Here’s what’s been taking up a good chunk of my spare time the last year or so – I collect and restore old Honda 3 wheelers as a hobby, and end up with a lot of spare frames and parts. With 3 ATC's (a 125m, 200x, and a 250r) already in the stable, I decided I needed a 4 wheel ATV – and my son jokingly remarked I probably had enough parts sitting around to build one.
So, I did. (With a little help from eBay.)
I started with a trashed '84 200m (200cc, 5 speed, electric start), then stripped it down to the frame and started measuring, cutting, and welding to install a front A-arm suspension and rear swing arm. With a few changes where needed, the engine cradle (center part of the frame), engine/trans, controls, electrical system, various brackets, and a lot of hardware were reused as the basis for the ATV project.
This picture was taken early in the build, when I was concentrating on building the front suspension. These A-arms and spindles are from a 300ex, front subframe is all hand fabricated. Getting all the measurements right to get the caster I wanted and minimize bumpsteer and camber change throughout full suspension travel took some work. The bottom tubes run back to the crossmember that runs underneath the engine, and the large horizontal tube at the top passes through the brace that connects the head tube and upper and lower frame tubes – the strongest part of the frame. It’s fully welded on both sides.
Once I had the front tacked in and knew it was going to fit, I started on the rear – I cut off the entire rear half of the frame, leaving only the 2 upper tubes that support the seat.
Since I had an extra rear swing arm from a 200x (red one in the photos), I initially set the frame up to use it, but came across a bunch of parts from a 450r on eBay for a great price, and ended up changing a few things to use them instead.
The wooden dowel was a quick and dirty way of getting an idea of where to add in some diagonal braces. You can also get a better idea of the geometry of the front subframe.
After changing over to 450r rear suspension, adding cross-tubes and tabs for the front and rear shocks and linkage, and priming the frame, I decided to throw some wheels and tires on it to see how it looked. I bolted in an old engine case while I worked on mounting the rear swingarm, clearance is tight. The steering is the stem, top fork bridge and bars from the donor 200m, with a stout tube welded in that extends down and connects to the tie rods.
Not bad, but it needed a wider front end. Easily fixed with A-arms from a 400ex.
After adding a some additional bracing for the front subframe, a bracket for the rear hydraulic master cylinder, tabs for the rear of the gas tank, muffler, headlight, front bumper, and bodywork/fenders, removing a bunch of original brackets and tabs, cleaning it up, sandblasting, priming, and painting it, it started to look a little better. For some reason, the paint shows as gray in the photos, but is really more of a brown/gray/green color- Rustoleum calls it “Anodized Bronze.”
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Originally Posted by twitch101
