When do you give up on a project trike?

[jb2wheels]

At what point do you throw in the towel on a project trike?

I bought a 200s about a year ago for $75. It's mostly complete and has spark so I figured, "What the heck?".

Since I finished my 90/110 project, I wanted to get this project rolling.

During the tear down today, I found some rust through on the frame. Also, the forks are bent. It was hard to tell before because the front tire was so trashed. Not sure if it's the tubes or the "triples".

Anyway, I know it can be saved with either some welding or pressing or repalcement parts but...

Tank is trash. Muffler is trash. 3 different wheels (I think one is a Tri-Moto). Junk tires. Trashed seat, trashed brakes, trashed cables.

I'm not too deep into it - I bought a 200 with a Clarke tank for $50 and sold $100 worth of parts of it and kept the tank and engine. I also bought some new tires and some Ebay aluminum rims - got about $150 in those. So with the wheels and tires I'm out about $175 and I can probably sell parts off to get back to even or better.

I originally planned to have the 200s frame end other metal parts powder coated, recover the seat, etc. I figured I'd have about $500-600 in it and have a nice hard tail. But a frame and fork replacement puts me into the price range of a beater 200x or real nice, already complete, hard tail.

I'm leaning towards cutting my losses. Any thoughts or any of you been in a similar spot?

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/4861/atc200before2.th.jpg (http://img6.imageshack.us/i/atc200before2.jpg/)
http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/8615/atc200before1.th.jpg (http://img718.imageshack.us/i/atc200before1.jpg/)
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/4549/atc200before3.th.jpg (http://img19.imageshack.us/i/atc200before3.jpg/)
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/1672/atc200before4.th.jpg (http://img19.imageshack.us/i/atc200before4.jpg/)
http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/715/atc200before5.th.jpg (http://img718.imageshack.us/i/atc200before5.jpg/)
http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/7836/atc200before6.th.jpg (http://img121.imageshack.us/i/atc200before6.jpg/)

[leviblue]

do you want it?? if so it's worth keeping or find another cheap 200 and use the 1st for parts. I have a project thats 6years in the making. Though it's been a pain to find parts I know it's worth it.

[CRAZY70MAN]

6-700.00 will fetch a nice hard tail in this area complete and ready to ride. It is a matter of personal gratification of you doing it yourself I guess. I would put it on backburner if you have room and take your time. It took me a very long time to realize they don't need to be finished in 7-10 days. lol lol Good luck, I would rebiuld the old 200 personally?????

[whyzee]

i'm from the school where in the long run , when you figure in labor costs and total parts, you are much much better starting with a nice bike. sell it, save your $$ for a while and buy the nice 200x on here for $900. Use all the hours that you were going to use to restore it, put them into your regular job, and you will have your money in a few weeks

[Mr_RPM]

when to trow in the towel? when your broke! money money money

[whyzee]

when to trow in the towel? when your broke! money money money

and that's the truth right there!

[daniel_250r]

if i were you i would get it running, snorkel it, duct tape a pillow to it and give er

[harryredtrike]

id try to find another parts trike and go from there.frame rot is a problem and the fork issue is a money issue.its still doable though

[Frankencelery]

I'd scrap it. It sounds like it's a basket case, and you will definitely spend more than you would spend just to buy a good running one! Sell some parts to recover your losses, and wait for a good deal on one that someone has cared for. Besides, there's probably more stuff you don't even know about yet!

i had an '86 200x that I was sure I was going to restore. Engine seized, plastics broken, cables shot, no spark, missing various parts, brakes not working. I was still on that track when I saw that the frame was bent. That was the end of it for me. Never did get those parts sold, they're still in the barn! The point is that I knew it was time to hang it up. I know the '86 200x is a bit more valuable than a 200s, but it was beyond the point of being resonable for me. I would have spent at least a grand getting it going again!

[jb2wheels]

Thanks for the thoughts, guys. I'll finish the tear down this week and see how I feel about it then.

And the Cobra is PRICELESS - 3 generations of us (me - 41, my dad - 68, my son - 17) built that over the last couple of years. Needs paint. Total riot to drive. Like any modern sport bike, it's too fast to explore it's limits on the street - time for some track days.

[plastikosmd]

When do I give up? Just after I ran my truck over it in frustration!

[hublake]

Being retired finding an old trashed trike is part of the fun. I have a couple I am working on now that I have been working on a couple of years now. When I need a part I look here and on ebay, I usually find it. Sometimes I might go a month or so without doing anything on either one. I find it is always nice to have something to do. There is no hurry on them. The 73 atc 70 I am working on is for my grandson who is only 6 months old so I have plenty of time. My satisfaction is taking something that is bad and making it look good and be usable for someone. I spent over $1500.00 in restoring my 85 BR of course it meant alot to me as I bought it new. Never throw in the towel.

[Thorpe]

I usually throw the towel in when the case of beer is empty... Sounds like a good canidate to keep collecting parts, and rebuil it... I polished up my turd of a BR, and love it now... Just took time patience, alot of beer, and even more money...

[Nike]

Being retired finding an old trashed trike is part of the fun. I have a couple I am working on now that I have been working on a couple of years now. When I need a part I look here and on ebay, I usually find it. Sometimes I might go a month or so without doing anything on either one. I find it is always nice to have something to do. There is no hurry on them. The 73 atc 70 I am working on is for my grandson who is only 6 months old so I have plenty of time. My satisfaction is taking something that is bad and making it look good and be usable for someone. I spent over $1500.00 in restoring my 85 BR of course it meant alot to me as I bought it new. Never throw in the towel.

Not to get off topic BUT, do you have a thread with your rebuild on here? Im new and starting my own..

THANKS!

[TheRealFatShady]

I'd say get a sandblaster and blast the engine/whatever frame you end up using. Then just paint them both, use grill paint on the engine if needed.

Get marine vinyl at Jo-Anne's fabric store for $12 a square yard, cover the seat. Try to clean/fix your stock tank or use that plastic one.
Search craiglook.com for a 200s frame. If you were closer I would give you mine.

Or get a 200x chassis and make an Auto-X. My 200s was real bad looking, crooked forks, pipe rusted pretty bad, seat had no cover, no plastics on it at all, gas tank leaked. I used solder to fix the tank, rebuilt the carb, pullstart, fixed the wiring, and for $100, I had a three wheeler that started up on the first pull. Best money I've ever spent. I ride the hell out of that thing.

[AutoXer]

i'm partial but I would look for a 200x roller and do a auto-x. Really depends on what YOU want to do. I have way more in my auto-x than I could hope to recoup on a sale but I enjoyed the build and like to ride it and I don't have as much in it as I could have blown on other things so who cares. Get parts as you can find/afford have some thing to enjoy when you are done

[jb2wheels]

So - I did exactly what AutoXer suggested. I gave up on the 200s and stripped it all down and stored the parts and figured I'd keep my eye out for a better hardtail or an auto-x project.

I found the engineless 84 200x carcass a couple of hours away for $100 and included a new Maier 350x rear fender (not in pics). Lot's of junk on it and missing some parts but a good start I figured. A fair deal and the 350x fender might bring enough to offset the cost. Seat, both fenders, tank and most of the brakes are junk. Also missing engine mounts, exhaust and some other little bits. So, I started collecting parts (here and eBay) then came across...

Another 84 200x. This one is fairly complete and "ran last summer". For $200 I couldn't pick it up fast enough. Seat, plastic, tank and brakes are junk. But tires look almost new. Has a new UNI filter in it. Has both skid plates attached and the cool 6pack rack.

So I cobbled together enough brake parts from both trikes to have front and rear brakes. They're really weak (fronts soaked with fork oil) but they stop.
Then I had to clean and lube up the cables and twist throttle so I had controls. Oh and the grips were just slightly more solid than Jell-O GROSS
Cleaned and oiled the UNI. Cleaned the carb that had been sealed with silicon which turns to jelly when gas hit it and bolted on my acid washed eBay tank. Afer making sure I had oil, it started on the 2nd kick.
Kicker works great. Brake pedal is a little sloppy. Clutch works great. All the gears work and no smoke! Seems like a lot of compression too. Total SCORE.
Noisy though so when it cools I'll see just how much clearance the valves have.
Forks leak. Carb leaks. Both masters leak. No oil leaks from engine and no air leaks from tires. Light works too.

Anyway, I'm very happy with #2. A few more parts and I can put #1 together as an auto-x and see if the 200s engine runs.

Here are the Ugly Twins:
947409474194742

Someday, they'll be pretty again. First, I want two runners.

[Macdiesel]

start smoking if you dont now you will, but like my old camaro 15 years ago, when everyone said scrap it, .... it will pay off and when you get done it will truly be yours relax and have fun, remember money burns, friends leave but legends and memories live forever cause you can never take it all with you

[84honda200s]

my first trike was a trashed 84 200s i bought off ebay for 50.00 .. i stuck alot of money and work into it.. i asked myself the same question as you are and found this site and someone told me "if you worried about the money then get out and get a new quad" i decided to stick with the 200s .. everyone has a 4 wheeler or dirt bike but not everyone has a trike .. specially one that you worked your butt off to build.. i put more money into the motor alone than most people would ever consider putting into a 200s motor . . but i dont regret it one bit . . i loved that 200s it was a tank and with some good tall tires she went threw and over almost anything i wanted it to.. sure you could buy a 200x but everyone has one.. i built a auto x just to be different but even now there are a few of them ..

my opinion is keep it and tinker with it .. half the fun of having a trike is working on them and building them from the ground up and saying "yup i built it from practically nothing"

[Autophysn]

my problem is time, I have none. So projects just mean more stuff laying around I will never get to

[84honda200s]

my problem is time, I have none. So projects just mean more stuff laying around I will never get to

oh i know how that is ..

[Dirtcrasher]

It's a "trike thing". Many of us spend FAR too much $$ on our trikes but in the end, where happy! :D

[dickieg89]

I have a nice frame in the basement for several trikes, one is a 200s. Too bad texas to ny would cost so much to ship or I'd help you out on the frame rot thru problem