Still kickin :)

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Hi guys. I've been absent here for quite awhile. Life has taken me in directions other than trikes, but I still have them all. Been getting back into it with my kids. My 12 year old daughter has been having so much fun on the 125 she ran the rear axle bearings clean out of it. My 16 year old son just landed his first job at the local hardware/home store and is excited to get rebuilding a sad old 350x we picked up awhile back. I changed jobs again, made a major step up for us taking a job spinning wrenches in the fleet department for National Grid. Never thought an "uneducated" guy like me would ever have the opportunity to do so well. Color me grateful. How have you all been? Well I hope.

[fabiodriven]

Great to see you peeking in Joe!

[Arky-X]

Hi guys. I've been absent here for quite awhile. Life has taken me in directions other than trikes, but I still have them all. Been getting back into it with my kids. My 12 year old daughter has been having so much fun on the 125 she ran the rear axle bearings clean out of it. My 16 year old son just landed his first job at the local hardware/home store and is excited to get rebuilding a sad old 350x we picked up awhile back. I changed jobs again, made a major step up for us taking a job spinning wrenches in the fleet department for National Grid. Never thought an "uneducated" guy like me would ever have the opportunity to do so well. Color me grateful. How have you all been? Well I hope.

Electric and gas utility?

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Yes, that's what National Grid does on this area. I'm in the fleet department, mantainence and repair of all of their toys.

[yaegerb]

Glad to see everything is going well for ya Joe!

[El Camexican]

Was just thinking about you the other day Joe, good to see you on here. I hope it happens more often.

[plastikosmd]

Amazing news!
It is great to hear from you and thank u for the update
It is nice to have good news for a change

[RIDE-RED 250r]

I've been thinking of you guys lately too.

Got the 125 bearings done before leaving for work today. I work 1600-2400 Monday through Friday. Have to do a little more tweaking to the rear end in the chain adjustment mechanism, she's pulling and I figure the rear end is cocked a bit. Got some brand new sneakers for the Big Red and installed them over the weekend. Long overdue, front tire was the original and badly dry rotted.

[ironchop]

Good to see you back in here

Sent from my Z958 using Tapatalk

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Well, the little 125 is back up and running. Got my JD serviced and hung the deck, and got our new generator ready for camp.
The MSR clutch lever and perch are giving me problems on the big bore R, just ordered an ASV Pro clutch lever and perch for that. :)

Next projects are to put a set of BKM swingarm bushings in my 350x that I've had since last summer and then address the sadly broken case on Momma's 350x. My boy was riding it and the chain broke, not the master link either. Punched a hole at the bottom of the sprocket, not the dead spot further up. Oil puked out and you can wave "hi" to the shifter shaft. :( It's a nickel sized hole and a skilled welder could probably fix it, but by the time I split the cases for the job, I might as well hunt down a good case half.

Anyway, just rambling here. Been enjoying getting all these projects done that have been back-burnered for too long

[atc300r]

Welcome back.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Went to camp at the Oswego County ATV club this past weekend. After getting about 50 miles in with the Big Red on the rockiest, roughest, spine crunchin-ist trails I've ridden, it lit a fire under my ass to swap those bad swingarm bearings in my 350x. She's getting a set of BKM delrin bushings :D :beer

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Well, I bought this trike from my younger brother a couple years back. When he went through it back in '04 he installed a zero fitting in the swingarm pivot. Smart man! Pivot bolt came out with ease and bearings slide right out! Huge win!

[fabiodriven]

Did he drill the swing arm bolt?

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Negative. Drilled and tapped the pivot housing in the swingarm itself. There is a crush sleeve in there similar to the axle carrier. Grease goes in between the pivot housing and crush sleeve and does make its way into the bearings. Bearings still had grease in them. At this point I'm not entirely sure if the bearings were bad or my pivot housing is worn. Bryan's bushings fit a tad loose. I measure 1.125" ID on the housing and 1.115" OD on Bryan's bushings. I'm going to put them in and see how it works. I'm confident in Bryan's research and work, I suspect my pivot housing is to blame. Maybe might hit him up for a set customized to my pivot housing dimensions if things are still sloppy when I get it together

[RIDE-RED 250r]

She's back together and so far all seems tight and happy. I'll see how it is after riding this weekend.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Looking forward to heading to our camp at the Owsego County ATV club campground straight from work tomorrow. Going to be a great weekend for some seat time on the 350x :)

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Well, all loaded up and headed to work and then camp for the weekend. Y'all have a great holiday and don't forget to raise a glass in honor of those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

She's getting a workout today. So far the swingarm seems to be doing fine.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Just me and my daughter Sam out for a little ride today.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

All cleaned up again. The Bryan bushings seem to be just fine. I detected some slop in the rear end when riding and it turned out to be a rear wheel hub that got a little loose. Tightened it back up and she's good to go. Couldn't have asked for a better weekend!

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Well here is the start of my sons 350x build. He got his first job and laid down a little over $500 for this good frame. Holy smokes have the prices gone crazy! He's done about all the wire wheeling he can to strip it and what's left we will have tackle with paint stripper. Gonna have to get him signed up for the forum here. FB is ok, but the best quality help and info still lives here :beer

[RIDE-RED 250r]

And here is the sad ol 350x we are going to get snorting again. It needs alot of love but the engine ran fine when last kicked over. He's going to get new rear wheels, tires, exhaust, etc along with all the other obvious stuff, which is pretty much everything. Lol! I have another complete rear end with axle that someone booger welded the outer axle nut to the snap ring retainer. Not sure what route we are going to go with the axle yet, depends on if either of the ones we have on hand are salvageable. May end up getting a 300ex extended axle for it. The engine is '86 but it looks like both swingarms we have are '85 judging by the brake stay setup...what's left of them. It's gonna be a long road but we'll get there.

[fabiodriven]

Prices have gotten insane, that's for sure Joe! Yes Facebook is not a good place to get technical information on these machines as you know. I've seen some terrible advice on the bookface and I'm sure most other people have as well. Plus there are no archives on the book. Traffic here isn't what it has been in the past, but if the lad wants to search old threads this forum is a wealth of knowledge as you know.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Yessir! He just joined up a little while ago. JoJo Barrett is the screen name he took. I think he is still waiting to have his account activated.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

So the MSR clutch lever on my big bore R has been giving me issues. It's the three position adjustable setup and while I liked the short lever design, the darn thing would not hold adjustment well. So a couple weeks back I pulled the trigger on an ASV clutch and perch and I gotta say, while expensive compared to most it's an amazing product! The breakaway design and the adjustable position/pull lever takes away all the headaches of dealing with clutch cables that might be a little off in dimensions compared to original equipment. I've noticed that the window of adjustment for full disengagemt while maintaining proper free play for full engagement was sometimes very small. This ASV setup blows that headache out of the water. I hope it lasts and is as rugged as it appears to be.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Well, my boy's 350x rebuild is inching along. Would move a little faster if he would devote more of his earnings to getting parts coming rather than $300 earbuds I didn't know about till he got them. So the frame is primed and painted and we have started pulling parts off the original chassis. Now the fun starts... One broken exhaust stud, looks to have broken off some years ago :( There is a machine shop nearby, I just may take it there and see if they can get it out rather than destroy another of the badly diminished supply of 350x heads left in existence. The stock header pipe is in good shape. He is going to get a full DG system for it. I'm wondering what would be a reasonable price to offer the stock pipe for sale? With all the gouging going on these days and eBay having no listings of these parts at the moment I'm curious what you all think would move it.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

I have no idea why some of my pics keep getting turned sideways. They are right side up when I upload them..

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Scored this original '85 swingarm for the boys 350x. Original carrier and everything, barely a mark on it. Got it from a fella on a FB group. Wasn't cheap but he's a solid guy to deal with. Very happy with this.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Delving into figuring out the solution for an axle/carrier/brake rotor hub combo for our '85 swingarm. I see it said to use a 300ex axle with Louis's sprocket spacer but I don't see his spacer in the 3ww shop. Is the 250r brake rotor hub compatible with a 300ex axle? I don't want to run with the larger 300ex rotor.

[ironchop]

What's the scoop on this? We demand a seperate build thread!.

MOAR PICS!

[RIDE-RED 250r]

We picked up some parts from Oldskool83 to include a near new 250x twin row carrier, custom caliper mount so we can use the easier to source yz400/426 front caliper as well as a rotor hub to allow the use of an easier to source 250r rotor. We ordered an Eastlake 300ex axle and are still waiting on that.

One major PITA I haven't tackled yet is a broken exhaust header stud that only protrudes 1/8" at best. Once that is addressed (and hopefully with success) it's a simple matter of getting more parts and getting it together.

You're right, I should post up a separate build thread in the proper forum. I've just been rambling here in my hodge-podge thread.

[Jason125m]

Long time no see! Glad everyone seems to be doing well! Lots of faces on here from years ago still actively posting. I need to check in here more often

[RIDE-RED 250r]

This has been on a long hiatus due to my son getting distracted as easy as a dog is distracted by a random squirrel ��.


Will be getting underway here again fairly soon. His interest has moved on to a dirt bike and now this project is mine.

Watchu fellers been up to?

[El Camexican]

Enjoy, and don’t be a stranger, there’s a bike section here as well.

[Rob Canadian]

I am still kicking also. Enjoying my 2003 XR400R and my quad. Picked up a sled for winter enjoyment.:lol:

Trike is gone but still pop in here and there.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Getting the itch to do an aluminum frame CR based trike build. I still have other priorities ahead of something like that, but I'm formulating a plan. BVC no longer selling conversion parts??


What's everyone's thoughts on the Panthera engines??? :naughty::naughty:

[RIDE-RED 250r]

https://youtu.be/T3d6n-wFHtE?si=7Z7T2jujgNvGbJ6K

[oldskool83]

welcome back.