Picked up a 200ES

[MojaveRider]

I have way too many projects right now (especially with the jet ski I scored for free from a friend of mine's parents), but this popped up on Craigslist and I couldn't resist, '84 200ES. It's not running but appears to be in decent shape. I suspect the carb needs some love and it needs a muffler, but otherwise looks pretty complete. Still has the original seat cover, though it is very dry and has 1 crack. Plastics are pretty clean, with only 1 crack on the left side. Brakes are complete, but the cables need some lube and the front needs some adjusting. The front forks are frozen solid. The gas tank looks amazing inside, no rust, but the outside isn't pretty.

Picked her up for only $200. I'm hoping to get it running and riding with a repainted tank for cheap.

Here is a crappy picture from picking it up, with the new tow rig (27 mpg towing!)

[kb0nly]

Not bad!! The 200ES's are coming out of the woodwork on here lately! I love mine, would like to snag another cheap one and make it my dedicated work rig and leave the one i have now for recreation... LOL

You can get a new DG aftermarket exhaust for it, thats what i did on mine and its awesome. I wouldn't bother with lubing the cables unless they are in really good shape. I fought my cables for a whole summer, soaking them constantly with a cable luber and tried all kinds of lube and oils on them but once the metal cable inside gets rusty and wears into the lining on the bends it just won't work nice and smooth ever again, at least not in my experience. The cables are cheap $10-$15 for brake cables and throttle cable. Well worth the investment to make it safe and keep it safe.

The seat cover is uber easy also, the 200ES has a plastic pan, so buy a new cover and grab a staple gun and your good to go. I recovered mine last year, what a nice appearance upgrade.

For the cracked fender if you can get a hold of a plastic welder and some HDPE rods and get that crack treated, 200ES rear fenders are rarer than precious metals now days, nobody making aftermarket replacements for them. So save it before it gets worst. As for the front end tear it all apart, its probably overdue for the front axle to be pulled and greased and everything cleaned and lubed anyway. Chances are the springs are gunked and rusted up, maybe even the shocks are stuck from rust. The shocks the 200ES uses inside of the spring, they are no oil filled front ends, are pretty much made of unobtanium, so if the shocks are shot your kinda SOL and will have to just live with what you get from the springs. I do see the springs and shocks show up used on eBay now and then, but buying 30 year old parts there is no guarantee they are any better than yours.

A lot of guys swap to the 200M front forks for a better ride. So far i havent done anything with mine, its more the tire then the shocks that cause ride issues. If you have a nice spongy knobby tire on the front it will ride a lot better than if you have a stiff tire. Make sure you check the rear tire pressures and get them equal or you will notice it pulls to one side or another, thats another common problem that seems to get asked a lot on the 200ES. Not sure if its more noticable because of the shaft drive rear or what.

Anyway, i went on long enough... Great find for that price!

[MojaveRider]

This is my first 200ES, so thanks for all the info!

I saw the DG exhausts, I may have to look into those once it's running. The cables look decent at first glance, so maybe they can be saved. My goal is to avoid over-spending on this so I'll probably try to lube them first and see what happens.

I did look at the seat cover, and it doesn't look too hard to replace. This cover looks original so I'm hopefully the foam is near-perfect. I'll do once if the current cover comes apart.

I really want to save the fenders. They are great other than the 1 crack. I'll have to see if I can find a welder to use.

I have heard that the 200ES used a weird front fork setup. I can't get them to compress at all right now. Can you keep the front rack if you swap to a 200M front end?

I appreciate all the info, keep it coming!

[cap]

Negative on the front rack, the E and M are different.

[MojaveRider]

Negative on the front rack, the E and M are different.

Boo. I guess I'll see if I can get my forks un-stuck. Any spring action would be better than solid!

[MojaveRider]

I've made some good progress on this trike. I swapped in a used battery I had laying around, and all the electronics seem to work (electric start, headlight, taillight, and CDI), except the neutral and reverse lights. I got the neutral light working with a new bulb, but I still haven't figured out reverse yet. I need to test the reverse switch. After reading numerous horror stories about 200ES electronics I was worried it would be a mess, but so far so good.

I cleaned the carb and she fired right up, but I couldn't get it running right. The idle was way too high, and no amount of adjusting the idle speed screw or idle mixture screw would bring it down. In addition, it bogged very badly at anything above 1/2 throttle. I rolled the dice and bought one of the $20 Chinese carbs off of ebay. After reading some posts about them, took the new carb apart to inspect it. The idle jet was a 40, compared to the 38 in my original carb. It looked like a real Keihin jet, but who knows. I ended up leaving in the 40 that came with it. The main jet in the new carb was a 98, while my stocker was a 95. The needle in the new carb was much longer. I put my old needle and 95 main into it and put it on the bike.

It instantly idled much better than before, but it bogged very badly at high throttle. I took the carb back off and swapped in the 98 main, leaving my shorter original needle. Now it seems to be running pretty darn good. Idle is very solid, and WOT is much much better. For less than $20 shipped, I can't complain one bit.

The exhaust is a total mess. The muffler is half-gone, and it is leaking at the cylinder head joint as well. I ordered one of the DG units to replace it all. I'll take another look at the jetting once the new exhaust is on the bike. The clutch was badly out of adjustment, moving the shifter would barely engage the clutch at all.

Overall, it is in pretty darn good condition for the price. The gas tank badly needs a coat of paint, as well the racks. Hopefully a bit of time and not too much money and I'll have her looking good again. The engine was filthy, and after some cleaning, is now merely dirty. It looks like it had an oil leak at one point, but I don't currently see any leaks.

[Big G]

That's a very nice score Mojave. I'm still waiting for my chance to get a crack at a 200ES!

[MojaveRider]

That's a very nice score Mojave. I'm still waiting for my chance to get a crack at a 200ES!

Thanks! It definitely has a different feel than a 250ES, especially with the backward shift pattern (neutral at the top).

[kb0nly]

Looking good!

The oil leak that is the most common is leaking at the head gasket, there is an o-ring on one of the head dowels that is the oil supply up to the head. The telltale sign is that dark ring of cooked oil where the head meets the cylinder. It takes pulling the motor out of the frame and tearing down the top end to fix it, so if its not leaking badly i would just keep an eye on the oil level when using it, provided its not burning oil and smoking badly or otherwise has other problems that would benefit from a top end refresh.

I have a chinese ebay carb on mine to, runs great, i kept the needle that came with the chinese carb but swapped the jets over from my stock carb, that seemed to be the right combo for me.

When you get the DG exhaust on it you might have to turn the mixture screw and richen it up just a smidge, but ride it for a bit and check the plug and see if its running lean or not. Mine only needed a slight tweek to get the plug a nice even tan/brown color. Reading the plug is the best way to find out whats going on. A lot of guys said it would take a jet change after putting on the less restrictive exhaust but i didn't end up doing that on mine.

[MojaveRider]

Looking good!

The oil leak that is the most common is leaking at the head gasket, there is an o-ring on one of the head dowels that is the oil supply up to the head. The telltale sign is that dark ring of cooked oil where the head meets the cylinder. It takes pulling the motor out of the frame and tearing down the top end to fix it, so if its not leaking badly i would just keep an eye on the oil level when using it, provided its not burning oil and smoking badly or otherwise has other problems that would benefit from a top end refresh.

I have a chinese ebay carb on mine to, runs great, i kept the needle that came with the chinese carb but swapped the jets over from my stock carb, that seemed to be the right combo for me.

When you get the DG exhaust on it you might have to turn the mixture screw and richen it up just a smidge, but ride it for a bit and check the plug and see if its running lean or not. Mine only needed a slight tweek to get the plug a nice even tan/brown color. Reading the plug is the best way to find out whats going on. A lot of guys said it would take a jet change after putting on the less restrictive exhaust but i didn't end up doing that on mine.

Good to know on the oil leak. So far I haven't see any fresh oil, but I'll keep an eye out.

My current muffler is at least 1/2 gone, so I'm not sure how much more free-flowing the DG setup will be haha.

[kb0nly]

LOL.. same here, my stock muffler was rotted badly, but it was partially blocked inside and causing a restriction, so it was always running rich as heck because it wasn't breathing well, like always having the choke on. After the new exhaust it ran a ton better but would lean out a bit and stumble on acceleration, a quick tweak fixed that.