85 TRI-Z production ?'s

[Groundworx]

I bought an 85 TRI-Z 250 about a month ago. I have had a couple of 250Rs and a tecate in the past. This is my 1st Z. I had a 2002 Raptor Limited Edition and sold it about year ago. I was looking on Ebay a week or so ago and I came accross TRI-Z that had the red frame and black plastic. I have seen these quite a bit. In this description, the seller said it was a "Limited Edition". Well, mine was originally red frame and black plastic. The guy I bought it from repainted the frame blue and the plastic yellow. Looks good from a distance, but it wasn't done right. I am going to tear it down to the frame this summer and rebuild everything. I am going go back with the red and black color scheme. I was really just wondering if it was really a "Limited Edition" like some of the current Yamaha models.

[XFR_Dozer]

yes it was . it just seems more of em survived so you see quite a few of them now in comparison

[Groundworx]

Cool, I wasn't aware that Yamaha was doing a "Limited Edition" bike back then. Does anyone know of a website or somewhere I can find a lot of info on the TRI-Z? (Besides 3wheelerworld.com) 8)

[CHAINSAW]

its not a limited edition.. its an 85 1/2 model. Someone heard from the cousin of a brothers wife that it was special.. so the rumor has spread. There is nothing "special" about it...

[Groundworx]

I have heard that too. I have actually even heard that the 85 1/2 is a limited edition bike. I would like to do some research on this and find out what the deal is.

[XFR_Dozer]

its not a limited edition.. its an 85 1/2 model. Someone heard from the cousin of a brothers wife that it was special.. so the rumor has spread. There is nothing "special" about it...

umm. sorry Chainsaw but you are wrong. no matter what info you got those black bikes were a specific production run. i cannot remeber what the run was but since it was a SPECIFIC number of production models it is a limited edition.http://www.jordanandjennas.homestead.com/familypics.html on the back of the photo of that black one is dated 3/12/85 i had one of the first ones and dropped a sandscorcher motor in it from one of my yellow ones. anyhow i have no written proof or knowwhere to find any but i was told from a factory rep that it was a limited production run. thats all i have on this guys . gl in your search

[Groundworx]

Like I said, if anyone knows of a site or something where I can find out more on this, please post a link or email it to me. Keep posting replies too. I need as much info on these as possible.

[Jeb]

Yep, they were special edition Tri-Zs. As far as I know color is the ONLY difference. I have an old article where they do some hop ups on a red and black special edition 85 Tri-Z.

[CHAINSAW]

Im just going off of what a dealer told me. He said there is nothing special about them, they were a half year model is all. As far as a limited number of those.. hell, there was a limited number of every trike.

[Billy Golightly]

They were limited editions. Just like there is a LE Raptor with black plastics, LE YFZ450 with black plastics, LE Banshee that has black plastics. It was more or less just another color choice but they called it "Limited Edition"

[XFR_Dozer]

well we all know that dealers have all the answers. lol jk. most of em know squat about atvs except they take up alot of floor space. but my question to him would be just how many 1/2 model years have there been? its not standard practice to change a production model in the middle of a model year. that really doesnt make sense to me logically to say its an 85 1/2 but theres nothing special about it. ...... just a thought.

[CHAINSAW]

Well in that case,. if the limited edition models were so rare, then the 86s should be considered a limited limited edition.. lol Ive seen a hell of a lot more black n reds, then 86's. We have been trying to find some production figures for a while, but no one has come up with any. It would be cool to see how many of each were made.

[XFR_Dozer]

i also would be interested to see some production numbers on these. quite honestly i didnt know that there were that many black ones around. personally i wonder if they were all factory blacks or reproductions. im on the phone right now chasin down the production #s. ok my "contact" has been officially removed from my future who wants to be a millionaire phone a friend list. ive resorted to google lol. hope somebody else has a better idea

[Groundworx]

Thanks for the input guys. So was the white any yellow bikes just different color schemes that were available on either year? Then the black and red was only on the 85 1/2.

[XFR_Dozer]

no all 86s were red and white. only 85s gave you choice between black& red or yellow & black .speaking of the 86 plastics. how rare do those red airbox covers seem to be? i found one in very good condition but this guy isnt just giving it away.