BW200 / ATC250R hybrid restoration

[jp212]

I posted some of this over on ADVrider so I figured I'd do the same here since a lot of the ATC250R folks will appreciate this hybrid BW200/ATC250R that I'm rebuilding. Here's the story behind it. I picked up a 1985 Big Wheel 200 at an auction a couple years ago and it was an interesting find because it isn't exactly stock. It was pretty inexpensive so I thought it'd be a good candidate for a restoration project, although it did need a good bit of work. I've been slowly working on it between other projects that I've since completed, like my 6 wheel amphibious ATVs, a Honda XR400 rebuild, and a XR650R supermoto build. Here's the rundown of what I've got on my plate.

-The bike sat for a long time with caked on mud and it needed attention, but mechanically the engine was excellent.
-Someone put a Honda ATC (200cc model I believe....you guys would know better than me on this one) rear mono shock on it and ditched the stock dual rear BW200 shocks. To fit the shock, they welded on their own linkage on the swingarm and hacked the airbox up very badly.
-The cool part of this bike is that the front stock BW front end was replaced with 1985 Honda ATC250R forks, brakes, hub, triple clamps, and wheel. This is a huge improvement over the BW200 forks and drum brake. It sits taller, stops better, has more travel, and just looks cooler. The front tire is a Dunlop 24.5x8x11, OEM for a Honda Fat Cat TR200.

The day I got the bike home, my dad and I cleaned it and got it running and driving! I later got the bike completely torn down (after we fought with the stubborn swingarm bolt for quite a while, but did evemtually get it out with a lot of force, 4 letter words, and a BFH). Later that month, I picked up another 1985 BW200 locally off Craigslist that ran and drove and was pretty complete. This bike is being parted out because it needed too many little repairs, but it was great because it had a lot of parts that I needed for my other BW200. Now here's what I've done so far with the project......I feel like I'm making pretty good progress with it.

-The frame, swingarm, rear wheel, and front ATC250R hub have been sandblasted and will be either painted or powdercoated (not sure which one I should do yet).
-I polished the ATC250R forks and they have new red Daystar fork boots installed on them.
-I took the stock BW200 headlight and frame and made a piece of aluminum angle to fit it onto the ATC250R triple clamps. It took some thinking, but it worked great and actually looks pretty much stock.
-My friend and I welded tabs for the stock, dual rear BW200 shocks onto the swingarm and we cut all the extra pieces of angle that were welded on there to use the mono shock. We made the shock mount tabs slightly taller than the stock ones so the back end would be slightly raised up to match the extra height in the front of the ATC250R front end.
-I scraped (with a razor blade), sanded, buffed, polished, and waxed the stock plastics and they look bright, glossy, and just like new now. It was a good bit of work, but well worth it! The original pics I posted don't show how bad the oxidation was on the plastics, but after all that work, I was very pleased with how they came out.
-I wire wheeled and painted all the bolt on parts such as the foot pegs, mounts, shifter, kickstand, etc, etc.
-I got all new bearings, chains, cables, sprockets, etc, and I bought a eccentric swing arm adjuster kit from a member named DMOBill on the ADVrider site (he does EXCELLENT work and I highly recommend that anyone with a BW200 or BW350 get this kit!). http://www.dmospecialties.com/
-I sent my old seat cover to some nice folks overseas that sell repro motorcycle seat covers on ebay, because they had an offer where they give you a free brand new repro seat cover if they didn't already make one for your make and model of bike. They used mine as a template and sent me my new one free of charge and I had it put on by a local vinyl shop and the guy said he was very impressed by the quality of it and it fit and looks amazing. Since then, they've been selling them like hotcakes. This seller is GREAT to do business with. http://www.ebay.com/itm/YAMAHA-BW200...9db2b5&vxp=mtr
-I bought 4 NOS Dunlop 23x11x9 OEM Big Wheel tires off Craigslist and my friend was nice enough to pick them up and bring them home on his roof luggage rack.
-I ordered a new Maier ATC250R front fender (a white one). It was hard to find white since most everyone out there only carried red, but I got it and it'll bolt right onto the lower ATC250R triple clamp and hopefully blend in and look like stock OEM piece on the Big Wheel.
-I got some nice polished ATC250R tripled clamps off ebay because the lower triple on my bike had hairline cracks near where the forks slide through.
-I had my new ebay seat cover installed and it looks great, just like OEM.
-I buffed the taillight lens (which seems to be a very expensive part) after removing the rusted OEM hardware for it with a tiny drill bit and a very steady hand. I replaced the rusted hardware that I drilled out with stainless steel hardware that of course, I had to polish too.
-I got a piece of aluminum angle and fabricated it so that the stock BW200 headlight assembly could be bolted onto the ATC250R upper triple clamp and it fits perfectly......the white Yamaha plastics are even a somewhat close match the the white Maier front fender. I some little red "Yamaha" decals that I'll put on the bike when I get it done that look just like the OEM BW200 ones, just to add a nice finishing touch and help blend the BW headlight shroud to the 250R forks.

I didn't anticipate doing all this, but I finished my Honda XR400 rebuild and there's still a good bit of Winter here it seems, so I'm going to take my time on this build. Thanks again for all the helpful tips on this great site, everyone!

And here are some pics.....

The pic of the bike from the auctioneer's website. This is what reminded me of when I saw a Big Wheel when I was a kid and sparked my madness and made me go buy it.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h228/jpswift1/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/P3210039_zpse70f7153.jpg (http://s65.photobucket.com/user/jpswift1/media/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/P3210039_zpse70f7153.jpg.html)

Right after I won the auction and rolled it up to the front of the lot to be loaded on my truck.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h228/jpswift1/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/photo0269_zps0b946ded.jpg (http://s65.photobucket.com/user/jpswift1/media/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/photo0269_zps0b946ded.jpg.html)


Got her home and started tearing her down and cleaning her up!

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h228/jpswift1/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/photo0270_zps25c0916a.jpg (http://s65.photobucket.com/user/jpswift1/media/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/photo0270_zps25c0916a.jpg.html)


http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h228/jpswift1/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/photo0271_zpse3c0b08b.jpg (http://s65.photobucket.com/user/jpswift1/media/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/photo0271_zpse3c0b08b.jpg.html)


Somewhat cleaner, and that front rim, underneath all the years of caked on mud, is gold.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h228/jpswift1/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/85bw200_zps5ab06119.jpg (http://s65.photobucket.com/user/jpswift1/media/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/85bw200_zps5ab06119.jpg.html)

The other BW200 that I got off Craigslist and used for parts. It needed too many little things, I wouldn't have parted it out if it was really nice. PS- I do have lots of nice parts of this bike for sale still including the engine.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h228/jpswift1/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/Photo0287_zpsc961a3a6.jpg (http://s65.photobucket.com/user/jpswift1/media/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/Photo0287_zpsc961a3a6.jpg.html)

The frame and swing arm and other parts, wire wheeled and sandblasted and ready for paint and powdercoating.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h228/jpswift1/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/Photo0384_zpsa694c4c3.jpg (http://s65.photobucket.com/user/jpswift1/media/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/Photo0384_zpsa694c4c3.jpg.html)

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h228/jpswift1/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/Photo0375_zps4e0e0c7d.jpg (http://s65.photobucket.com/user/jpswift1/media/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/Photo0375_zps4e0e0c7d.jpg.html)

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h228/jpswift1/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/photo0288_zps9b457317.jpg (http://s65.photobucket.com/user/jpswift1/media/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/photo0288_zps9b457317.jpg.html)


http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h228/jpswift1/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/photo0289_zps781c77af.jpg (http://s65.photobucket.com/user/jpswift1/media/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/photo0289_zps781c77af.jpg.html)
The mystery Honda 3 wheeler (I believe) rear mono shock with remote reservoir that someone rigged on there and then cobbed the heck out of the airbox to fit it. Luckily my parts BW had a lot of the parts I needed that were missing from the one I got at the auction.

Some pics of the progress I've been making.......

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h228/jpswift1/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/STP60588_zpsb05c5b9b.jpg (http://s65.photobucket.com/user/jpswift1/media/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/STP60588_zpsb05c5b9b.jpg.html)

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h228/jpswift1/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/STP60585_zps2dbc28a2.jpg (http://s65.photobucket.com/user/jpswift1/media/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/STP60585_zps2dbc28a2.jpg.html)

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h228/jpswift1/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/STP60615_zpsf4301d9a.jpg (http://s65.photobucket.com/user/jpswift1/media/Yamaha%20Big%20Wheel/STP60615_zpsf4301d9a.jpg.html)

Many more pics to come. Thanks for letting me share this rebuild with you guys!

[Scootertrash]

Nice work!

I can't wait to see the finished pics!

A BW200 or 350 is on my list of "Have-to-buys"

[tri-shee]

Nice job . I have the whole fleet of Yamaha Bw's . Keep up the good work!

[Husky250]

Nice work on your find and progress. I still dream of having a BW (have for the last 30 years). Not second guessing your decision to part out the other BW but it makes me sad to see anything parted out. It's a double edged sword. We all need parts to keep our old toys running but it means that there is one less (of whatever it is) around for someone to enjoy.

[tecaterob]

Nice job so far....

[jp212]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I too don't really like to part machines out and I hate to waste anything. Unfortunately the other BW200 needed too many little repairs and I needed parts off it like the airbox, mudguard/shield, headlight assembly, and other little parts for this BW200 that I'm currently building. I'm glad to know that the parts that I've sold off it have gone to a good home to help other folks keep their BW's up and running.

I've got a slight problem that maybe someone here can help me with. The one lower ATC250R fork tube seems to have stripped threads where the axle goes into. Would this be able to be fixed with a Heli-coil?

[jp212]

Here's a REALLY cool custom Big Wheel somebody built. I LOVE the looks of this thing, especially with the blue, white, and gold colors it's wearing. If Yamaha still built the BW line today, I could see them looking just like this!

http://as-suehiro.a.la9.jp/bw225.html

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[jp212]

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I just some of my parts back from the powdercoater, rear wheel, brake parts, hub, etc and they're look great. I wanted the gold color to match the anodized gold front wheel of the ATC250R as close as possible and it looks pretty good. Next will be installing new bearings, brakes, and the NOS Dunlop KT647 rear BW200 tire. Then I'll get the frame powdercoated and put all the pieces together!

[cap]

Amazing how good that 250r front looks on the BW! How's this project coming, any updates?
Great work so far, love the BW's.

[jp212]

Amazing how good that 250r front looks on the BW! How's this project coming, any updates?
Great work so far, love the BW's.

Thanks! Those 250R forks make it look (and perform) much better than the dinky original BW forks and brakes. The front wheel and hub is off a ATC250R and the tire is actually from a Honda Fat Cat. I got a few little things done here and there, but it's been crazy busy with a few other projects and fun stuff lately, but over the winter I hope to get the BW done. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated.

[jp212]

A small little piece of the project is done and it paves the way for a LOT more progress. My friend and I just tack welded in a steering stop on the BW200 frame for the ATC250R triples. We got it pretty straight and when you turn the ATC250R triples/forks all the way to the left and right they're just the right distance away from the tank. I cut a piece of 1/4" steel, ground the edges to form angles so they have enough surface to contact the lower triple clamp ears/stops and then measured the placement on the frame a few times to get it just right. I then made a little triangle gusset out of 1/8" steel for a little extra strength and ended up with this. I will get the rough edges ground smooth and rounded off before it gets powdercoated so it looks "factory original." I'll report back to you guys with what needs to be done next, it's not looking like it'll be very difficult from here on out.......I think this is going to work very well!

I'm dropping the frame off at my welder's shop tomorrow to have the stop fully welded on. Once it's ready it'll be headed over to the powdercoating shop and then I'll be able to do some assembly later this month!

[big specht]

We need to figure out what aluminum rear wheel matches the bw's. I painted mine gold to match my frt too but a anodized aluminum wheel would match better.

[jp212]

We need to figure out what aluminum rear wheel matches the bw's. I painted mine gold to match my frt too but a anodized aluminum wheel would match better.

Great idea! I'll do some research.

[jp212]

No luck on finding an aluminum wheel in the gold anodized color for the rear yet. But some good news, my frame is at the powdercoating shop and it will be ready in about a week. Then assembly will begin......the fun part!

[jp212]

I made a big step of progress on my BW200/ATC250R hybrid build. I got the frame back from the powdercoater and it looks great! The red is nearly identical to the original Yamaha red that was on the frame. The color is Prismatic Powder's "Passion Red" in case anyone was wondering. I bolted the polished triples for a few pics. The lighting isn't very good in the basement, but you can get the general idea of what it'll look like.

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