Long Live 3Wheeling Magazine

[jondeercowboy]

i just read all of these post. this is so interesting. i just cant comprehind honda crushing all these atc's. if i was a rider back in 87 i would have walked to canada to get a 87 250r. awsome post on here. does dean get on anymore?

[Red Rider]

Does anyone know what was the last issue of ATV sports? And what was the reason for its demise? DirtWheels and 3&4 Wheel Action survived. Why didn't ATV sports (formely known as 3wheeling).

3Wheeling magazine was successful because of the 3 wheelers. Once their formula for success was taken away, the magazine simply withered on the vine.

[3WW Star-huntinpecker]

Three wheeler abuse

After overalling the Baja 500 in 1983, on the 3 Wheeling Magazine project 200x, Tracey Dickson and myself were contacted by factory Kawasaki asking if we would test ride their pre-production Tecate. I believe there were only 4 or 5 in the states, of course we jumped at the opportunity. In June of 83' we met the Kawi guys at Saddle Back Park in Orange County, CA. Got our riding orders: First and foremost, don't crash, they wanted wear data, and handling input from us. We started with 3 trikes, 1 guy rides while the other debriefs, 1/2 hour shifts as I recall, in 4 hours 2 of 3 were unrideable with broken frames and swingarms. The one that was rideable had a cracked frame. They kept measuing the cracks, not very comforting for the rider lucky enough to be on it when it gives up. It was like Japanese roulette. It never folded up, the following days were the same, break em' all then go home. They were some busy guys repairing those things every night to give us 3 that could be ridden the next day. It ended up being a 3 or 4 day test. My conclusion was it turned great due to steep head angle, but squirrelly at high speed. Handle bar vibration was a problem, good horsepower, but the frame would crack every 2 hours. Shortcourse trike for sure. Desert trike, only if you could tow a welder. I honestly believe the reason Honda gave us a B-team desert deal in 1984 was to keep us off the Kawi. What Honda didn't know, we wanted nothing to do with it for desert racing. The Tecate was a factor in shortcourse.

The pics are of before and after testing. Was this thing an 83, 84? I have no idea. CRS.

Mike Hallett

Before:



After:

[Curtis-Tecate3]

Mike,

Very interesting story. Thanks so much for sharing. The second generation Tecate's are what I like and as an owner I hate to admit it but they are/were still fragile compared to the Hondas. As you said always a factor on the Short Course though. It reminds me of a story I read about Dean Sundahl where he was racing an 86 Kawasaki Tecate in Baja (or some other long distance desert race) co-riding with Lance Schoonmaker. They were literally smoking everyone by a HUGE margin and the bike began falling apart like 50 miles from the finish and resulted i believe in a DNF.

The Tecate in the photos is an 84.

Keep the stories (and photos) coming if you can.

Curtis.

[DixiePlowboy]

I think the question is one that I had years ago due to the fact that a few Tecates were on the local tracks in late '83 around here. they were still '84's, of course, but early '84's.


And I saw more than one cracked frame myself in the early days.

When the '85 R exploded onto the local scene, the Tecates thinned out. By March 1985, everyone that really wanted a Tecate was still riding them.....and everyone else had either switched or switched back to Honda.

[robindavis]

Well, well, well. I can hardly believe what I've read! Hello oldfart! It took me a few hours to get through 46 pages. And I thought about the stickers and how everyone got them...but actually...I think I still have one or two left in my sticker arsenal.

As for the magazines....I'm blown away. After reading that some of you paid money for old copies?! I have a complete set of 3Wheeling magazines stored away in a styrofoam chest and an incomplete set. I probably have three or four copies of the "first" issue with the BAP crew. I knew them all....they were the good times. I never knew they would be worth anything. I must be sitting on a land mine! OMG! I'll have to check out ebay on those and see what they are worth. Holy batman!

I read with gusto all the stories Dean had about the old days. Although I wasn't a part of the Honda group....those little guys from the east didn't think us girls could race...I knew each and every one of those guys and have a closet full of memories and stories. hmmmmm I also have hundreds of photos from Speedway 117 to Baja. Been there done that...took photos. Oh the stories I have. Anyone interested?!

I wasn't the first cover girl of 3Wheeling...and that burned me to NO END Dean! I was the fastest chick out there and the only one racing at the time and still kicking guys butts...and they chose some "chick" and not me to be the first girl!

What great memories Dean wrote of. I knew Ace very well. I still chat with Dean Sundahl on occasion and recently connected with him on Facebook. Every name, every race, all those memories. Wow...how great were those days. It was great fun reliving them with Dean's stories.

I've got all these magazines...what shall I do with them?! And even double copies of most!

[3WW Star-driscoll333]

Hey robin, thanks for visiting this site.... U were the real deal... Racing was in your blood.... And u did kick some butt... get some pics on here... Im sure most of the guys and gals on here want to know some facts and memories about the fastest chick on 3 wheels....

[dcreel]

Yes, thank you for the old stories, it's much appreciated. We love pictures too.

[dirtbiken]

yeah glad to meet yaa.

[250rAL]

I've got all these magazines...what shall I do with them?! And even double copies of most!

Something tells me you're going to make a bunch of new friends!

[robindavis]

Something tells me you're going to make a bunch of new friends!

I'll have to get busy...dig out those old magazines....scan some photos....and get them on here. Being a newb to this board...I guess I should start a new thread with some stories. I have an album and could post photos....did a few already. You guys are real fanatics! I never knew that our history would so interesting to anyone anymore. lol cool

First little tid bit of a story...the first night I met Chip Corfman and Craig Corda at Speedway 117; We were racing old ATC 90s built back then. Corda and Corfman were the first Imperial Valley boys up at Speedway 117. Corda side-swiped me and I chewed his butt out for being a jerk (language cleaned up) and that started a life-long friendship with Corda and Corfman. That was 1977.

When I have time I'll start a thread....off to work I go!

[DixiePlowboy]

Im sure most of the guys and gals on here want to know some facts and memories about the fastest chick on 3 wheels....

Oh heck yeah..... we sure would!

Welcome Robin, and let 'er rip

[3WW Star-huntinpecker]

Curtis- In 86' Kawasaki was trying hard to get a win in the desert. Early that year Kawasaki offered Allen Fox and myself 6 stockbikes and 6000.00 for prep and entries, plus 2500.00 fr class win or 5000 for overall. 3 wheeler win, good money. Kawasaki gave us a trike to test once again, a couple hours of riding we broke it apart. We were bummed, we had to turn it down. Our sponsor John Tomson with California Communication, Fox, and I decided money meant nothing if we couldn't finish a race.I think the race you were referring to was the 86' Mohave 250, Sundahl was solo and he had 15 minutes on us with 20 miles to go. We had been plagued with 5 flats. The grease wood was brutal around Barstow. His Tecate grenaded the swingarm bearings. He came up 20 miles short, we won overall. The 3 wheeler in that one pic is the trike we won the Mohave 250 with. We named it the Tarantula, built by Allen Fox with CR 500 suspension.

[Beerside]

That's an awesome picture Mike, Im trying to build a 1986 Baja 1000 replica race machine and I notice the rear tires on the 250R in the picture above seem to be what I always see. Are those Ohtsu Pro-comp 301's?? And yes, please keep the pictures and stories coming, luv them!

[dcreel]

That is definitely an awesome picture. So what was that 250R running.. about 11" of travel? Did it use a lot of droop travel like a trophy truck or did it sit real high? Got any pics of it sitting on all three? Awesome guys, thanks for the pics and memories.