Tickled to have a elite and rare trike. The trike is already dismantled for me to polish, clean & paint. Lots of blue, sliver & red frames. Previous owner raced with orange accents on his Tecate, anyone seen an orange frame, hubs, accents (or have a picture) with the geen machine??? Would that be to tacky? Be cool to honor an oldschool Tecate racer. Know how to lower the front end, how to lower the rear suspension for a lower stance ( other than 18's), want my Tecate, huh, 'my Tecate', hasn't quite sunk in I'll have a snorty, fire-breathing monster beneath me (besides a female).....to be a lil' lower for handling and looks.
It's your ride, go for it, the common colors are getting a little old in my opinion.The trike is rare, might as well show it off it you are going to powdercoat and paint everything IMO.
To lower the rear you can use the 84-85 rear suspension dogbone and take a piece out of it and weld it back together. There were aftermarket adjustable dogbones or you can use the adjustable dogbone from the 86-87 Tecate. Here is a picture of an adjustable aftermarket dogbone.
Thanks dcreel & mudbogger. I'm kinda weird about hackin' into it, scares me. The adjustable aftermarket from a 86+, are they accessable & will they bolt right up? I'm goin' with chevy engine enamel orange for frame & hubs, stop me now guys if I'm makin' a mistake. Started sanding & steel-wooling plastic, seems to be cleaning up nice. Don't get much time to get started, leaving tonight (8hr. drive to Idaho) to pick up 200x for son (so I can keep mine, three projects now, %#@!!&*), and 3 trikes with my buddy, for his family. The more I mess with it, the more I am liking this, trike. The aluminum rims are feather light, and 10", that is cool, & the tires are stock still hold air & are still in decent shape. Tried to look up some specs before I orderd' a manual, the frame, engine, & several other things are lighter than a 200x, what does the Tecate weigh?
The 84 dry weight is 287 lbs and the 85 dry weight is 275 lbs (due to aluminum wheels, front hub). As far as your colors go, it sounds good. We are building an 85 in pink, white, and polish for the wife. The issue is the plastics. You can find green or red plastics. There are white front and rear fenders floating around, but nobody wants to give them up. When the Clarke tanks are available they will be available in red, white, green, or black so that opens up options. DC Plastics sells tank covers and UFO copy numberplates in red, white, and green. http://www.dcvmx.com/xcart/product.p...cat=298&page=1 http://www.dcvmx.com/xcart/product.p...cat=302&page=1 DC plastics had a green tank cover and a white tank cover that were blems for $5.00 on Ebay, and I missed the auction. I've been thinking about calling them about them, but who knows.
The adjustable dogbone from the 86-87 Tecate actually came on them stock, and yes it will fit. On the photos on our tecate Group page there is a picture of tecate50's Tecate, in that picture is a really good shot of the 86-87 oem adjustable strut. The dogbone looks just like the one that was on my 85 kx125 the 4 holes (2 above and 2 below the adjuster) held a plastic piece that kept dirt and mud from being slung onto the back of the airbox.
dcreel- I'm not as nervous as I should be. I jus' spent 3 hrs. steel-wooling the tank, clean & shiny, but brown-green. Tank cover makes me happy. Front fender is cool, someone cut it down, their shape was cool, spent a couple hrs. with a flapwheel, sand paper, & steel wool, making it even. If I didn't want to ride so badly, I'd paint frame powder blue and white plastics (Tiger?), but jus' clean it up nice with paint & shine up green. Not doin' restore, but want a 25 yr. old trike to look respectful. My radiator grill is in outstanding shape, it must have been re-powdercoated. Is there automotive green that works for Kawasaki? More than 5#. lighter than 200x. 20# lighter than a 250r. Doin' pink 200 auto-x for 8 yr. old daughter. Decals? Sorry so many Questions, thanks for helping me, like I said, I'm really lovin' this trike, more than I thought.
Some of my watched items on Ebay, I'm not sure of what the code is, but I am sure there is an auto paint crossover. adjustable dogbone http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...%3D1&viewitem= decals http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...fvi%3D1&_rdc=1 old school tank cover http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...fvi%3D1&_rdc=1
The thing I like about the 84-85 tecate's is that they were made to go fast, not look pretty. If it didn't make it faster it wasn't used. counterbalancer? nope.. Look at where they put the headlight, it looks like an afterthought.. since most of them were pulled off anyways. As far as the radiator grills, toss it out.. there is another 4-5 pounds you got rid of.. ;-) I've cut all of the unused tabs off of my frame. I wonder just how light you could get an 84-85 Tecate. Sprock is coming out with a cool head soon.
hey dcreel, do you want either of those items from Ebay-reason is I would like to bid on them but do not want to outbid a fellow member here, especially you! I would love that tank cover and the linkage arm too.Oh, thanks for the link to DC, JUST bought as number plate.How do they attach to the tecates on the forks, the radiator?- do you happen to have a picture by chance? elastic bands like the Hondas ?
