New fella

[English Luke]

Hello there all you trike people, I just bought our cricket club a honda 185 trike to pull our gang mowers around the pitch. We dont have much cash so I bought it as cheap alternative to a quad. It turns out , it has not got the guts to pull all three, but does a good job with one (albeit 3 times slower). And to top it off it is a bloody lot of fun to drive, so I am keeping it a bit longer.

Ill be asking daft questions for a while as it came with lots of bits missing, and no info at all.
first question.....as it came with no pull start, and i have been trying to sort one out, I have noticed a small bolt type thing marked up N on the pull start case. When i turn it with pliers it changes gear. What the hell is it??
Cheers lads.

[English Luke]

oh I see, is that a tricky job?, this is the first bike i have looked after for years, where do you buy this sprocket? would this mean it was slower but more powerful??

[viper]

not more powerful just low geared enough to do what you want it to ...

[English Luke]

any ideas about that bolt thing in the pull start case??it is in front of the gear lever and about 1inch long

[English Luke]

as far as i am aware, only the 200 big red has hi low box. I got told it was 185, but i suppose it could be wrong. Is it printed on the engine somewhere??

[hondahaulic]

first of all, welcome to the site! that little shaft is for the neutral indicator. there is supposed to be a small attachment on it that points to the "N" when your in neutral, but it is not needed at all and this piece is usually long gone on most trikes.

[English Luke]

oh its as simple as that. Cheers fellas, how big a job is changing the sprocket??

[madmanwithmouse]

if possable use a bigger sprocket on the rear instead, using a smaller on the front will be harder on the chain and front sprocket.

[hondahaulic]

a front sprocket is really easy to change. you unbolt the front sprocket guard with 2 bolts, and then the front sprocket is held on with a flange type plate and 3 small bolts. put the new one on just like the old one came off and if you use a smaller front sprocket you'll probably need to re-tighten the chain.

[firefirefire90]

What ever ,,,
On the after market front sprocket you will need to buy a circlip to fit the groove on the shaft. At least the after market sprocket I bought did not have the bolt holes drilled/tapped into it like the original Honda line sprocket.
Reckon you could just order one from Honda in the 9 tooth size.

john



how interesting...


Every sprocket I have bought for my bikes(buy a new one for each) have all had those two holes drilled. How curious..........

[Hair Bear Bunch]

Hi Luke and welcome!
So the options are 1, play cricket or 2, play trikes. Hmm... no competition there for me!
Where are you? If you're anywhere near Hampshire I may know of some people who can help. I'm far from being a master of these things but if I can help at all let me know.
Oh, and when you get a chance, go back to Threewheelerworld, and stick yourself on the map!
Rob.

[84honda200s]

how interesting...


Every sprocket I have bought for my bikes(buy a new one for each) have all had those two holes drilled. How curious..........



i agree with the other guy. when i bought my 8 tooth it had no holes at all. but then again when i put the flange up to the sprocket to see where the holes would have bin i saw why i needed a snap ring instead of bolts. the bolt pattern is bigger than the dam sprocket lol.



hey luke welcome to the forums. its not a big job to do really anything on the 185. its a simple machine to work on. if you cant find a sprocket around you or in the u.k. anywhere and dont mind paying for shipping i have a 3 month old 8 tooth front sprocket and snap ring. give it to ya for 5.00 usd + shipping costs . but im pretty sure someone on 3ww that lives over there can either hook ya up or tell ya where you can get em.

as said before you will need to tighten the chain. to do this you will need to loosen
up the 4 big bolts ( dont have to take them all the way out) then look for the tentinor on the left hand side of the axle carrier. once you have found that tighten the nut until you see the chain getting loose then pop off the old sprocket. once you have done that pop the new one on the turn the nut to the left until the chain gets tight again. then tighten the lock nut (if yours has one) and the 4 big bolts, put the chain guard on and bam ready to roll.

hope that helps ya a bit. good luck

[English Luke]

Hi Luke and welcome!
So the options are 1, play cricket or 2, play trikes. Hmm... no competition there for me!
Where are you? If you're anywhere near Hampshire I may know of some people who can help. I'm far from being a master of these things but if I can help at all let me know.
Oh, and when you get a chance, go back to Threewheelerworld, and stick yourself on the map!
Rob.

Hello fella, I am up in Lancashire, so its a bit of a trek for a service. cheers anyway a$ for the cricket jibe, if i had to pick it would be the cricket, but now i get to do both!! tops!!
You any idea where to buy a new sprocket from over here?? one of the lads on here has offered me one from the states, but surely there is one nearer?

[RedRider_AK]

I'm pretty sure Dennis Kirk (www.denniskirk.com) would ship stuff overseas but you'll be paying more money for shipping than for the actual product :lol:

The "1 inch long bolt" marked with an "N" is your gear indicator. There's a shifter shaft below that and it's about 3 inches long (+ or - 1 inch or so, it's been a while since I've seen a 185 engine). When you turn the shifter shaft, it shifts the gears. The gear indicator simply turns when you shift and shows you at a glance if you're in neutral or not (assuming the plastic knob on it hasn't been lost over the years).

If you do not have a shifter lever (fits onto the longer splined shift shaft), you can also order one from Dennis Kirk (I believe), or ask around on this site, I'll bet there's tons of them people would be willing to give to you as long as you pay shipping. In fact, I'll look for one in my yard today, see if I can help you out some.

Cheers!

[English Luke]

There really is a wealth of knowledge on here!!
I have another question that just occurred to me. When we first tried to pull all three gang mowers, it did get going with a push, but the engine was flat out and after 3 times round the pitch was blowing out sparks. I Figure that was just crap in the engine because it had not run for so long, and probably no one dared to go flat out (it has no brakes).


so the question is....If i did change the sprocket and lower the gearing, would the engine still need to go flat out to reach any sort of decent speed, and is this likely to knacker it, as it is really a £100 25 year old machine.

I am no mechanic and havin a bit of trouble with the physics. It pulls 1 mower a peice of piss, but is not great with two but i will settle for two if i have to
Ta in advance.

[RedRider_AK]

Well, this thing does have 5 gears. It sounds to me like you were riding in first gear the whole time, and over-revving it to boot, which is why it was shooting sparks out. Also, what shape is the exhaust pipe in?

To answer your question, a smaller sprocket on the front (or larger in the back, makes no difference) will lower your top speed, but help in acceleration off the line, as well as pulling heavy loads. You will go slower, but will have more torque to pull those triple mowers.

How are you starting the trike?

[English Luke]

we have been bump starting it, but the final bit of my pull start arrivd today, so no more sweating!!

[Hair Bear Bunch]

Hi Luke, I've had difficulty sourcing spares down here, every bike shop I've been to seems to think they're either banned, illegal to own, illegal to buy/sell, or illegal to talk about!
The best service I've had is from my local Honda quad specialist (Rafferty Newman, Petersfield). You ask the question, they produce the microfiche and even if they have to order it, it doesn't take long.
As far as having parts shipped from the U.S., with the exchange rate at nearly 2:1 at the moment, even with the shipping costs, You'd be hard pushed to beat the price.
Couple of things spring to mind, if you're missing the gear indicator, are you sure you're in 1st.? Also, if you're running flatout to engage the clutch, the centrifugal shoes could be worn out. It shouldn't blow sparks, there should be a spark arrestor in there somewhere. The exhaust was completely toast on my 250es, it backfired badly and you couldn't hear yourself think, so instead of paying £150 for the correct silencer, I got a rear box off of a 900cc Metro for £10 and grafted it on. No problem with noise/sparks/backfiring! Amazing how much of a difference it made. Take good notice of what info the guys on here give you. I'm not familiar with the chain drive models but if you follow thier advice you won't go far wrong. If your new to triking, just be aware they don't handle like a quad. Take it easy at first, learn what it can do 'walk before you run'!
A manual is a good investment if you intend keeping her for any lenghth of time. The manuals for these machines are generaly published by 'Clymer'. I believe Clymer are to the U.S. as Haynes are to us! I've certainly not regreted getting my Clymer manual.
Rob.

[English Luke]

thanks rob. food for thought. I think ill ask matey boy about that sprocket, i have been looking on the net, but it aint easy when you dont know what you are after!!

[RedRider_AK]

I believe Haynes even has manuals for the ATC's, but I might be mistaken about that.

[snakemaster]

www.atv2u.co.uk £6.50+vat tell 01597822666 thay have a lot of stuff for atcs:naughty:

[English Luke]

the saga continues, I still have not had time to sort the sprocket, so if mr 84honda200s could sort me a price for that 8 tooth sprocket, it would be very much appreciated. Anywho, I got the pull start assembly on and now the bloody thing wont start, no matter how much we fiddle with it. To make matters worse, my mate pulled the damn start rope right out. BAHHHHHH.

[84honda200s]

lol ive bin there buddy. last summer i went threw 3 cables 2 ropes and 4 rebuild kits. but i have high compression rings and its bored to the max with a 200x head on it. anyways hit me up with your zip code and ill get ya a shipping cost.

now as far as the thing not starting. how old is the gas, you got a good blue spark, getting fuel ?

[English Luke]

I have not got my hands on a spark plug spannner yet to check the spark, not that I can since bloody popeye pulled the rope out! Is that simple to fix??

As for the zip code I am in England, La2 9aj, (postcode) if that helps.

On top of every other thing I have to do this trike is pi55ing me off a bit.

[84honda200s]

yea its not a bad job to redo the recoil once you get use to it. i know how ya feel believe me ive bin there but its worth it once you get to ride around.


dam shipping cost a bit well since i dont need it any more you can have it for shipping cost. shipping is 11.00 usd. if you have pay-pal i would like to do like that but if you dont i need a us money order. let me know how you wanna do it.

[English Luke]

you are a bloody decent bloke!! Bloody decent. you sure it'll work?? I have paypal on ebay but god only knows what to do with it.
whats next??

[84honda200s]

ill send you a pm here on the forums with whats next.




ooo yea e-bay should have a manual for it. ive seen them go off cheap.