Long Live 3Wheeling Magazine

[Ace Mon]

Dang Dean ... I wish you were my dad .Infact you might just be my dad . Were you at woodstock ? All kidding aside , welcome aboard . Come into Chat sometime and we'll exchange some stories .

[Beer_Smurf]

Dean,
Great to hear from you.
Thank you for all your great work in the past.
You can come ride my ATC anytime.
It would be great if you could give some perspective for some of our newer riders.
Maybe an column for 3wheelerworld?

I'm proud to still have my 3wheeling sticker on my '84.

Best wishes
Don
Reno, NV

[Russell 350X]

Hey welcome to the site! I'll prolly have questions for you sometime soon lol.

[Red Rider]

I truly love the sport of 3wheeling/ATVing also, but I'm not gonna sell my 3wheeler just because some legal morons made it too expensive/illegal for the manufacturers to produce new 3wheelers. If you let the lawyers take away what you love to do, then they truly have won.

[Dynofox]

I've got almost every 3 and 4 wheeler mag from about 1982-1989 and have seen your name plenty of times. It's cool to have someone famous on here! :-D

[hondaatcvabeach]

I wish there was a mag. like that in print today. I would settle for one page in Dirt Wheels.

[Wickedfinger]

Welcome Dean!!! :clap ........... can't wait to share some stories with ya and talk to you in chat. I'm very glad you found us.

[350x'inNY]

I got into 3Wheeling in '82 and had to go to the motorcycle shop to get your mag, as the local grocery stores never had it. I liked it because it had more 'depth' and less flash compared to Dirt Wheels.

Welcome to the site! I have a couple 350X's and soon to have a couple Yamaha YTM200ERN Yamahaulers (eventhough we had an 82 and 83 200E Big Reds on the farm growing up)

Bruce

[greenhuman]

Hi Dean
I got into trikes back in '75 and have owned them ever since. I've still got the October 1978 issue of Hot VW's with the center few pages dedicated to trikes. I used to buy Hot VW's just to look at the ATC accessory shops adds. I contacted Pauter Machine and Johnson's ATC mini truck the same day I got the Oct '78 issue. I had to send a letter back then as calling from Australia by phone had to be booked in and it cost about $15 per minute. Anyway, after many months of letters, my friend and I received our 180cc alky burning ATC90 engine kits. 61mm 13-1 forged Venolia piston and big finned alloy cylinder kit, 61mm balanced stroker crank, 30mm inlet valve/roller cam head, 28mm methanol carb/manifold kit and heavy duty clutch kit. Talk about go! Ace Williams was a genius. When the "82 250R'rs finally arrived, we could keep up with them anywhere in the sand, but the spoil sports would head for bumpy terrain. These 180's are still kicking around even now.
Anyway , enough raving for now.

[3WW Star-oldfart]

About the '87 ATC250R.... When the bottom fell out of the 3-wheeler market, and Honda had a boatload of them... they were forced to export them to Europe. However, we got our hands on a '87 R up in Canada, which was not part of the CPSC deal. That's how we got a chance to ride one. Photos of prototype ATCs? Sorry no. Part of my deal with many of the test riders was that I was able to look, touch and ride, but no words or photos in the magazine. The ATC450R was a monster, flat scarey to ride. Way too fast for the general public. The ATC200R was really too pipey for me, and a little too small for my 6-1 size.

Here's a little known fact. Pipe builder, Daryl Bassani owns one of the first ATC250Rs ever made. It was used by Team Honda ATC on the original Parker 400 race, and some in Mexicali 250 race, before it broke a rear axle. Daryl got the bike from Wes McCoy in exchange for the favors he did for Team Honda. That ATC has a chassis number like 00007, or lower!

That's all for now. I'll chim in from time to time, with other odds and ends as I recall them. We had a great time doing that magazine, some of the best trips to Mexico you can imagine! Cheers! Dean Kirsten

[mad_max]

Now thats some cool info.... thanks "Deano" (as the illustration in Dean's column in 3wheeling used to say).

Heres a pic of Team Honda (Wes McCoy sitting on Bike) I cant remember where I found this....

[Curtis-Tecate3]

Dean, Thanks again for posting.
In my quest for Tecate parts and info I talked to nearly all of the ex-factory riders and tuners as well. Darryl was hands down the least interested in talking 3-Wheelers. As a known Tecate Guru I expected him to at least recollect some knowledge but he was uninterested in even talking about it. Maybe I just caught him at a bad time...I guess it is good to know that he still has a three wheeler or two hanging around. Especially a rare one like that. Other tuners like Harry Klemm were very happy to bench race and share old setups etc. for as long as I wanted.

Curtis.

[Trevor C.]

What improvements did Honda makeon the 87 250R? What did it look like?

If three wheelers could have enjoyed even 5 more years what would of they been like in your opinion?

[mart]

hey greenhuman heres them 180's you were talkin about i found dads ol pics of it an he wants to know if you still have trailprotrailpro motor from it wink

[greenhuman]

Mart
That's not one of the 180's. That is one of the 310cc engines. They had an XL175 head and cylinder mated to the 90 bottom end. They had a bore of 76mm (up from 50mm) and a modified SL125 crank stroked to 68mm. They could have easily been cranked up to 342cc. As it was , it was a real art to pull start these things. A plastic coated steel cable was used in place of the rope. I used to like running the old balloon tyres for hill climbing, but one of the first times I cranked on the power, the hubs spun and pulled the centres clean out of the tyres. One time I left one idling in the backyard and when I came out a couple of minutes later, the whole trike had bounced clean across the yard and was up against the fence trying to get out. I still have the cases, crank etc.