Owned a 185s and a 86 250r.





The 185 was a freakin beast.  I beat the dogsh!t out of it for years.


Then I rode and later bought my cousin's 250r.  This after years of riding beaters, I got on his beater and he says "you're gonna want the top end rebuilt".


So I did.  And then I rode it.











I've ridden more ATV's that I can count.  Quadzilla 500, 3 wheelers, all the Honda 4trax models, Raptors, 450rs, DS650s.....you name it.





NOTHING...I've ever ridden was like that 250r.  4th gear wheelies with a twist of the wrist.  Absolutely a blast to ride.


Does it demand respect?  He!! yes.  But it's no different than a 4 wheeler.  You get stupid on it, you're gonna get hurt.  Period.





I should have NEVER sold it.





ETA: Not mine, but very similar.





 

A triangle going the wrong way with shit suspension and bubble tires. Wooooo.

<<<<<<<
My father gave me his 85 about 14-15 years ago, only things I've done is changed the clutch, due to the fact that i put S.S. Vampires on it, and carrier bearings.  I cant even remember if I have ever changed the plug.  

That thing would keep up with the "new" 400ex no problem, and would go through anything any 4x4 would with those tires.

I don't have any pics, will try to get some. I left it with him in Ohio, when I moved to Florida 4 years ago.

A few friends and I have a place on the river where we spend most weekends during the summer.  There's about 1800 acres of land with a wide range of trails (e.g. woods, sandbars/sandhills, mud trails, creek beds, steep hills).  There's about 400 camp sites, and we keep a yearly lease on a group of them so we always have a permanent setup with the travel trailers/porches/gear, etc.  It's not uncommon for a group of 20-30 bikes to meet up and make a couple long rides during the day and one at night.  

Just a few years ago, everyone was into the bigger, newer four wheelers (Can-am XMRs/Outlanders, Polaris Sportsmans, etc).  In more recent years, everyone has been into the side-by-sides (mostly RZRs, Rangers, Commanders, Mavericks, with a few wildcats and other makes).  It's always been pretty interesting to see each of them put to the test.  

Last year another friend and myself got kind of bored with just riding around in our RZRs and decided to let the wives/kids take them while we got back on older four wheelers and ATCs.  I ended up getting my dad's old ATC 110 out and I bought two others for 200 bucks (one ran, one didn't).  Between the three, I am trying to do a full restoration on my dad's and try to keep one as a beater.  I also bought a 250ES Big Red for $100 which I am also in the process of restoring.  A 350X is next on the list if I can find a decent one.  

My friend bought a 200 Big Red and 1986 250R both in good condition.  We did a full restoration of the 250R which is now too pretty to ride .  Late last year, he found a real gem: a 1987 250SX in about 90% condition.  This bike is probably one of the most fun to take on trails and tool around.  It handles well (for an ATC), has good suspension, and there is no manual clutch which is nice for the slow trails.  

After riding the big SxSs, it's pretty cool taking the ATCs places the other bikes won't go.  

Growing up I had an ATC 110, ATC 200, and a 200X and a Tecate 4. Now at the age of 48 I ride this:

Had a atc110. 200x. 250r. 2 trips to the er. Currently have a Big Red. Tough as a 2 dollar steak.

At home (in sheds) we have one Honda 350X (mine), two Kawasaki KLT 200's (one is mine) and a Kawasaki KLT 250.

My dad eventually bought several 4 wheelers.  I road the Honda 250 fourtrax and both of the Honda 4WD four wheelers.  I don't like them.  Heavy, hard to steer, less mpg and the 2WD ones don't get around in the snow and mud as well as a 3 wheeler.  Man, don't bury up a 4WD 4 wheeler, you won't get off it, grab it by the sissy bar and pick the back end up out of the mud like we used to do the 3 wheelers.

We rode thousands of miles year after year up home.  Rode for fun, rode them scouting for deer and turkey.  Rode them to hunt deer and turkey.  Rode them to find fishing spots and to fish.

Never had any issues out of the Kawasaki KLT 200 but a broken chain.  Had to load it on a trailer (brother in law built a trailer the same width as the 3 wheelers) so I walked home, fired up a different 3 wheeler and rode down in the woods to get mine and trailer it home.  The 350X never broke bad enough to be towed/trailered home.  I have front sprocket hanging on the wall at work with 12 or the 13 teeth broke off on it.  I heard it crunch/popping on me about 8 or 10 miles from home one day and saw the front sprocket all chewed up.  Tightened up the chain and rode it easy getting home.  That 350X has an unbelievable amount of torque.  When they came out the ATV magazines nicknamed them the "Torque Monster".

I never got anything worse than brier scratches and sunburns riding my 3 wheelers.  None of the group ever got a broken bone.  My younger brother scared the crap out of me one day when he locked the brakes up on his KLT 250 in a curve in the gravel road and hit a tree.  Tore up his speedometer, flipped the ATV over and bounced off the tree.  Bruised him up, lots of cuts/scrapes and he continued to ride the rest of the day.

The group hasn't ridden together in 15 years or so, maybe a little longer.  Back then my brother in law and his brother had, between them, three 350X's, a Yamaha 225 DX (I think that's what it was called), a Honda Big Red, a Honda 200X and a Kawasaki KLT 200.  All of them ran and were used for our day long trips in the woods.

The KLT 200's got about 42/43 mpg.  With the 3.4 gallon tanks we never ran out of gas, close, but never had to use the 1 gallon cans we had strapped to the rack on the back.  The Honda 350X got about 32 mpg.  I had to go to reserve twice on it when we just a couple/three miles from home.

Many long, happy, dirty, wet, cold days on the seat.  During a vacation week we'd be riding side saddle (when we could) after about the 4th day in a row on the seats.  

I actually was around more people that got hurt on 4 wheelers than 3 wheelers but then we weren't drinking and only one of us was crazy and he seemed to be made of rubber, the way he'd bounce when he hit the ground (brother in law's brother).

LOL at the"They're too dangerous" BS. They're no more dangerous that quads. Take a look at current ATV/UTV accident statistics some time.  ;)  It's like any other toy with a motor and wheels: You need to learn how to properly ride them. 3 wheelers require a lot of body english. You can't just plant your ass on the seat and think it will handle any terrain you try to conquer. If you think it's a good idea to try to jump the ones with no suspension or just front suspension you're a dumbass and deserve what you get if you crash.

My 84 200S. I put in an XR200 cam in the motor, XR200 carb, gave it a lite port and polish, basically cleaned up the casting imperfections, polished the exhaust port and matched the ports up with the intake and exhaust, DG exhaust, Kenda front max on the front and Kenda Bear Claws on the rear. 400EX rear hubs and 1 1/2 inch spacers widens the rear end and adds a little more stability.  ;)

The carb and cam woke it up nicely, none of my buddies 185's or 200's can touch it. I wouldn't want to go for much more power on a hardtail, she's plenty fast now.





In her winter gear: 4Snows for rear tires and a ski kit I fabbed up

Here she is. I don't know how I never knew about "Big Reds" until the past few weeks? This one and I are the same year. Now I need to find some accessories! I'd love to cruise around with one of my vintage SP1's slung on the ol' girl somewhere.

please be careful.

Had an old Yamaha 125, Honda 200X, an a Yamaha Tri-Z 250. The most fun I ever had was herding cattle with 200. The Tri-z was one hell of a machine though. Wish I could find one just sitting around for cheap.

Couple guys at Silver Lake Mi used to take the 250R's, chop them up, put a longer swingarm suspension and toss in 750-900 CC hopped up MC engines. Pretty much wasn't a thing that could touch them back in the day.

Bump...

Maybe we should have an official "ATC Pron" thread?

Holy shit!

I had an old 200x and my daughter had a ATC70 when she was little.





I'm more of a Minitrail kinda guy though.

Hell yeah! Big Red will be the official Cola Warrior West gun and cola hauler. Cute kiddo by the way. We're picking up an 86 Yamaha 4 Zinger for my little girl this weekend

I ran over myself more than once with one of those. They were fun though.

We had a 250SX and a 125 growing up.

It was between three wheelers and quads. My dad asked a family friend, who has raced anything with wheels over his life, which he should get.

"Your kids are gonna be kids. They're gonna go as fast as they have to in order to get a thrill when they're riding. That thrill comes a lot slower on a trike than a quad. How fast do you want them to be going when they have an accident?"

He was right. When we went trail riding with guys on quads, those guys were FLYING through the woods at full speed. We never tried to keep up. Thing is though, WHEN you lose control of the quad, it's still flipping over or whatever and you have a lot of mass following you when you're thrown.

For me, my son rides dirtbikes. Much easier to bail on them if you find yourself over your head without getting crushed.

I had a 84 and 86 250R

The 86 was so high speed as it was water cooler. I had a set of Boyesen reeds on it and damn it was fast.

I crashed a few times... Both times taking corners to fast. As long as you took a corner at normal speed they were fine.

Damn... I miss that 2 stroke sound.

Reagan or Bush?

Importers agreed with the CPSC to stop importing them for 10 years under Reagan.

Bush banned the importation of them in 2008

One of my riding buddies put some kind of 1300cc.......Suzuki? I think it was in a Yamaha blaster frame when I was younger.

It started out as a great idea on paper. He was 20 and I was a young 14ish year old kid who didn't know any better yet as to how big of a project that would be.

It ended up as a rigged up pile of junk with a HUGE sprocket to try and gear it down enough to use. He extended the frame about 14" with junk metal from his scrap pile.

The thing was terrible in the sand but it sure would cruise at 70mph pretty easily until the cobbled up frame started to make it vibrate and shimmy like it was trying to take flight.

This generation will never know that sound. Thanks EPA.

My first full-time job was working at a Honda dealer from 1983-87 that carried everything Honda made.
We had about a 30 ATV display and it was my job to ride them all out and line them up and bring them back in at the end of the day.
Also the owner of the dealership let us ride the used trade-ins in the gravel pit out back provided we cleaned them up when done. I recall too the change over from 3 wheelers to 4 wheelers that took place in that time frame.
I did all the prep and reconditioning on the all the cars and equipment.
Good times.

 
 

Bumping this old ass thread...

1984 Honda Big Red was the official gun/cola runner of Cola Warrior West. It didn't get used for every run to take stuff up, but I left it out there for those that wanted to use it. The tote you see there was screwed to the rack, then you could place a tote the same size inside with your guns and soda to take them to the firing line ahead of time, or have someone else run them up. I wish there was some action shots. As far as I know, the only ones brave enough to ride it all the way up the hill were myself, Scare_Crow and Stutzcattle.

Yup, I started out with a ATC70 and then a 110.
Heres the 1979 110 in 79/80, helmets we didn't need no stinkin helmets. My dad had a Big Red. I've got another pic somewhere.

Damn wish you were closer to Bama. It is the twin carb model?  I had one yrs ago. It was the last 3 wheeler I owned. Wish I still had it.
Got any pics?

1985, first year.  MIne's all white but the blue seat and red air deflectors to route air flow to the oil cooler.  1986 was the last year.

Awesome machines.  I never got hurt on mine other than brier scratches.  Wore out the factory tires and several chains/sprockets, a set of front and rear axle bearings and a few sets of brake pads.

They're a little tricky in the woods, not really geared for slow/rough trail riding.  Just no place to ride around here.  Unless you like covering the same piece of ground over and over.

This
We ran 250 Big Reds as spot spray rigs in cotton fields. Never had a problem.

Both are at my brothers place in NY.

86 200x

85 Tecate 3 Jimmy White replica restored w/ lots of NOS parts. Including a the last NOS Bassani pipe that was out there. Contacted the original welder who dug through his pile and found one.

he also has a 350x, 250r air cooled w/ a DG head.

We've had a Tiger 200 and a Tri-Z at one point too.


People that crash them are basicaly "doing it wrong". Super X tracks didnt really exist in the racing days of 3 wheelers. Flat corners, opposite lock turnng and small jumps were the way they were ridden and raced.

There are a couple guys that have coverted their 250r's with modern inverted forks and newer style rear shocks that run on modern tracks, doing doubles etc and big gaps.