83 Big Red 200E Resurrected

[AK-ATC]

Hello, I acquired an 83 Big Red back in December so suddenly I'm immersed in all things three wheelers! I rode them quite a bit back in the 80's and had all the shiny Honda 3 wheeler and dirt bike brochures from the local dealer pinned up on my bedroom walls, but never owned an ATC until now. I guess it's never too late to relive your youth! I just thought I would introduce my new ride.

This machine spent it's life at a remote hunting camping in AK. I saw it last December and it obviously had not been used in decades so I asked the owner if they wanted to get rid of it, and if so, I would make an offer. He replied that if I could haul it away I could have it! Woohoo - let the adventure begin. To get it running required draining the old fuel followed by fresh fuel and guess what - she fired up and idled. Good old Honda's!

I've since gone completely through the machine inspecting brakes, valves, carb clean, etc. and it turns out to be in superb mechanical condition and a low mile machine. The best thing that happened to the machine was the fact that it was stored out of the weather in a shed so it has almost no rust. I've spent a ton of time removing the nasty green spray paint and touching it up. I added hand and thumb warmers (35W) and a LED up front (20W) so I can run both w/o exceeding the 70W system. Worked out sweet because I wired the LED to the low beam but still have the high beam wired up for the factory headlight (45W). I also built a UHMW skid plate for the engine and added a small LED tail light (0.5W). It's a sweet machine and perfect for running the dogs and putting around the woods.

Not sure if the photos will upload...

[ATC King]

Great work bringing it back and finally owning your own. Later is better than never.

Smart on the electrical juggling too. Modern tech allows for more comforts, when properly implemented. You have to keep the revs up for max electric output though, the system doesn't produce 70w at idle, and figuring on degradation, it won't max out at the original specification.

Installing a volt meter is very important when modifying the system or attempting to run at max.

[Mediawizard]

Great job resurrecting this beast!

I also ran a 3-wheeler (ATC110 with Yamaha 250ZYZ swap screacher) ever ever since mine died (my "buddy" killed it and never fixed it, as promised - then he got rid if it without even telling me).

My "new" 1983 Honda ATC200E won't idle (rides fine, dies if not moving) correctly and I'm afraid I'll mess it up if I mess with the carb.

Suggestions?

[SchWarZHorsE]

Yeah, WoW on the resurrection - Very nice work !
Soon, I'll be re-firing mine back up once I get the rear end re-assembled with its new All Balls axle bearings, dust/dirt seals, replacement axle and wheel hubs.
I drained the carb properly (out the bottom drain screw) after running it until it stalled last time I rode it several years ago, and it's been stored dry since...
Happened upon a pair of nearly complete '82 CM450Customs street bikes that an ol' friend of a distant cousin needed gone and they've taken most of my spare time during the past 5.5 years...

@Mediawizard : you can try some SeaFoam additive in the gas with a prayer that'll clean out the carb jets, but if the gas is old or the carb sat with ethanol gas in it for a long time, you're likely looking at a carb servicing/full cleaning. I also use ONLY ethanol-free gas in all my bike engines now these days AND I put 1 ounce of fuel stabilizing Sta-Bil stabilizer per 2.5 gallons of gas into them because it'll keep fresh gas fresh for up to 2 years and sometimes there's many months between rides or engine "exercising" start-ups...

You can see if ethanol-free gas is sold near you at one of these 301 stations in Oregon at this website :

www.pure-gas.org