Who here flips trikes?

[patriot1]

Dang, sorry I have missed this and glad you still have the general! (Dixie horn blows), Good work! Love it!

[DSHOT59]

Ya wouldn't have a 82 185s seat you want to part with by any chance would you ?:rolleyes:

[MrConcdid]

Its that time of year again, I'm getting older. yep Birthday season is upon us, At a certain age in a mans life he starts buying his own presents, not just paying for them, I mean pick them out and go get them, bring them home, and declare to the whole family, look what YOU got me for my birthday!

It has all the features I wanted, the bead blast feature and will clamp from a 6 inch to a 22 inch wheel, no adapters needed.

MrC.

[jasong_10]

Nice! That should make things much easier.

[ATC King]

That machine will definitely make tire changes easier, but a nice used one will also pay for itself very quickly. What shops charge for tire changes nowadays is very high.

Even with the bead blast, sometimes it's still helpful to use a bead seat tank too. Some tires are just monsters to bead up.

The air pressure gauge on that one should be adjustable, if you think it's incorrect. First time I use one, I check the tire pressure with a good digital gauge, compare, then make any adjustments.

[MrConcdid]

Great points ATC King,
Funny thing, this is a use one ( Lightly used ) from a private person, never was used commercially. When I was a younger man, I changed tires for several years at a national tire chain.
We had a good crew and it was enjoyable work. I will admit I'm a little rusty now, We used a table top machine back then, a 50/50 or 20/20 model, cant remember now.
I have always wanted my own machine, silly I guess, but I had the skills and the space, I hated paying someone for a service I could do.
No lines, No waiting and can be done when I want it done.
Like Honda's, Coats is the best brand in this area, when I am done with it
I can always sell it.
MrC.

[ATC King]

I could tell it was lightly used. I didn't construct my sentence properly. I meant it as you not only can change your own tires much easier now, but you also made a good economic decision. Like you said, you can sell it when not needed anymore, and you'll probably recoup all of your up front costs when you do.

A good purchase. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.


Even the budget priced new ones are pretty nice. They seem to get less expensive every year. There has to be more people buying them. Like motorcycle shops and the price they charge, even if you bring just the wheel in, may be influencing more people with the space and money to buy equipment to do it themselves. That's not including having to schedule a time and then having to wait for it to be done.

As tool/equipment prices come down, more things are available to the individual that were once only practical for shops to purchase. Especially so with electronic equipment. Basic computer scanning is now possible with a $20 Bluetooth dongle and a cell phone someone already has.

Damn Tech 2 scan tools are still expensive though. I also got outbid on a old SnapOn brick on EBay. For those older cars still out there, with computers, those old tools work great...if the prices would just come down already.

[jasong_10]

Great points ATC King,
Funny thing, this is a use one ( Lightly used ) from a private person, never was used commercially. When I was a younger man, I changed tires for several years at a national tire chain.
We had a good crew and it was enjoyable work. I will admit I'm a little rusty now, We used a table top machine back then, a 50/50 or 20/20 model, cant remember now.
I have always wanted my own machine, silly I guess, but I had the skills and the space, I hated paying someone for a service I could do.
No lines, No waiting and can be done when I want it done.
Like Honda's, Coats is the best brand in this area, when I am done with it
I can always sell it.
MrC.

My uncle gave me an old Coats 4040a machine a couple summers ago (and an old Sun spin balancer). I haven't had much time to learn how to use them but I did manage to change a 15" tire a couple weeks ago, lol. I wouldn't try a wheeler tire/rim on it because of how the machine is designed, but I figure I should be able to do up to a 17" automotive tire/rim.

[MrConcdid]

People, People, People.
I am as much to blame for not checking it out better. There is a town called crawfordville just south of me, everyone has "that" town, everything and everyone that comes from there is questionable. I made a rule 2 years ago to never go back, it was 3 on 1, I was just happy to get out of there. Well I thought this guy might be different. Nope.

So this guy calls me up, he says hes got a 250es that has compression and but no spark, he wants to sell it. I say ok, how much, its a pretty good price, I ask If i can come see it, he says yes. I grab the trailer and drive 45 min, it looks good, He says the battery is dead, I say ok, I see a new cdi box and new wires coming out of the stator, he tells me he put a new stator in but still no spark. I make a solid counter offer, now that I have seen it. we chat and he says ok.
I pay him, We load it up. I think, because he told me so, I have a nice bike, that has an electrical problem, That is how he sold it. NO spark, has good compression.

So I get it home, and throw on a battery charger to see what I am working with, all the light work, but the engine wont turn over, I pull the plug, no spin, I pull the starter gears, and try to kick it over, nope, its locked up. hmmmm, I pull the stator plug and I can spin the engine 179 degrees one way, then back 179 degrees, but it wont make a full rotation.
I hoped he messed up and the stator was jamming up somehow. I pull the stator cover. nope same issue, I went to the kickstart side, pulled the cover hopeing it was the kicker gears bound up. Nope must be in the head, I noticed the oil was very dark, and shinny, it is bad, the cam chain was a foot to long, the teeth on the crank gear are toast, looks like a ninja star teeth, I ran my finger through about an inch of metal sludge across the bottom of the case. this motor was beyond me. I am the proud new owner of a very nice looking 1985 Honda 250es. Hey the light works!

So thinking I would just punt this one, I listed it as a roller that needs a motor. Surprisingly no one wanted it, I had several offers for the side covers and nice metal tank, but its to nice to part out.
So a few days later a guy calls me up wanting a rear axle for a 250es, I just happen to have one, He says he has a 85 trx 250 engine that runs. We make the trade. I took about 4 hours to do the motor swap, I have never pulled this type of engine. I found the prying up on the right side (kickstart) the engine will need to tip the top forward and then out the left side (starter) side of the frame. once out install is just reverse the process. Hook up the drive shaft as you position the engine in the frame mounts, also remove the skid plate this gives you another inch of room to PIVOT the engine.
So with a different motor in place I wire it up, no spark, everything else works. hmmm, so I find that the Previous owner did more than just put in a new stator, He thought he was an harness maker too (PS2FIXER), I find a few dead end wires, and no power going to the CDI. So I trace it out when he wired the new stator he didn't wire it right, its a Chinese aftermarket one, and the wire colors are not OE, I made a patch for a switched Hot lead to the cdi, hit the key, and Vroom, it fired right up. the carb needs a rebuild, the float is hanging cause it to overflow but it runs and runs very well for a dirty carb. I shifted it into reverse and 1,2,3 on the bench the trans shift good. I will rebuild the carb tomorrow at least reset the float, and take her for a spin. All and all this has been a good lesson for me, and a story for you.

"Crawford" will bring great money, its almost hunting season, and everyone wants the Big 250es Big red.
Its a very complete bike, it will clean up great, new tires and brakes, front wheel bearings and a little paint and this bird will be ready to fly all the way to the bank.

MrC.

[ATC King]

My uncle gave me an old Coats 4040a machine a couple summers ago...

Got to watch your hands with those, since the wheel is stationary and it essentially moves a large tire lever around. The bead breaker is actually really good though, and better than some of the more modern machines.

The biggest issue is having to lift the wheel/tire up so high, to mount on the machine. For you, it probably isn't a problem, but for someone in a shop, doing that all day, it's hard on the back.

I think they're best for steel wheels, where the lever contacting the wheel edge isn't going to hurt anything. Maybe there's some modern adapters/levers that make them easier to work with aluminum wheels.

You're spin balancer may need calibrated once it's installed. How level they are, will affect the readings. It's often best to get them set up in a solid spot and make sure they don't move around. That's usually true for the digital units, if that's what yours is.

I've balanced, dynamically, statically, hybrid, and test drove a crap load of tires I just done. I've been a fleet mechanic. I swear that many of the current tire shops are terrible at doing it now. Too many times I've had new tires put on and they are out of balance. Either they don't calibrate their machines, or the techs are just idiots who don't care.

[MrConcdid]

Funny Tire story.
Man buys tires in TEXAS at the same national chain I worked for, He drove all the way to FLORIDA, he couldn't take it anymore, he came in said the balance was off, I spin the wheels and he was right there not even close, I pulled off the old weights and spun them again, with new weights there perfect, we bolted them back on and he left............15 minutes later he is back PISSED, he said it was just as bad as before. Now I can not take credit for this but my boss said break them down spin them 180 and mount the back up, we said ok, when we pulled the valve stem core water shot out of the tires WHAT!
We broke down all 4 there was at least 1 cups of water in every tire, we ask him how the water got in there, he said he didn't know but it was raining the day they put the tires on, and the tires got rained on while he was waiting to have them put on. We dried the tires out and remounted and rebalanced them. He never came back, I guess we fixed them but WOW, who would have thought.

I changed tires for almost 5 years, I have tons of tire people stories, lol

MrC.

[ATC King]

People, People, People.


MrC.

I'm glad it worked out for you. You got one of those 'It just needs the carb cleaned, 'It ran before parked' deals.

A lot of junk out there right now. Like people watching Antiques Roadshow, everyone and their dog, 'Knows what they got.'

Even though they don't know Jack.

I think there's a Kawasaki Tecate on EBay right now, advertised as excellent condition (with a price to match) and a motor mount bolt is missing. Frame is pretty rusty too.

[ATC King]

I changed tires for almost 5 years, I have tons of tire people stories, lol

MrC.

That is a good story. What kind of idiot put the tires one without getting the water out first.

On the water thing though, it's common to put water in tractor tires, for...traction. A friend of mine got a new-to-him tractor, and one day had a large screw go through, that needed removed and plugged. It turns out that the tire was over 50% filled with water. When he removed the screw and ran the reamer through, he was blasted with a stream of water. I was watching, and I did LOL.

I'm pretty sure some of that tire water got in his mouth.

[jasong_10]

Got to watch your hands with those, since the wheel is stationary and it essentially moves a large tire lever around. The bead breaker is actually really good though, and better than some of the more modern machines.

The biggest issue is having to lift the wheel/tire up so high, to mount on the machine. For you, it probably isn't a problem, but for someone in a shop, doing that all day, it's hard on the back.

I think they're best for steel wheels, where the lever contacting the wheel edge isn't going to hurt anything. Maybe there's some modern adapters/levers that make them easier to work with aluminum wheels.

You're spin balancer may need calibrated once it's installed. How level they are, will affect the readings. It's often best to get them set up in a solid spot and make sure they don't move around. That's usually true for the digital units, if that's what yours is.

I've balanced, dynamically, statically, hybrid, and test drove a crap load of tires I just done. I've been a fleet mechanic. I swear that many of the current tire shops are terrible at doing it now. Too many times I've had new tires put on and they are out of balance. Either they don't calibrate their machines, or the techs are just idiots who don't care.

Yeah, I've heard it can be an arm breaker so I'm definitely proceeding with caution. It is more suited for steel wheels but I found plastic bar-end covers that I think will allow me to try aluminum wheels (haven't yet though). When I first got them set up I didn't have the correct cones to try any of the wheels that I have in the garage on the balancer, and since I got the right ones I haven't had the time to play with it, lol. They are on a solid level spot in the garage, so that shouldn't be an issue

[MrConcdid]

Awe yes the 40/40, that is what I stood over for almost 5 years. loved the table top machine. I only ever had 1 incident, I was trying to help a lady out and remount her bald spare, otherwise she wouldn't have one. Company policy was we didn't remount used tires, I broke the rule, because she was on a trip and needed a spare. The bald tire exploded where the bead was ripped during the dis mount, When it blew out the sidewall at about 30 psi, I jumped back and dropped the large tire iron on my big toe, I kid you not, I thought i was going to loose it, it turn purple and the nail fell off for about a month. I pushed through gave her another used tire and sent her on her way. I flinch now every time the bead seats and makes the pop sound.

As for arm breaking, I have broke mine twice, but never on a tire machine, Remove the stem core, set the upper tire breaker in place and keep your hands away from the machine push the pedal, then use the tire iron and hit the opposite side of the tire, this will complete the upper bead breaking, the lower is automatic, remove the upper bead breaker, stab the iron in the tire and with your palm push on the opposite side of the tire, this pushes the tire into the rim cavity and allows you to pull the bar over and index it onto the post, press and hold the pedal, the bar will come round clockwise and remove upper bead, keeping the pedal pressed, insert the bar between the lower bead and the upper rim edge, index the tire iron with the center post and release the pedal, the bar will now comeback counter clockwise and remove the entire tire from the rim.
Sorry, reliving old memories.

I swapped 5 tires this weekend, it will take awhile for the machine to pay for itself but the convenience is almost priceless.

I rode Crawfordville yesterday around the yard, Total engine swap never doing a 250 before was about 4 hours total. I got it up to temp, no brakes, like ZERO brakes, so it was just putting around and a few raps on the throttle.
The header and pipe don't have any logos on them but it sounds pretty good. I made a list and ordered the parts for it. The usual: tires, brakes, cables, oil, filters, wheel bearings.
Only difference I have found between the 250es Big red engine and the TRX250 4 wheeler's engine is the lower low oil and reverse gear indicators, the BR has two wires the TRX has 4 wires.
otherwise its a direct drop in replacement. I finished tearing it down, so when it will be ready for the new parts.

Water in tractor tires, I weight all of mine, the added traction is very noticeable and also works as a counter balance when lifting heavy objects, it is weight not supported by your axles, which is nice. Here's a picture of Backhoe, its the swiss army knife of tractors. Kubota L48 TLB.


MrC.

[jasong_10]

Awe yes the 40/40, that is what I stood over for almost 5 years. loved the table top machine. I only ever had 1 incident, I was trying to help a lady out and remount her bald spare, otherwise she wouldn't have one. Company policy was we didn't remount used tires, I broke the rule, because she was on a trip and needed a spare. The bald tire exploded where the bead was ripped during the dis mount, When it blew out the sidewall at about 30 psi, I jumped back and dropped the large tire iron on my big toe, I kid you not, I thought i was going to loose it, it turn purple and the nail fell off for about a month. I pushed through gave her another used tire and sent her on her way. I flinch now every time the bead seats and makes the pop sound.

As for arm breaking, I have broke mine twice, but never on a tire machine, Remove the stem core, set the upper tire breaker in place and keep your hands away from the machine push the pedal, then use the tire iron and hit the opposite side of the tire, this will complete the upper bead breaking, the lower is automatic, remove the upper bead breaker, stab the iron in the tire and with your palm push on the opposite side of the tire, this pushes the tire into the rim cavity and allows you to pull the bar over and index it onto the post, press and hold the pedal, the bar will come round clockwise and remove upper bead, keeping the pedal pressed, insert the bar between the lower bead and the upper rim edge, index the tire iron with the center post and release the pedal, the bar will now comeback counter clockwise and remove the entire tire from the rim.
Sorry, reliving old memories.


MrC.

Thanks for reliving those memories, I have been letting the bar rotate back/reset between every step, I'll try it the way you described next time.

[MrConcdid]

"Crawford" is coming along nicely, I tore it all the way down and now as parts come in, its plug and play, a few more boxes of parts and it will be ready.
Only big surprise after a complete motor swap was breaking the inside bolt to the timing chain tensioner, this is the second one I have had to break, this one required a heli-coil, I have never used a heli-coil kit before, honestly it was easier than I thought it would be. Autozone has them in metric sizes this was a 6mm shaft and a 8mm bolt head if anyone is wondering.
Not a cheap repair, but efficient and effective. The other one I was able to weld a bolt to the broken shaft and while it was hot back it out, then just replaced the bolt.

MrC.

[ATC King]

There are some no name thread repair kits on EBay. Same style as Heli-Coil.

I've been using those. They come with a handful of the coils, installation tool, drill bit, thread tap, and a little pin to knock the tang off. They're pretty inexpensive, come with enough coils for many repairs, and have been working good for me. Mine came in a blue plastic box with a clear lid, that's easy to store, and I can use the box for other small parts when I'm done with it.

Two or three sizes covers most of the problematic ones you'll encounter. Last ones I repaired were on the threads for a recoil starter. I used a cordless drill, even for the thread tap. Repaired in a few minutes what was probably bad for a decade or longer, and for just a few bucks.

For parts that aren't frequently disassembled, these work great. Anything that's regular maintenance item or will be disassembled several times, something like a Time-Sert is a better choice. The Heli-Coils do tend to back out with repeated tightening and loosening.

[MrConcdid]

Thanks for the info ATC KING
I will look into those, the Autozone one set me back $30, but it worked, and that's what I needed.

"Crawford" is so close to the finish line, awaiting a few more parts. brakes front and rear, I did ride it today, and its has way more power than my 250es, i did feel the clutch slip a little winding out third and forth, so I am going to replace the disc and replace the 1-way bearing while I am in there. The next owner will be glad I did. other than the Frankenstein stitches on the left fender this thing is just about perfect, for a rider. What started out as a punt, has become one of the nicest I have built this year.
Is has a nice header on it, its kind of loud but seems to have added some power. My 250es will not stand up in 2nd but this one will. I really like the tan seat too.
I do have the tail lights, there just not installed yet.

MrC.

[patriot1]

Awesome job as always! I wish I could turn bikes as fast as you! Keep it up! Have you got any new projects? Did you sell the General?

[MrConcdid]

I pulled the ad for "the general" I didn't want to drop the price, I will wait a few weeks and list it again.

I have another 250es, it already runs, but needs a top end. Its in very rough condition. With hunting season coming, the 250es brings the best money. So I will start on it asap it will be named "Bonnie" Its one of the 3 I got from Bonifay, Fl. Since I have to pull the engine to do a top end, I might as well do a frame up build on it. I would hope to finish if before Thanksgiving / the beginning of hunting season.
School, is really cramping my style

Hows your flips going Patriot1?

MrC.

[patriot1]

Need some parts, let me know. I have three 250es, all in questionable state. I am going to sacrifice one to make two good ones. Will probably have to rob all the good stuff you probably need.

Currently, polishing plastics and trying to figure out exhaust for Black. Exhaust broke in half when I was replacing the top end. Exhaust are expensive. I am trying to figure out alternative.

So that project is stalled, I started tinkering with a 125m that I picked up. Got it running yesterday! It needs at minimum seat pan, seat and exhaust and headlight ($$$$$). I've got to figure out if it's worth messing with and find my parts for the right price. Good engine and plastics are a plus and two tires hold air.

I also started messing with a 250sx that I am excited about. Rear brakes are locked up on it and I haven't been able to even get the hub off to try to get to the brakes. I lube it, heat it and put a puller on it daily-it'll come off eventually.

Hopefully, the last of parts showed up for 250R :), ordering rear tires today.

Keep updating! I'm excited to see what you do with that big red-it's pretty rough!

[MrConcdid]

Hey Patriot, glad to see you again.

I am looking for 2 side panels for a 250es, I have some feelers out there, but no commitments yet.
As for the exhaust where did it break? in the head pipe, the connection or in the muffler itself?
I may have another head pipe for you, as for the body of the muffler, I buy the Avery tractor muffler on amazon/TSC for $29.00 and weld it to the factory pipe, I make a hanger and use the factory bolt and locations to mount it. I have used the same muffler on a 185, a 200es and a 250es all sound good, I do weld a heavy duty fender washer to restrict it some and give it some back pressure, they tend to pop on deceleration if there left open.
There not fancy, but their not expensive either.

MrC.

[MrConcdid]

Not much progress, My clutch order for " Crawford" came in missing some of the disc, so I am stuck until they get here.
I have been busy, I did order a new harness, light/kill switch and 2 L.E.D. headlights for my 350x. I want to change out the levers soon too, there sloppy.
I haven't rode it much at all, a slipping clutch, no kill switch, no lights. It didn't feel safe There has been several things I wanted to change on that bike.
I replaced the open air filter with the factory box and I plan to change the tank out, at 20 feet, it looks great but up close it aint. I am thinking a Clarke plastic tank to ride with and then have this one redone. I don't know yet.

MrC.

I was blinded by its beauty, and found out later it didn't have any light bulbs, and missing some wiring. So I felt an upgrade was in order.
I made some brackets that used the factory mounting points in the plastic bezel, This type of fab work is not my strong suit. I will epoxy the lights to the brackets, and then they will be removable and adjustable
just like the OE lights. The blue tape is just protecting the lens. Over all I am pleased with it and it feels very sturdy. I am using 12v L.E.D. automotive backup lights. I will look into a regulator as well.

[BarnBoy]

Hey Patriot, glad to see you again.

I am looking for 2 side panels for a 250es, I have some feelers out there, but no commitments yet.
As for the exhaust where did it break? in the head pipe, the connection or in the muffler itself?
I may have another head pipe for you, as for the body of the muffler, I buy the Avery tractor muffler on amazon/TSC for $29.00 and weld it to the factory pipe, I make a hanger and use the factory bolt and locations to mount it. I have used the same muffler on a 185, a 200es and a 250es all sound good, I do weld a heavy duty fender washer to restrict it some and give it some back pressure, they tend to pop on deceleration if there left open.
There not fancy, but their not expensive either.

MrC.

Thats a very solid muffler choice, and look better than most any homemade setup I've seen. I lucked into a minty exhaust for my 200M. It will be blasted and painted as it has zero rust...pretty rare. The 200M will be getting a supertrapp also...i think that will be a cool touch. Not cheap but a cool period piece.

[patriot1]

I love the headlights! I have 350x headlights on my 250R, might try that led upgrade for sure.

I spent ALL day yesterday sanding plastics and they are still not where I want them-not done yet. black 225, exhaust is welded back together. Hope to get the plastic finished and decals on today. I really need to get some new handle bars for it due to rusted chrome...

Haven't messed with the 125m anymore, gotta be patient, I need a seat and they are expensive. I don't want to put too much time into it until I can find a seat at a decent price.

Finally got the hub off the 250sx, its going to be a very special bike-just wait... Ive got to get into the brakes on it today. My research says that is going to be a job.

[patriot1]

Still not done, I need a seat cover and some handle bars a little fine tuning and some shine but I would like to introduce you "Sexy Black".

264375264376

So this guy in Texas advertised a 200M for $500, not thinking that I couldn't trust a man from Texas, I took off to go get it. Well, I learned a good lesson that day when I drove 4 1/2 hours and the 200M turned out to be a 200, not even a 200S... The guy ended up being a Texas transplant from Louisiana.

While there, the guy said, I have this 225DR, that I will sell you for $200, so I said why not? Plastic was good but it needed tires and dude said it didn't run. Figured I could get my money back in parts since it was a complete bike.

My son and left Texas, stopped and looked for the Legend of Boggy Creek aka "Fouke Monster" (google it) but we didn't find him so we came home. I ended up buying the 200 since I drove all that way-not a great deal but you can't win them all. We unloaded the DR and I put some cables to the solenoid and it rolled. sprayed some either in it and it pop pop popped!! I smiled and my son said "It's going to run isn't dad?" and I replied "yes it will son, yes it sure will". I went inside and watched some Harvey Spooner videos on youtube.

I've not spent as much time on any other bike that I have saved. Anything that could go wrong on this one has. I have learned so much working on this one and like I said, I still have more to do to it but today it has been promoted to "rider" class.

Sorry, it wasn't a good MrC tire story lol

[MrConcdid]

I'm just glad your still at it.( with the family too) There is something in the air, maybe its fall, IDK
I have had 5 guys offer me bike this weekend, one I have been trying to land for a few months, he has a couple of nice 200 I haven't seen them, we will see.
I have a hot lead on a beautiful 85 big red, owner cant fix it, so he called me, I just need to close the deal.
Another is 3 bikes all junkers but 2 of them are 200s's
I turned down 2 others piles of junk, not worth the 45 min trip to get. I hate being that way but junk is junk.

I am in negotiations over my "Crawford" bike if things work out I will have a story to tell.
This may develop into a Historic Honda week.

MrC.

[MrConcdid]

What an awesome day,

So 3 months ago a older gentleman said he had some 3 wheelers and he wanted to sell, I said I'm your guy. Then he said it was to hot to go to the barn, I had to wait till it cooled off. Well I am like an elephant, I never forget, so last week I buzzed him and ask if it was cool enough, and he said yes, I waited all week, Saturday I headed out at dark. we met, I will go ahead and save you the misery of reading my tale, I got 3, he kept 2, but may call me for those. He kept the best. He has a very nice and complete 70, and another 200s, neither run at the moment, so there is a chance he may call me sooner than later.

I got half the alphabet I got a 200s, a 200e and a 125m or a M.E.S.
it took 30 minutes to get the m up and running, took a few laps on it already. The 200s kicked my butt about 5 hours, honestly don't know how I fixed it, the problem was no spark, I probe it, worried it was the stator, but it checked out, coil tried 3, CDI tried 2 OE and converted it to a DRATV set up, new plug, wire, everything, finally it tingled my finger but not hot enough to see, I tried it anyway and it lit off. I thought it was knocking, and was about to give up for the night and my fuel jug ran out of gas and it quit, I topped of the fuel and tried to start it, and it back fired and ripped the handle out of my hand, yes the decomp is working perfectly. I have seen this before, I retarded the timing a little and it pulls easy and fired right up. I let it run 15 min. no knock, it runs great. They both need a lot of work: tires, brakes, servicing, air filter and a battery but they start shift and ride.

I did not look at the 200e yet, its the worst of the bunch, but I think it will run again.
Welcome to the fold Lloyd S, Lloyd M and Lloyd E form a little town called Lloyd, Florida.
Also check out this 125m has electric start and reverse, HA!

Check out the vintage stickers advertising oils, and grips on the 200s

MrC.

[ATC King]

You should consider handing onto that 125 for a while. They're pretty hard to come by and should bring more than something like the 200S or 185.

You notice it has a front brake too, unlike the 110s.

[MrConcdid]

Good eye ATC KING I thought so too. I am thinking about keeping this one for the youngen, It has no rust on it, fires right up, has reverse and electric start, its really a mini big red. It came with the wrong tank, and it would not fit, I priced out a few tanks that do fit for a 86-87 125m and WOW! So I did what anyone who has a new plastic fourtrax tank laying around, it was sold to me as a 3 wheeler tank, but it aint. I have tried it on every bike I have had come in. So, Look what I did! I used the $50 tank I had in the shop, I think it looks great, and compared to the $900 one I saw on ebay, I love it.

So today was just button up a few things, I had to ride the 200s in the rain even. it runs so good. So with the thought of keeping the 125m in the family, and having a 200s sitting next to it, it did cross my mind to put the S front end on the 125m, make the 200s ridged and sell it. I don't know yet.

I like to get them running, and sit back and make a punch list, of parts needed then figure out what's the best plan, either: Keep it or sell it? then I have to decide to either: detail/paint and make it super nice and charge a lot, keep it basic and charge less, or even sale it as running for a quick flip. So far I have very little into each of these bike, I always try to out way the parts/labor vs return.

MrC.

[BarnBoy]

That tank looks great on that 125M. Id keep it, the upright M's are harder to come by.

[kb0nly]

Nice! Shame it didn't have its original tank, no chance the guy had it laying around somewhere and forgot about it? Either way that does look good in the end. Those later 125 verticals are rare as can be here in the Midwest. I have seen two in person in the 30 years i have been playing with trikes. I know of one locally, stashed in a garage, the old guy that owns it won't let it go and it just sits there slowly rotting away. Some day he will pass on and i will offer the family a handful of cash i hope. None of them are the least bit interested in it, they have my name and number, i see them now and then, it might be the long game on getting that one and saving it. Last i saw it the seat was chewed by mice but the rest is all there and the tires are flat and cracked. Its got good plastics and its salvageable, he just won't sell it for any amount. But i bet his family will when they have to clear the place out.

I scored another 200 finally a couple weeks ago and posted about it. Just got the tank painted this weekend, a few more final touches to put on it. But its a strong runner and a fun as heck trike to buzz around on. I will finish getting a license plate on it this coming week and get the city registration done and then it can go anywhere and buzz around town. Built this one for the wife to ride, she liked the little 90 but always wanted to ride my 200ES. I also just got word about a 200E non running for sale... I "might" have a look at it if its still available. But if i drag that one home it will probably be a flip.

[ATC-Eric]

That's awesome MrC.

I had a guy here in Missouri that made me wait for a deal. It was 2 complete big reds, a 90, and a parts big red for $600. We talked the day of a massive ice storm coming through, and said lets just wait on the deal. I didn't care how bad the roads were, I was willing to risk death to come get them lol. He made me wait a week. The next weekend I drove the 4 hours one way and was able to secure the deal. Here's a shot of the big red as it sits 3 years later.

https://i.imgur.com/wzjmaoe.jpg

All I've done is changed the tires, powdered the wheels, and put oem fork boots back on it after rebuilding the forks (yes the powder isn't an exact match. But I had it on the shelf, and its decent enough lol). The broken piece of the bottom left rear fender is from a guest that rode it a while back. sigh. Otherwise it ran like a swiss watch. The other big red that came with it looked like something heavy fell on it. But it was complete. And I got it running in no time. Sold that, the running 90, and some other parts for almost a grand. So I ended up getting paid to have that 86 Big Red. It is a permanent member of the stable.

So I flip bikes when the deals come along. We've found a ton of really good deals, and lots to buy over the years.

[ATC King]

https://i.imgur.com/wzjmaoe.jpg

All I've done is changed the tires, powdered the wheels, and put oem fork boots back on it after rebuilding the forks (yes the powder isn't an exact match. But I had it on the shelf, and its decent enough lol).s.

Who cares if the power is an exact match, it looks great. There probably isn't a better looking wheel than the stock ones. Those new fancy aluminum ones look out of place, IMO.

[MrConcdid]

ATC-Eric, nice bike, I like the wheels, I run those same rear tires on my Big red, their kinda stiff but hookup really good. thanks for posting, yeah its funny all the crazy stories of how we find these bikes and the people who had/have them, we are all a little nuts.

Yesterday, I am crossing the parking lot at my local hardware store (minding my own business)(always put that in at the beginning of a good story) and a truck passes in front of me and laying in the bed was a Honda rim with a new 25x12-9 knobby tire mounted on it. You know what happen next, I turned around and I walked over and it was a younger fella driving. I ask if that tire in the back goes to a 3 wheeler? He said no, and laughed, as if I was crazy......... He said it fits his dads old 85 Honda Fourtrax 4 wheeler. I about died, I said yes, those are great, and run the same wheel and tire as the three wheeler's, he just said oh, ok. There's that crazy cat lady in every town, I guess I have become that crazy 3 wheeler guy. As of last night there was 9 running 3 wheeler's in the shop. and 7 parts bikes out back.

MrC.

[MrConcdid]

So, I needed to do some spring cleaning, and let my girls breath a bit. Its turning colder, perfect weather finally.
This is the most I have had at any one time, I didn't get them all out but this is most of them. The 350x didn't make the show, its under the knife, and Bradford is in pieces. I may never have this many at one time again. When inventory is high, the bank is low. I am really thinking of downsizing to just the XXX bikes (350x, 200x, 250sx) their my favorite.

Enjoy.

2- 1985 Big Red 250es
1- 1985 250sx
1- 1984 200x
1- 1984 200s
1- 1986 125m
1- 1980 185

MrC.

[ATC King]

Down with the sickness?


I don't know, but it seems like if I stop the truck long enough, these keep jumping into the back of it. Lord knows I need another one, like a knot on the head.

I'm not even going to lie to myself and say I'll flip it, but I've got to do something, because I'm out of space and these are going to have to start living under tarps, and that ain't no way for a trike to live.

It does run, but hasn't for years. I sprayed some gas through the carb and it fired right up. I've got to pull the tank and carb for a thorough cleaning. The previous owner put some new parts on it before it sat, like a (Chinese) carb, coil, throttle cable. The axle bearings feel good and the only tire I put air in is the front one, the rear tires haven't been touched and are still round. The front won't hold air though, it sat flat too long and has cracks in it.

Except the parking brake lever and cable, and the muffler, it's all there. Taillight is even in good condition. I'm pretty certain the seat pan is roached though. The plastics are mostly solid, with a couple small cracks starting in the rear.

It's got the front axle extenders, fork (highway?) pegs, and I guess what's left of a gun rack on the fork.

These things are too small for me, but I may keep this one as a loaner for guest riders. I've even got some 110 parts left over, and have a new foam air filter element in the cabinet. Got the repair manual from the last one I owned too.

1982, so it is a CDI engine.

Aftermarket exhaust prices have gone nuts for these though. If I can't find something reasonable, I'll fab something. The head pipe is still there, so it'll just need a little more to run out the back and into a muffler.

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None of those stupid TrailPros though! At least I don't have to mess with a set of them. I do have some split rim O-rings in hand, in case I have to mess with those.

[MrConcdid]

What a Year!

I told the wife, I was going to sell off what inventory I had and close out the year on top.
Now I didn't say I wouldn't buy any more, but She may have gotten that idea, IDK.
Loving my little trailer, I drug another home one this past weekend.

This one makes for a nice pair of 200s's
Is that the plural of 200s?
I want to sell these as a pair, we will see.

So soon to be for sale is 2- 200s, 1-185, and maybe 1- 250es, 1- suzuki 90 (shhh, don't tell anyone I had it)

So my goal now, is to sell off at least 4 bikes before Christmas 2020
That will put me real close to selling 30 bikes for the year, I don't have the spread sheet in front of me.

I want to do a few projects for myself over the winter.
I have a vintage go-cart frame, and as I child I always wanted to put a motorcycle engine on one with gears to shift.
I also plan to make my 200x into a 200auto-x. I have a nice 200 engine, I think I will put the new topend of the 200x onto it.
MrC.

Hey King, I have a 110 with those same pegs, I thought they were homemade, I guess not. Nice find.

[ATC King]

Hey King, I have a 110 with those same pegs, I thought they were homemade, I guess not. Nice find.

Thanks. I knew I had seen those pegs on here somewhere recently. The axle extenders are still somewhat common.

I'm pretty certain I've seen the same type of fork top bracket on here before too, also missing the top section. The square tube that bolts to the fork mount and the gun holders are missing on mine. Although it looks crude, I think they were produced and sold in some numbers.

The only picture I could find quickly, shows the complete assembly, but the pictures aren't very clear.
https://www.hondaatvforums.net/attachments/imagejpeg_7-jpg.6827/
https://www.hondaatvforums.net/attachments/imagejpeg_3_2-jpg.6826/

Edit: I found these on a YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_phtivwSA8M
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What's left on my 110 is definitely a part of an aftermarket gun rack. Certainly, someone on here knows who the manufacturer was. The point is, I've seen these before, without the rest of the rack, so don't discount them as some one-off homemade piece.

[MrConcdid]

These two hit the marketplace as a pair.
We will see if I get any bites.
They turned out super nice. Got a chance to change my first stator. It ohm 110, knowing a good one is 200, I swapped it. Now it fires right up. Before it would hit and miss.
Matched pair of 200s 1- 1984 and 1- 1985.

MrC.

[ps2fixer]

Have to love stators huh? I grabbed the spec since there's a range, and it's 150-400 ohms, so 200 is in range, but 100 is too low so nice catch there. I finally got a specs page up for the the 200/s and 185/s machines.

https://atvmanual.com/honda/atc200s/1984-specs

You've done some pretty major flipping since I really followed the thread. It seems you're quite good at fixing up machines, have you thought about starting a small business for atv repair? Even if you only worked on Honda's I think you'd do well. You seem to have a good skill buying/selling the machines too, that should translate well to repair work for customers.

Either case, you're probably saving a lot of machines from being parted out, having fun and making a profit at the same time.

[MrConcdid]

Hey King,
I have had 2 different gun rack mounts come through this year (one bolted to the 4 bolts holding the handle bars on, the other bolted onto the top of the triple trees), I normally take them off, just to clean up the look of the bikes, and personally, I would hate to go head first into the rack if I hit something hard. I think the scabbard is the better option. Interestingly they both came in on second gen 200es Big Reds.
Anyways, I still have 1 or 2 racks laying around, I will post some pics of them if you want. One had large rubber bands squeezing it together when I bought it. As for the foot pegs, mine came in on the brown 110, like I said, I thought they were homemade, and just laughed them off.


Hey PS2Fixer,
Thank you, that means a lot coming from you (you were the first person to reach out to me when I joined, thank you), yes I have found a ton of ATC bikes this year. I have been lucky to have been able to save most of them. I have yet to see the need to part out a good bike. Though I will concede, I have sold Parts, but those parts came off bikes I felt to far gone to save and turn a profit. I have 1 bike "Bradford" It will more than likely be parted, it needs everything, I was going to save it, I paid to much for it, it has a bent axle on top of all the other issue's. its a 200e first gen Big Red I have it running good, this is the engine, harness, batt box, I will put in my 200x. It will not be wasted, and I will recoup my investment no problem, I just hate buying a complete bike and not selling it as such. The fenders are very nice, and will allow me to save another 200e I have that needs them.

As for the business idea, I have considered it, a few things keep me from doing it. I work alone, no deadlines, no pressure, no customers complaining. I do not like strangers at my home (shop). So this leaves the option of opening a small business in a commercial space, of course then your committed; rent, utilities, licenses, taxes, customers, deadlines, pressure. I would have to triple my out-put to make the same as what I have done this year.
The bigger elephant in the room, is there is a finite number of ATC in my area, my business model is flawed, there will come a day I can not find any ATC close by. Also ATC may be a fad. Sure there will always be a strong following but may not be the hay day we are in right now.

I try to fix what I can, no I can not "restore" them and make them perfect. I try to fix what is needed and only what is needed to make them safe, reliable and in some cases look better. I try to give good value to the buyer, and along the way make a little for myself to keep the lights on. I am coming up on my first year anniversary of working with ATC, I have made a few mistakes along the way, they have taught me a lot. Its been a wild ride for sure.

I hope in some way I have added value to this forum, I have shared my success's and my set backs, I have encountered problems and the board has offered solutions, thank each one of you for your help.
I don't know what 2021 may bring, I am open to new ideas, I see other trends with-in the Honda line; The Odyssey, ct70 and z50 all have a cult followings, may be I will pick a few of those up.

MrC.

[ps2fixer]

By business, I meant working on like any atv, odyssey, ct70, z50, quads, 3 wheelers, side by sides (if you want to learn them), etc. There's way more machines out there than you'll ever be able to buy/fix on your own. If you limit down to 3 wheelers only, yea I can see the market being too small. If you had a business, you'd charge shop rates to fix things, at the low end that's around $40/hr, dealerships charge $100+/hr. If word gets out that you are the person to take atv's to, you'd probably have a pretty good booming business. The bonus for being your own business is that you call all of the shots. If you have a customer you really can't get along with, you can tell them to take the machine somewhere else, not the greatest for the business rep, but you have the say so. Same story with deadlines, if someone wants their machine fixed within a day, you don't have to accept the work. Generally people are understanding you're effectively a one man show and don't have endless hours. The long term goal would be to get to the point you could hire someone you trust to do the repairs and maybe a clerk to handle customers/walk ins and you'd just be down to managing the business, on hand parts, part sources, etc.

For your current job, clearly I'm not suggesting to quit it and go all in on the atv stuff, you have to have a customer base to even think about that. Not willing to have people at your house is a limiting factor for a startup, but I understand the concerns too. This is where innovation comes in, maybe you could meet with people at a public place, or like a storage unit and have that be your "shop" 99% of the work doesn't require power or air, but they are nice to have. If you have cordless tools you could charge them at home, and bring them with you whenever you want to work on atv's. Any specialized tools you could leave in the storage unit and if you needed to build a tool, you could always load up the customer's machine and take it to your house. I suspect since that's quite a unique setup, your name would be passed around quite a lot as the guy that fixes atvs in a storage unit lol.


Anyway, I'm not 100% sure what you do as a job, if it pays well already then the business idea might not be so ideal for you. I figured you'd be able to do your current job, and on the side do the business idea like you currently do with the buy/resale. Bonus is, you don't have to buy or sell machines, just fix them and get paid, and probably get paid more than what you'd normally make buying/selling the same machines with lower risk since if it's a total loss, the customer is the one that owns it. You could also pick up cheap machines that way too. My dad used to work in a poorer city and the business owner bought cars fairly often that were too expensive for the customer to fix, but he could afford to fix on the side and resell for a profit, or scrap the car if it's that bad.

I can't really ignore the numbers though on your repair specs, 34 machines, and 20 fixed/resold, that's over 50% buying effectively junkers. On top of that you have 5 for your self which I assume are atleast running/riding machines. Only 9 parts machines is amazing. I bought something like 25 machines, and I probably ended up with 15 parts machines. I really held out for the worst and cheapest machines though lol.

[ATC King]

Throwing this into the thread, because, lets face it, many times the only realistic option is a Chinese clone carb. Especially if you're trying to get one of these running and turn a profit.

I'm of the mind that they aren't really all that bad, just don't expect them to have the correct jetting. For the money, they're a deal, but on the last trike I bought, one of those carbs is what caused the previous owner to give up on it.

He had spent a little time and money trying to get the ol' 110 running right, but said he never could. I FOUND THE PROBLEM! It was a bad carb and no amount of jetting changes would have every made it run right. I was able to fix the problem at no cost though.

All the fuel circuits also have air circuits. That's those little holes in the front of the carb throat, at the bottom. In the stock carbs, they typically both have a small brass jet driven in. In the process of getting the 110 running, I knew it had sat for a long time, so the carb had to come off for a cleaning. It wasn't really dirty at all inside, just about like new. While blowing air through all the circuits, I noticed there wasn't hardly any coming out of the main's air circuit. I looked into it for a blockage, and the answer was clear. The factory had never fully drilled the circuit. There was a very tiny hole, too small for supplying the main jet emulsion tube with enough air. Like the very tip of the bit had just barely poked through.

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It runs like a it's supposed to now. Fires up on the first pull, idles great, and runs out in top gear. I did put some stock size jets I had laying around in it. The ones it came with were a few sizes too small.

[ps2fixer]

Nice find on the China carb, great to actually see issues diagnosed with them when they don't work right. Always china's #1 problem, fit, finish, and wiring. If they could work out those details on their parts, there wouldn't be a reason to not buy Chinese.

Pretty amazing you got such good photos, must have been manual focus?

I haven't had much experience with the Chinese carbs, but the little I have, it does seem like the jetting is off a bit. Never had a machine that wouldn't run, but you could hear it's a little too lean/rich. Wasn't my machine and I didn't do the work, so I didn't touch it. It was an ATC200S and it ended up getting traded off for a TRX250X with intermittent spark problems, then that was traded to a 83/84 mixed ATC250R, and it had low compression and poor jetting, so ended up trading that machine to me for an ATC250SX that he still has and hasn't really given any major problems. Big difference when someone is willing to put in the effort to fix things right, it's just a little ugly with a bad rear fender.

[ATC King]

Pretty amazing you got such good photos, must have been manual focus?



I use a MV105/108 borescope that works with my Autel scan tool for stuff like that. It works pretty good, but I like the Snap-On one better, because it has an additional camera and LED on the side. The Autel one uses a mirror adapter if you want to get images 90 degrees from the borescope end. The lighting is better on the Snap-On too, but it's definitely more expensive.

It's pretty hard to work on anything without having a borescope, once you've gotten used to having one. In my "Moved to the Yellow Side" thread, that's what I used to find the dirt dauber nest inside the frame's top tube, which was blocking air flow. It's not possible to look into it that far without a borescope, the rest of the frame prevents line-of-sight. It's possible to just jam stuff in there in an attempt to clean out an obstruction, but you'll never see if you got it all out or possibly what it even was.

I had actually cleaned that tube out earlier, but the nests were built after that and I didn't know it until I seen them.

[ps2fixer]

I actually throught the image looked a bit like a bore scope. What I mean though is you took pics down a hole and it was focused at the end of the hole, 99% of cameras would focus at the top of the hole because it makes up most of the screen. Pretty interesting you was able to get it to focus where you wanted in the pic, maybe you just got skilled with using it, or the product is designed to reverse the focus logic xD. Even the 2nd pic, the bottom of the hole isn't center of the screen. They are defo an interesting chunk of tech, my dad bought one to use with his cellphone, some china special I'm pretty sure but he's been happy with it. He's diagnosed engines with out being able to see inside of them all of his life, some things you really don't know until you take it apart, the bore score would be a game changer in those cases.

[MrConcdid]

That was quick, less than 24hrs posted and "Quincy" and "Loyd2" (2- 200s) sold as a pair to the same guy.
I must admit, if something sells that fast you under priced it, but oh well. only 2 more to sell to clean out the shop. The rest are keepers.

Tonight, I made my 200x an autoX with a 83 200 no letter donor motor. I have it running but no lights.
on the 200 there was only 3 wires coming from the stator, and the previous 200x engine had 2 wires, I connected the yellow and black wires, grounded the green, and she fired up. the factory kill switch works but no lights. the light worked before so I am not sure what I'm missing, I will tackle it in the Am.

Thanks for the encouragement PS2fixer, but I wont be quitting my day job anytime soon, I have almost completed 5 years of college to continue to do it. I see small engine repair as a hobby I really enjoy. You are correct on all fronts, But I enjoy the buying and selling, I enjoy getting out and not being tied down, the short travel, the haggle and repair is all part of what I like, the risk is what makes it exciting. I started this venture with a $400 200es big red, some basic hand tools, a simple understanding of business and small engines. Today I met a man and his father and his son, the deal was done in 10 minutes, but we visited for an hour, talking 3 wheelers and the like. Granted all of them aren't like that, but that's why you enjoy the ones that are.

To date in 2020 I have bought 40 bikes, kept 5, Sold 22, 10 parts bikes , 1 for sale, 2 being built.




MrC.

[ATC King]

...He's diagnosed engines with out being able to see inside of them all of his life, some things you really don't know until you take it apart, the bore score would be a game changer in those cases.

Yes, it is a game changer. Even on things that don't have problems, if I pull a spark plug out, I'm shoving the camera in. They only focus on things close-up. You won't be taking any landscape pictures with them.

We're living in a technological golden age right now, where people have more power in the palm of their hands than the moon landings. Just the apps and devices able to connect via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi most people's 'smart' phones gives them the power to understand a large portion of what science has discovered. They'll use them for Twitter and Facebook though.

The point is, yes, things used to be more difficult and time consuming, but embracing new technology shouldn't be like changing religions. A $1,000 of automotive diagnostic equipment twenty years ago is like a Casio calculator watch compared to what the same money will buy now. That's minuscule to what's currently available to the general public, but even that little bit of money will buy things unimaginable to people back in the day used to using something like a Sun Infra-Red, which was a machine the size of a couple modern refrigerators.


Endoscope, borescope (inspection camera), meh, it's still going into a hole to find something. One goes into something squishy and the other into mechanical stuff. If you know about the latest Oklahoma castration/cannibal story, it's probably used for both, just wipe off the 10W-40 and smear on the Surgilube. Sooner or later...

[ps2fixer]

The ATC200X stator was a little different than the ATC200S (and similar) models. Basically the 200x stator internally grounds, while the 200s the ground is isolated and ran directly to a regulator/rectifier. The 200s stator is safe for a regulator/rectifier, the 200x won't be right since there's a ground on 2 legs of the 4 diodes, one side shorts out, other side generates a half wave rectified DC power. Also the stators put out different wattages, the 200x was 70w while the 200s ones were 50w. You'll want a 45/45w headlight in the 200x headlight if you want the bulb to last assuming it's a halogen style bulb... let me look that up xD. Yep, it uses the H4 style headlight. Here's a light kit that should match up to what your machine would use for bulbs. I kind of got into the lightbulb reselling business since everyone wants to go LED. I like the stock setups since there's no modding required, always plug and play =).

https://www.ebay.com/itm/202894519059

If you prefer, you can pay Honda's prices, $35 at the time of this post. You get a made in Japan bulb (Stanly) instead of Taiwan, Korea, or China.

https://www.partzilla.com/product/honda/34901-KJ9-003?ref=c323c2c01ea2df9a7f7183e539fca195fc02db06

FYI, if the bulb was a standard style bulb like the tail light, then this wouldn't be as big of a deal, but the halogen design works and gets its long life from basically running as hot as possible just before blowing, if it's ran too cool the physics that make it work aren't in spec and the bulb dies sooner.

Here's a vid on it, sounds about like a infomercial but they mention the physics I'm talking about. Sadly no good diagrams or anything, can't really find much to actually show it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W7I06nvMLM


@ATC King

Yea I get the technology has changed so much. I grew up in the middle of that stuff in the 90's. My dad and family are a bit more old fashioned on a lot of things, he has a sunpro tester that has a bunch of stuff, but the main thing of interest is the exhaust gas analyzer since it was a fool proof way to tune a carb, or atleast see exactly how the engine is burning at different rpm's. I suspect there's a hand held version of it by now, this thing is like 2-3 tool boxes wide, and as tall as the biggest snapon boxes. Sometimes the old way isn't bad though, knowing how things actually work instead of having a computer tell you helps you diag problems more accurately. Like there's plenty of people in the automotive world that sees a check engine code for a bad O2 sensor, so they replace it but never look into the root cause, week later or less it gets the same code. Could be leaky fuel injector, or in the case of my Lexus, the vacuum based idle kick up for the power steering pump was sucking power steering fluid into the engine.

According to Moore's law (computer science view point), technology doubles roughly every 9 months. The old measurement was number of transistors in a processor, but they are hitting an upper limit anymore and the progression has moved in other areas. SSD/NVME is the biggest jump in storage tech in a very long time... like from floppy drives to the internal hard drive type of advancement. Same goes for power usage, same processing power, but reduced power consumption. For the last like 5 years, computers haven't gotten *that* much faster, maybe like 5-20% per year, but power usage and such has had pretty huge gains. My ~8 year old 6 core computer used a 165W cpu if I recall correctly, my ~1 year old computer (maybe 2 year now?) is 8 core and rated 95w, and probably is around double the processing ability. Latest and greatest AMD cpu has had a pretty big jump in processing power, bit more than the other cpus I bought, but the one that catches my eye for performance vs price is 12 core and 105w and it's a whole new design, so power usage and such should drop in later generations. Also the same story goes for physical size, smaller is part of the doubling.

Sadly there's no true way to measure every thing, so it's harder to say tech is on the same path as Moore's law, but it seems to apply to any industry that isn't heavily regulated where innovation can take place assuming there's enough competition and consumer demand.

[MrConcdid]

Wow PS2Fixer, thats alot to follow.

I grounded the green wire coming from the 200 (no letter) stator to the engine, the black wire red tracer to the matching black wire w/ red tracer, and connect the yellow wire to the yellow wire. the engine ran, the kill switched worked, but no lights.
So your saying I need a rectifier? or are you saying changing the bulbs will correct the problem? I lost you.
Thanks
MrC.

[ps2fixer]

The atc185, 200, 185s,200s, 200m etc all has the same basic stator type just to be clear on that. You probably work better with visuals like me. I probably should validate some assumptions on my end, you're using the atc200 bottom end with the atc200x harness (including headlight, tail light etc). Green is ground, and that's the major difference between the 200 and 200x stators besides the raw power output. The 200x didn't have a factory ac voltage regulator (just a regulator since no battery to need rectifier) so the power is ate up 100% by the light bulbs, so they are wattage matched. Aka, 200x makes 70w, headlight is 55/60w + 5w tail light, the atc200 is the same system but is effectively the same engine as like a 200e so it's designed for a battery system or ac only. Since it puts out 50w, 45/45w headlight + 5w tail light is what you should have.

So long story short, you don't need a voltage regulator or rectifier in your case, just need to match the bulb sizes. The voltage regulator could be an upgrade if you want to protect the bulbs, like if the headlight bulb blows, 100% the tail light bulb blows too because it's trying to eat up 50w but can only handle around 5w. The voltage regulator eats up the excess power to regulate the voltage.

Now for the visuals from the wire diagram on the stator difference.

atc200x (internally grounded stator, notice one side of the coil goes to the alternator ring and ultimately connects to the ground symbol just above "Eng")

https://i.gyazo.com/22702be56d6ddd6ad6f33c7381305158.png


ATC200 and several others (isolated ground, the green wire hooks directly to the coil, internally the copper coil never touches the engine, also called a "floating ground").

https://i.gyazo.com/70570e00df7366c4c86cb911888f0ac6.png

Basically, it sounds like you hooked up the stator right, the green wire ultimately gets grounded to the engine/frame on both of those machines. On the atc200, it's normally grounded through the ring terminal at the ignition coil. If it had a voltage regulator/rectifier, both stator wires (yellow + green) would run to it for the "AC" in, and the "DC out" would be to the harness green wire and generally red for positive. Here's an atc200es hookup to illustrate that. The machine has two yellow wires, but it's electrically the same stator you have, just a wire color change.

https://i.gyazo.com/0fea84d4398889ed2ca3de83ab0b41b4.png

Now on the subject of lights, if your grounding for the stator is good, you should have lights assuming the bulbs aren't blown. If you have a multi meter, you can set it to AC volts and read across the yellow/green wire. It should read something around 12v at idle and probably 40-80v at higher rpm's (no load so the voltage jumps way up).

You can also ohm test the bulbs at their hookups to avoid having to take things apart as much, brown to green for the tail light and you should see a connection (near dead short), same goes for the headlight, green + white and green + blue. If the bulbs are good then I'd be looking at your left handle bar controls and making sure the switches pass connection with out issues. Test would be ohms again (or beep mode) and the power source is yellow, brown should be on whenever the light switch is on at all (dim + brights) and the blue should show connection for brights only, and white for dims only. Here's the table from the wire diagram, might be easier to follow than my wordy way of saying it xD.

https://i.gyazo.com/1b8f5108b6124646e60126e6beb46b0f.png

By the way, just to get the engine running, all you need is the black/red wire hooked up. The other two are purely lights only. And you're correct that matching the wire colors in your case is the correct hookups. Technically you could ground the yellow wire and hook green to yellow and have the same exact outcome, but that would make things look confusing, but that's the nature of AC, it doesn't flow in one direction, it effectively vibrates back and forth.

Hopefully that makes a lot more sense, the regulator/rectifier talk was kind of a blanket statement since I wasn't sure what the source engine was from, or which harness you was using. Like if you used an ATC200E/M/ES harness, things would be a little different.

[MrConcdid]

PS2fixer, you sir are a asset to the forum.

Thank you, for taking the time to explain all that. I have ordered the correct bulbs this morning, I will trouble shoot my switch to be sure.
Yes, For now I am using a complete 200(no letter) engine (with 200x intake) and a complete 200x harness.
I haven't decided yet to swap in a cam or swap the entire head over.
I will be running a left handed master cylinder/brake lever and a longer hose to the rear caliper. No brake pedal, I may regret that later.
For now, I just want to ride it.
Thank you,

MrC.

[ps2fixer]

From a performance point of view, if the 200x has a good top end, swap it over, it provides better cooling. If you swap the piston too, you get higher compression. The compression difference is purely based on the piston, so new aftermarket would be an option too. The 200x cam probably is a little more aggressive too, same with the spark advancer weights. Pretty sure the CDI is just a "dummy box", the pulse generator and the spark advancer should be all or most of the ignition timing.

I don't really see a problem with the left handle bar rear brake setup, longer hose might be "softer" feeling brakes, but they should function fine that way. Down the road you could always switch to the right foot operated setup if you don't like it.

There's also some XR200 parts that might interchange over that could be an upgrade, I don't know those machines hardly at all though, but they are generally based on the 200x/200s style platform.

Also no prob on the tech/electrical stuff, I'm building a website for that kind of stuff, no reason to not post good info on here too lol.

[MrConcdid]

She is alive. I don't know why I waited so long to do this.
On one hand I want them stock, but broken and stock is stupid, when fixed and enjoyed is an option.
It took a total of 4 hours to revive a old 200 engine and swap it in to the 200x.
She is very dirty from sitting 6 months in the shop, I may need to keep them covered.
I will keep the 200x engine, may be I will swap the head/jug and all, but for tonight, I am riding, I forgot just how nice the ride is on a full suspension bike.
I have grown accustom to the ridged bikes.
While I wait for parts to complete the brake lever swap, I will install the regulator on the 350x, and hopefully take her out for a spin tomorrow.

I have attached a picture of an upcoming project, its not on three wheels but its heart was.

MrC.

[patriot1]

Just for what it's worth, I enjoy reading PS2fixers everything, no matter how far above my head they are! Kinda like algebra II

[ATC King]

Those look like a good tire combination too, on your new Auto-X.

One of those Kenda front tires is my next trike tire purchase. They look like a great steering tire.

[ps2fixer]

Just for what it's worth, I enjoy reading PS2fixers everything, no matter how far above my head they are! Kinda like algebra II

Haha, thanks, I try to explain things in a common language, but electrical can be hard to explain. It's not the greatest view point, but a lot of times you can think of electricity as water. Works fine until you get into more advanced topics like transistors, relays and such.



The auto x looks fine to me, I never quite understood the hard tail desire. I started on an ATC200ES and yea it was fun to ride, I rode it more than my 350 warrior because of how reliable it was and easy starting. As soon as I upgraded to an ATC250ES, I completely stopped riding the 200ES, it's still sitting today. That's why my personal rule is, 200cc and under is for parts/resell only, 250cc+ is for me and keep. I tried the 200x and wasn't impressed, but I was spoiled with the 350x and I have a bit of a need for speed lol.

For the gocart build, I'm guessing you'll have to extend the frame to move the rear axle back far enough to get a good angle for the sprocket setup. I can help with figuring out the gearing if you had a machine you like the gearing on, or could go a bit lower geared due to the extra wheel xD.

I know you kind of already have an engine picked out, but you could have fun building one with an engine like this. This is a general use engine, they sound mean and give great torque. Not a super high rpm engine, but they seem to hold up well. I traded my 200x parts for a generator with one of these engines =). Not 100% what I'll do with the engine, but it sounds like a crappy generator since it's got some garbage exhaust on it like a cheap American designed generator would run. The generator part doesn't work, been thinking about fixing it though, electric start, 9500w.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bmOLhIlpKQ

[jasong_10]

Figured an extensive thread on flipping trikes would be the right place to ask a paint question. Is there a rattle can red out there that matches the Honda frame/swingarm red color? I'm doing a refresh on my 87 X and overall the frame/swingarm paint is in great shape other than a couple high wear spots. It's in good enough shape (along with all the factory decals) that I'm not doing a complete tear-down and repaint, but I wondered about touching up the worn spots if I could find a paint that matches OEM.

Thoughts?

[MrConcdid]

It seems the red changes from year to year. I like the sunrise red by krylon. It's close to the factory red of the 200s and 200es.
You will have to see it for yourself if its is close enough.

MrC.

[jasong_10]

It seems the red changes from year to year. I like the sunrise red by krylon. It's close to the factory red of the 200s and 200es.
You will have to see it for yourself if its is close enough.

MrC.

Thanks, I'll check it out. What are your thoughts on just touching up the worn spots? It would be nice to have it all red, but I don't want it to end up looking worse than before I started, lol.

[ps2fixer]

If/when you get the paint, spray some cardboard or something with it and let it dry then compare the colors. If you plan to put sealer or anything over it, hit the cardboard with that afterwards too. If it's too far off you'll notice it, if it's more or less a perfect match, spray away (with some prep work).

One thing to remember, one machine's Honda red won't match another one perfectly, sun fading from the age, and the fact the paint is never mixed 100% perfect at the factory. They are very close but vary some. I'm pretty sure you can go to a paint store and get color matched paint where they mix the paint to match your color.

[El Camexican]

Talk to any automotive painter and they’ll tell you red is the hardest non-metallic paint there is to match. Even if you do get lucky enough to match it after a few months in the sun and the patched area will be obviously different.

If you’re really looking to do a nice job consider painting the entire part.

[Mr. Clean]

LOL.

I typically do not flip trikes, part them out, sell them out of my collection, and have crashed/rolled them in the dunes. Rolled is close to flipping but I think the only one who truly flipped them was nitro circus.

[jasong_10]

Thanks for the input everyone. It sounds like the touch up route would be more trouble than the results would be worth . . .

There aren't that many spots, and none of them have any rust, so I think I'll just run with it as is.

[MrConcdid]

Hey Jasong_10,
I like a little wear on a bike, it gives it character, I don't like rust, you can treat the rust and seal it so it stops using a clear sealer, so it looks like your not covering or hiding something.


Update the shop is looking very empty today, I honestly feel kinda sad. That's the nature of the game, i guess.
I sold the "General 185" this morning, and tomorrow I have a guy coming for the "mexico beach truck load-o-parts"
This will leave me with 1 build going on and no complete atc's for sale.:(
I'm going to keep:
350x
250sx
250es
200x-auto
125m (daughters)

"Bradford" is being built now and should make the marketplace in a couple weeks. Its a 200e with a 200m front end. should make for a nice rider. High and low, chain drive.

I have an opportunity to buy 5 riders, nothing really special, nothing running: 200e, 200s, 185s and 2 parts bike another 200e and another 185s. It would certainly keep me busy over the winter.
We will see.


MrC.

[jasong_10]

Thanks MrC. I'm going to clean it up and leave it as is.

[MrConcdid]

Teaser alert............
I had to borrow a larger trailer for tomorrows run..... details tomorrow night.

This weekend, I sold "The general" and " Mexico beach truck-load-of-parts". I ran the numbers on Mexico beach build and it was more profitable to sell the parts vs rebuild an entire bike using those parts, I made more and worked less. That's a win, win, win.

MrC

[MrConcdid]

I got in right at dark,
All I know for sure is there's 1- 200e, 1- 200s, 2-185's, 1-125, 1- parts 200e and 1 parts 200s = 7 bikes.

MrC.

[ATC King]

First...you trailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotr ailpro! :naughty:

Second, that looks like a Saddlemen seat cover and foam on the 185S. I can't really tell the actual condition, but you know if that seat is even usable, with a decent pan, it's probably worth more than you paid for the trike.

Third. It looks like you got some with gun rack mounts, but that 200E has something crazy going on. 50cal mount?

Lastly. Seller was like, buy all or none? :lol:

[jasong_10]

That's incredible. If you do this long enough you're going to have restored over half of all the ATCs in thd southeast, lol.

[MrConcdid]

I can't wait to get out to the shop and really dig into the pile, I know there not beauty queens but I should be able to salvage at least 3 and them, and have some really good parts to either sale or use as needed. There is 2-185 pull cords, 2-200 pull cords and 5 of the 7 have seats, 3 of the tanks look salvageable. I may try brazing a few of these tanks.

This was a numbers game, I went to buy 5, he was firm on the price, I opted to buy 3 instead, his 3 price was really close to his 5 price, I walked away, I told him I had to pass on all of them( this was not a tactic, I really didn't see the same value he did, and was leaving (2hr ride one way). He counter-offered his own firm offer. I stopped, I countered his counter offer, he offered to meet in the middle. I closed the deal.

ATCKing- that gun rack looked home made, it had a homemade foot guard and rear rack extender, it was all shotty, the rack held the gun pointing in the direction you would be driving or forward. very odd. I will get a picture of the "saddleman seat" I have never heard of that brand, its very soft, it has a tag on it. did you see the front rack on the 200s? it has a sticker on it, I think its a hondaline, it mounts to the 2 bolts clamping the fork then curve's forward, no 45 degree braces.
kinda neat. That's another cool thing is finding nuggets like the seat and things that may be rare or regional or just very limited production. Half the reason I post pics is to see if you guys see something I missed. I have a lot of work ahead of me, thanks for following along.

The art of the deal, ATC style
MrC.

[ps2fixer]

They keep multiplying like rabbits xD. Some of those machines look closer to the typical machine I grabbed in the past. Unless there's major problems, you'll probably get like 4-5 ridable machines out of the batch going off your older numbers and such xD.

[MrConcdid]

So here is the real break down of what I hauled home.
2-200e, 1-125m, 2-200s, 1-200 and 1-185s
These all came from one place in Enterprise, Alabama so
Welcome home girls, I will name the as I pull them out for build up.
A few interesting things, Hondaline 200s rack, also this is a very wide frontend like an M 9 inch wheels
a "TravelCade"? seat on the 185s 4 working shock style frontends and 5 good seat/pans/foam

If I sold the pullcord assemblies, seats and hondaline rack would pay for the whole bunch.

MrC.

[ps2fixer]

A couple of those machines look like a super easy flip for you. That 200S engine looks quite clean in the 2nd to the last photo. Good luck on digging into the machines and working out what all is wrong with them.

[ATC King]

Travelcade's old address is the same as Saddlemen's current one.

17801 S Susana Rd.
Rancho Dominguez, CA 90221

May be the same company, but I don't think either of them (if Travelcade is still used) make ATV seats and covers anymore. Saddelmen is still in business, making motorcycle seats.

I think I had a Travelcade seat or cover on a 110 of mine years ago. My 185S has a Saddelmen seat on it now, the 'safety nose' version, which is like a Hi-Flite that runs onto the top of the fuel tank, nearly to the cap. They're really nice to have, more room to move around.

The vinyl they used was very good quality and thick, and the stitching equally as nice.


A 200E would be an excellent starting point for a full suspension upgrade, with an electric start, high/low range engine. That would be an ideal trail machine. Get ride of the racks and trunk, modify the frame to accept 185S seat and fenders, and put a six pack rack on it.

[DSHOT59]

I could use a seat for a 82 185s if you have an extra one you want to part with. in any shape or condition. mine was missing when I got it. lmk please.:wondering

[MrConcdid]

ATC King, thats cool, i am amazed at your dedication to track down past and present addresses, are you a P.I.? your should be.
DShot59, I am sorry I don't have an extra 185 pan/seat, If I find you I will let you know,

So, I learned something today, the front end on a 200 is not the same as a 185s or a 200s. I had a front end on a 200s and put it on a 200e, since its front end was locked up. You know, to make it nicer and more sellable. "Bradford" got the face lift. But this front end was in pieces when I got it. it all looked right but when I went to put it together I found out it is not. seems the axles are different, about 1 3/4 inch different. I pulled the axle out of another complete bike to finish bradford. I think I can thread the longer axle and cut off the excess if in the future I need the shorter version, a shim or spacer would not center the front tire.
So keep that in mind when swapping parts, the spread on the down tubes very, by as much as 2 inches, This is why some 25x12x9 tires look to big or rub, when other don't.
I have also found a 200 with 9 inch wheels and a 200s with 8 inch wheels, this also dictates the front hub.

Photos shows the difference and the bike it came from

MrC.

[ps2fixer]

Would be interesting to compile a list of the 3 wheeler front ends and their measurements. For ID'ing parts and also to work out interchanges. As whole units they swap generally, there's like 2 main neck heights of my understanding, but the rest of the details are kind of a wash.

[MrConcdid]

So, I get asked a lot about how, why I do this, I also get asked to make a youtube channel.
I think you all know why, money and saving these antiques of my childhood, the one thing I could never have as a child.
As for the how and youtube channel, here is a written account of todays challenge.

Honda 185s
First look it over before you buy it, pull the rope, verify its not locked up
check the oil
look for missing parts
ok, so you bought it. Great!

Knowing its complete, and not locked up
Follow along as to how I revived this bike.
Remove the tank
Pull and inspect and clean the plug
spray light oil in the cylinder
with the plug out pull the rope or use a drill on the crank bolt ( looking for spark)
in this case no fire, no spark! Verify it is in the run position, the wiring is connected.
So, because I have inventory, I swapped the cdi for a new one, no change, so I swapped it back to the old.
next I replaced the coil and while doing so I found the green ground wire broken behind the coil.
Awe Ha!

I connected the wire again with a ring terminal, and spun the engine.
While laying the plug against the head and using a drill, the first few revolutions nothing happened, but then it started sparking and sparking good.
Now, compression, while the plug is out and you have spun it enough to blow out most of the light oil (while looking for spark). take a reading
with the pull start, open throttle, 4 pulls, netted me 150psi, that's great!
Now normally this is were I swap the carb, but I am out of them right now, so I took a chance, this carb looks newer so I hook up a fuel line and dumped the contents of the bowl, new gas came out, I was ready.

Plug installed, first pull of the rope, it puffed, I verified choke, cracked the throttle and pulled again.
VAROOOM she runs, Idle was high, but she runs, I doubt this one has set more than a year or so, someone, changed the oil, it have a uni air filter on it.
I like to let them run and build up some heat in the engine.
While it is running on the stand I place them in gear and listen for noises or anything that may be bad.
This one ran great, and shifted fine, The clutch will need a load on it to really check it.
This is also a good time to dump the old oil, while its warm.

So now to figure out how best to maximize my return.
wash and sell it as is , or build it up and sell it for more.
Since Bradford is a bigger build, I will just wash this one and sell it for less money. I have the cost of a ring terminal into this one so far so about .05 cents, 30 min of my time and the cost of the bike itself. the profit margin on this bike would be greater to sell it now.
If I were to install tires, brake cables, brakes detail it out etc. the selling price would have to increase, and depending on the cost of the parts, more labor and the market fluctuating, my margins could shrink, I think its best to punt this one.
This bike needs brakes, and the tank looks good, but needs a flush. I do not sell unsafe bikes, even if I punt this one, it
must start, drive and stop, otherwise it's just a parts bike, and I would sell it as so.

And that is how I do it, There not all this easy, actually most aren't, but this one was, and I will take advantage of it.
Had I changed the coil and nothing improved, I would have swapped it back, and looked into timing, if the rotor was intact, and still no spark, I would have pinned out the stator and the harness itself and the switches. There wasn't much left it could have been for a spark issue.
Knowing it has great compression, told me the rings, and valves were all good, timing isn't needed to make spark, once you have spark then timing is important.
You need 3 things. Compression, spark(timed), fuel. that's really all there is to it.

I would consider myself a parts changer, with a little talent and a lot of luck.


MrC.

[ps2fixer]

One thing I'd add to your list of things to check for. The initial oil check is good, but after checking for spark/compression, the oil should be checked again to see if it's milky looking (aka water mixed in). Over full is also a bad sign, thinned out with fuel, water in bottom, etc. Oil floats on water.

I suspect you could probably do alright on youtube if you don't mind talking to the camera and such, no music, no distractions, just straight to the point, explain your thinking, and show how you do it. Of course you'll get people wanting to correct you on things not done 100% top of the line ways of doing things, but you can choose which feedback is valuable to you and ignore the rest.

While on this thread, I have a reasonable offer given to me online, might be looking to haul home 4-5 machines, around $200-250ea. Perfect timing my 40ft shipping container is being delivered soon too lol.

[jasong_10]

Thanks for the pics MrC, the coil on this machine matches the one on my 200x. So apparently somewhere along the line someone cobbled in an 185s coil on a 200x, lol.

[ATC King]

ATC King, thats cool, i am amazed at your dedication to track down past and present addresses, are you a P.I.? your should be.


Simple enough, just found some Travelcade package/brochure pictures online that showed the address and looked up Sadelemen's current one. They both used a similar design and tag on the seat, so just figured they were connected somehow.

Now we know; sort of.

Back when a lot of this stuff was still available, I should've bought two. Now it's all NOS and $$$.


BTW, I think the suspension for for the ATC200 is the same as the 200M, it just seems like the the 200(no letter) it was an optional or part year model deal, but was the only way the 200M was available. The 25x12-9 forks all have a leading axle, meaning the axle is in front of the fork tube and the 22x11-8 trikes have a trailing axle. The tree is the biggest different and is what makes them taller and wider. The legs/tubes are all interchangeable, but not the sliders.

I modified a 185S/200S fork to use on a 200ES and had the hub machined down so I could used the 200ES wheel and 25x12-9 tire. It worked, other than the tire hitting the fender during full compression. I recently got around to modifying a 200M fork to accept the 200ES headlight and rack, an now have that on it. Now the 185S/200S fork can go on one of those trikes if I want to add a rack and 200ES headlight to one.

[BarnBoy]

Mr. C, nice haul sir. You've definitely got the time and passion for it, thats kinda the biggest thing I've found. If you have enough time to devote to something you can do really well at it. You definitely have plenty of parts to pick and pull from now.

When looking over a machine, there are a lot of little things that are indicators of a potentially less-molested machine. I always check the pull start, if its got the little indicator and c clip still, thats a good sign. Little rubber cam on the timing chain adjuster screw, does it still have drain hoses off the carb, battery box hold down, obviously handlebar grips and how worn they are.

I dont know if I posted this on here or not, but I scored both of these bikes for $50 total. '84 200es and '82 200 Pretty rough but the 200 has a good frame, thats rare to find in my experience. I'm am actually amazed by how many frames I find rusted beneath the footpegs. Id like to make one good one out of the mess. I dont find too many around here so I tend to hang onto the deals even for parts.

265045

[ps2fixer]

The frames sitting in grass like that in the weather is probably what rusts them out on the bottom. Most of the ones I find are kept in doors, just completely trashed so solid frames and such. I think the only bad frame I have is a 1982 ATC250R that the frame is broken right behind the foot peg.

Time is defo a factor, or the ability to make time. Passion for anything is very critical, if you hate what you're doing, you'll never finish it since you'll have no motivation to make progress on the task.

[MrConcdid]

Barnboy, fix that rack on the front of the 200, its a hondaline I believe. I have one in the shop now for a 200s suspension front end. That pullcord alone is worth $300 on ebay right now, not that I junk them out, but its always good to know you made a wise investment.

Ps2Fixer the biggest hurtle for me doing youtube, is the loss of my anonymity, I am more of a behind the scenes kind of guy, I enjoy the haggle and banter one on one, but to be scrutinized by the world is a little much. May be I can do a POV or first person video and see if it gets any traction.

ATCKing, the sad thing is that seat will not add much or any value to that bike, I rode it tonight the seat is very comfortable, the 185 does have a lot of room to move around on it. I had a hard time selling the last 185cc bike, people kept saying it was to small. I like it, its a fun machine, not fast, not scary, just fun, like how they were meant to be. Your going to make me want to keep it. lol, the inside of the tank is the nicest I have ever seen, it truly is mint on the inside. With 150psi compression, that bike should run forever.

MrC.

[ps2fixer]

Yea, I'm the same kind of person, I'm not much for getting in front of a cam, my speech isn't amazing either so if/when I make videos it will probably be mainly text and visual demonstration. Atv's are pretty small, generally work being done is up close so the person doesn't really need to be seen. I wouldn't give out your exact location, show faces of who you bought from etc, I'd just show the like trailer load of trikes and go through what they need, the process of diag the problems, repairs performed, and maybe have a mention of sales and give a break down like purchase price, parts, time, resale price (if you track that stuff at all normally).

I might close on a deal for some 200cc machines, pretty reasonable price, over 2hr drive one way but that's the nature of anything I want in my area. There's a 200s in the mix that's in pretty good shape, I think it needed the pulse generator cover and a recoil from the visuals view point. Got a 2nd 40ft shipping container coming soon, so pretty good timing to fill it with more machines lol.

[ATC King]

The more I see you guys haul in truck loads of trike, the more I'd be like...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTJ-UCaWnP0


They're all mine! Muahahahaha...

[MrConcdid]

Its a sickness. I really wasn't going to bring home another trailer load, but it seems like when I needed a build, there isn't one available at a good price.
So the big load, is me stocking up for lean times, I must say I have gone to the bank of Honda a lot this year, it pays great on my investments. I am at a point if all this falls apart (the value/demand for 3 wheeler's stops) I could very happily keep all that I have and build them for fun, and enjoy them that way.


Just as always, when I brought home the bunch of 7, a nice 200x popped up for sale for the same money. I could get it but I would want to keep it, you know how that goes.
I culled out a very nice 200 with 9 inch wheels from the " Magnificent 7" I had just brought home, it has been torn down and repainted, the engine looks fresh, I'm going to build it up and keep it awhile, I know I say that often
and its true, I was going to keep "The General" but it didn't feel right, honestly I think the larger tires and wanting to keep it looking factory was what was bugging me about it. The larger tires, rolled in the corners, I prefer to slide, more.

Here is what was wrong when I got it.
had fresh oil in it, a very well done painted frame, brackets, axle, ect.
nice inside tank
I started using a drill motor to spin the engines while chasing spark, this is a new technique for me.
I pulled off the pull rope housing and put my drill onto the crank bolt, and I saw the flywheel rotate a little but the engine did not.
My spidey senses perked up, I unbolted the crank bolt and the flywheel came out in my hand.
the driftwood key was magnetized to the stator!!!!!!!!
so I reinstalled the keyway and tighten down the flywheel, I turn the engine by hand and it was firm but nice.
ran compression test / it had spark/ through on a new carb but no run.
pulled the rotor cover it was a mess, the springs were gone and the rotor was rusted solid to its carrier.
I, also found it 180 degrees out of time.
I swapped one from the boneyard and in 2 pulls of the cord it lit off.
no muffler it sounded awesome, very harley-esk, pop, pop, pop at idle.
So it sits on jack stands waiting parts.
Tank is soaking.



The Plan for my 200(no letter) is
rear 450ex hubs, 4x110 9 inch 250es rear wheels with 20x10x9 rear
factory nine up front with suspension and brakes with a 21x8x9 front
L.E.D. headlight
New carb, brakes, filter, ect. If it looks and runs like I hope, may be some performance upgrades, down the road, like a cam and exhaust.
Something wide and low to the ground.

MrC.

[ps2fixer]

I've found the 200's don't slide in the corners very reliably, atleast with grippy tires. I rode a few 200x's but didn't really like them. 250sx and 350x are my go to trail/sliding machines. The 250r should be great too, just never really got big into 2 strokes so I don't have a great ear for them and such.

3 Wheeler demand likely won't ever stop, there will always be atleast some demand for them, even for just a cheap alt atv with 3 wheels instead of 4, so that should mean they will always be worth atleast as much as the cheapest quad, unless somehow the whole country stops riding atvs and going off road in favor of something else, maybe the whole side by side thing could do it, doubt it though.

I view 3 wheelers and parts and such as a type of investment. As the saying goes, don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Gold, Silver, Stock market, Bitcoin (Crypto in general), Ammo/Guns, food/storage/skills, and atv and automotive parts are kind of my investments atm lol. Half tempted to buy the equipment and learn how to reload and stock up on gun powder, primers, etc since ammo can increase in value so much in times like these, bad timing on my part to just starting into it though.

If times really go bad, a 3 wheeler could be one of the best vehicles around to scout for supplies and such, super simple, no need for a battery for most models, doesn't use a ton of fuel, can haul a lot etc. They shouldn't be too picky on the fuel quality either, no injectors to deal with etc, worst case might get plugged jets. Super worst case, old gas could cause a valve to stick down.

@ the LED headlight, do you have plans to rework the electrical system to support the LED?

[MrConcdid]

So, sometimes you paint yourself into a corner you have never been in before.
I have swapped many front end and I guess never had this combination.
a 200s suspension front end onto a 200e with the larger taller tank, and a 200e dash with key, will not work.
I have by passed the key and ran a no key dash, but that make the switches hot all the time, I don't like rigging stuff.
I have checked 4 different riser's there all the same 185, 200, 200, 200e no difference. the width of this front end is about 2 inches wider making the top triangle piece longer.
yet the 4 bolt spacing for the risers are the same, that why either dash will bolt on. I know the easier option is to use a smaller 200s tank, I would rather use the larger tank, and get rid of it.
also the wider 200s frontend actually hits the tank at a full turn, I know I can make stops to correct this, but like I said, out of the 5 or so frontends, I have swapped, I have never had this issue, it must just be this larger tank/wider fork spacing that somehow, I'm still missing why the key doesn't clear, it did before, its the stock dash and tank, same risers. I am just not seeing why it dose not clear anymore.

First pic is all stock, second pic is with the 200s front end, and stock tank, you can see there is no way the key will clear.

MrC.

[ps2fixer]

Looks to me like the tank ends up too far forward. You don't happen to have any atc250es front ends laying around would you? I've seen one on an atc200es on facebook and it looked to fit very well and an upgrade over the stock front end design for the suspension. Besides the fender being a bit different, it looked very at home on the machine.

Almost need to take every major design on 3 wheeler frame/front end/gas tank and swap things around and see what works and what doesn't and make a list of what's good, bad, needs changes, etc.

Btw, the top clamps for the handle bars can be swapped side to side to move the location of the "ears" for mounting the dash etc. Clearly the way you have it is the most ideal though with that situation. From what I've seen and mesured, they are all the same offsets, so even the newer TRX models are the same setup, just have to make sure to get ones that are high/low, not centered for the dash mounting, match orig design if you want the "L" and "R" to match correctly.

[ATC King]

I used spacers on bars to raise them, when I was using 200S forks on a 200ES, that solves most of the issue.

Get some longer bolts, use an extra set of top clamps, turn them upside down and put on top of the bottom ones, put the bars on then key dash/upper clamp and use the longer bolts. You can buy risers/spacers, which function the same, but I'm sure you've got some other pairs of clamps laying around. Cheap bar riser hack, which I've been using for years.

265059

The other thing is to check the steering stops on the frame. Often they're worn down. Those forks are always going to be very close to the tank at full lock and if those stops are worn any, they will hit the tank. You may even want to build the stop on the frame up just a little with a welder. The reason the 200S forks are closer is because they have less offset then ones for a 200E/S/M. Look at the fork top plate on the 200E, the fork is set ahead of the stem more, which places them farther from the tank at full lock.

Here's a link to some generic bar risers, if you feel the use of top clamps for risers is too back-woods looking. Just the first ones I found, I'm sure there are less expensive ones.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/7-8-Handlebar-Risers-Bar-Kit-Mount-Clamp-30MM-Height-for-ATV-Dirt-Bike-Honda/264860182337?epid=5004123427&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item3daae5a741:g:oHAAAOSwPEddzOXG&amdata=enc%3AAQAFAAACcBaobrjLl8XobRIiIML1V4Imu%252 Fn%252BzU5L90Z278x5ickkXKoKcbeZcOrOku%252BoOBl%252 BSzg1%252FfQs2%252Fl7h%252F2qGimKHp%252BUfgRy7cywg X%252FPxwMJamBSMxoBTbUwYCI9WRYdkWYEyASeh0Qm%252FWr YFbrAslzwKb65NC32AEJ%252BHNQtFGrDCvgnULrFJLki%252B 53HB8XCpy3T6dl%252FDpfFMofswIUv9GnfZTuALEyUSMnOTWW MZl4xAAOV7IPfrIjMvUrmAJyVo5J2aT31wd%252BUF0ZCpvmPy c9wz10Mz2Ft%252Bm54F%252FEjAQXw%252FBhVIFr6ZwkNh5J CgFzRE0WbIVfU1ClKalZSOVw2MomoIY5zWTbkwFPBCL4wW8ZfT BVXZFiJ7Rb4VXLt5pcmlmAntW%252FmuoDkm8hG%252B3MubJH %252BghcetSmkCwOYsRLi%252FrALfTCqhq6hRCrB0pK%252Br %252FhOaOlQqOyk11HosQYEoHbNWjOT5oYeOVtHdtoI0j%252B poEmTeMlyiaFFVQcG6jJfZcargeLY7Vop4bTHy%252FVKiq2kl 48YquQIxxq1B%252Foj7PXtWc%252BM4WbrfbsIy5ES7mlZryj KkSjykeWrg83wQSeRHcmAyBhxXHksoVqdnYdY9BSjs1W%252FR RdybN8r7Cv67%252FUAu5rzNFikNxeUKoEPpTYpI8P1rCdAny% 252Fy3mUXrTsbgo257iSeJQDaKXSbfSH7Dzc9N94iiP52FV4m0 ebI4Rk3sQnrOQ4LewHf75wTJKfR%252BfXkfyiQt3D%252F90% 252BflMXKqM6d8SC%252FGqBcztDf1Z63f39v1%252BEt6M0vP s7hbZb7GlE1D%252BK9zfr4ceBYz%252BaI4lY66l29UNBDPOm Vyw%253D%253D%7Ccksum%3A26486018233797928aa513c74e 7b919a2b4b0c9948dd%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A233452 4

[MrConcdid]

ok, So I am not crazy, well, not this time anyways.
I still cant figure out the issue, the tank, frame, dash, the rake, the factory risers are all the same.
the top triangle piece is wider now, may be the holes drilled into the top triangle piece are farther back towards the tank? that must be it. I will compare the two tonight.
The tank is bolted in the factory spot so it hasn't moved, If the holes in the top triangle piece are the only difference, I may just re-drill them, instead of the riser idea. That would move the bars and dash forward away from the tank.

ATCKing- thanks for the answer to the problem. "The reason the 200S forks are closer is because they have less offset then ones for a 200E/S/M" bingo!

MrC.

[ATC King]

There's a lot of people out there with 200E/ES trikes and trashed forks.

On a 200E it's easier to put a 200S fork and three 22x11-8 wheel/tires on, because the gearing can be changed to compensate. You're just stuck with a lower top speed on a 200ES when doing that.

The 200S forks do make it turn quicker, give it sportier handling. A stripped down 200E with 200S forks and 22x11-8 tires all around would be a really nice trail machine. Electric start and high/low, with a DC electrical system to easily add LED lighting.

For hardtail trikes, where you're going with this one, could make it one of the best models for trail riding. Ditch all the racks and make it sportier. The larger fuel tank gives more range, and even without racks, there is the rear trunk, which is large and can hold a lot.

Honda currently does the same thing with the new Goldwings. They have different versions with, or without all the luggage. Full on touring bike or stripped down version.

[MrConcdid]

So I'm driving by a small town tire store, and look what's out front! Any idea what there off of? There 4x110 pattern
MrC.

[jasong_10]

What I can see of the tread pattern they look like they're off a newer Honda trx, 250/300/400ex, 450r, etc. I can't remember if my 08 450r had 8" or 9" rear rims . . .

So those being 8" I'd probably guess 250/300ex.

[MrConcdid]

I went back and studied the problem with the 200s front end on a 200e, the issue is the top chrome triangle piece, lets call it the top plate.
the legs attach farther out on the 200s than the 200e, this makes the legs closer to the tank when turning full clock.
The bigger issue is the mounting holes for the handle bar clamps, Just as ATCKing said a taller riser is the only solution unless you have a smaller tank off another bike.
In my case I do, I will be using a 200s tank, it looks better and is a better tank (less rust issues) than the larger 200e tank. I am still going to try and save it. May be make some type of bomber
type trike with it.
In the photos you can really see the difference between the two, I thought of re-drilling the bolt holes for the clamps farther away from the tank, but the top plate has a rim around it for strength, I could not see being able to move the
hole far enough and not run into the lip to make it work. Again a smaller tank was my fix.

So, in closing, if your swapping a 200s front end onto a 200e, get the tank from the donor bike or some bar risers.
In all reality I have created a 200m on 8 inch wheels.


Here is "Bradford" he is back again, He got put onto the back burner, but he is back to make some money. Waiting on the few more parts; tank to cure, crank oil seal, wheels and tires. choke cable then off to market.
I am using some 8 inch rear IPT wheels I had, so the front and rear tires will match, plus I hate the tires that came on it. There so hard with no air in them they still hold up the bike w/ rider. The bike was an impulse buy, at the time, I didn't have a current build and was jones-ing for another build. I paid to much for this one, it had really been rode hard. bent forks, no wiring harness to speak of, just needed everything, the only reason I bought it was it had to very nice fenders, I felt those and some engine parts would be worth the purchase price. Which is about the only parts on this bike that are original to it. front end, seat from Utah, wheels from a 125m, new carb, air box from another 200e, tank from a 200s, everything else is new. But it fires right up, and runs very good, shifts fine, these things are so tough.

The 185s (Enterprise 2) is mechanically ready, just ugly, I think, I may have to paint the tank, and blast the wheels to make it look sell-able.
The 200 no letter (Enterprise 1) My bike, is coming along nicely, Got it running, needs exhaust, air filter, wheels and tires, brakes, found a seat pan in Ohio, it arrived today etc, etc.

MrC.

[ATC King]

Thanks for posting those top clamp pictures. I was going to dig some of mine out, but now I don't need to.

Really, I've got a bunch of forks and fork parts that I don't even know what is what anymore.

I used some 185S/200S forks on my 200ES for years. Other than raising the bar mounts up so the dash would clear the tank, it worked fine. I did go the whole route of having the 200ES hub machined so it would work on the other forks, but that isn't something I'd do again. The tire would still hit the fender during full compression.

[MrConcdid]

Your welcome, ATCKing
It's all part of mixing and matching. Yesterday I had a huge order come in of parts, last night was like christmas, stocking shelves, sorting what part is for what bike and of course test fitting and started installing some of them.
I had to track down another seat, this one from Ohio for my 200 no letter. I also installed the 400es wheels, and hubs with some 2 inch spacers, it's so far now. I mounted up a tire just to see it on the ground again. Everything went together great, the tank i had given up on is cleaning up nicely.

The 200e is awaiting tires, a rim and a oil seal.
185, gets prepped and painted wheels this weekend, and hope to get the tank painted. I found that rack for it. But I might keep it and make it work on my 200. We will see.

MrC.

[ATC King]

I picked up a 185S for parts yesterday. Fire sale!


Literally, it had caught fire and burned to death.
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265105
265106

It still has some good parts, like the forks and rear axle, but there was one main reason I got it. I noticed in the pictures that the decomp cable was still in the recoil housing, so I rolled the dice that the rest of the decomp stuff was still in their, and I WON!

The recoil housing was plum full of water though. All the water on the floor was from there.
265107
265108

I'm glad to finally have one of those plastic rings. Now I can get a new cable and put this on my 185S after some cleaning up.


The engine is...toast.

Edit: I just noticed the CDI dangling from the melted wire harness. I'll have to see if that's still good.

[MrConcdid]

That's awesome ATCKing- your right that decomp and pull rope assembly are gold ($300 alone on ebay) and priceless if you personally needed one. Those look like the original back tires too. those rims are hard to find, be sure and save them for fronts later if need be. the front mud flap and half a gun rack. Score!
The lot of 7 I just got had 5 pull cord assemblies, its one of the first things I look for on a bike. Pull cords/seats/tanks/good fenders is 90% of the bikes value.

I often think about the stories that these old bikes could tell (any antique really). This one would have a tragic ending in a ball of fire, but the moments leading up to that fire could be epic!
You know at one time it was considered a prized possession by someone, like with everything, time takes its toll on all things. We can't save them all, and many live on, on other bikes.

MrC.

[ps2fixer]

Even though the engine got hot and is ugly, some internals might be good yet. Did you check if it's locked up? With the recoil full of water, I'm guessing the engine is too?

Frame is probably still usable, not sure if they are tempered at all from the factory though.

I'd say pop that pulse generator cover off and check the spark advancer, not huge money but if it's in good shape, throw that on a shelf just encase =). I'd think the cam, timing chain slides, etc should be savable even if the engine is trashed inside if things aren't overly worn out. Stator might be good too since the recoil did pretty well even though the lead wires are junk.

I don't think I mentioned it on here, but I had a fire this year. Moved a parts car out back to make room for a 2nd shipping container I'm having delivered. I walked back to grab the truck to grab the battery and such and when I got back out it was up in flames. About the best I can tell the fire started at the back side of the fire wall so I'd assume leaves or something was on the exhaust that got hot enough to ignite them. No one got hurt, I'm in a small village/town so the fire department got some great training at my loss. I only paid $100 for it so I'm not really out anything since I can scrap it and get as much or more for it. The good engine was going to my dad for a project of his, but clearly that's not happening any more. Being a luxury brand it appears there was quite a bit of magnesium under the hood, when they started spraying water, had some bright white fireworks coming out the other side. I didn't really care about the car, my #1 focus was the woods and like 30% of my black berry patch that got burnt out. It should recover in a couple years though.

It was one hot fire, it melted the valve cover, alternator housing, master cylinder for the brakes and some other misc stuff.

[ATC King]

Even though the engine got hot and is ugly, some internals might be good yet.


You can say a little prayer for it if you like, but it was killed by death.

That rusty water on the floor...yeah, it came out of the engine when I tried to turn it over.
265111

It was stored outside, after the fire, with no carb or dipstick and a light through the dipstick hole illuminates internal rust. With any luck, the head (camshaft and valves) may be good, but everything from the cylinder down is junk. The crank isn't locked up, but only goes each way so far before stopping. The transmission still spins too, but any rust pitting on gears and they're donezo unless someone wants to risk grenading an engine when gear teeth start to chunk.

At the least, the cases may still be good. I need to look at it all a little closer. The engine isn't why I bought it though.

I pulled the recoil apart today and it seems someone was in there not too long ago because everything was greasy. A quick wipe down with a rag and everything actually looks great. I think a new cable and that little rubber stop, and it'll be up and working. The dogs even had very little wear on them. The whole thing looks low hour. Not that staring my 185 is too difficult, it's just been bugging me that stuff has been missing. Now I get to rectify that.
265112
265113

I wouldn't be worried about the frame. If it's not rusted out, I'll keep it, along with every other good parts left. I'll probably put some of this stuff up for sale, because I got the main thing I wanted and I've got plenty of these parts already.

[ps2fixer]

Heh, yea that water coming out defo isn't a good sign. Would be funny to get the engine running, but you'd know it wouldn't last long if it did run with the rust/pitting. Wild guess the engine stopping is from rust in the cylinder. Oh well can't make every Honda you get run, just most of them =).

[patriot1]

I actually thought King was going to bring it back like McC did Junkyard Dog. (Thump) lol I guess another one bit the dust...

[MrConcdid]

A very good friend on mine is a graphic artist, I have known him for over 25 years. I ask him if he could blow up and print out a picture for me, nothing special. I sent him a picture of my collection, so I can remember them after there all gone. Like most of you here, growing up in the 80's, you may remember going by the dealership and looking at all the new bikes, back then you were allowed to take a brochure of the bike you really like. I would daydream, that one day I might have the cool bike on the cover. I didn't ask him, but this is what he gave me its big 18x32 inches, its going to my office tomorrow.
I think its the coolest. I am very thankful for it.

MrC.

[BarnBoy]

PS2fixer, sucks to hear about the fire man. Glad more wasn't damaged...could have been the structure or worse. Interesting note...I have a friend who purchased a almost new Bobcat telehandler. Catch was itd had an engine fire due to a faulty block heater. Picked it up for a lil bit of nothing, and proceeded to completely strip it down, and repower with a r2.8 cummins crate engine. Hes still in the process of getting the last wiring figured out. Gonna be a bad little Bobcat when finished.

Mr. C, yes I plan to fix that front rack. It is Hondaline. Also, I have a chance to pick up these 3 1st gen 200X parts bikes. Any idea on fair valuation?

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[MrConcdid]

Hey, Barnboy
Clearly someone loves those bikes, you can tell by the vines growing over them.
Id offer $100 each, no more than $200 each.
Yes, there is way more value in parts if you part them out, but if you plan to save them, its going to be expensive.
Id part two out and use the funds to build the best of the 3.
You could end up with a free bike and some change in your pocket

MrC.

[BarnBoy]

Hey, Barnboy
Clearly someone loves those bikes, you can tell by the vines growing over them.
Id offer $100 each, no more than $200 each.
Yes, there is way more value in parts if you part them out, but if you plan to save them, its going to be expensive.
Id part two out and use the funds to build the best of the 3.
You could end up with a free bike and some change in your pocket

MrC.

Cool. Hes wanting $200 for the lot. Gonna call him on lunch and see where and when. Id like to build a fast full suspension bike...this might be the right candidate. In a way I hate parting them out, because I know prices are only going up. I like to have a good stash of spare motors, cyls, heads, and misc other parts. I'll likely keep 2 if not 3 of the front ends for future conversions, motors, all the stuff that's valuable is stuff I'd like to have stashed away, lol. Ive got that junker 84 BR though..it may just get parted out to make room and $$.

[ps2fixer]

I could use one of those 200x front ends for a 250sx mutt build I'm doing, it has a little of a lot of different machines, atleast that's the plan. I had a roller 200x frame I was going to get for $200 but the guy backed out last minute and used the parts to build some sort of bike or something. Shipping would probably be a nightmare though, I'd need basically everything, steering stem/top plates and down including brakes, rim, and hub. Don't really care about a fender or headlight, I can solve those issues down the road. Basically I'm building an ATC250SX but the only thing that is a 250sx is the frame, gas tank, and rear fenders/seat, power plant 350d engine (the shaft drive 350x engine clone), longer swing arm, and hopefully a better front end (200x, 350x, or 250r). Not a simple build, but in theory most things should bolt right up except the engine.

$200 for the lot is clearly a good price when I was willing to drive 2hr 15min north to get just a roller, granted there was a few other machines in the deal that I could fix/sell for a profit. A while back I bought a couple 200x's, one for parts (mostly complete) and one that ran but smoked for $250 each. Swapped the missing parts over to the other machine and that engine ran a lot better. Ended up putting it down a trail to move it one day and the timing chain broke, I don't remember it having a timing chain slap or anything. Got rid of all of my 200x parts after that, I knew I should have kept a front end around :-/.

[MrConcdid]

I said part out 2, keep 1 thinking you weren't a flipper like me.
I would save them all, for sure, but the average guy might not want to do that much
work or have the parts to build them back. For $200 that's great.
get them and access your options, at that buy in price, you cant go wrong.
down here a running 200x is selling for $1500 to $2,000.

Option 1.
You have $66 in each bike, depending on your parts bikes, new fenders and a repop seat and tank
you will have $800-$1200 in each one before there ready to sale.
So you really need to make them nice, in order to raise the bar and sell them for $2200
that will net you 3k profit to build all 3 bikes and sell them.
or $1000 profit per bike + or -

Option 2.
take all the best parts and build 1 bike, the cost would be a lot less than $800-1200 because you will combine all the best parts, you may end up with a
nice sell-able bike for $800 total counting the $200 you paid for them. That could net you $1400 profit to build 1 bike, and you can
play with everything that is left over for your fast bike build project. and you could sale PS2fixer that extra front end for a few bucks too. BONUS!

Option 3
Pick the best parts for your build project. part out everything else. but you have to take them all apart. clean, box, tag and ship every piece or single assembly, no rollers.
You would probably net $2000, without investing any more money just the purchase price of $200, just a lot of labor taking them apart.

You find yourself in the drivers seat. any direction you go, can be profitable, it just depends on how much sweat-equity you want to put in, and how fast you want a return on your money. Parting out is a long play, to sell every piece but it is less risky and can be more profitable.
MrC.

[Blmpkn]

I've just recently put up wanted ads on local CL and the neighboring states CL searching for old trikes, dead or alive. Well see what we come up with.

Considering having some cheap business cards made to leave wherever I can, and having a couple vehicle magnets made to get the word out a little more.

I may get into trouble here lol.

[MrConcdid]

Sounds great blmpkn, I hope you don't live near me
MrC

[Blmpkn]

Sounds great blmpkn, I hope you don't live near me
MrC

1500 miles away at least lol.

[BarnBoy]

I said part out 2, keep 1 thinking you weren't a flipper like me.
I would save them all, for sure, but the average guy might not want to do that much
work or have the parts to build them back. For $200 that's great.
get them and access your options, at that buy in price, you cant go wrong.
down here a running 200x is selling for $1500 to $2,000.

Option 1.
You have $66 in each bike, depending on your parts bikes, new fenders and a repop seat and tank
you will have $800-$1200 in each one before there ready to sale.
So you really need to make them nice, in order to raise the bar and sell them for $2200
that will net you 3k profit to build all 3 bikes and sell them.
or $1000 profit per bike + or -

Option 2.
take all the best parts and build 1 bike, the cost would be a lot less than $800-1200 because you will combine all the best parts, you may end up with a
nice sell-able bike for $800 total counting the $200 you paid for them. That could net you $1400 profit to build 1 bike, and you can
play with everything that is left over for your fast bike build project. and you could sale PS2fixer that extra front end for a few bucks too. BONUS!

Option 3
Pick the best parts for your build project. part out everything else. but you have to take them all apart. clean, box, tag and ship every piece or single assembly, no rollers.
You would probably net $2000, without investing any more money just the purchase price of $200, just a lot of labor taking them apart.

You find yourself in the drivers seat. any direction you go, can be profitable, it just depends on how much sweat-equity you want to put in, and how fast you want a return on your money. Parting out is a long play, to sell every piece but it is less risky and can be more profitable.
MrC.

Well, I called the guy today and left a message with my #. Its a private sale, word of mouth so shouldn't be any competition. I hope. I work with his nephews cousin or something like that. Got to talking one day, and I was like "hey, know anyone with any old 3 wheelers?" Funny how stuff works, hopefully he calls me back. Otherwise I'll follow up tomorrow or next day.

I'm thinking of a mix of options...let's call it option deux. Take best parts, build nice rider. Take the extra front ends and stash them in the shed (or sell one to PS2fixer, if I have a good extra one. I want to have at least one complete spare front end for my hoard.) Also take motors and stash them in the hoard, maybe sell most of the leftovers, keeping any bits I may find useful. Or, sell whatever I need to fund new plastics, tank, etc for the rider. Theres not really enough parts there to feasibly build more than one. Without buying a lot of missing parts.

I've done the part out game before when I was into garden tractors. Id buy old Allis Chalmers or John Deere GT's for under $100, and regularly make $1000-1200 over the course of 6 or 8 months selling parts. I know how that goes, id rather have enough parts for myself before I sell too much though.

I could end up with an auto X, or a clutched 200x if either of the motors are decent. Seems like a nice running X would bring 2k around here.

But, I probably should have possession of them before I get too carried away. XD. Let's hope I hear back from the guy and go from there....

[MrConcdid]

I preach keeping a list/record of every build, if your going to conduct business, then do it correctly.
Otherwise your just fooling yourself. The games stop when money is in play.

Here is my break down on "Bradford" You can see, I list cost even when its just my labor "cleaning, detailing, transport" there are real cost involved in these actions. I have an excel spreadsheet that keeps a running total for the year.

I may have to drop the price before it sells, but I know my market pretty well, $1600 will be the least I will have take to move it. It should move very quickly at that price. It is hunting season. It will turn a nice profit and I would have revived another atc.
I will mount up the last new tire on a new matching wheel tonight, an off to market it will go.
You can see how making an extra weeks pay check is addicting.
MrC.

I paid myself for parts out of my boneyard, a parts bike is a huge benefit and a money maker the 200s parts bike I paid $65 for it, you see I billed out the front end and the tank at what there true value could be, not what I paid for them, like the seat, I bought it online full retail $90 plus the wrap $10, sometimes you got to do it. So even though I show a $764 profit, it is in reality a little higher. the objective is to be sure and re-coop the cost of the parts bikes, and not loose those expenses, because that bike will never be named or built, so it could be lost very easily.

[ATC King]

I actually thought King was going to bring it back like McC did Junkyard Dog. (Thump) lol I guess another one bit the dust...

Ha! Is that a challenge?

The engine isn't realistically useable, so I'd have to use one of my spares, which may change it into a mutt in some peoples eyes. I've got plenty of parts to bring it back, but I completely disassembled it today and the frame has some rust holes in the bottom. It's not the end of the world, but I do have a very solid 185S frame, so I wouldn't bother building this one back up.

My stash of parts is getting too large, so I need to do something. I've got several more trikes if I put everything together, but I keep most stuff as spares for my personal use, because buying individual parts has become too expensive.

I did find out the rear axle has very nice splines. They still have the factory coating and not rusted or worn very much at all. The axle had also been removed recently and slathered in grease, which made removing the brake drum and axle like breathing. Many of these have rusted and worn splines. New hubs won't even help those.

A funny, but good thing is there weren't even any brake shoes on it. That made getting the drum off easier, but also, the drum has virtually no wear. It's rusted from no brake shoe contact, but wear is almost non-existent. This is the steel lined aluminum brake drum, so it's very hard to come by one that's usable just in that aspect.

265146
265147

The other funny thing is the CDI is good. If you look back to one of the pictures I posted, it's hanging down from the burnt wiring harness. Basically, the entire harness was destroyed, all the way down to the stator wire coming from the engine, but for whatever reason, the CDI was hanging down and all the wires, right up to the connector were burnt. The connector on the CDI wasn't melted, but had melted plastic from the other side of the connector on it.

I plugged it into one of my other trike this evening and it fired on the first pull. Now I have a spare CDI.

This thing was an absolute disaster, but it just goes to show that until you tear one down, you don't really know what you have. I came out well ahead of what I paid for it, for my own personal use.

[ps2fixer]

For all of you guys with lacking room, I have a solution, not pretty but pretty affordable, atleast for my area.

https://i.gyazo.com/2f16b685fc2d54dcaab2ff310307526d.jpg


I bought one, and shelf is a MUST for parts. I only put 2 layers and it opened up all of my sheds that I basically couldn't even walk in before open up quite nicely, and the shelf is only one side and about 28ft long. The shelf isn't fully loaded either, just boxes of parts labeled per machine and stashed. Light/big stuff up high, common stuff on the mid shelf, and heavy things like engines etc on the bottom/floor. I made the shelf about 24in deep if I recall correctly, plan is to make another shelf exactly the same on the other side, but right now I have some machines stuffed in there. The last like 6ft is my "overflow" stock for my business so it's not eating up all the space in my spare room in my house.

I have a second one coming this week, my logic was that would be more for whole machines. I haven't determined how I'm going to go about it, but I'm thinking a single layer shelf roughly 4ft high would be pretty ideal. Having a chain fall on a roller system would be really nice for getting the machines down but that can also be quite costly, so simple solution is a ramp at the end of the shelf and maybe a chain fall to pull the machine up the ramp if needed (there's metal loops at the top of the walls). Just think a line of machines around 30ft long double stacked plus some more basic storage on the other side (like 12in shelves I think there would be room for) with a walk way in the middle.

For my area delivered the "normal" price is $2350, since I'm buying more than one and such the guy knocked the first one down to $2250 and the second one he's giving to me for $2200. I'm half thinking about grabbing a 3rd one, I burn wood for my primary heat source and having a container full would be something like a 5 year supply. Clearly would have to dry the wood well before being stored, extra vents made, and probably some sort of floor setup to allow air under the pile. I was going to build some cheap wooden buildings for wood storage, and even if I got the walls free it would still cost more than the shipping container for the area, and it's a metal building that can be moved around somewhat easily with equipment, no tax worries, etc.

Of course I live in the country where the "ugly" shipping containers can be used. I suspect in the city it's a bit harder, but I've seen some people get away with 20ft ones on youtube.

I don't think the cost per area can be beat until you start looking at fairly large pole barns, then the open floor vs a narrow hallway layout becomes worth something too besides raw area. I plan to build a pole barn too, just haven't saved up the money for it yet. I do have the metal siding though already (steal of a deal $20 per 20ft sheet of very heavy stuff).


Everyone's situation is different, but if you can get shipping containers for a reasonable price, they are pretty hard to beat. A $75 lock secures it pretty well too from most basic attacks people would try, it's that or build a lock/box setup so a quality padlock can be used but not accessible to grind off quickly. I read one of the most common attacks is a long pipe with the end modified/welded to hook in the padlock area and twist till either the lock breaks or the metal tabs bend/breaks.

One problem to deal with is even during the day, far in the container is fairly dark so a flash light or lighting of some sort is pretty much needed. I plan to run a single circuit into mine for a mid row of lights and maybe a 2nd circuit for a power outlet (battery charger, small things like that). I have a building like 15ft away to run power from and was part of why I picked the location.

[BarnBoy]

For all of you guys with lacking room, I have a solution, not pretty but pretty affordable, atleast for my area.

https://i.gyazo.com/2f16b685fc2d54dcaab2ff310307526d.jpg


I bought one, and shelf is a MUST for parts. I only put 2 layers and it opened up all of my sheds that I basically couldn't even walk in before open up quite nicely, and the shelf is only one side and about 28ft long. The shelf isn't fully loaded either, just boxes of parts labeled per machine and stashed. Light/big stuff up high, common stuff on the mid shelf, and heavy things like engines etc on the bottom/floor. I made the shelf about 24in deep if I recall correctly, plan is to make another shelf exactly the same on the other side, but right now I have some machines stuffed in there. The last like 6ft is my "overflow" stock for my business so it's not eating up all the space in my spare room in my house.

I have a second one coming this week, my logic was that would be more for whole machines. I haven't determined how I'm going to go about it, but I'm thinking a single layer shelf roughly 4ft high would be pretty ideal. Having a chain fall on a roller system would be really nice for getting the machines down but that can also be quite costly, so simple solution is a ramp at the end of the shelf and maybe a chain fall to pull the machine up the ramp if needed (there's metal loops at the top of the walls). Just think a line of machines around 30ft long double stacked plus some more basic storage on the other side (like 12in shelves I think there would be room for) with a walk way in the middle.

For my area delivered the "normal" price is $2350, since I'm buying more than one and such the guy knocked the first one down to $2250 and the second one he's giving to me for $2200. I'm half thinking about grabbing a 3rd one, I burn wood for my primary heat source and having a container full would be something like a 5 year supply. Clearly would have to dry the wood well before being stored, extra vents made, and probably some sort of floor setup to allow air under the pile. I was going to build some cheap wooden buildings for wood storage, and even if I got the walls free it would still cost more than the shipping container for the area, and it's a metal building that can be moved around somewhat easily with equipment, no tax worries, etc.

Of course I live in the country where the "ugly" shipping containers can be used. I suspect in the city it's a bit harder, but I've seen some people get away with 20ft ones on youtube.

I don't think the cost per area can be beat until you start looking at fairly large pole barns, then the open floor vs a narrow hallway layout becomes worth something too besides raw area. I plan to build a pole barn too, just haven't saved up the money for it yet. I do have the metal siding though already (steal of a deal $20 per 20ft sheet of very heavy stuff).


Everyone's situation is different, but if you can get shipping containers for a reasonable price, they are pretty hard to beat. A $75 lock secures it pretty well too from most basic attacks people would try, it's that or build a lock/box setup so a quality padlock can be used but not accessible to grind off quickly. I read one of the most common attacks is a long pipe with the end modified/welded to hook in the padlock area and twist till either the lock breaks or the metal tabs bend/breaks.

One problem to deal with is even during the day, far in the container is fairly dark so a flash light or lighting of some sort is pretty much needed. I plan to run a single circuit into mine for a mid row of lights and maybe a 2nd circuit for a power outlet (battery charger, small things like that). I have a building like 15ft away to run power from and was part of why I picked the location.

Not an option for me right now, I live in town...Zero space. I would probably get one if I had room though. One of the neighbors down the road has one...if you keep it tucked away people don't get too upset. I wish you could get one in a 16 ft width, that would make a great standalone shop. You could set up with a mill, lathe, etc, room to work on vehicles but no hoists obviously. Pretty much fireproof also.

If I was going to store that much wood in there I'd probably set it up corncrib style-ish. Raised floor, maybe made from expanded metal and square tube, maybe even secondary walls to allow airflow. And modify the doors or take them off. I'd have to think about it some more...you could fit a lot of cords of wood in there though....

Btw, I'm still waiting to hear back from the guy with the 200X's Corey. You are #1 on my list if/when I get them and decide to sell a front end. Shipping won't be terrible, we'll work something out.

[BarnBoy]

I preach keeping a list/record of every build, if your going to conduct business, then do it correctly.
Otherwise your just fooling yourself. The games stop when money is in play.

Here is my break down on "Bradford" You can see, I list cost even when its just my labor "cleaning, detailing, transport" there are real cost involved in these actions. I have an excel spreadsheet that keeps a running total for the year.
This is how I do it, many of you have asked.

Bradford 200e -$350.00
transport -$25.00
3- tires -$145.00
rim -$65.00
carb/crank seal -$31.00
brakes ft/rr -$35.00
seat/recover -$100.00
choke/brake cables-$35.00
battery -$30.00
L.E.D. Light -$21.00
key -$10.00
fluids/filter/hose -$33.00
petcock, clean tank -$15.00
air filter -$26.00
Tank -$50.00
200s front end -65.00
Parts Total -$1036.00
Listing For $1,800.00 any reduction cuts the bottom line.

Profit $764.00

I may have to drop the price before it sells, but I know my market pretty well, $1600 will be the least I will have take to move it. It should move very quickly at that price. It is hunting season. It will turn a nice profit and I would have revived another atc.
I will mount up the last new tire on a new matching wheel tonight, an off to market it will go.
You can see how making an extra weeks pay check is addicting.
MrC.

I paid myself for parts out of my boneyard, a parts bike is a huge benefit and a money maker the 200s parts bike I paid $65 for it, you see I billed out the front end and the tank at what there true value could be, not what I paid for them, like the seat, I bought it online full retail $90 plus the wrap $10, sometimes you got to do it. So even though I show a $764 profit, it is in reality a little higher. the objective is to be sure and re-coop the cost of the parts bikes, and not loose those expenses, because that bike will never be named or built, so it could be lost very easily.

Very detailed, I like it. You're definitely more organized than I am, I dont flip that many bikes though. I keep a rough record of costs, but on some of my personal bikes it would make me sick to realize how much money and time was spent....haha.

[MrConcdid]

ok PS2Fixer- heres your guy Andrew Camarata- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es8x9S1Q0_w
He rides 3 wheelers too and he knows Harvey Spooner.
I have been watching him for awhile, he seems like a real person, if you know what I mean.
You want a pole barn and you have 2 containers. Easy fix, build a roof between to containers there are kits out there. pick a kit, say 30ft wide, set your containers 30ft apart, and when you have the funds, order the kit.

MrC.

[ps2fixer]

Yea, 40x8x8 (they are actually 8.5ft tall) = 60 face cord, but that's outside dimensions so I just cut it down to 50 for my estimations, I burn roughly 10 face cord a year.

Nothing stops you from putting two next to each other and welding a strip on the roof and cut out the walls and weld the seam up however much you want. They have nice hardwood and treated floors supported every 1ft with a cross I beam, and that ties into the full length I/H beam that supports most of the weight. The walls are ribbed fairly deeply, so any vents put in would be on the V going out to have the air space to flow well, no inner wall needed. That's also the down fall of them, there's no flat surface to install windows, doors, etc, so everything has to have some sort of flange to tie into the low and high section. The metal isn't standard steel either, it's a custom alloy that from what I read is commonly used in skyscrapers, very strong stuff and a layer of rust on the metal is like painting is so very corrosion resistant (sea water). The one I have is like 15-20 years old. Also they are about 8250lb's or just over 4 tons and they hold something like 70 tons by their spec (supporting it purely by the corners only). The wood I'd support every ~8ft along the primary I/H beam so it doesn't sink in the ground and give better support overall.

Here's a vid of a guy doing something similar to what it sounds like you'd like to do.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj-miagtG1E

The layout is kind of weird for the shipping containers, but either case it shows how modular they are. Wish he would have stood back and showed it from a distance lol. The insulation is kind of a joke, looks like some really thin stuff, would be so much better off with 2in hd styrofoam and also paint the roof white. There's stuff made for trailer houses that has a tiny bit of insulating value too. It's also metal, so all the walls you cut out, if you didn't care about looks, you could put the walls on small stilts and "shade" the roof and reduce the heat problems even more. Since he's trying to AC the building, I'd say do a lot of insulation on the roof, and also insulate the walls fairly well. Steel transfers heat quite well, not as good as copper, but not super far from it. It's like 60x faster than wood, and the "R" value for insulation is based on wood, 1R = ~1in of wood. I kind of wonder how he hung insulation though, best route I can think of is to glue it. The walls and roof are single layer, but the corners are effectively square pipe, so you can drill into those with no risk of leaks.

Now I'm dreaming of a garage made with like 4x 40ft shipping containers, maybe high cube 9.5ft tall because of the garage door opener issue. That would make a building 40x32 with around 8ft 10in ceiling. I think the high cubes are like $300 more so around $10k + time for a very reasonable building. I'm just not sure how permits tie into things since at that point multi containers are combined together and the "portable" description is kind of lost atleast in some areas.

Sounds good on the 200x front end, I suspect tearing it down would make the box a reasonable size. I wouldn't really need handle bars since I'm sure I have some around that would work. Everything else will basically be custom. Defo going to be a slow build, but first objective is to get a roller frame together. After that then I can work on engine mounting, electrical, etc. I guess another option is to ship it whole and shipping wrap around it and slap a label on. Wouldn't be protected a whole lot but that style of shipping works good for frames, tires, etc.

[MrConcdid]

Ok, on to a serious discussion
I need to pick a new personal bike.
All bikes run, shift and stopish right now.

My choices are
a 200 (no letter) has 9 inch wheels widest front suspension- needs a head gasket, runs but leaks oil between head and jug, also need a muffler
(will need to be fixed either way to sell it)
a 185s - tank needs painting- has a cool saddleman seat, 8 in wheels, has the highest compression 150psi
a 200s- needs the most work, has the worst plastics, but it is a 200s

Now, which has the cool factor? the older 200(no) with factory 9in wheels and a trunk or the 185s with custom seat, or the 200s. there so close I cant seem to pick a favorite. I am wanting a super wide, super low trike. I may even consider doing a rear swing arm conversion in the future, so I am talking about a keeper to add to my collection.

MrC.

[ps2fixer]

My picks generally are 250cc+ but out of them I'd think the 200s would be the fun one to ride with some softer tires in the back or if you want something that can do work, use the one with the rack. Personally I'd use a 200es for work for shaft drive + reverse, or upgrade to a 250es/sx. Sport riding my pick is 250sx, 350x, or 200x/auto x, but I suspect the 200s out of your list of machines would be the best for this use (newest model so probably latest tech in it and I think it's a narrow frame machine?).

Also on the polebarn logic, the big advantage is the height of the building, I could build something like 18ft side walls and have effectively a 2nd story in the building for storage or just basic rooms. My dad did that but with 14ft side walls and it's not quite enough, I hit my head on everything lol. He has car engines and such in his loft. Also with a pole barn you get the option of a hoist, so need vehicle height + ~7-8ft to be able to walk under it. If sticking strictly to atv's, the shipping container route is a very solid shop, but I do car stuff too so it's a bit of a mixed bag for me xD. Could always go crazy and throw a 20ft one on top, weld it to the roof of the 40ft one and cut out the floor to make the needed roof room. Lot of welds to get sealed up though.

I've been thinking about buying a larger chunk of land for basically atv riding, storage, and maybe some day a "retirement" home. North of my area about an hour out land is quite cheap, like $55k for 40 acres. Back when I bought my house 80 acres was around $600/acre in the same area. Compare that with my area, land runs around $3-5k/acre and also taxed at those higher rates. A shipping container garage on a plot of land like that would be an awesome setup on the cheap.

[ATC King]

Ok, on to a serious discussion
I need to pick a new personal bike.


Of those three, I'd choose the 185S.

The ATC200 has the old style frame which doesn't route the intake through the frame backbone. The rear axle on that guy is going to be hard to find if you ever need another one (if you don't already have an extra). No new aftermarket fenders available either (I'm pretty sure, need to check).

The rear fenders on that 200S being like they are, I'd let it go. Yes, you can get aftermarket replacements, but they don't have the trunk. Also, they don't come off, which I give a nod to the 185S for, because it makes cleaning and maintenance much easier. The 200S frame does have some extra gusseting over the 185S frame, but I haven't seen anything that says the 185S frame is that much weaker either.

The 185S already has a rack. Leave it or take it off, but you still have it.

They all have a 'cool factor'; they're trikes.

The engines are virtually all the same, except condition. 185S there again.

The 185S is also the only one that Hi-Flite sells their tall desert seat for. Yours already has a good seat, but one of those desert seats would be SWEET! I'd also want to get one before they stop making them. They look cool, but are also very functional because the taller and longer foam opens up the cockpit, and adds more cushion.

3wheelerworld necropost with some desert seat pics. http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthread.php/138944-hi-flite-seats

I wouldn't be as heartbroken about altering the 185S frame either, if you add suspension later. It seems like those are more plentiful than the other two you're considering. Although, my 185S actually is a 200S frame that I altered for the 185S fenders and seat. It was a free frame, also, just the frame. The 185S frame I had been riding was rusty and repaired too many times, so I cut off the pieces I needed and welded them to the 200S frame, cutting off the fender tabs in the process.

[patriot1]

King: You saw how McC brought that $30 JYD back to life and made bucks! He'd have your burnt 185s running, looking mint and sold by now. He saves trikes like Jimmy Swaggart saved souls back in the day! lol-kidding

I agree with King and all his logic when it comes to parts and availability on the 185s.

[MrConcdid]

So something like this.
MrC.

I will get rid of the black paint on the trees and may swap the front fender.
I will hold onto the rack for awhile

[BarnBoy]

I would pick the 185 too, as long as the frame is solid. Pull the footpegs and check the little cavity in there. Notorious for trapping mud and shitt and rusting out.

[MrConcdid]

He saves trikes like Jimmy Swaggart saved souls back in the day

Now that's a compliment right there. Thank you patriot.
Funny you say that I had a guy tell me I was doing the Lords work saving these. Lol
MrC.

ATCKing- you make some very good points. I think if turned out very nice for an evening of work. Now I can focus in turning out the next one. My ocd kicks in sometimes and I need a little nudge to get going again.

[Blmpkn]

Whelp, ive acquired a clapped out 86 200s lol. Probably keeping this one, might be selling the motor though. Need to get it home and give it a good inspection to see if I want to bother with the factory heart.

Pull starter does nothing, seems to be missing bits of a decompression system, wrong tank, no fenders, wacky rear wheels, needs front and rear bearings, seat cover... weew.

[jasong_10]

So something like this.
MrC.

I will get rid of the black paint on the trees and may swap the front fender.
I will hold onto the rack for awhile

Wow, you work fast, lol. Looks pretty cool MrC

[ATC King]

I will hold onto the rack for awhile

I'd keep that rack as long as you own the trike.

I've got one for a 185S stored away, and I don't think I'll get rid of it until I pass. They are pretty hard to come by, besides, they fit like they are supposed to. No multi fit crap going one.

It's all looking good too.

The big thing I do is remove the rubber funder flares. All they do is weigh down the fenders and cause them to crack earlier.

[MrConcdid]

So, how do those of you store bikes, clearly I have a few in my collection, i cant ride them often enough to keep the gas fresh. If i store the tank empty it rust, if i store it full, the gas goes bad then it rust. I thought maybe coat the tanks with some diesel or something with a high oil content.
I hate to admit it but the fuel I'm my sx is a year old. It has stabil in it, but what about rust?

MrC.

[ps2fixer]

Pump gas is what causes the rust when full. The old school suggestion for long term storage was FILL the tank, but that doesn't apply any more due to the ethanol in the fuel. The ethanol absorbs moisture from the air and it separates and settles in the bottom of the tank and is corrosive so causes rust in the bottom. Most old tanks before the modern pump gas would rust out at the top (moisture from the air) unless actual water got in the tank somehow.

In a temp controlled environment, storing with the tank empty is probably the best route. In most other cases, I'd think getting rect fuel that doesn't have ethanol in it wouldn't be bad, that fuel should last atleast a year and still be usable, beyond that worst case you'd have to drain the tank and refill. I always run the carb out of fuel for storage.

Kind of off topic, but I picked up a 1986 Toyota pickup from the orig owner's neighbor that couldn't get the truck to run. Some wires were ate and I just swapped the parts out, little gas down the carb and she fired right up... and kept running. It was running on 20+ year old gas. Truck only had 67k miles, and yes it has the 6 digit speedometer, so no guess work. I can't recall if I found any proof of the last time it was driven like registration papers, so might just be hearsay. Bottom of the truck was rusted out from sitting in the garage, like the transmission mount bolts were a nightmare to get out, had to drill and tap one of the holes after the bolt broke. Above that line everything came apart quite easily including the bell housing bolts so the story seems to line up. Door seams at the bottom were rusted out, the rest of the cab and box were near flawless. Sadly the truck values more in parts than whole, so it has been stripped down and most of it sold. The gas did have a bit of the turpentine smell but it was very minor, the color was just slightly more yellow than new. If I remember right the tank was filled before it was stored too.

It's probably worth a mention, the tanks have a factory coating inside that's anti corrosive. If the tank has no rust inside, it shouldn't rust empty for quite a long time. If it had rust in it and it's been treated with acids etc, it will nearly instantly rust with out some sort of new coating like a tank liner. Gas on it's own is anti corrosive since it's effectively a very very thin oil. I suspect a little oil in the tank could work to keep rust from building up, but the catch is you have to rotate it every so often because the oil will settle in the bottom with time. Grease would work better, but clearly it's a little harder to apply and clean up lol.

Just my 2 cents, should be interesting to hear what others say.

[Jd110]

Silica gel pacs work. I save all I find. Also, got a tank here in the garage I wiped all the rust away with vinegar (acid), last year. It’s been sitting since with no absorbent pacs and no rust has formed-none.
Edit: what has worked for me with the vinegar is, rinse with gas a two-stoke oil. Then another dose of oil. Drain and store.

[ATC King]

So, how do those of you store bikes...


My running machines get a full tank of E0 (no ethanol) with fresh stabilizer. That gets run through them for a bit and the tank is filled to the top, on the ones with metal tanks. Plastic tanked ones still get the E0 with stabilizer, but I don't fill those all the way up. That included things like the generator, riding mowers, saws, trimmers and other seasonal types of equipment.

You can look at the Pure Gas website to find a E0 station near you. https://www.pure-gas.org/

Now, I have a lot of stuff that sits for months to a year. What I do on those is drain all the storage fuel (siphon from tank or open petcock), put that in whatever I'm driving or use it in the mowers during the summer, and fill that tank back up with more fresh E0 stabilized fuel. Essentially, I rotate the few every few months. I also start and let that vehicle or piece of equipment and let it run for a while or drive it if the weather is nice (don't want to put it back dirty).

Batteries come off of whatever is stored, have a battery maintainer plugged into them, or I check and charge them once a month.

For metal tanks just sitting on the shelf, I pour in some WD-40 (buy it by the gallon when on sale), slosh that around and put the cap back on, plugging any vents or petcock openings. I'll occasionally open those, dump out the old WD-40 and pour in some fresh. Not much, just enough to coat the tank and have a tiny puddle at the bottom.

My truck holds 55 gallons, so it actually can be an issue, because I don't drive it every day or even that far (except for buying trikes this year). What I've got going on there is an auxiliary electric fuel pump, plumed into the main fuel supply, which I used to fill cans with or a motorcycle or trike if I'm off somewhere riding. It can also double as a backup pump if the engine's mechanical one fails. I've been meaning to post that in the open forum and may do it today.

[BarnBoy]

I'd echo whats been said, filled yank with no ethanol fuel, batteries on tenders, if they sit forever and ever it might make sense to get the tires off the ground to prevent horrible flat spots.

[BarnBoy]

Regarding flipping bikes, I finally got ahold of the fella with the 200X parts bikes. He doesent know anything about them, said he owes someone money and wants them gone. Thinks he has a good seat and maybe a fuel tank somewhere. Anyway, apparently he wants $250, his son in law had said $200. Either way, I might make an offer if the engines are stuck. I know the one doesent have a plug in it from the pixs.

But, ill have to sell some parts either way to fund the builds and other bikes I've acquired. I wasn't initially planning on flipping my trx200 but I will now, to make room for more junk. Haha.

[MrConcdid]

Hey Barnboy- the longer it takes to close the deal the harder and less likely you will get them, either the price changes a lot or they talk to a good friend, and they are no longer for sale. I would advise you give him the $250 and load them ASAP, sign a bill of sale after there loaded.

I went to a scrappers house late yesterday, supper sketchy, spidey senses all tingly, but did manage to score a few nice pieces. 2 tanks and 2 fenders. the rest was junk.
MrC. Good luck

[BarnBoy]

Mr.C,

Nice score on the tanks and fenders. Did you ever find 9ut what that tank came off? Saw your FB post the other day...

200x, all depends when I can get the other truck to tow the trailer. My daily is a little Toyota Tacoma, I could probably cram them in the bed (6ft, with toolbox a bit smaller) but don't want to make a 2nd trip. I dont have a hitch on it right now....I'll figure something out. My ideal would be this week, I dont think they're going anywhere, but would feel better with them in my yard.

[ps2fixer]

The little Tacoma isn't so little when you compare it to a Ford Ranger or similar pickup, they haul quite a lot for their size. I hauled wood with mine, but ended up going to a "mid size" truck, the T100 (before it got bigger and renamed to a Tundra). It hauls wood great and I think it's classified as a 1/4 ton.

My main vehicle to haul home 3 wheelers for a while was.... a 1997 Toyota Corolla. I used the snot out of that car, used it just like a truck quite often. Picked up ATC110's, ATC200ES's (stripped down some). Main thing I had to do was remove the rear axle and I could generally get the smaller machines in the back seat, the larger ones I roped in the trunk. Kind of crazy how I got by with out a truck before.

Anyway, if it's a real you really want, I'd jump on it asap. Generally when I hear about a deal, I'm heading their way the same day or the next morning. If I wait any longer they generally go to someone else. Like the latest deal, I had 4x machines lined up to buy from up north. I had to borrow a trailer and such so that took a couple days. The first day it dropped to 3 machines, the second day (the day of picking them up) the main machine I was going for the guy made into some sort of motorcycle or something. Wasn't worth my trip for the last 2 so I didnt' even leave and I wasted someone else's time getting a trailer and such. People aren't good for their word anymore.

[jasong_10]

So, how do those of you store bikes, clearly I have a few in my collection, i cant ride them often enough to keep the gas fresh. If i store the tank empty it rust, if i store it full, the gas goes bad then it rust. I thought maybe coat the tanks with some diesel or something with a high oil content.
I hate to admit it but the fuel I'm my sx is a year old. It has stabil in it, but what about rust?

MrC.

I run ethanol-free in everything that isn't a car/truck, and split a bottle of Stabil between them all. Most of mine are plastic tanks but the TRX200 is a metal tank and I haven't had any issues with it.

[BarnBoy]

The little Tacoma isn't so little when you compare it to a Ford Ranger or similar pickup, they haul quite a lot for their size. I hauled wood with mine, but ended up going to a "mid size" truck, the T100 (before it got bigger and renamed to a Tundra). It hauls wood great and I think it's classified as a 1/4 ton.

My main vehicle to haul home 3 wheelers for a while was.... a 1997 Toyota Corolla. I used the snot out of that car, used it just like a truck quite often. Picked up ATC110's, ATC200ES's (stripped down some). Main thing I had to do was remove the rear axle and I could generally get the smaller machines in the back seat, the larger ones I roped in the trunk. Kind of crazy how I got by with out a truck before.

Anyway, if it's a real you really want, I'd jump on it asap. Generally when I hear about a deal, I'm heading their way the same day or the next morning. If I wait any longer they generally go to someone else. Like the latest deal, I had 4x machines lined up to buy from up north. I had to borrow a trailer and such so that took a couple days. The first day it dropped to 3 machines, the second day (the day of picking them up) the main machine I was going for the guy made into some sort of motorcycle or something. Wasn't worth my trip for the last 2 so I didnt' even leave and I wasted someone else's time getting a trailer and such. People aren't good for their word anymore.

Haha, thats awesome. I got a trailer and a tow rig (4runner), gonna go tomorrow and pick em up after work. I bet I could fit them all in my truck...but then again I dont HAVE to so I'll just use the trailer.

I missed out on an 86 SX because I took too long last week. That Monday I had driven 2 hrs, only to pass on 2 beat 85 SX that IMO weren't worth the 800 apiece. One did have factory racks though, and they both ran good, but thats all they had going for them. Not worth it to me, maybe to someone else. So, I was much more careful with this 86....didnt want to waste another half day only to find out its a POS. The guy was slow sending me more pics, had to text every day. When he finally got them, I made an offer willing to come that night. Nope, someone already lined up for the next morning. Even though id been in touch for a week and was very interested. So it goes...win some, loose some. End of the day, it wasn't meant to be...just keep an eye out for the next one.

[MrConcdid]

So the mystery tank fits an 200 no letter.
I had the trim off the air intake shield and add to the steering stops just a little bit. But it fits I like it, is an odd duck for sure. I paid $75 for everything so, I have $25 in the tank. It will have 22x11-9 on the rear and a 23 inch front.
E3 The P.O. rebuilt the engine best I can tell. Cause he forgot to put a head gasket in it. I got it running I think for the first time. Once it got warm it started leaking oil between the head and jug. I tightened up the head bolts but not enough..it was pouring out.
Oh well, it's going to make a nice runner for sure.
This is number 3 of the Enterprise 6.
MrC.

Special thanks to everyone, I hope you enjoy the thread. I just hit 20k views in 11 months. Of course half of them are mine. Lol.

[BarnBoy]

This is the most active thread 3ww has had in a while I think....

Make sure your head has the rubber plug for the cam gallery. If he was dumb enough to forget the head gasket...who knows what else he forgot.

[patriot1]

I'd keep that rack as long as you own the trike.

I've got one for a 185S stored away, and I don't think I'll get rid of it until I pass. They are pretty hard to come by, besides, they fit like they are supposed to. No multi fit crap going one.

It's all looking good too.

The big thing I do is remove the rubber funder flares. All they do is weigh down the fenders and cause them to crack earlier.



I told you about the flaps.

[ATC King]

Flaps?

Flappy flap flaps or the floopy flip flaps?:)


I've got a small stack of them. The rear ones anyway, I leave the front ones on to keep mud off the upper engine.

I try to save what fasteners I can, but many of them are rusted solid and have to be drilled out. I blast and paint the metal backing plates and store those away too, but many of them have rust holes, so can't save all of those either. A lot of the rear ones end up with tire wear on them too, from sagging because of being covered in sticky mud. I've got a couple that a tire wore a hole through.

The latest is going to be trying to remove the fasteners on the fire sale one's front fender. That flap is still usable and the fender isn't completely junk, it has a couple cracks, but once I scraped most of the bed liner off, it appears to be a good candidate for fixing and painting for a custom color.

[MrConcdid]

Everyone has watched me better myself along the way this year (investing in; sandblast cabinet, a press, new lighting, bigger fan, lift table, tire machine and trailer), knowing I was going to use it and also knowing I could always sell it, if and when I got ready to down size. My little 6.5x10.5 single axle trailer has been a real game changer for me, its quick and easy to move around, not an issue in traffic or a strain on my 1/2 ton truck. I would certainly recommend a small trailer to anyone who needed extra hauling space. I use it for even one bike, its lower to the ground, I don't have to lift them up into the truck, mine has a metal floor, so flat 3-wheeler tires slide pretty good as well and you might see something else you can buy while your there, you know those impulse 3-wheeler purchases we have all the time.

I would admit, a 6x12 would be better, that would allow for 4-3 wheeler's laced side by side where as my 10.5 will only hold 3.5 bikes laced. Also good solid sides/ramp keep things in, compared to an open equipment style trailer, Of course when you start stacking them and parts of them hanging over the edge, all bets are off. I have hauled 5 on a borrowed 6x12 trailer 1.5 hours down the interstate plus 1 in the bed, the back seat full of fenders. Sanford and Son style.

I have learned through most of my hobbies, good tools, a good shop with good lighting (and radio), makes for a much more enjoyable endeavor. Whether your into old cars, tractors, metal work/mechanics/wood working or even old three wheeler's a lot of the tools are the same. The old adage applies- buy once, cry once. spend your money on quality and it will last a long time.
When I am to old to can't play in the shop anymore, I or my widow can sell it all off, it will make a nice $ return and have served me and my family very well.
Funny, when I was 12, I had my own bicycle shop in the backyard, an outside storage closet held my 3 or 4 tools, and concrete patio was my work space, I haven't thought about that space in 35 years. Back then I worked for free, I would repair the neighborhood kids bikes, mix and match parts, paint and customize them. Somethings never change I guess.

2021- I am going to try my hand at a youtube channel, I am going to ask Santa for a gopro camera and a good voice recorder. I am still working out the concept now. I am thinking about a blend between Chrisfix (first person viewer style) and Harvey Spooner repair type work, I am not a mechanic by trade, I think I would enjoy, kind of an American Pickers meets Gas Monkey.
My concept so far- I would Record the "find", the travel, evaluating the item, the cost, actual purchase price, return to the shop, the tear down, the repair, the listing, the sale, the profits. (just like this thread) I would not film the negotiations, with the seller or the buyer. I think that would protect them and me. Andrew Camarata does a good job of this type of video.

My favorite YouTube Channel is the Essential Craftsman, He is a very talented craftsman with a teacher's soul and the patience of job.
I will be finished with school by summer of 2021 and would have more time to edit and post. I am not sure if there is a place for me there, or if I have the "right stuff" to pull it off. I guess we may find out together.

MrC.

[BarnBoy]

I like the idea of a YouTube channel. I know you'll have plenty of content anyway. Ive watched a few of Cameron Neimela (sp??) on youtube and enjoy his style . Theres a few other talented youtubers, I think a channel with a commanding personality, plenty of content, and kind of a no drama attitude would do quite well. Many people want to be hip and cool with lots of fluff, but I really enjoy a straightforward no BS approach from somebody who knows what they are doing. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

[BarnBoy]

Well, I got those 200x. And ended up with some random kawasaki 4 wheeler, brand new maiers and seat. It'll be sold to fund the trikes. Thanks Mr.C for the tips.

265216

[ps2fixer]

If you shoot me the VIN on the Kawasaki, I can probably decode what it is. I think I can use the engine serial for most models too. I should have up to around 2000 covered for that kind of data.

[ATC King]

I agree on the no 'fluff.'

No long intros, no click-bait tittles or thumbnails, no product sponsorship (product pimping), no rambling off-subject, just get right into the meat of it.

If you haven't seen Project Farm, you may like it. The guy admittedly isn't a mechanic (said so himself), but bought a farm and had to learn some things to make it all work. He's started small, and now has enough views and subscribers he spends a lot of his own money buying and testing all kinds of things. He's even built several of his own test devices. Nothing super scientific, but I think functional enough that the results are real-world. He'll even run the same product multiple times through a test to get averages.

[ps2fixer]

Yea project farm has a lot of good to great content. Couple tests could be done better, but that's the nature of anything done covering a wide range of products and types of things to test. It's nice to get a fairly accurate conclusion on what product is best and at what price point gives you reasonable quality. Some times some of the cheapest options are the best or next to the best.

[BarnBoy]

If you shoot me the VIN on the Kawasaki, I can probably decode what it is. I think I can use the engine serial for most models too. I should have up to around 2000 covered for that kind of data.

Ok, thanks. I'll get it later and send to you.

[ATC King]

Diamonds in the rough.

I pulled the top end off of fire sale. Looks to be some good parts left in it. Head looks usable still, after some new valves and fresh cut seats. I'll have to measure the cylinder, but the piston didn't have any oversize number on it, so that may be good enough to resize and use. I just wiped the cylinder and piston with paper towels, no wire brush or solvents used.

265221265222265223265224265225265226265227265228

There are scrape marks on the head gasket area, so someone has been into it before.

There's some rust in the bottom end, for sure, but the rod doesn't have any play and the crank is looking OK at this point. Got to split the cases and check the rest.





I've got another one of these engines torn down about the same amount, so maybe can make one good one out of both.

[MrConcdid]

The Phoenix, back from the ashes.


As I said in the beginning of this thread, part of this hobby is like archaeology, peeling back the layers that are hiding the gems, or like a detective story, following the chain of clues, taking in all the evidence, building the case, and solving the puzzle when it runs again. "Fire Sale" met a tragic end for sure, but the damage may only be paint deep, not saying you should rebuild the whole thing, but I think you have some very good parts, and possibly a good running engine also.

I cleaned up the shop some last night, put E3 to the side waiting on a gasket kit, I hope to drag in E4 another 200e, my curiosity is killing me to tear into it, and see why it quit.

How bout we change things up this time:
Plan for E-4, get it running, fix nothing else and see if I can sell it, as a running driving project. No front end swaps, no new tires/battery or brakes, cables, seat cover,grips, air filter, oil change, detail or paint touch up. Just running. I will list it as a running project, advertise it as such, with video of it running driving and see what happens. I already know it will need a pull rope and handle I have $350 in buying the bike, goal is to double the invested money, so ad a carb, pull rope, clean the tank, new fuel filter and line, and what ever else that is wrong. add all that up then double it, equals the sale price. Should be all in for around $450 and sell for $900. I will put no more than 4 hours of labor in repairing it.

I have no idea what is wrong with this bike, I have not looked at it yet.
Challenge excepted.
MrC.

[ATC King]

How bout we change things up this time:
Plan for E-4, get it running, fix nothing else and see if I can sell it, as a running driving project.


If the aftermarket exhaust it has is solid; that can be a selling point too. What's up with the dipstick though?

[patriot1]

King: I had told McC to remove the flaps then you said the same!

Barnboy: How is it going with your X/s? I am planning on taking my X on a ride next week. Excited about it

Productive day for me:

1) I removed 4 bolts that my son broke on the tree of the 250R when I asked him to remove the old broken fender. (I love him, he's my boy, we enjoy this stuff together but how can you break 4 bolts and then realize and say "dang, I broke all four of them off")

2) I finally found fire with my SX after replacing the CDI with one from a Big Red I have, I had multi-metered, asked PS2, prayed, cussed, read the manual, kicked and tested everything to death-even replaced the CDI with a Chinese one that didn't work. Put the one on that I robbed from the ES and she sang like a song.


Nothing most wouldn't have figured out in 2 hours but I've learned a lot and still have a way to go.

[ps2fixer]

Grats on getting the sx going, it's really nice having a machine to pull parts from to test things out on, there's not really a great test method for CDI's so they are kind of a last ditch effort most of the time. Btw the sx and es does use the same CDI, so for a replacement, match the year with the one you used, 85 had a round connector, while 86-87 used 2 connectors that are more squared off. 85 and 86-87 interchange electrically if you adapt the wiring over or swap the harness.

[BarnBoy]

Patriot, got them off the trailer Sat. I have one of every year 1st gen 200X. 83 parts bike, 84 roller, and 85 parts. The 85 is in the worst shape, pulled the engine and stripped it Saturday. Likely will sell the front end and other parts off it that I dont need. Engine feels like its got a rod flopping around in the cyl :0. 83 engine hopefully is ok, I dont have a kicker lever for it though, so idk if it turns over yet. Kinda hate to buy one just for that, but if anyone has a spare they'd let go cheep or trade for parts PM me.

The 84 roller is actually in nice shape, though it needs a lot of work. I have a spare 185 motor I've thought about putting in it. Part of me wanting a manual clutch bike with some power though. CRF230 swap would be cool if they weren't so expensive. If the 83 motor is decent, I may rebuild it. Not sure yet. I'll probably need a bunch of little things...carb, right footpeg, rear fender and mounting rubber, fuel tank cap, wheel bearings all around, probably new tires. We'll see what happens.

I'm trying to sell the kawasaki 4 wheeler and pay for the load. Then sell extra 200X parts and maybe build a bike for zero extra dollars, just money from what I can sell! That'd be nice. Anyone that needs parts, hit me up.

265288

265289

265290

[ps2fixer]

For the kick starter, get some channel locks or vice grips. Check the spacing on the teeth to the splines, if close, clamp it down good and turn it and see if the engine turns over. Won't be anything to start the engine with but good enough to check if it's locked up. Also there's two covers on the left side of the crank case, should be able to take the bigger one off and turn the engine over with the flywheel bolt. With a drill you might be able to even start the engine that way. With the engine in the machine you could put it in 2nd or 3rd gear and pull start it with another machine, just make sure the engine turns over first.

[MrConcdid]

Awesome Patriot1, You have a lot of choices, but as I have found out, you really cant loose with Hondas.
PS2Fixer- thats good info about the difference CDI on the 85 SX, I have one also. thanks
ATCKing- I hate dealing with those rusted screws in the flaps, What about tastefully cutting them down, this would remove the weight, and not leave exposed holes in my fenders. PS. I rode the 185s with the 18inch tires, wow you hit 5th quick, its nice on the trails, but I wound her out on the paved road today, top out I bet at 30mphNeeds more NOS

So I challenged myself with E4 bike
Get it running and sell it for double my investment

I sent Barnboy a pic and a text @7pm @7:15 I sent him a video of it running. Here is how it went down.
I paid $253 for the bike (one of the magnificent 7 purchase from Enterprise) target to double the total investment and spend no more than 4 hrs doing it.

This bike is missing the pull rope so
I cheated a little this has electric start. so I hooked up a battery charger, and hit the button- nothing.
1 starter button wire is pulled out and not connected to button, kill switch is floppy, cant trust them
Pulled plug cleaned it put back on the coil wire not back in the head.
I removed the tank, I disconnected the harness at the steering stem to eliminate the missing key/button and kill switch, Hot wired it red to yellow with red stripe
verified hot the relay and jumped it with a screw driver/motor spun!, checked we had spark on our cleaned plug and we did.
re-installed the plug, hooked up a gas line and supply, choked it and jumped it with a screw driver again.
VROOM she runs and idles (carb float is stuck, cause it to leak) but runs very well.

Running on its own in 15min. sent Barnboy a video of it running

Turn engine off- (grounded the black wire at the steering stem)
went to bone yard, found a 84 200es kill switch and button, installed them
reconnected everything at the steering stem still bypass the key w/ red to yellow/red stripe
Got my test light and checked for a ground signal going to the starter relay, hit the new button-nothing
Found no ground coming from the neutral safety switch-grounded one side of the start button green with red stripe
Found a bad connection in the ground signal wire to the relay
Re Tested for ground, now we have ground by the start button and hot from the battery.
hit the button- nothing. We have hot and ground to the relay but relay is bad.
Grabbed a new relay off the shelf installed it
hit the button-VROOM she starts by the button now.

Now the kill switch works, and so does the start button I cleaned the harness up, connected the aftermarket headlights (they work off the switch now (white wire).
The tank looks brand new inside, but some Einstein used bondo to patch some pin holes and water pipe fittings to make a petcock.
I had to cut the water pipe fitting in half so I could rotate it off the threaded boss of the tank, thankfully the threads were good, I cleaned them and applied teflon tape and a new/used petcock I had. Odd this tank had pin holes on both lower corners inside and out, yet the inside looked
prefect. I wire brushed (wire wheel on a drill) the the bondo off and removed the old paint, positioned the tank and applied some JB weld, I let it set 30 min, while doing other work, and flipped it over and did the other side. its not pretty but will work, it can be sanded and painted if you wanted to.

At this point I am an 2.5 hours into the build, I called it a night and let the JB set up fully
this morning, I installed the tank, new line and filter, put fuel in it (no Leaks) and started it up, it sounds good with the cobra header, I have never had one, I aired up the 2 flat tires, and went for a ride, no brakes, and the clutch slips when you wind out the gears, but it runs, shift and drives and idles
I let it cool and pressure washed it.
another hour, so 3.5 hours total

So will it sell as a running, driving project?
Cost so far:
bike $253.00
relay $9.00
fuel line/filter $2.00
kill switch/button $25.00 (boneyard)
connectors/wire $2.00
used petcock $5.00
total cost $296.00x2= so say $600 list it for $800 and settle at $600.
that's $100 an hour if it sells like it sits or a $300 profit for 3 hours work.



Now Interestingly "Bradford" Is the same bike (1983 200e), paid a more for it and it needed the same amount of work as E4 bike would if I built it.
I have almost $1000 in that bike, it will top out (sell) for $1600 to $1800 netting a $600/$800 profit which is twice as much profit,
but considerably more work (labor), expense and risk. I have close to 15 hours in "Bradford" so $700/15 that's only $46.6 an hour.

So there are two different examples of the same bike built two different ways both netting profits, yet completely different.
I will list both bikes for sale this week and lets see which sells first.

MrC.

[MrConcdid]

more pictures

[BarnBoy]

Yep, I can attest to Mr.C's magic touch, looked at my phone and he sent me a pic of the bike in the shop. Next thing he knew he sent me a vid of it running, lol. I barely got 3 welds laid in that time, working on my frame. TIG is slow, esp for me on that odd shaped out of position stuff.

Mr.C, if I could buy a bike like that for $2-250 I would do it all day long. I just rarely find them in that shape, for that price around here. At least, not consistently to be abkento flip them like you do. I probably could if I really cranked ads out and talked to everybody I knew.

PS2, good thought on the Chanellocks. I tried lightly but didn't want to ruin the splines. Im gonna check and see how the tooth spacing is on that.

[patriot1]

Good score on the 84! My next X will be an auto. It's so much easier!

I was going to provide an update but for some reason, I can't load

pictures..file:///var/folders/md/p16nn2kj2gdfcdw96wnb72j40000gn/T/com.apple.Safari/WebKitDropDestination-4GsMa6U2/thumbnail_IMG_4141.jpg

I had the opportunity to ride a SX for the first time in my 46 years over the weekend. So much fun! The brakes were locked up on it when I got it. I had to heat and pull and beat and pry the drum and stuff off. After I finally got it apart the rear wheels still would not turn. I got a carb and couldn't find fire, tested everything and replaced CDI with a Chinese one-still nothing. Replaced Chinese CDI with one from a Big Red and started it up and put it in gear and off she went! Super cool!

More to come...

[ATC King]

If the flaps were in good condition, I wouldn't want to cut on them. If they have some holes or tire wear, then I wouldn't feel so bad about it.

You can't use heat on those screws, obviously. Those fenders aren't easily removable, but if you too them off, you may be able to do what I do sometimes, and clamp the bottom T-nut into a vise, and use an impact driver on the screw, to see if that'll do it.

Last resort, to save the flaps, is to just drill the heads off. You personally don't want just the empty bolt holes in the fenders, but it looks like one of the metal backing plates is already rusted through, if that's the right picture I'm looking at.

You could always pop some Christmas trees into the holes for a more finished look.
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vital-parts.co.uk%2Fekmps%2Fshops%2Fmichaelholt0588%2Fim ages%2Ffir-tree-plugs-ftp003-1765-p.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

[MrConcdid]

So I have E-4 up and running, this was the challenge bike, I have certainly met that goal, I have rode it now, and it needs the usual. (everything) but starts right up and runs good.

So of the 7 bikes from Enterprise
I was able to save 4 of them they all run and drive now, they will require finishing touches before selling.
The 125m (horizontal) has a whole in the head
The 200e parts bike is just that, parts
The last 200s need work, has a bent fork, plastics are bad, but I could use the bulk of it.

So I spent $1650 on all 7, I appraised the 3 parts bikes at $50 each so subtract $150 from $1650 and I spent $1500/4 = $375 per bike.
not bad, I will finish them like always and sell, I will hang onto the 185s, it is a fun little bike.


So not letting a holiday go by without, presents.........
I picked up this little gem Thanksgiving morning.
84 200m - I got it running, but smokes worse than the smoking joe bike. neat thing about this 200m is the hondaline CHROME headlight cage, front and rear racks, under that stupid black spray paint, is beautiful hondaline chrome. I figure those racks are worth more than the whole bike.

Anyone have an idea of how rare they might be?
MrC.

[MrConcdid]

Well "Bradford" 200e finally hit the marketplace, it seams this one has stayed around a long time.
I ordered the wrong crank seal and had to reorder , I lost 3 weeks just on that 1 part. Oh well that the way it goes sometimes.
It starts and runs great, it turned out very nice. Will make someone a very nice rider.

E2- 200 is giving me fits, I tore it down and found some RVT repaired base and head gasket, changed both of them out with new ones, that stopped the leaks, also found the locating nipple on the cam bearing was broken off and down in the hole, I was able to knock it loose and remove with a piece of wire, I had a parts engine, and replaced the bearing.
rebuilt it, and finally got it timed (the flywheel is corroded, I can not see the timing marks anywhere, I tried to remove the flywheel but my flywheel tool will not thread into it (corroded) So I timed it old school, TDC, just before the exhaust valve opens, it runs, but smokes now, it did not smoke prior to the new gaskets. Not sure what that is, it seem to stumble also, ran better when it was leaking. lol.

E3--200s has parts on the way, it needed rear bearings, brakes, chain and sprockets, so its torn down for now.

E4-200e the ugly duckling is waiting its turn. it runs so good, I am thinking about a motor swap into the new Thanksgiving 200m with Chrome Hondaline guards/racks
This would be an interesting mashup a 200m suspension, with high and low range (no reverse) but a nicer riding Big Red than was ever offered in 1983


MrC.

[ps2fixer]

Pin holes in the bottom of the tank is from sitting a long time, either water in the gas or ethanol gas (aka pump gas). Either one sits at the bottom of the tank and rots it, and the gas above it is anti corrosive. There should be a pretty flat line where the rust stops. When the whole tank is nothing but rust, I think that's from being completely empty in high humidity, or someone did the acid trick to remove rust (and the protective layer) and then it sat with no liner.

For the fender flares, if the bolts are bad, just drill them out carefully. I think Honda still makes those bolts atleast in some form for maybe another machine, it's been a while since I looked for them.

Also on E2, why would you need to pull the flywheel to time it? There should be timing marks on the fly wheel as long as the key isn't sheered it should be pretty accurate.

Those chrome racks I don't think I've ever seen before, getting that paint off should be fairly easy since I'm pretty sure you can use some pretty strong chemicals on chrome and not damage it.

It should be interesting to see if the for sale running/project machine will sell faster than the fully built one. I have a feeling the project one will sell faster, or atleast draw more interest (people are cheap looking for a deal). The customers will be two totally different kinds of people most likely too.

[MrConcdid]

Hey Ps2fixer

The flywheel must have been open to the elements, its rusted, I have knocked the loose rust off with sand paper and even filed it smooth. I have a old flywheel and matched up the key ways to get me in the ball park. I can not remove it to clean it proper.
I have also sprayed it with some pd blaster thinks I might could read it wet.
The engine is clean, this is the one with the out of place crank key. I think this flywheel was removed and left in the rain or a bucket that filled with rain water.
I slept on the running issue, and believe I have the timing off enough to run but run poorly. I will go back through it asap.
MrC.

[Jim mac]

on the rust issue. have you tried leaving it in white vinegar for a week? jim

[MrConcdid]

Hey jim, I cant get the flywheel off to soak it.
I have another idea on that one.

I the meantime the last 2 bikes have had hondaline chrome racks, a 200m with all 3 chrome and a 200es with just the rear.
Welcome home my favorite year 1984 model this is number 46 if anyone is counting named "Cairo"
How's that for cool.

MrC.

Update:
I have a plan;
The chrome 200m needs an engine rebuild (barely runs but 75psi compression), the 200es is frozen up solid and has a busted right fender and frozen frontend.
So use the 200m frontend, the 200es engine gets a topend, use the chrome racks from the 200m and have what would appear to be a 200m chromed with shaft hi/lo and reverse and 9 inch wheels all round. We will call it a "200mes"

MrC:crazy:

[Jim mac]

I wished I would have kept the number of trikes ive bought and sold. jim

[patriot1]

Jim, you don't need 46 trikes.

[BarnBoy]

Who really "needs" 46 trikes lol...when would you ride em all? Haha

[MrConcdid]

I have just spent an hour online searching ebay, google, flicker, pintrest and yahoo images. I have only been able to find 1 picture of a ATC with a chrome rear rack and NO chrome 200m front racks or headlight cages.
I am pretty sure they are Hondaline dealer accessories bought back 84 since both of these bikes are 1984 models.
I am trying to establish rarity and therefore value. You all know I save as many as I can and I will save this 84 (I like reverse/high/low and I personally don't have one). I will sell the chrome racks to fund the build
if they are as rare as I think they are.

MrC.

Do any of you have factory chrome racks?

I'm going to pretend I didn't see that- "Who really "needs" 46 trikes lol...when would you ride em all? Haha"- barnboy

[dirtwheels]

Most of the racks were black but chrome front and rear racks did exist for some models like the 85 200s (part# 08153-VM401/rear 08104-VM450/front). A front rack was also made for the 85 125m in chrome (08104-96850).

I believe the 200m rear rack part number is 08153-VM301. I'm not sure if that is the part number is for chrome or black. If I find more info I'll let you know. The book I'm looking at only goes back to 85 but I think I've got an older one somewhere.

Headlight guards were made in chrome for various ATC's but mostly the 200x 350x 125m and 200s.

[dirtwheels]

If you look at this old link, someone was selling nos 200M racks on ebay using the 08153-VM301 part number: The description said chrome, but unable to confirm without images.

https://www.ebay.com/p/26007546990

[BarnBoy]

Here's the deal Mr.C, I think i may have told you when we were talking earlier. I have factory front and rear black painted racks on my 200M. Rear racks are.fairly common and share mounting hardware with the 200E, ES etc. 200M front racks are rare in any trim, and I have never seen or even heard of a factory Hondaline headlight guard on a 200M. Add chrome to that and you've gone from the 20 or 30% of people buying the 200M with racks to use for work, to the 1% of those people who have money laying around for the extra bling. Especially in the 80's a lot of farmers weren't interested in spending money on something based on just looks. If they clean up nice, I'd list them for whatever you want really...someone will make an offer and you'll get a pretty penny out of them. Start high @ $5-600 and see what happens....nowadays who knows!!? Lol

[MrConcdid]

Well, what do you do when you cant find a 3 wheeler to buy......

You buy a 1969 honda z50a mini trail. Far from stock but loads of fun. I have the original engine. This is a Chinese 125cc engine, hand clutch and pretty quick too.

[ATC King]

Well, what do you do when you cant find a 3 wheeler to buy......

You buy a 1969 honda z50a mini trail. Far from stock but loads of fun. I have the original engine. This is a Chinese 125cc engine, hand clutch and pretty quick too.

It's ironic, if you think about in terms of the Rape of Nanking.

Chinese inside of Japanese, instead of the other way around. Lets move it to the dark side.

That mini bike may be a racial slur.

Santa Clause isn't real.

Childhood's End.

[MrConcdid]

Wow, Atcking that's deep.
Like putting a chevy small block in a Ford model A.

Like Cruise said in the color of money
" if everybody's doing it, then theres a lot of people doing it"

RIP Paul Newman.
Mrc.

[ATC King]

Like Cruise said in the color of money
" if everybody's doing it, then theres a lot of people doing it"


Do the Evolution

I get sidetracked, sometimes...

The world isn't all fairy dust and unicorn farts. I had a little bit of a conversation, during a funeral last week, with a soldier about a book he wrote and how people have to face things or they never get over them. I read the book last year. He gave it to a friend of mine, to give it to me, and last week was the first time I met him and had a chance to talk about it a little.

[MrConcdid]

I guess its time for an update, the market has taken a turn here, its slowing down, the election is over and everyone is buying Christmas presents for others and not personal toys.
I have experienced this before this time of year, no big deal. I will keep plugging along and that just gives me more inventory when it picks back up, hunting season and tax returns are always a good time to sell outdoors related items.

"Number 4" of the Enterprise 6 is next, its on the lift table and parts have arrived, it needed rear axle bearings, chain and sprockets, runs good, shame the plastics aren't better.

"Bradford" turned out very nice, its posted and looking good.

"Number 2" Resolved the timing issue runs great, lots of power but is running rich and smoking, it did not before I installed the head gasket. not sure what that is, needs to be fixed to maximize the return, check out the aftermarket dessert runner tank I found. went with 22'' all round, for that sport look.

"Number 3" - the project bike, is clean and running great, just waiting on a new home

I pick up my first mini bike, I am going to hold onto it till spring, I kind of like it, I bought it cheap and figure I should enjoy it before selling it, I does need a few things, its certainly not perfect or up to my standards, but it will be.


The chrome rack "200m" situation is developing, oven cleaner did not remove the spray paint, I picked up some aircraft stripper and will try that, if all else fails I will turn down the pressure on the sand blast cabinet and try that, I have had good luck doing a plastic headlight bezel that way. I have chosen to clean them up and sell them as a set. I have found out they are super rare. the 200m being a low number bike, someone adding a rack and cage headlight, even lower numbers and then someone choosing the chrome versions, even less. Sure the thought has crossed my mind to keep them, but I see a better business opportunity to sell them as a set.

"Number 1" 185, is now in my collection, looks and runs great, this is the one that the coil ground wire had come loose and the tank was so bad.


I hope you all have enjoyed my journey thus far, I looked forward to continuing this adventure into the future.
MrC.

[MrConcdid]

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere I go.....
This morning before dark I headed out to the Beach, Panama City Beach, Florida that is, not for the sun and sand, but for this beauty.

1985 Honda 70 ATC.
She needs some TLC, but runs and drives.
doesn't want to idle, so a carb cleaning is in order.
I have another rear fender, not as bright red but not cracked either.
Needs a seat cover to bring top dollar, may short sell it, just to move it before Christmas.
Lets see what happens.

MrC.

[MrConcdid]

Ok, Guys, I have been working hard on getting the ground work laid for a youtube channel / facebook page / instagram account ready for launch 2021
Keep in mind, I may do other things on this channel metal sculptures, basic repairs of other items. but to start mostly ATC

I need your help.

I have come up with a list of possible names for my venture, you all have seen what I do and how I do it.
I have 2 columns of names a must have and a could have, please pick 1 from each category or add you own. (family friendly of course)

Must Have
Honda
ATC
3wheeler


Could have
Repair
Revival
Rehab
Plan-B
Shop
Garage
Farm
Barn
Mill
Boneyard
Graveyard
Cemetery
Field
Recovery
Rescue
Church

Thanks a lot
MrC.

[patriot1]

"ATC Revival sponsored in part by the Church of Honda"

I know that's too much but it kinda sounds nice...

"When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more...."Oh, sorry-kind of got caught in the spirit for a minute:)

[patriot1]

"First ATC Revival Church of Honda"

or maybe just

"First Honda ATC Revival Church"

Praise be too glory, AMEN

[Shep1970]

One piece of advice, i have no interest in facbook or instagram and never will but.... This past year utube peaked my interest, and learned very quickly that:

guys/gals that do alot of "face" time talking get shut off the fastest- i'm not watching there video to see "them" its just there content im interested in not there face.

Then theres the video's that add music.... sorry but if im watching dirtbikes or excavators or whatever i'd rather hear the machinery than some awfull music they put in instead.

Oh and dont try to sell me something in the video either (those get thumbsdown fast).

Or maybe its just me......However i wish you luck with your endeavors (sp)

Or maybe i'm just an azzhole/ wife calls me that atleast once a week (sometimes more) .:D...:beer


shep

[jasong_10]

"Mr. C's ATC Recovery and Rescue"

It's simple but I like it.

[patriot1]

I agree with Shep.

[ps2fixer]

One piece of advice, i have no interest in facbook or instagram and never will but.... This past year utube peaked my interest, and learned very quickly that:

guys/gals that do alot of "face" time talking get shut off the fastest- i'm not watching there video to see "them" its just there content im interested in not there face.

Then theres the video's that add music.... sorry but if im watching dirtbikes or excavators or whatever i'd rather hear the machinery than some awfull music they put in instead.

Oh and dont try to sell me something in the video either (those get thumbsdown fast).

Or maybe its just me......However i wish you luck with your endeavors (sp)

Or maybe i'm just an azzhole/ wife calls me that atleast once a week (sometimes more) .:D...:beer


shep

I agree, I recently got on a new topic I wanted to search out and youtube seemed to have pretty good coverage. The title of the video had a very simple answer, yet the answer was found around 10 mins into the video... the video was something like 20 mins long including talking in circles just avoding the answer desired by the viewer, and a sell out sponsor ad right before it. The rest of the video appeared to be pointless. Seems to be the common theme, have super huge over reactions of stuff, or if it's informal, milk the watch time as long as possible to annoy viewers and some point in the video provide the service/info that the title claims.

I wish more videos would answer simple questions with an opening statement like, simple answer, no, and here's why, or if it's more complex state that and show why and no fluff.

Ironically, I started watching a guy that works heavy equipment and he has a pretty solid balance of engine noises and sped up video with music (old videos were silent in those sections). Most of the music is pretty generic and not over the top.

If the channel's focus is money, then do basically exactly the opposite of what shep said. Neg comments, thumbs down, etc is still interaction and youtube counts that greater than no action from my understanding. Watch time is a strong metric from my understanding, basically the # of views times average time watched. Like 10 views on a 10 min video that has an average watch time of 1 min = 10 mins vs 1 view on the same video that is the full 10 mins = also 10 mins.

I'm going off the record a bit for the name, but you fix/heal machines, so I think you could replace Mr with Dr and name it something simple and to the point like Dr C's Garage. The topic is clear enough, but also broad enough you could sneak in other projects that's not related to atv's and still be within the channel's suggested content range.


Even though I don't like people trying to twist my arm to buy stuff, I *do* like people putting products to the test and comparing them. As long as the process doesn't favor a brand or design I think affiliated links in the description is more than acceptable and a mention in the video that the links are down there. Even simple things like different options for paint for painting a frame. You could even go as far as to link all the products you used in the video, so if anyone is interested in a tool or part, they could find the same thing with little effort. I think that's a pretty solid trade off vs saying please buy this product because they pay me money to tell you to buy their stuff.



Just to give a quick run down on my own sites...

I started off with atcfixer.com, basically a play on my username I've used for ages including this forum user (atcfixer is used so I can't switch names). The site mainly was a store front for my products, and I started getting into TRX products so it made no sense for the site name... TRX != ATC. At the same time I also had atvinterchange.com for part interchange info. I planned to put some guides and such on there but never did. I felt the "interchange" part wasn't really a good topic driver and when I found atvmanual.com was open to buy, I jumped on it. I think manual is a great word for the kind of content I plan to make (tech details, wire diagrams, guides, interchange info, etc) so manual is a good generic term. ATV in one aspect limits me to quads, 3 wheelers and maybe motorcycles, but the actual term says vehicle, so broadly it could cover boats, trucks, hover crafts, etc. Any "vehicle" that goes over terrain. Not really trying to make this a plug or anything, just showing how I've progressed with names so maybe you can skip a step or two. If you 100% want to stick with only atc's, then put that in the channel name, but I think garage or similar would be a better term. Having the channel name easy to say and easy to remember is a very strong plus for people wanting to find your channel again.

Heck my suggestion could be simplified to "C's Garage" or "Concdid's Garage"

[MrConcdid]

Hey Guys Happy New Year.

I have been working hard on getting my first video ready to launch on Youtube. It a lot of work, keeping up with battery life, camera card size, editing different camera angles, syncing audio and video, wow its alot. It really slows me down when I am out in the shop

Update.
I sold "Bradford" 200e 2 weeks ago, nice little bit of Christmas money, I have been reluctant to sell anymore, I have 3 ready, but think I want to keep them for video content, and comparing different models. I also finished the 200s, it turned out very nice.
Spoiler alert- My first video was suppose to be about a big motorcycle shop buy out, ( I traveled 2 hours with 2 trucks and 2 trailers with 4 helpers, all I got was lunch) but that fell apart, it was my first bust or wasted trip, I got nothing.
So then I figured I would launch the channel with something different, I have pulled in the Thanksgiving 200m with the chrome racks front and rear, I hope its enjoyable, it will certainly be something new.

I have many of the same dis-likes as most of you when watching videos- too much talking, not enough work or at least not showing the work being done. I don't spend anytime in front of the camera, so its all shot POV or at distance, that said I probably over explain things, but I figure they may be people in the audience that might not know the differences between 200, 200s, 200e, 200es, 200m I have all these at this time, I figure when would someone actually be able to see the differences side by side.

As for the format Youtube encourages you to make 10 min videos now, this allows for 3 commercial's, this maximizes the revenue for them and the creator of the content. Youtube takes 45% of all commercial revenue, this explains the in video plug's and sponsorships, which the content creator receives 100% of that.

I just hope to make an enjoyable video, and represent the cause well.

MrC.

[Jim mac]

I wished there was a market for trikes in tucson, especially hardtails. best ive done on any hardtail was 350 or so. that was my last 250 big red. the 185s/200s complete running goes around $300. my last 2 200x trikes last year, I think 1 went for 650 the other for 750? those both ran and had titles. jim

[BarnBoy]

Hey Guys Happy New Year.

I have been working hard on getting my first video ready to launch on Youtube. It a lot of work, keeping up with battery life, camera card size, editing different camera angles, syncing audio and video, wow its alot. It really slows me down when I am out in the shop

Update.
I sold "Bradford" 200e 2 weeks ago, nice little bit of Christmas money, I have been reluctant to sell anymore, I have 3 ready, but think I want to keep them for video content, and comparing different models. I also finished the 200s, it turned out very nice.
Spoiler alert- My first video was suppose to be about a big motorcycle shop buy out, ( I traveled 2 hours with 2 trucks and 2 trailers with 4 helpers, all I got was lunch) but that fell apart, it was my first bust or wasted trip, I got nothing.
So then I figured I would launch the channel with something different, I have pulled in the Thanksgiving 200m with the chrome racks front and rear, I hope its enjoyable, it will certainly be something new.

I have many of the same dis-likes as most of you when watching videos- too much talking, not enough work or at least not showing the work being done. I don't spend anytime in front of the camera, so its all shot POV or at distance, that said I probably over explain things, but I figure they may be people in the audience that might not know the differences between 200, 200s, 200e, 200es, 200m I have all these at this time, I figure when would someone actually be able to see the differences side by side.

As for the format Youtube encourages you to make 10 min videos now, this allows for 3 commercial's, this maximizes the revenue for them and the creator of the content. Youtube takes 45% of all commercial revenue, this explains the in video plug's and sponsorships, which the content creator receives 100% of that.

I just hope to make an enjoyable video, and represent the cause well.

MrC.

I say record and edit a bunch of videos, than jump in with your little collection of videos. Release one at a time, maybe 1 or 2 a week. If you have some content ready to go, it makes it easier to film the rest as you go and not be rushing for content. I agree with what Midneightrider said, dont worry about revenue or any of that crap. See if you can make a decent video and get some viewers first. Nothing annoys me more than sitting through ads, though yes I know, that's how yall are able to keep making vids, I get it.

Also, I think you ought to try and document mechanical repairs. I watch videos all the time trying to figure out where this little part goes, etc. It'll bring a different audience also.

Theres nothing wrong with talking in front of the camera, but its gotta be a balance...too much is annoying, too little may not be great either.

And music...don't have music drowning out engine noises and other things, but if theres a long silence, time lapse, short intro etc with a tasteful tune or 2, I think it adds to the flow.

I also like what PS2 said, keep it simple. Mr. C's garage, or Halls House of Hondas lol. Theres a guy I sub to in Oz, handle is "Mr. LandCruiser", because guess what...he fixes land cruisers...craploads of em. You are almost like him, just with ATC's. You could be Mr. Hardtail, or Mr. Three Wheeler, or any number of things. Simple but unique is the key....and easy to spell lol.

[ps2fixer]

Channel name does matter a little, but as said, content is king. I don't really do the sub thing, I know the channels I want to watch and I just search their name. So for the odd viewers like me, an easy to remember name is a must or I won't remember it and at best I'll have to look the channel up based on a unique video name. Like one channel I watch, the guy's name is Andrew C????, I can never remember his name, but he has the shipping container castle, so that's the unique thing I can search to find his channel (I'm pretty terrible with IRL names lol).

Personally, I don't care much about having several angels to make a video "exciting". It's not a move or entertainment video, it's just tech info. The people watching are trying to learn not be entertained (small jokes and such are fine though, you can have a personality yet lol). I might have read that wrong, like if you're meaning close ups to show things and such.

I legit watched like 4hr of videos of a guy tearing down different transmissions just to see how they failed and what was commonly bad with them. It was 2 people, one guy doing the work (can't really help but have him in front of the cam for that kind of work), and the other was just using a cellphone and once in a while he got up close to show how something worked, or the differences. The guy has a trans shop, so he had the other parts for the different variations, so he could show them side by side in the video. While he was working and doing something that most people would time lapse, he would talk about some past experiences, or something similar still relating to the transmissions, but not that exact one. My dad has a truck that's been sitting forever with a shifting problem, maybe bad transmission, torque converter, or electrical issue. Pretty sure I've narrowed it down to needing a torque converter. Now I wonder why it failed with an aftermarket torque converter and the truck has about 100k miles from 1996.

The comments on the videos are a great tool to see what you're doing wrong, or what people don't really like. Don't read every comment as you need to do x y and z, but if you read 50 comments, and 20 of them are saying the music is annoying, drop the music and try another route in a future video.

Not sure what style of videos you plan to go with, but if you make anything like "How to change the brakes on an atc200es" type of video, I think we could partner up and help both of us out and make both of our contents better. I was planning to make videos like that, but been too busy to really start and I loose a lot of motivation in the cold for doing work outside lol. Anyway, basically I could embed your videos on my site to get more views and such and you could throw my site link in the description as a resource for info. Maybe a mention in the videos once in a while would be nice, but like everyone says, ads, sponsors, etc get annoying fast. There's nearly an unlimited amount of content to post on my site, so making videos is a bit low on my to do list vs getting some other data posted up.

If you plan to go with the google ads, listen to google, if you're not worried about milking the videos to get max money, ignore them. If a video performs the "best" at 10 mins to get 3 ads in, maybe slightly shorter will make the better user experience and only have 2 ads (start and end I'd guess?).

Anyway, I'm pretty interested to see your first video. I think it will turn out just fine. I think there's a way for your to upload a youtube video, but not make it public, could get some feedback from people in this thread first if you wanted a small test audience. I suspect right away the first video won't get much for views, but the same is true for new websites etc, getting to be known and having people share the site/channel takes a bit of time to build up.

One thing you could do to get ideas for what videos could perform well is to search for the topic of the video to see if anything else exists. If nothing, you'd be the first video covering the subject (good to be first sometimes). If there are videos, you can see how old they are (maybe average them out), then add up all of the views to get an idea how much of the "pie" you can get on average. If your content is better and more well known than theirs, you should receive a larger chunk of the pie over time. It also shows how common or uncommon the topic is. If you're going at things a bit like me, how common something is isn't really the priority, but at first it's a good thing to focus on to get established.

I'd say still have an intro for the video, something simple like welcome back to *channel name*, today we are doing x y and z. Maybe mention time stamps in the bottom and index the videos for watchers looking for an exact thing. I know the videos take a long time to build, so the little extra effort for things like that people really like and I'd think you'd get more loyal watchers that way too. You could always rely on the community to do it too and fav the comment so it stays at the top (could make the comment and fav yourself too).

Here's the transmission video's I've been watching. It's long but I just noticed he has a ton of views, so he must be doing something right. The cam angles aren't always great, that's more on the cam runner though lol.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqiKhKZjNgs

[BarnBoy]

Channel name does matter a little, but as said, content is king. I don't really do the sub thing, I know the channels I want to watch and I just search their name. So for the odd viewers like me, an easy to remember name is a must or I won't remember it and at best I'll have to look the channel up based on a unique video name. Like one channel I watch, the guy's name is Andrew C????, I can never remember his name, but he has the shipping container castle, so that's the unique thing I can search to find his channel (I'm pretty terrible with IRL names lol).

Personally, I don't care much about having several angels to make a video "exciting". It's not a move or entertainment video, it's just tech info. The people watching are trying to learn not be entertained (small jokes and such are fine though, you can have a personality yet lol). I might have read that wrong, like if you're meaning close ups to show things and such.

I legit watched like 4hr of videos of a guy tearing down different transmissions just to see how they failed and what was commonly bad with them. It was 2 people, one guy doing the work (can't really help but have him in front of the cam for that kind of work), and the other was just using a cellphone and once in a while he got up close to show how something worked, or the differences. The guy has a trans shop, so he had the other parts for the different variations, so he could show them side by side in the video. While he was working and doing something that most people would time lapse, he would talk about some past experiences, or something similar still relating to the transmissions, but not that exact one. My dad has a truck that's been sitting forever with a shifting problem, maybe bad transmission, torque converter, or electrical issue. Pretty sure I've narrowed it down to needing a torque converter. Now I wonder why it failed with an aftermarket torque converter and the truck has about 100k miles from 1996.

The comments on the videos are a great tool to see what you're doing wrong, or what people don't really like. Don't read every comment as you need to do x y and z, but if you read 50 comments, and 20 of them are saying the music is annoying, drop the music and try another route in a future video.

Not sure what style of videos you plan to go with, but if you make anything like "How to change the brakes on an atc200es" type of video, I think we could partner up and help both of us out and make both of our contents better. I was planning to make videos like that, but been too busy to really start and I loose a lot of motivation in the cold for doing work outside lol. Anyway, basically I could embed your videos on my site to get more views and such and you could throw my site link in the description as a resource for info. Maybe a mention in the videos once in a while would be nice, but like everyone says, ads, sponsors, etc get annoying fast. There's nearly an unlimited amount of content to post on my site, so making videos is a bit low on my to do list vs getting some other data posted up.

If you plan to go with the google ads, listen to google, if you're not worried about milking the videos to get max money, ignore them. If a video performs the "best" at 10 mins to get 3 ads in, maybe slightly shorter will make the better user experience and only have 2 ads (start and end I'd guess?).

Anyway, I'm pretty interested to see your first video. I think it will turn out just fine. I think there's a way for your to upload a youtube video, but not make it public, could get some feedback from people in this thread first if you wanted a small test audience. I suspect right away the first video won't get much for views, but the same is true for new websites etc, getting to be known and having people share the site/channel takes a bit of time to build up.

One thing you could do to get ideas for what videos could perform well is to search for the topic of the video to see if anything else exists. If nothing, you'd be the first video covering the subject (good to be first sometimes). If there are videos, you can see how old they are (maybe average them out), then add up all of the views to get an idea how much of the "pie" you can get on average. If your content is better and more well known than theirs, you should receive a larger chunk of the pie over time. It also shows how common or uncommon the topic is. If you're going at things a bit like me, how common something is isn't really the priority, but at first it's a good thing to focus on to get established.

I'd say still have an intro for the video, something simple like welcome back to *channel name*, today we are doing x y and z. Maybe mention time stamps in the bottom and index the videos for watchers looking for an exact thing. I know the videos take a long time to build, so the little extra effort for things like that people really like and I'd think you'd get more loyal watchers that way too. You could always rely on the community to do it too and fav the comment so it stays at the top (could make the comment and fav yourself too).

Here's the transmission video's I've been watching. It's long but I just noticed he has a ton of views, so he must be doing something right. The cam angles aren't always great, that's more on the cam runner though lol.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqiKhKZjNgs

You make some great points PS2, and to Mr. C...if you had PS2 as a sponsor of sorts on the channel that would be awesome. You'd be able to provide direct access to a niche that others might not be able to find easily on their own.

Also, PS2 I believe you are referring to Andrew Carmata (I think thats how its spelled.) I usually sub to channels i like, because it helps them out and also easier for me to find later.

[ps2fixer]

Yea that's the name, I know it when I see it, but can't remember the spelling either xD. Don't think anyone else has a Shipping container castle lol. Generally the suggested videos on youtube works alright with out subbing to anyone, but lately my watch history seems to have been cleared so there's a bunch of stuff I don't care about being suggested now. Video's I've already seen normally have a red bar under them, but that's gone for all vid's I've watched and I think new vids aren't being marked either. Probably some dumb change on youtube that screwed stuff up.

My site isn't anything special yet, but it is hitting around 5k unique viewers/month, that should be enough to kick start a new youtube channel pretty well I'd think. I would expect a different audience would be reached via videos, so the cross promotion I think would work well. Just to throw some numbers out, for ads I've been paid $30-50/month for the last few months and it costs me $20/mo for hosting and around $20/year for the domain name. Just barely on the profit side, but better than being at a loss. That's kind of what's expected with ad based income though, it's pretty low unless you have massive traffic (millions of views), then it adds up pretty well. For myself, I'm thinking about some sort of direct data access for businesses like mechanic shops or dealers. If I got enough subs, it would just about be pointless to even have ads on the main site lol. For the youtube channel, the parts you use to repair things could be sponsored (the company that makes them gives the product + pays to have the mention), another option is to affiliate link products, tools, etc used in the video so the viewers can get the same thing. It's something like 2-5% of the sale price of the product for linking someone and having them make a purchase.

There's clearly a lot of routes to go with a website and a youtube channel, just getting something started and getting a small following is the first major step to get past. Trying to make an income from it is kind of a secondary focus, have to have something worth while to start with. Of course there's exceptions, but those are pretty rare, big time for niche things like 3 wheelers.


For the actual subs, I don't think youtube really cares about the number, same thing with views. How I understand it, it's watch time, and video age. Like if you post a video and within the first hour you have 1000 views, it's higher priority than a video that's 24hr old and has 1000 views, both with the same watch time. It clearly isn't a linear thing since old videos can become viral. The subs helps the videos in the respect that people get a notification when the video is posted (timing can be a factor). That's also why social media is generally suggested for online content posting too, people get a notification and some % of them goes to the source content boosting the numbers right after being uploaded. I think google works on a similar logic for their search engine. New pages on my site perform very poorly on their search engine, after a month or so some of the pages that performed a tiny bit better gets a fair big higher and the difference becomes exponential. There's duplicated content things and such that I'm probably hitting with google though since every year of a given model has a dedicated page for specs, and the specs are so similar google probably sees them as the same page (duplicated content). I have some design changes I want to do to fix that, but been pretty busy irl.

Anyway, 100% no pressure on the cross promotion stuff, just throwing ideas out. I'm learning as I go too, so my experience with websites might not translate well to a youtube channel. I think the #1 focus should be the audience, as in what do they want/need, and how can you provide them that thing. Monetizing the service can always be done later. I hope what I've posted can be useful and success can be found from it, would be nice to see the 3 wheeler niche expand more even though the prices are already crazy lol.

[MrConcdid]

ok guys here it is, be kind.
yes, I talk to much, yes, the music sucks.

I took me 3.5 hrs to edit it, big learning curve.




Mr.C
Channel name is Mr.C's Garage

[patriot1]

Awesome job! Good for you!!

[Jim mac]

just watched it and subscribed. looks like you have a nice set up in your garage. jim

[ps2fixer]

Youtube says video was removed by uploader. I did find your channel in a search, says 1 vid but nothing displayed within the channel. Guessing you're doing something with the vid.

[BarnBoy]

Youtube says video was removed by uploader. I did find your channel in a search, says 1 vid but nothing displayed within the channel. Guessing you're doing something with the vid.

Yep, same for me. He must be doing some more tweeking on it. Look forward to seeing it.

[BarnBoy]

Also, I think we need you to do an ATC Mythbusters Mr. C. Can Johnson REALLY move that train car with an 83 200E?!??

https://youtu.be/_oJmw3R_KE8

[MrConcdid]

Ok, here we go, sorry, I couldn't leave it like that.

https://youtu.be/Z_ZRJAd8FD4

Enjoy.
MrC.

[ps2fixer]

Not a bad first video at all. Couple small things I notice (constructive criticism, not to discourage), I watch videos on my PC with a mid to maybe lower high tier sound system so volume changes really hit systems like mine quite a lot. The talking vs music level isn't as bad as the average video, but the music is something like 5-10% louder than the talking (most people are like 50% off lol). Also not sure what happened with the last clip in the video, but it pixelated quite a bit for some reason, guessing that's from the editing software though, or something weird with youtube's compression system.

The talking time doesn't seem bad, it's an introduction video so that kind of takes a bit of talking to explain. From what I've watched and what some youtubers say, over time the videos will get better, like the pacing and such.

For that 350x, I'd say that's the best running one I've heard so far, very good throttle response. Is that a stock carb or the 400x/450r one (can never remember which model is the upgrade). I've wanted a supertrapp exhaust on mine for a while, can be quite while still sounding great and pretty free flowing over stock. Actually, I have a guy I've been talking with about carb issues, I'm going to send the video to him as an example of what his machine should sound like xD.

I don't know much about the thumbnails, but I suspect pc vs mobile, or something sometimes cuts off some sections of the thumbnail. Here's a screen shot of what I see, the wording on top got cut off, but I see that fairly often. I know thumbnails can be a complex topic, it's like a special art to grab the viewer's attention and such.

https://i.gyazo.com/dc3fcd69beb96f14d3b0745142556a96.jpg

One thing I forgot about was likes and comments, user interaction (good or bad) shows viewer engagement to youtube (aka ads worth more money, atleast in theory). From my understanding, watch time > comments > likes/dislikes.

Talking about comments, I see the comments are disabled on the video. Is that by choice, or some sort of youtube limit thing?

Anyway, now I'm wanting to follow along to see the build process of the 200m lol. That's one of the few models I've never seen in person, if I'm thinking right, the 86-87 200x, 85-86 250r, and 86-87 125m are the other ones.

[MrConcdid]

Wow thanks everyone for your encouragement.
There are a lot of mistakes to learn from . I had a title page but couldnt get it in the video. The last clip was shot earlier this year with a phone, not high quality.
I will be talking less for sure, I shot this video over 2 days, took more than 4 hours to edit in total. 25 minutes to render and another 10 to upload. My laptop struggled to entire time, an upgrade is needed.

Ps2fixer- thanks for all the input. I had to download and learn the software in one afternoon, I dont know how to change the music vs talking volumes, I got lucky I guess, it was raining and being in a metal building i had to talk loud. I shot 10 openings and closings, to get something i was proud of.
The 350x sounds dose good dosent it., that's why i opened with it, as an attention getter. I'm going back into that carb, it runs great but is hard to start, that why the fender was off of it.
That thumbnail took 4 attempts it's just a picture a friend made of my collection, i had to size it below 2megs to work, i think for mobile the aspect ratio is off.
I turned the comments off, i have not read anything about monetization doing linked to comments, just hours viewed, lengthy it took to earn those views and number of subscribers.i am not sure I am ready to be scrutinized by the world yet. That's why I turned comments off, my family will see this in time,

This 200m needs a topend. Nothing crazy it runs now, barely.
I personally would rather do the topend on an 84 200es I have and swap the racks and front end over. I dont think the bike is rare, but no one on either major facebook 3 wheeler page can come up with another example of these chrome front racks for a 200m, that's almost 60k 3 wheeler enthusiast. I cant find any image or reference online anywhere. These must be far more rare than a speedometer or other hondaline accessory 's. I need this front end to make the perfect big red, high low and reverse is far better than the straight gearing of a 200m.

Thank you all for the encouragement and advice this year, I will continue to plug this site, to do my part to help it grow.

Mr.C's Garage

[Jim mac]

is it possible someone bad the racks chromed back in the day? we have a guy here that owns a huge cotton farm $$$ bought a new watercooled 250r back in the day rode it for a short time. Took it apart, chromed the entire thing, had a big bore kit installed and rode it like that for years. when I met him, he still had it. I never did get to go look at it. jim

[MrConcdid]

Yes, Jim mac that is a possibility, that said these racks where offered in the 1984 hondaline catalog, you can find the catalog here on this site. this was a option through hondaline.

I am betting the dealer, loaded this bike up as a display piece, and he optioned it out to show off the new line of products, then when the 1985's came out he sold this, may be for a loss, or because 4 wheelers
became more popular.
both racks and headlight cage where available in chrome. Also this front rack is stamped ATC200m, I am not sure if the black rack for the 200m was stamped or not.

[patriot1]

I don't think it was chromed with the Honda line sticker on the chrome.

2nd video was much better.

My 2 cents: Explain your process. Break it down like Clymer and Algebra I; ie-What steps did you use for removing the spray paint? What products? What was the process? Again-I understand this was an intro vid and the hook was the chrome racks-so I get it.

Good job!!

[ps2fixer]

Yea I was going to mention about the paint remover process and product but figured not to hit you with too much all at once xD.

Oh, since you started the youtube channel, I'd say throw the link in your sig. You can make text a link instead of a raw url link with some fancy bbcode if I remembered the name of the forum style code name. Here's an example, for you to see the code you have to hit reply with quote. Normally I can show the raw code for it, but the [code] tag seems to be disabled.

*****
Mr.C's Garage Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmwa-qeeRLzIn-Pd6F-waog)
*****

Almost 100 views and 14 subs in 14hr, sounds really good for a new channel. I think a good first goal is 100 subs.

I haven't really done much of anything for video/audio editing, but generally there's some sort of "fader" to adjust the audio of a given clip. In the old audio software I used before, I had to select the clip to adjust the volume. I wouldn't think it would be buried too far into the settings since it's a common thing to adjust. If you find it, then you have two routes to go, make talking louder to match the music, or quite the music to match the talking. If you want something more dramatic, a little louder can set a mood but don't think you're making movies xD. Not sure if the music you picked has any kind of copyright to it, but if it does, make sure to use royalty free music so no copyright strikes and such. You can use copyrighted material but it's a fight with youtube to fall under their understanding of fair use vs the courts understanding. I think it was up to 30 or 60 secs uncut is normally allowed in most court cases.

I know audio somewhat ok. If you have the green lights to show audio level with numbers along the bar, your target average volume should somewhere around -10 to -20db. If the sound indicator has the 3 colors (green, amber, red), you should be around the top green light for the average content, amber for loud content, and peaks are ok up into the red. You can always pull the volume down a little to be on the safe side for clipping. I did a quick read and it sounds like youtube's standard is -14 using their own algro to set the overall video sound level (talking and music adjusted together), so I guess the main focus is little to no clipping (hitting 0db or higher on digital systems, aka your computer). A loud hand clap, engine back fire, etc isn't a big deal if it clips, just don't want music/talking clipping (distorting).

Probably going a bit deep down the rabbit hole of audio, to rephrase it, equalize sound levels (unless you want something louder) and make sure they don't max out the volume, I think youtube does the rest.

Anyway, as said before, your first video is fine, and we can't expect the 2nd video to be a masterpiece either, so don't sweat the advice too much, it's just things to work on one at a time. As people have said before, content is king, the audio levels and such are just technical noise compared to the actual video. There's a LOT of youtubers with millions of subs, and still don't have a sound "engineer" to keep audio levels in check, or even a studio sound area to set the sound levels. Generally the content on youtube is effectively mass produced, so the focus isn't on audio quality, levels, etc. The focus is on getting more content out.

Ironically, I didn't really notice the video quality till the end using 1440p monitors and the video being 360p, so it seems like the camera could record higher quality since it looks fairly good at the lower numbers. If you can, try to get 480p or 720p to please most viewers, 360p is like the bare min and any text, markings etc can be hard to read. I'm thinking it might have just been the video editing software adjusting the quality to meet that last clip so maybe it's not the source video quality.


I'm not sure how far you plan to go with this stuff, but the raw unedited video clips are generally good to hang onto so if you reference the content in another video, you can pull the clip and show it. Generally the target is max quality you can afford to store. Video is massive and eats up a lot of data. This external drive would get you by for a pretty long time. Not sure how much you'd be willing to spend on this adventure but about $100 gets you 4TB, and $150 gets you 8TB, beyond that the prices jump up pretty fast. One thing to note, external usb drives generally are low quality drives that are hit with a lot of heat. When not in use, be sure to unplug it from the computer so it's not "active". They are rated for like 2-4hr of use per day and to last the warranty time range at that usage level. Standard Desktop grade drives are like 6-8hr with a longer warranty (2-3 year is pretty common). The server grade stuff is generally rated for 24/7 usage and 5-10 year warranty, but you really pay for this stuff too, it really lasts a lot longer though. Personally I'll never use a desktop grade drive in my computers ever again, I've had too many failures. I use a computer every day for most of the day though, power user I guess you can say.

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Desktop-External-Hard-Drive/dp/B07CQJBSQL/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=8tb%2Bhard%2Bdrive&qid=1609613529&sr=8-4&th=1

You really don't need the drive right away, just storing the files on your laptop would work too. Down the road the next upgrade would be a NAS, that opens up a nice technical can of worms though. Even the big dogs use NAS's but they have a LOT of money tied up into them too. For the sake of being complete, a NAS stands for Network Area Storage, basically you talk to it over your network kind of like how your computer talks to the modem to get to the internet. All a NAS is, or any server, is just a computer purpose built to meet a need, in this case storage. There's some fancy stuff to protect the data and such as an option, but I don't think that's your focus right now xD.

I'm probably mentioning things that's way too far down the road for you, but it's good to know what the next steps are so you can plan and have an idea of the costs and such. If you have any questions, let me know, I was a computer tech after all. The NAS route could be good for personal use too.

Another thing you can keep in mind is taxes, like buying the external usb drive could be counted as a business expense against your taxes. Like if by next year you make $200 in ad income and you buy the $100 drive, the gov expects you to pay taxes on the remaining $100 (well not really, I think they allow up to $400 of income untaxed). Clearly I'm not a tax lawyer, so be sure to check local laws and such. I can't remember how soon it's required for a business to show a profit, I'm thinking it was 3 or 5 years. For the accounting stuff, I use "Cash Accounting" for my business. Basically what you make vs what you spend, no deprecation and such, it's the simplest way to report the earnings. If you have a room in your house dedicated to the youtube content, you can tie a % of your electric bill, internet, etc as a business expense, but it has to be a dedicated area not used for personal use. Like for me, I have a spare room dedicated to storage for my business. Basically the name of the game with a business is to try to reduce taxes as much as possible to make it affordable for the business to operate and not be taxed to death. The taxes your employer normally pays is on you plus what you normally pay, the IRS expects quartly payments, but you can push it all to the end of the year taxes and pay a late fee so there's less paper work to worry about. I think it was like 3%, for a small amount of income, it's not too bad to deal with. Anyway, it's another thing to think about down the road, first you have to get an income to even worry about it. Just remember anything you buy for the youtube channel can be deducted off what it makes. Same goes for business related trips, meetings, etc. Your lunch can be deducted from taxes if the lunch is a meeting with someone related to your business for some sort of business reason (discus something about the videos). Same goes for your vehicle, there's a standard rate per year for using your personal vehicle for business tasks. Like for me it's driving to the post office to ship out packages, the standard rate already has repairs, fuel, etc tied into the expense so you can't double dip. You can also do exact accounting on it, but then you have to add up the fuel you use, personal vs business % use, etc. It's a whole lot easier to just track the miles per trip (google maps it for the figures, round to the nearest whole mile).

Hopefully I'm not causing confusion, it's good stuff to know, but I've been self employed for 7 years now, so it's kind of like second nature to me lol. Being self employed (side business or your main source of income) is 100% a learning curve. It's not real bad to learn but there's a lot of little things that add up to bigger savings. I'm sure I'm missing a ton of deductions on my business. Worst case, you can add up all income you get and pay taxes on it all. If you're not making much, it's probably the easiest route to go. No point in spending an hour to account for things if it only saves you $2 in taxes. Again, if you have any questions with the tax stuff, let me know. I'm not the best at it, but I can try to help the best I can. I use some software to make things a bit easier, and have a dedicated standard bank account to separate business spending from personal spending to make the accounting a lot easier.

Anyway, good luck and looking forward to the 2nd video.

[MrConcdid]

New video, just launched.
different, better, always improving.

https://youtu.be/3PCZ_t44_6E

[ps2fixer]

Looking pretty good, crazy how much a little elbow grease makes things look better.

Just an idea, you could use play lists to group the machines you work on together so down the road people can follow the buy, build, sell process per machine. Kind of early to mention it, but figured it wouldn't hurt thinking ahead =).

Anyway, keep the vids coming. I'm no expert on youtube, but based on what people on there have said, youtube favors a consistent schedule. Not sure how much time you can dedicate to vids and such, but if you released say 1-2 vids a week, you could get a small back log of videos ready to upload. I'm guessing your a bit more like me though, no planning, just do.

[patriot1]

Awesome job!

[jasong_10]

Great work MrC, nice to be able to put a face to a username, lol. Subscribed as well.

[MrConcdid]

Thanks guys, I have been watching some tutorial videos on how to use the software I already have, the next video will be better for sure.
I am still waiting on a few parts to finish the atc70, I am on the fence about the chrome rack 200m, I have some top end parts coming for the 84 200es I want to build (my favorite model big red). I was going to use the 200m front end on it and transfer the chrome racks too it, that makes it a keeper for the collection for sure or I could just build the 200m as is with the same top end kit. I have had 2 200m's and I like them they really are geared well for all round use, but the reverse is hard to pass up. Hard life sometimes, school starts back next week, I want to do another video before then and try to keep some momentum. This is my last semester, then I am finished FOREVER! Lord willing.

Some Bad news though, I am going to have to change my channel name, seems there is already a MrC's Garage, I didn't even think to look, my mistake, I think its to confusing, actually there are 6 others just with different spellings.

I grabbed bike number 1 for 2021 I found another first gen 200x. not sure what I want to do with this one, probably another autox. This year I will number them instead of naming them. I had my uncle pick it up for me, I haven't laid eyes on it yet, but it looks promising. it has an engine with it, but I haven't seen it.

Thank you all again for the support and suggestions.

Ps2Fixer- I plan to take this as far as I can, my goal is to have a channel that produces an income, maybe not a living wage parse, but something worth doing, my goal is to replace some of the selling of the ATC, if I can make enough to build them and keep them, than that's the goal, no more selling to fund the next. Sure I cant keep them all, I would not want to, but having a 4th income stream would be so nice. and its passive once its monetized, I keep thinking If I had made 1 video of each bike I bought/built last year that would be 46+ videos, that's a good start to a profitable channel, of course, I need to personally step up my game, and make sure the content is enjoyable. Since the beginning my plan is to give a 3 wheeler away (winner pays shipping) continental us only and must have subscribed to the channel, I think that will happen when I get closer to monetization 100 subs and 4,000 watch hours, I will start hyping the contest when I get closer to those numbers.
It will cost me upfront but could catapult the channel somewhere bigger than just a talk and repair channel. I plan to hold on to the little atc70 a while anyways, maybe put new plastic fenders on and shoot 3 or 4 videos completing it and then give it away. That could be the concept, buy, build, give away. No one is doing that, and I am crazy enough to try it, of course the income from the videos would have to support that level of expense. I will do it once and see what happens.

Next video I promise a z50 doing a Smokey burn out! I think I need to have more fun with the videos.

[ps2fixer]

Yea have fun with the videos, personality and such would set you apart from other channels. It seems the channel is more about your experiences, and less informal like how to do x on this machine.

For the giveaway stuff, I'm not sure if that would benefit things much. I've been part of sites before that did give always, and it attracts the wrong kind of person that generally doesn't stick around in a community. Doesn't hurt to try, still could be a fun thing. I'd guess you'd need 1000 or so subs before giving away a machine though. Maybe that could be your thing, a give away for each mile stone you set.

If you're keeping more machines, you might have to work out some sort of storage system to have more on hand lol. Maybe a second garage or something. It would be neat if you owned every model of 3 wheeler, maybe even every year. Showing differences side by side could be interesting if the detail is OEM correct for the given machines. Like the voltage regulator for 85 vs 86 atc250r, almost the same but one connector different.

Either case, you're in control of the channel, I'll just follow along to see how things go =). Maybe I'll have to give making some videos a shot some time, mine would be more boring though, informal how to type of stuff. Been way too busy lately to even think about that right now, but someday I hope to jump on the youtube train.

[patriot1]

New video doesnt show up

[MrConcdid]

I thinking I am getting the hang of it, my laptop is an real issue. crashed twice today while rendering this weeks video.
I will be ordering something with a little more power this week.
I drug home a 185s and a 200x, overall it was a good week.
This video is a "how to" revive an old 3 wheeler, so I took the opportunity with this mostly in tack 185s, I didn't know anything about it, other than the seller said it ran. but with no pull rope, wadda-gonna-do, so enjoy.
And for those of you that make it to the end of the video, there is some bonus footage. I bet you will like it.
MrC.

https://youtu.be/IiihbGQXUsw

[ps2fixer]

On the laptop crashing, the critical thing for video rendering besides the software is ram (the memory it works with the video in). If the laptop doesn't have much ram, that would be a potential source of the crashing. Upgrading ram is cheaper than upgrading the whole computer. If you're sticking with laptops, look for a "gaming" one and make sure it has 16-64gb of ram. Computer tech in me says to buy a desktop for rendering, that's where the real power houses come from, no high performance laptop can out perform a high performance desktop. Building a computer I'm sure is out side of your comfort zone, would make an interesting video though lol. The good news is, nearly all of the parts plug into eachother only one way, so for the most part you can't really mess anything up, the operating system install and getting the first boot working is the biggest challenge. I could help with the hardware picks since that's fairly critical to get right, but it's like 3 wheelers, just have to match up the right model series and you're pretty good to go. Either case, a newer series cpu generaly means faster processing which will help things too. With computers, generally you get exactly what you pay for, a $300 computer is a pile of crap vs a $600 one, same story for $600 vs $1000 vs $2000, etc. The upper limits are in the millions (really unlimited if you wanted to break a new super computer record) so there's clearly a point of no return xD. Generally $600 to around $1200 is a pretty good budget range for good processing speed and specs with out paying extra for processing power you don't need yet. The $300/cheap computers are generally really low quality parts and my 12 year old $1000 computer has better performance than them.

FYI, big ram is pretty big money but it allows the computer to do a lot more too, or handle memory heavy tasks like working with video. My daily pc is 64gb, pretty overkill for most things I do, but it's nice never coming close to maxing it out. Gaming is another story, there's a sweet spot for big (slow 32gb+) vs small (fast 8-16gb).

Anyway, better cut myself off from the geek computer talk xD.

[patriot1]

Awesome job on the video! Very good!

[wild200x]

watched vid and wrote a long reply. I guess this board automatically logged me out. had to refresh page an log in again leaving my message missing. That sucked. In a nutshell, thanks for the refresher course! Been a long time.

[ps2fixer]

watched vid and wrote a long reply. I guess this board automatically logged me out. had to refresh page an log in again leaving my message missing. That sucked. In a nutshell, thanks for the refresher course! Been a long time.

If I'm thinking right, near the login boxes there should be a check box that says something like "keep me logged in" make sure that's checked or you get auto logged out after like 15 mins. That's a thing with this forum software that's a little annoying, more secure (less open logged in sessions) but annoying for average users.

[wild200x]

If I'm thinking right, near the login boxes there should be a check box that says something like "keep me logged in" make sure that's checked or you get auto logged out after like 15 mins. That's a thing with this forum software that's a little annoying, more secure (less open logged in sessions) but annoying for average users.Thank you sir.

[MrConcdid]

Thanks everyone for watching, School starts tomorrow for me, so things around here may slow down a bit, I am hoping to produce 1 video a week.
Next up is the little 70, I have a few parts for it. New chain and a carb, more cleaning on that one.
The wife says this last video is to long, and I agree, I guess a start to finish in one video is going to be to long, I could have broken it up into a series of 2 or 3 videos, I like to see results, so that's why it so long. That's 4 hours footage cut down into about 19 min.

Anyone know where those gold wheels came from? there anodized not painted, I am thinking suzuki may be? there inset pretty bad, on the test drive I went to slide it into a corner and it didn't slide just kept straight, almost hit a small tree. I am use to the wider lower stance bikes. It runs good, I will give you all a new compression reading soon.
I guessing it came up pretty good, it didn't smoke like I thought it was going to.

Not sure what to do with the 200x yet, a lot of options with that bike.

Thanks again for the support.
MrC.

[BarnBoy]

Thanks everyone for watching, School starts tomorrow for me, so things around here may slow down a bit, I am hoping to produce 1 video a week.
Next up is the little 70, I have a few parts for it. New chain and a carb, more cleaning on that one.
The wife says this last video is to long, and I agree, I guess a start to finish in one video is going to be to long, I could have broken it up into a series of 2 or 3 videos, I like to see results, so that's why it so long. That's 4 hours footage cut down into about 19 min.

Anyone know where those gold wheels came from? there anodized not painted, I am thinking suzuki may be? there inset pretty bad, on the test drive I went to slide it into a corner and it didn't slide just kept straight, almost hit a small tree. I am use to the wider lower stance bikes. It runs good, I will give you all a new compression reading soon.
I guessing it came up pretty good, it didn't smoke like I thought it was going to.

Not sure what to do with the 200x yet, a lot of options with that bike.

Thanks again for the support.
MrC.

20 mins is a bit long, but you had a ton of great info in there. There is things you could have cut out, but for someone brand new to this stuff, your video would be extremely helpful. A series is a great idea.

I say put those gold wheels and holeshots or H-traks or whatever they are on the 200X! And then CRF230 swap it!

[MrConcdid]

I finally got a weekend off, so I brought out my other woman...her name is Josie
Enjoy

https://youtu.be/g0JEJdrLLrU

MrC.

[ATC King]

With those big Caddy engines, it isn't the speed, it's the fun. All that low RPM torque makes a car enjoyable to drive without getting stupid.

I do still have a magazine though, where they put one is a Chevette for a cheap drag car.
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fphotos1.blogger.com%2Fimg%2F292%2F 1503%2F640%2Fhotrod.jpg&f=1&nofb=1
https://bangshift.com/general-news/car-features/steve-magnantes-bad-seed-caddy-powered-chevette-lives-the-project-that-fueled-a-million-bench-races/



With the right springs/shocks, a big engine in a big car with a tight stall, is fun to see how much the front comes up when leaving a stoplight by a quick tap on the gas without breaking traction.

[jasong_10]

Have . . .

To . . .

Stay . . .

Away . . .

It's only been a year and a half since I sold my Mustang that I bought, built, and raced. Trying not to relapse . . . :)

[patriot1]

So...about six months ago I think I said "Sexy Black" was going to be ready in about 2 weeks. Wishful thinking but I am the optimist. Today she found a new family in Northeast AR. Really hated to see her go.

266456266457

I put alot of time and effort into this b and she taught me so much.


On another note: I have not heard from MrC since the ordeal at the Capital earlier this month....JK

[MrConcdid]

Looking good Patriot1.
I still learn something on everyone.
MrC.

[MrConcdid]

Funny, very funny.
You know I'd rode in there on 3.

The yammy is looking good. I'm glad its behind you. I still learn something on everyone get.
As a general rule Yamaha's dont have near the resale as Hondas. Unless it's a tri-z 250 sport bike.

I talked about a slow down in the market several months ago, I said I felt like all the hype and buying would stop. It has in my area, seems just as the new year came in the market stopped, I havent been able to sell anything this year. And only found 2 to buy. The market in the south has come to a halt. It will be a buyers market soon, prices will fall and those with cash can set the market. But only If your willing to sit on Inventory for a while, could be years, until we see another 3 wheeler frenzy.

I positioned myself to use this time to build up some units I have 4 that will hit the market in march/april hopeing to cash in on tax returns, I'm going to keep making my videos and only buy either really cheap parts bikes or really nice units at a market crash discount. As much as this has been a business venture, I really do enjoy the bikes. My collection has grown to over 10 but want to limit it to around 5. Space is limited in the shop.

Like the ground hog, I predict 6 more months of a slow 3 wheeler market. As for the actual stock market, it's been hot in 2021.
DNMR is killing it. Look it up biodegradable plastic. Let that sink in a minute.

[ps2fixer]

I remember 10+ years ago hearing about biodegradable plastic and the use case was going to be chip bags, candy bar wrappers, etc. I've seen some products use it but didn't notice it too often. The bags looked different, so it kind of caught you eye a bit, like not as shiny and such.

If the 3 wheeler market is dropping, maybe things will get back into my price range again xD, I haven't bought a 3 wheeler in like 4 years.

Every year the markets change a fair bit. Desirable things seem to move fast, but less desirable stuff seems to move slower. Like my best selling parts will continue to sell, maybe even sell more than average, but the rest of my stuff basically stops selling. I suspect it's due to the tax returns and people spending the money elsewhere.

According to google search console, December was a slower month till Christmas, then it peeked back up to normal levels. I know website traffic doesn't directly translate to market interest but this is the first time having access to this kind of data, so figured it would be interesting to see if it correlates or not. I suspect the site is still growing a bit, so a flat line would be a decline in interest too, like January has been on average pretty flat.

https://i.gyazo.com/745ac2eca5c94ab11fe3eb67f124d8d6.png


I suspect eventually you'll have some neat data with the youtube channel, not sure if google lets you filter things out well or not. Like I can filter google search console results by words in the page name, so I could filter it to ATC related only pages and such.

Stocks have been pretty interesting for me, only been in the game for around 6 months. Trying to hold 1 year + to get in the long term capital gains tax bracket (lower taxes). Here's my current holdings (but censored for qty etc). The one with no value was Briggs and Stratton, but they delisted the stock. They went bankrupt recently. I suspect maybe in a year or so if the new management team can turn the business around they might relist again. If not, I almost have all of the loses covered by the other stock gains. High risk, high reward, and the risk side hit me on that one lol. Kind of funny that quite a few of my hand picked stocks out performed the index fund (VOO at the bottom), that wasn't the case a couple months ago.

https://i.gyazo.com/86f7bec286607a0ad952a396e4fc98ea.png

Anyway, I know not really a stocks site/thread, but figured it was interesting :P. When did you buy into DNMR? If before Dec, you should be around 400%+ gains, that would be a flag for me to sell 25% to get 100% of my investment out of it and the remaining 75% could be held with effectively 0 risk. Basically hold if you believe in the company/stock, or slowly sell as the price goes up to try to maximize the profits (or guess the peak). What goes up must come down, nothing can rise forever with out atleast a dip (buying opportunity).

[MrConcdid]

You are very wise Ps2fixer, yes DNMR was a long play, we got in during the second round 10 years ago.
just like stocks and everything else that has a following there are ebbs and flows, you must always position yourself accordingly.
" You got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them" - Kenny Rogers

Interest in Atc is a constant, as there will always be a certain level of interest and collectability (higher end models and condition), we have just witnessed a very-high high, but we may be in for a very-low low time.

Looking back on my bread and butter chart the 70's, 90's, 250's, 350x and 250r's will always be sought after, they are the 2 extremes of the Honda atc portfolio, the middle of the road hardtails will become less valuable as time passes (not referring to mint condition bikes just everyday riders). $300 rear fenders for a 185s will make them unwanted and worthless, when 1 or 2 parts exceed their entire value, not many people will restore them, and when they do, no one will pay what their really worth.

Going into this venture I knew there would come a day I would need to pivot, I feel now is that time for me, the videos are my focus now, I ordered a new computer this week, if that does not net a return on my investment I am seeking, than parting out is and has always been my fall back plan, there's very little upfront cost but it is the most labor intensive and long term return play left. From my very first bike, had I not been a good enough mechanic to fix it or could not make a profit on the investment, parting it out was always the last and final business play. Its something I did not want to do, I prefer to save them, not piece them out, but then I'm crazy.

We will see, I am a realist, I am ready for whatever the market brings.
I am not as dumb as you all may think, I do realize of course as the popularity of ATC dwindles so would the interest in ATC videos.

I am working on a set of shorts. or quick videos now
I'm taking my 200m and blowing it apart and recording each phase, like a how-to or a step-by-step then rebuilding it the same way. This should provide
fast quick content of specific projects. So if you need to rewind a recoil there's a video for that, if you need to do a top end, there's a video for that.

[BarnBoy]

No one thinks you're dumb Mr. C, you've been pretty sharp to do what you've done so far. I just wish you had the channel a year ago. I dont think the demand is gonna go completely away ever, or not anytime soon. A low is good, maybe I can score a good deal on a 350X!! Haha, that's kind of self centered but it affects everyone different. Come tax return season I'd be surprised if stuff doesent pick up again.

How-to videos on trikes are absolutely needed for beginners...good ones are few and far between.

[MrConcdid]

Hey Guys, new video drops 9am EST Sunday 2/7/2021
Seems there's an algorithm that monitors the first 2 hours of a posted video, depending on how much traffic it gets sets how it is advertised to others.
So I have set this one to post in the morning. instead of tonight.

https://youtu.be/juWBno8r1G4

Enjoy, I am going to make Short direct videos per task.
I call them ATC Short Films.
This one is engine removal, the next will be a top end/piston/valve guides and may be reinstall
after that a dialing in and running the engine.
other videos like front end swaps with caged bearings
new brakes and cables ect.
Not a restoration just to make a nice usable bike.

If you have any specific repairs or task ideas, you thing would make for good content let me know

Also I made some repairs to my tractor it will post tomorrow.
Not sure how many of you all are in to tractors, but I have a small TLB, just expanding the type of content for my channel

[patriot1]

Love the red grass-scorched earth intro.

[MrConcdid]

Thanks, Honda red runs deep here in the south!

I have been busy, next video drops Monday at 2pm.

Sneak peek
https://youtu.be/SPtu3gBJZbU

Dreaded pull cord re build.

[BarnBoy]

Just watched both vids....thumbs up.

[MrConcdid]

Hey guys, this has been some crazy weather, I have had 8 inches of rain in 10 days. I know its not snow but this rain brought 37 degree temps and wind, lots of bitter cold, wet wind.

As for the videos, I haven't gotten the traction I was hoping for, not giving up, just stating the facts.
I know I am not "fun" to watch and the videos can get long winded, I guess I am putting to much information into them.
Tonight's video is long, but its a complete build up (top end) of a 200cc engine. Sure I could have sped up the footage, cut a lot out, but then no one would learn anything. I have 1 more video in this set, reinstalling the engine and the first fire up.
Should be fun. After that, I think I need some riding videos or a comparisons of models or may be a what to look for when buying video, something fun, less work related

So here is a sneak peak (SD version) HD is processing.

https://youtu.be/uro5Q8QPgZ4

It will go live tomorrow at 2pm.
I hope you like it, please subscribe if you haven't, Let me know what you think.
Thanks MrC.

[patriot1]

Video was awesome. Keep it up. You could have spiit todays up into different parts but I wouldn't. It was good. Don't worry about traction as much as content-traction will happen.

You could actually go back and split it up into different parts and release several shorter videos without changing the one from today.

I had trouble removing a timing indicator cap today and searched youtube for a video and didn't find anything so you never know what might hit.

[MrConcdid]

Thanks for watching and the feed back, Patriot1
In my 185s will it run video, I show i use a small 6 inch pry bar it fits the cap perfect, i can press down on it firmly and then using a large plyer or crescent wrench grab the pry bar and turn it to back out the cap.
I have had 1 I could not get out, pull the pull rope assembly and using a flash like find TDC, then mark the pull rope cog where TDC is and use that for a reference, do note that if you take that cog off, it can be put back on 180 out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiihbGQXUsw
@ the 10:33 mark you will see my pry bar in use

Just a thought.
MrC.

[ps2fixer]

I wouldn't stress over the views too much. The nature of youtube, atleast from the viewer side of things, seems to be youtube doesn't suggest your videos too often for smaller channels. At some random threshold, it seems something clicks and an old video suddenly becomes the new hot thing. I've seen old videos where the orig poster said they didn't know what was going on, the video had like 10k views and the video is like 9 years old and now it has 2m views. Weird stuff like that happens.

If you want to focus a bit more on the money stuff instead of just the pure joy of making the videos and such, then you'd want to research the potential video ideas you have and see where there's #1 people looking for said topic, and #2, someone else isn't fulfilling that need. The same exact thing can be said for websites in general too.

One trick I recently saw used in a video about web site building was to use google to suggest topics to you. The auto fill feature tries to guess what you're going to type.... based on what OTHER people have typed. It's a great way to get ideas and such. Generic searches also give generic results, so that's something to keep in mind, like this. Battery, spark plug, and service manual seems to be the main thing people are looking for when typing in the actual model.

https://i.gyazo.com/d26906a9dcb507598df3e48934303789.png

Here's another generic search but gives a few more ideas for videos.

https://i.gyazo.com/61328d3536be1bc91533df700c643376.png

I tried some "how to" type of searches but couldn't really find too much of interest. It's a fairly niche topic so unlikely to get massive view count purely based on the subject matter. I think those kinds of videos would perform good long term since it's something people will continue to look for long term, so in years you should be still getting some views. On the other hand, if you made more entertainment based videos, the initial upload would have a huge surge of views, and taper off as it gets older. It seems youtube favors the entertainment style channels.

Anyway, defo take my advice with a grain of salt. I've never really done anything on youtube (yet), so I'm only talking in theory and ideas, no real hands on experience.

[MrConcdid]

Running a few experiments I found words in the title are used for searches more than keywords used in the backside of the video. For an experiment 4 of my videos had 3 wheeler and 2 had atc in the titles the 2 with atc in the title had 3 wheeler in the keywords.
I ran a search for 3 wheeler and only the 4 with 3 wheeler in the title came up. I sorted by year to verify. I found 3 wheeler is far more common term than atc. So I changed my titles to 3 wheeler.
I also learned some more tricks to optimize searches like you suggested.
The bottom line is it's a niche, I need to make fun videos just as much as technical. That's a personal problem I need to work on.
Next video should be out sunday. Look for a change in my character. I have finished the top end rebuildof the 200m and will be firing it up for the first time in front of the camara. I'm looking forward to it.
Each week subscribers have increase and hours watched is going up, it may take awhile to get there but the turtle won the race right?
I have a friends son on youtube that has offered to do a collaboration, if that works out he has 15,000 subs. I only need a fraction of that to achieve my first major goal.
Also I want to do some comparisons between models less work, might be easier for people to watch.
It's a huge learning curve, considering everything
Work, home life, school, flipping 3 wheelers launching a you tube channel, I think I am doing ok.

I really do appreciate all the support, I'm working on a title page promoting this site , my way of giving back.

MrC.

[ps2fixer]

Yea collaborations are good, people that watch his videos likely never heard of your channel, and the same for your viewers to his channel. It's effectively a win/win for both of you. Of course you get the better end of the stick being the "smaller" channel.

SEO (search engine optimization) is a whole industry in today's world. The very basics are to use words commonly searched, but still tells what the video is about. Generally speaking, shorter the title, the more direct and heavy weighted the keywords are. If you make a massively long title it's normally punished by lower ranking from the "keyword spam". In the context of google results, atleast for a website, there's a limited width for the page title, if it's too long it gets cut off with the ... at the end. You want to target being short enough to not hit that limit as less people tend to click those titles.

Of my understanding, order in the title makes a big difference too. My context is websites, but you put your primary subject far left, like your target keyword phrase. For websites it's also suggested to "brand" the title too, in my case that's putting AtvManual at the end of the title which is kind of less than optimum, but eventually I should rank for atvmanual with no space on google. Correction... I just checked and if you bypass the auto correct I'm already #1 ranked. I think if enough people search it without a space the auto correct can go away, not 100% sure on that.

Next priority in the ranking order I'd say is description, you can generally find the search terms bolded in title + description on google atleast. After that, the dedicated keywords I'd assume would be next. Last thing is what you actually say in the video, youtube transcripts everything you say into text and I'm sure there's a weight to stated words in the title/description etc. Like you could title a video one thing, but talk about a different subject, but it would rank poorly, atleast in theory.

For website SEO, there's also back links, or links on other sites that link to your content. You posting your videos on here probably gives your channel a slight boost. If you can do the same thing on high quality websites, it should help as well. That's atleast how websites work, of course videos might be a little different. Forums and public communication is generally less powerful than something more like a blog that's successful and they mention your channel. Anyone can say anything on a forum, only the blog owner (or employee) can post stuff on the given blog. Comments on the blog might be detected by google to give less weight to the link.



That should give you some search terms to look up to learn about about the subject, the big one is SEO, but remember, if someone is selling you a program, courses, etc, informing you isn't their product, you are their product to buy their package. As the saying goes, when something is free, you are the product.

[brobones]

HI,
Do you sell that headlight that you have installed on this bike?

[brobones]

Hey Guys Happy New Year.

I have been working hard on getting my first video ready to launch on Youtube. It a lot of work, keeping up with battery life, camera card size, editing different camera angles, syncing audio and video, wow its alot. It really slows me down when I am out in the shop

Update.
I sold "Bradford" 200e 2 weeks ago, nice little bit of Christmas money, I have been reluctant to sell anymore, I have 3 ready, but think I want to keep them for video content, and comparing different models. I also finished the 200s, it turned out very nice.
Spoiler alert- My first video was suppose to be about a big motorcycle shop buy out, ( I traveled 2 hours with 2 trucks and 2 trailers with 4 helpers, all I got was lunch) but that fell apart, it was my first bust or wasted trip, I got nothing.
So then I figured I would launch the channel with something different, I have pulled in the Thanksgiving 200m with the chrome racks front and rear, I hope its enjoyable, it will certainly be something new.

I have many of the same dis-likes as most of you when watching videos- too much talking, not enough work or at least not showing the work being done. I don't spend anytime in front of the camera, so its all shot POV or at distance, that said I probably over explain things, but I figure they may be people in the audience that might not know the differences between 200, 200s, 200e, 200es, 200m I have all these at this time, I figure when would someone actually be able to see the differences side by side.

As for the format Youtube encourages you to make 10 min videos now, this allows for 3 commercial's, this maximizes the revenue for them and the creator of the content. Youtube takes 45% of all commercial revenue, this explains the in video plug's and sponsorships, which the content creator receives 100% of that.

I just hope to make an enjoyable video, and represent the cause well.

MrC.

Hello,
The 1st picture of the 6 you posted here. Where did you find that light on the middle bike? If you sell them can you please let me know how much they cost. Really enjoy all your videos and you re a wealth of endless info on these machines. Grateful that you share your knowledge.268353

[patriot1]

That is an interesting headlight setup.