Introducing myself & front tire / forks question

[RenegadeMaine]

Hi guys,

I just signed up for this forum and wanted to introduce myself. My name is Jeremy and I live in Northern Maine. Been riding the same Honda ATC 200E since I was a kid. I'm 32 now. The ATC is the same age as I am... lol. My grand father bought it new and I revived it a few years back.

I also have an 84 200ES that I am having a problem with that I wanted to bounce off people in this forum. We just started losing the snow and ice up here this week (yeah, I'm way up in Northern Maine). Anyway, the 84 sat out all winter under a tarp. When I uncovered it and rode it around a little, I noticed the front tire was at a sharp angle and not straight. Last year it was straight. At first I thought maybe the shocks had just rested that way all winter and froze up, but it has thawed out and nothing changed. I can stand right on the front rack and get no action out of the front suspension whatsoever.

I'm going to try to send a picture on here of the front tire. Any ideas of how to solve this problem?

[Keepah Rolln]

Welcome, not sure whats wrong, its hard to tell from the picture but something looks tweeked or bent. Did someone back into it by accident?

[350for350]

Maybe a bad wheel bearing that you didn't notice before?

[yaegerb]

It may be the angle but the left fork (right if you are on the bike) looks bent/cracked where the lower shock boot goes over the fork. By the way, I would get some new fork boots, you are going the right way for a blow seal.

And welcome

[coolpool]

My bet would be that one of your shocks is seized in the down position. They're notorious for failing; one of Honda's worst designs as it's basically a spring, damper and plastic guides in there. At least I'm pretty sure that's all they are. They are pretty loose on a good day and there just may be enough play to give you the off set. You might want to try and flood the tubes with a quality penetrating fluid (Kroil/PB Blaster) and see if that frees things up. Either way you're in for a rebuild I'm afraid.