Ever since I was young at Glamis the Tecate's stood out as the bad boy bike. Down to the no counterbalancer and the twist throttle, you had to be hardcore to ride a Tecate. I got my 84 in 1986/87 and have been riding it since. I love tecate's. I wish there were more things available for them like Big Bore's, cool heads, and billet clutch baskets. I do need to revamp the rear brakes soon. I'm hoping to find a crossover for the rear master cylinder and caliper.
I like Teactes for all the same reasons. I was always a big fan of Kawasaki's in your face approach to racing and engineering. I like about everything that everybody else hate's about these machines(The radiator on the trees, the fat front tire, backwards kicking, and the large fuel capacity tank.) They were simple lightwieght machines that gave the competition a run for there money. My friend Matt says that a Z400 master cylinder works but you have to fashion your own mounting bracket. Rear caliper is different from 84 to 85 so that might cause some confusion. I thought somebody came up with something though.
Thanks for the info on the z400 rear master. I checked them out on Ebay and they look close enough that I am going to get one to try it. Now I need to find a replacement rear caliper.
Hey dcreel, ATC-Eric had mentioned making some more big bores and cool heads fof the T3, it was posted on Planettrike.com, if you're interested.
Oh I assure you I am. No disrespect but they have been talking about it for a long time. I know of one guy that used to be on here username ccHowell or something that had one of their bigbore's. Besides that it has all been talk.
I have a 1985 Tecate a.k.a DOOM! I ride them because they are lite, simple, and aggressive looking. Kind of like a pit bull stairing you down in a sense! Plus all my buddies have them and we trade off information and parts......I also like beating up on the fancy 250R's with all there available after market parts!
Until i got my first T3 in 06, all i ever heard was how unreliable they are, and how inferior they were to the tri-z and 250r. "I'm speaking of the 84-85 variant" Well, when i had an opp to get a 85 i jumped on board. I paid $125 for a complete rat bike that should have been parted. But in a strange kind of way i felt it needed to be rescued from all of the years of abuse and neglect. Well, the rest is history. I love them and they are just as reliable as ANY 3wheeler made IF you understand them. I now have 3 85's. I remember my first TF in 05. I think i only say 2 first gens the whole weekend. I think we had 9 this year. People have noticed that they are a force........ Plus with the right weight cutting measures they can flirt with the low 260's. No other 250 performance trike can lay claim to that!
I agree with you on the reliability. My 84 with the Klemm Research motor has had 1 piston/ring job in the 22 years I have owned it. It is running on the same Ricky Stator rewrapped stator and flywheel that was on it when I got it. The 85 I have is way faster than the Klemm bike. It has a Bob Troxel ported cylinder, carb spacer, Motoplat ignition, and came with a 36mm PJ carb that I couldn't get to run right. I threw my 41mm Mikuni on it and you can't keep the front end down from 1st to 3rd gear. After fixing the cylinder head leak it now leaks from the radiator overflow as soon as it is started. It is now chillin in the garage.
The guy that ported it carved a question mark into the side of the jug where the intake is. I'm still curious as to what he did in the intake side of the engine.
I was always fascinated by the A1/A2 Tecates as a kid. The first thing you see is the offset headlight and the big radiator. You can't help but look at it. People always ask me why I put the light off center and I have to tell them that's the way it was built. People usually don't believe me. Like already mentioned, the twist throttle, no counterbalance, fat front tire, etc- So many things you just won't see anywhere else. Even being as far off the beaten path as they are, they are nearly bulletproof if built and maintained correctly. I grew up seeing red, all Honda's I mean. R's, SX's, S's, X's, M's- I saw them all the time. I never saw a Tecate in person until I went to the swap meet in, hmmmm.... It was probably 05. It was sitting there with a sign on it that said $1200. As I was walking over to it the guy was crossing the price out and writing "Make an offer". I think I offered $650 and he said $700. The rest is history.
