting it mechanically sound and not poorly done gloss black. Using the VIN decoder link on this site I determined that it's a '85 ATC200S, so now I can start looking for parts. I'm glad to find a resource for these cool, politically incorrect, machines. Here are a few pics.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h219/blackguard77/IMG_2083.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h219/blackguard77/IMG_2084.jpg