Picked up a Tecate on Vacation

[jb2wheels]

Short version:
I've been on the lookout for a green trike for a while and finally picked one up. The best part - I got to ride it at Buttercup (well, that's what we used to call it) within 24 hours...

Dad and me at Buttercup for the first time in 25 years:


In the garage while buying it:


Ready for first ride:


No clue what I'm looking at...:


First tank of gas - I hate this stupid spout:


Long story:
I live near Austin TX.
My dad lives near Sacramento CA.

We still try to do a lot of stuff together.

Last December, my mom and dad drove our big van back to CA with a bunch of stuff they wanted to have in CA. That left us an empty van in CA I needed to have back in TX.

I have a great uncle in Portland Oregon. He turned 90 2 weeks ago. My cousin, his daughter, put together a great birthday party for him and the family reunion was on. My uncle basically said, "If you're planning to come to my funeral, skip it and come to my birthday party."

I figure, i can kill 3 or 4 birds with one stone and spend a weekend in Portland, a week in CA, and bring the van back to TX.

So, we have a big, 3 day party in Portland. On Sunday, I put my wife on the plane back to TX and hop back in the car with my folks and zip on back to Sacramento.

I spent most of the next week in CA working with my dad on his 55 Chevy BelAir project. While we're in the garage we get to thinking - what do you do with an empty van running from CA to TX? I figure I'll pick up a parts/project Tecate and combine it with my small, starter pile of Tecate parts and make a runner out of it.

My dad, with 30 more years of wisdom, says, "Hey, we'll be on 8 going through the dunes, why don't you get a runner and we'll go play with it?"

DUH.

I mean, really, what a SPECTACULAR idea.

So, I few hours of SearchTempest later, narrow down the candidates to this one in Corona. We check it out Friday afternoon around 7:00, make a deal and hit the road. Spend the night in El Centro, pick up supplies (like pre-mix, flag, pass for the van and pass for the trike, jeez what a CA bureacratic mess - we used to just hop the fence and ride) and hit the road to Buttercup.

On Presidents Weekend. Perfect weather.

Anyway, this was a great vacation.

The Tecate is supposed to have a 300 kit in it but I have no way to know. It has a KX cylinder on it for sure.

It an 85 and starts on the first kick. Brakes work. Sun faded but complete. Needs a clutch (grabby) and probably a chain and sprockets. And those aren't ideal sand tires.

It could use some touch up and a deep cleaning but it's a freakin' riot and I paid well under $1k for it.
I haven't even seen a nice one for sale around Austin in a while.

Now I have a Tecate, a couple of 350s and the R. Fantastic! Maybe a Tri-Z next year

[loshe191]

Nice Tecate,sounds like you had a lot of fun.

[Gripit'n'ripit]

Good story. Better than the time a few of us went to Busco Beach amd came back early cus one of us almost died from an allergic reaction. Good looking Tecate.

[jb2wheels]

And now I have some proper sand tires:





22x11x10 Skat Trak 8 paddle Haulers on Tecate rims. They were on eBay. They were built on Dunlop carcasses.

[big specht]

You have any better pics of that head light set up. That don't look as dumb as the factory set up.

[dustrunner]

great story and nice trike...thanks for posting...

[jb2wheels]

I don't have good shots of the mount but here are a couple from other threads:

Good thread about LED light - uses a similar mount:
http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthr...75#post1077375

3rd post in here is a good shot:
http://www.3wheelerworld.com/group.p...428&do=discuss

this one is simila but bloack instead of chrome:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1984-KAWASAK...sories&vxp=mtr

[jb2wheels]

Getting ready for Rampage 2013 - the Tecate got some love:













Lot's of PM type stuff and some repairs:

Started with rebuilding the front caliper - it was leaking on the rotor.
While the front end was apart, I blasted and painted the rotor and hub blue because they had some surface rust on them.
Blasted the forks, painted the caliper, etc.

Then replaced rebuilt clutch with EBC plates and springs. It was very grabby and hard to ride. It's better now.

Lubed up all cables and control pivots and throttle tube. Had to replace the clutch perch using one of my parts trike.

Painted the pipe and muffler.

Spent a lot of time cleaning gunk and crap off the whole rear end - like build up from an exhaust leak.

Replaced chain and sprockets. JT sprockets and Primary Drive gold X-ring. The originals were really bad - I should not have been riding on them.

Installed a JESwinehart chain slider - my stocker was torn up.

Repainted swingarm, carrier, linkage, hubs, rotor, etc.

Replaced the upper shock mount/pivot. The little ball had a deep groove all around it and lots of play in the rear-end. Feels great now. Another part fromt he parts trike. This is a $65 part from Kawasaki! That $100 parts trike is looking pretty good now.

Lots of fresh grease.

Clean and oil air filter.

Replaced intake with a JESwinehart part.

Added a KX500 case saver. Bolts on except I had to grind for clearance near the front of the sprocket.

KX250F brake line guides on the triples - a bolt on. The bolt spacing on the triples is the same.

Pulled the flywheel for inspection and looks fine.

Repaint tail light bracket and replace bulb.

The drain plug is bigger than original and even with a new copper crush washer leaks. I'll have to work on that some more.

The frame could use a strip and paint but that's a future project.

Colors (because I'm always curious):
blue (hubs, rotors, etc) = Duplicolor engine paint, Ford dark blue
silver = Duplicolor engine paint, cast coat aluminum
caliper got black Duplicolor caliper paint
pipe got semi-gloss black Duplicolor engine paint
skid plates got the gloss black, too.

I used the blue instead of green based on input from the women in my house. It looks great but I'm not entirely convinced it's better than green.

I think that's it. Shakedown run this weekend.