1988 - A year that might have been (fiction by Wickedfinger) Pt1.

[Billy Golightly]

Wow...that was great Jon. Very cool thing. Few corrections though


#1: Tecate's are 5spd's (Unless, in '88, they got an extra cog )
#2: The Banshee engine is derrived from the RZ350 streetbike. The RD350 was an aircooler.
#3: On the Tri-Shee 350, You have 42" massive showa front forks. 42" is indeed massive, but I think you probably typo'ed for 42mm.


Very, Very cool read...If only we had some pictures to go along with it.

[TeCaTe_MaN]

that was great reading...if it was only a reality... a 3wd trike, if made correctly, would rip apart the 4x4 quads...

[ste-pel]

Very, Very cool read...If only we had some pictures to go along with it.

there is a program call poto shop iam sure some one could make them

[TeCaTe_MaN]

yea...heres the call out, ATC-Crazy crack out some cool pictures to go with this thread...that would be awesome

[Billy Golightly]

Yeah I've got PhotoShop, I know how to use it too (The ATC450R in Dirtwheels a while back was mine). But a 3wheel drive trike would be kind of hard to mock up and make look right.

[trikerider2oo7]

The biggest 2 stroke yet. The ATC450R. Almost double the power and speed of the 250R and only 25 pounds more overall weight. Wether you want to race or just ride around it'll do the job and more. It's liquid cooled 2-stroke 449.4cc engine will out accelerate and out run just about anything that lines up with it at the drags. The only downgrade of this bike is its price which is $4799 MSRP.

To keep up with Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha have also built liquid cooled 450cc 2-stroke ATC's. Kawasaki has introduced it's KXT450 Tecate and Yamaha has its Tri-Z450. More about these two trikes in next month's issue.

[Wickedfinger]

Wow...that was great Jon. Very cool thing. Few corrections though


#1: Tecate's are 5spd's (Unless, in '88, they got an extra cog )
#2: The Banshee engine is derrived from the RZ350 streetbike. The RD350 was an aircooler.
#3: On the Tri-Shee 350, You have 42" massive showa front forks. 42" is indeed massive, but I think you probably typo'ed for 42mm.


Very, Very cool read...If only we had some pictures to go along with it.

Fixed the problems ........ I meant to type RZ350, the 42" was supposed to be 42mm, The Tecate stays a 6-speed .

Changed my mind on the Tecate .... I would have had to "re-write" history on the Tecate 4.

[Wickedfinger]

Ok, I've figured out the ATC300ES/3drive's front drive system. The 300ES's front cradle and frame would have to be that of a double wishbone design and not a single down tube. The 282cc Honda motors bottom end would have to be that of the std. 4x4 model. A small adaptor/housing would be needed at the front power take off point that would angle a non-u-jointed drive shaft up through the double cradle and up to the steering head. Pretty simple so far, right?. Heres where it gets interesting. Well, instead of the drive shaft ending in some sort of a traditional u-joint, it would end in a cylindrical or "spicer" type gear that would feed at an angle into the head. Now, the head design would consist of a traditional hollow head piece but the inside would have a hollow spindle that would turn the forks and inside that would be a solid shaft with a bearing at the top and bottom and an inline gear face cut into the center of it. The head would have a "slot" cut out of the rear part and the spicer gear would mesh up at that point, at an angle, to the inline gear face on the spindle. The inline gear shaft in the head would feed out into a gear box thats located just below the bottom tree. Now, the big question - How to run a solid drive shaft down an adjustable fork that will change lengths as it travels?. Simple and ingenious, If I must say. The lower drive shaft would consist of a hollow tube outer cover with an inner and outer shaft. The inner shaft would be solid and the top end would have a long intermesh gear face cut into it, the larger outer shaft would be hollow and the lower part would have an outside gear face that would slide over the solid shafts outer gear. There would be dead space inside the outer shaft that would allow the inner shaft to move the length of the suspensions travel but still be in continuous contact with the outer shaft. Lubrication with good grease would be critical here. The rest is simple, the bottom of the inner shaft would feed into a small gear box that would drive the front hub.

[Red Rider]

Wickedfinger, nice dream article, but I found a few discrepancies. For the 1988 Tri-Z 250, you said Yamaha upgraded the front suspension to 39mm forks with 9.7" of travel & 8.66" out back. I'd hardly call that an upgrade since the 1986 model already had 39mm forks with 10" & I believe the back end had 9.3", but I'd have to whip out the old Yamaha brochure to be sure on that one.

Also, in keeping with your magazine theme, I have a question for your mechanical experts: "My friend Johnny has a 1976 Hodaka Dirtwhomper 175, that he says is stock, & he thinks it can beat me in a race. I have a 1978 Sandsnake 200 with heavy-duty piston return springs. Who would win?"

[Wickedfinger]

Wickedfinger, nice dream article, but I found a few discrepancies. For the 1988 Tri-Z 250, you said Yamaha upgraded the front suspension to 39mm forks with 9.7" of travel & 8.66" out back. I'd hardly call that an upgrade since the 1986 model already had 39mm forks with 10" & I believe the back end had 9.3", but I'd have to whip out the old Yamaha brochure to be sure on that one.

Also, in keeping with your magazine theme, I have a question for your mechanical experts: "My friend Johnny has a 1976 Hodaka Dirtwhomper 175, that he says is stock, & he thinks it can beat me in a race. I have a 1978 Sandsnake 200 with heavy-duty piston return springs. Who would win?"

The upgrade comes in the form of the fact that they are "Showa" forks now, not the in house units. Also the back end is now "Banshee" related and shares the same, better performing, piggyback shock, linkage and swing arm with the quad. This would have been an obvious move by Yamaha now that the fuel tank isn't in the way, to help keep costs down as well as have product modularization. We have to keep in mind that, at the time, the Banshee was the very peak of ATV development at Yamaha. Any lessons learned from its engineering would have been applied to other hi-performance models.

Now, as far as the bike question goes, the winner would be obvious - the 1978 Sandsnake 200 would beat the 1976 Hodaka 175 because its 3 years newer .... duh.

[short4stuff]

The biggest 2 stroke yet. The ATC450R. Almost double the power and speed of the 250R and only 25 pounds more overall weight. Wether you want to race or just ride around it'll do the job and more. It's liquid cooled 2-stroke 449.4cc engine will out accelerate and out run just about anything that lines up with it at the drags. The only downgrade of this bike is its price which is $4799 MSRP.

To keep up with Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha have also built liquid cooled 450cc 2-stroke ATC's. Kawasaki has introduced it's KXT450 Tecate and Yamaha has its Tri-Z450. More about these two trikes in next month's issue.

I always thought you would just cut the front end off the trx450r and put the atc250r one on... making it a 450r 4 STROKE not 2 ?? ...
They changed the engine did they ? hmm interesting ....
Just have to say the new power is in 4 stroke.... 2 will be going out the door soon.

[Red Rider]

Yamaha switches to a different brand of forks, that are the same size, but have less travel, and they call it better. Then they throw on the rear suspension from a quad that has less travel, and they call that better too. It would be better for them to produce because it would be cheaper for them to produce, thanks to the modularization. That's why I don't buy Yamahas!

[Mr. Sandman]

Red Rider This is fiction. Besides, how many years has Yamaha been making the Bansheep and nothing changes except the colors and graphics? In the real world, we would have had a new, but different color Tri-Z every year. And everyone knows only HONDA has a true R & D team and it sounds like Wickedfinger would fit right in.

[trikerider2oo7]

I always thought you would just cut the front end off the trx450r and put the atc250r one on... making it a 450r 4 STROKE not 2 ?? ...
They changed the engine did they ? hmm interesting ....
Just have to say the new power is in 4 stroke.... 2 will be going out the door soon.

maybe i'm wrong, but what i got out of what oldfart said...the ATC450R idea was 2-stroke

[short4stuff]

maybe i'm wrong, but what i got out of what oldfart said...the ATC450R idea was 2-stroke

O yes I forgot about that post .. i was thinking about the trx450r converted .... sorry
By the way Wickedfinger you are a good article writer.