My wife's 225DXR and a love story...

[350X'inNY]

Kind of a long story on this little YTM225DX. Most build-ups people start with a trike first, and then assemble all the parts needed and build something. This is NOT one of those stories.

As you can see from my user name/ID, I have been around the forums for a few years and am a HONDA guy. Been riding red 3 wheelers since I talked my Dad into getting one back in 1982. (Wish I knew where those Big Reds ended up!) Anyhow, I saw a listing for a Durablue + 3" rear axle for a 225DX up in Northern NY. I decided to give the guy a call and ended up buying the rear axle along with a complete 225DX, and as much 3 wheeler parts I could squeeze into my enclosed trailer. (Mainly Yamaha plastics, rims, motors, rear ends, racks, etc) This started the accumulation of Yamaha Assessories. Many of you know my fetish of Hondaline Assessories I have on the rest of my herd. (My favorite saying... "It ain't Fine, 'til it's Hondalined!!")

The complete 225DX was really not worthy of restoring... at least not to the extent of it's problems. However, it led to another great 3 wheeler find... I traded it to a guy down the road for an original 1970 US90. His kids had out grown it, and I was ready to release that 225 DX.... so a win-win!

So now its the fall of 2005.... I had a accumulated a load of NOS Yamaha Assessories/Plastics/Parts on the side from my Hondaline searches, but had no trike to install them on. I got a call from my good ol' friend Swinehart. He had stumbled upon an old 225DX laying in a hedgerow and the guy only wanted $125 for it. His boy had rapped a tree with it many years ago. His Dad paid the Yamaha dealer to fix it at the time. His boy then took it out that first weekend it came back from the shop and hit ANOTHER tree with it. Needless to say, his father wasn't happy and so it was parked until that day. I had John check it out... needed to be a complete machine, original, and not a welding class guinea pig. It met the requirements so John picked it up for me. Surely NOT a beauty queen, but a functional pallete to begin a project. Here are the original pics John sent me.

[350X'inNY]

I went out and visited John at Christmas time that year (2005). Boy it seems like we did some tinkering on it, did some shopping at B & G's, and did some riding out behind his house with his Big Red and 350X. We got the 225DX to run finally, but it could fog out most of Michigan! I've never seen a running motor smoke so bad. So motor work was going to be a necessity, but the rest of the trike after a good pressure washing would be fine. Started assemblying a needs list for this little 225DX. Really had no way to get it back to NY 'til the spring/summer anyhow so no big rush.

Meanwhile... I FINALLY met a girl in my area worthy of dating. (Far and few between here in... ummm... hillbilliville. :shrug: ) We had a lot in common; both growing up on farms, common faith; enjoying the outdoors, hiking, etc. In fact, I met her at a conference through church. She noticed I had a Dirt Wheels magazine tucked in within my binder of papers and asked to see it. It happened to be an issue that had just came out with some pictures of my trikes from Trikefest. She to this day says this is what sparked an initial interest to chat with me. She had grew up with 3 wheelers and 4 wheelers too. Her family always rode Yamahas. :eek:

So... things progressed with our dating while things also progressed with finally utilizing the Yamaha parts for a build. I joked with her that I'd better build her a Yamaha so she would have something to ride. :thumbsup: About this time in 2006, I used her "beater with a heater" Toyota and made a leap of faith trip with the 250,000mi truck loaded with parts out to build her her own trike and bring it home. So on Easter break form school in 2006 I set sail to MI. I stopped at a old school Yamaha dealership on the way out of NY to pick up a swing arm bearings. While I was there, I snooped through his old barn/warehouse and added a NOS front fender for the project too and picked up a set of rings and a piston. As a added bonus, they gave me a free used Hondaline worklight for my Big Red. :headbang:

Here's some pics of the parts I brought out with me...
1.) A 225DR bottom end - and a variety of 225DX jugs/top ends.
2.) NOS front fender I found on the way out.
3.) Durablue +3" Rear Axle w/ hubs
4.) NOS Yamaha HL Guard
5.) NOS Yamaha Hand Brush Guards
6.) NOS Yamaha Heel Brush Guards
7.) NOS Barrett Clutches and Springs
8.) NOS headlight plastic
9.) New Battery.
10.) All-Balls rear bearings.
11.) Yamaha Swing Arm bearings.
12.) Yamatopdog Speed Shop Decal Kit.
13.) NOS rear fenders
14.) New Battery
15.) NOS Yamaha reverse lever/mechanism

Not pictured items for the project:
Some levers for the Handlebars
NOS caps for the swinger bolts
Yamaha starter brushes
Black Appliance Enamel Paint
Black Hi-Temp Black paint
Misc SS Nuts and Bolts for Mud flaps
Aluminium braces fabbed up for mud flap braces
Web Cam High Performance Cam Shaft
Aftermarket Hi-Rev Lifters and HD Valve Springs.

[350X'inNY]

As you can see from the parts motherload, this was no simple job. John and I were against the clock on this one. We had basically 48 Hours to put this together. I was delayed a day coming out and had to be back Sunday night with it so I could return the truck to Amy and get my car.

John had taken the head over to a local motor shop earlier in the week to get a headstart (no pun intended) on the top end work. He had him clean up the intakes and install the hi-rev lifters and HD valve springs. John also changed the rock hard dry rotted front tire out with a Cheng-chen he had laying around.

First order of business was tearing the rear end apart and installing the Durablue axle. Since we were still waiting on the motor parts, figured we might as well start at the rear of the machine. The machine was covered with dirt and tree sap from the years it sat outside. This was actually good for it, as the dirt/grim layer was so thick, it protected it from rusting!! While we had the rear end apart, we ended up wire wheeling and cleaning up the swingarm, axle, shock, exhaust, rear sub-frame, battery box, skid plate, etc and gave them all a new coat of paint. The rear axle bearings/OEM axle were not in that bad of shape, but decided to reinstall the new ALL-Balls anyhow while we had it apart. Unfortunately, in cleaning up the rear axle, we were not able to save the old school Durablue decal. Durablue did send me some new decals for it later.

[350X'inNY]

More pics of cleaning and painting....

[350X'inNY]

The exhaust just had surface rust. Was able to wire wheel it off and repaint it with High-Temp Black paint.

[350X'inNY]

I ended up hand painting the spring still attached to the shock. Came out pretty well!!

We replaced the clutch disks and springs. This DR motor was stored with the jug off when I purchased it in the huge Yamaha parts lot. While the side covers were off, we flushed the motor/ cleaned insides as well as we could. Once we had it all complete, I ran some Sea Foam through it and changed the oil/filter a few times to clean it through with the rebuilt jug/top end. This motor as a bonus had a tighter feel to the crank as well as the reverser. However, the internal bolts holding the stator cover on were stripped. We had to drill the heads off them to get the stator cover off. Once the cover was off, we could clamp on to them to remove them easily. Care was taken to NOT drill the stator cover itself!!

[350X'inNY]

Basically got NOS plastics for it. The headlight shell and front fender were NIB. The rear fenders I picked up as a complete set used on ebay from a seller a couple towns over. I was presently surprised when I picked them up. The rear fenders were never mounted!!! He was cleaning out inventory he had picked up from a lot he bought. They never even had decals on them. The tank plastics were either the originals that were on the trike cleaned up or ones I brought from NY with me... can't remember now, but they were about a 8 out of 10, so I cleaned them up and used them. I am storing the tank decals for the day I buy/find NOS tank plastics!! If you got any, let me know. :thumbsup:

[350X'inNY]

Got the swinger installed. After I had to repaint it!!!!! I couldn't believe it... had it looking sharp, and then I tried to throw some clear coat over it. Not sure what ailed it..... too soon or wrong mix of paints, but it glazed and cracked the black paint!!! SOOOOooo.... live and learn. I had to re wire wheel ALL the paint off it again and paint it again.

When we mounted it, we were a little concerned at first too. I had the DR bottom end, but looking in the cross references of Yamaha, Clymer, and Interlock manuals, they showed a different drive shaft on the reverse models. The "newer" drive shaft was as we described "spring loaded". The older drive shaft lined up, but took a few times to align it up with the motor output. We came to the conclusion that the newer drive shaft was a better design to make installing the drive shaft/swingarm easier, not a necessity due to the reverse. To this day this trike has the "old style" drive shaft, and the reverse works like it was new.

[350X'inNY]

Got the rear end together/ Durablue installed.... next was completing the motor. We picked up the top end and jug from the machine shop down the road and had made a trip down to Elkhart IN to pick up a overnight ring shipment to match it earlier in the day. We got the top end on the motor, but then had issues with the electric starter. I ended up making another trip to IN and picked up a set of brushes and they also had NOS swinger plastic caps that go over the swingarm pivot bolts. We but the new brushes on the starter, installed it and it STILL was binding. Talk about frustrating!!! After taking the starter on and off and the stator on and off a few times and double checking grounds we FINALLY figured out the problem. Because we used form-a-gasket for the stator cover, the stator cover was just a RCH too tight against the starter gear spacer. We took out the spacer and ground it down a bit and put it back together. Problem solved... electric starter worked. We got all 3 wheels mounted and set it on the ground.... got ourselves a roller!

[350X'inNY]

The little things always seem to take so much of your time. Parento's Law states that most things were in a 80%-20% ratio. That is, the final 20% of the job takes 80% of the time! I had NOS fenders, but the fender bolts for the mudflaps were kinda rough. I cleaned up most of the brackets and repainted them. The front fender bracket came out awesome! The original steal bolt design wasn't going to do. They had rusted on the original and made streaks on the plastic. The nuts had rusted to the bolts too from all the splash back from the frount fender. I ended up going to stainless bolts for the front mud flap and paid the extra $$$ for SS acorn nuts; guarenteeing a great look for a long time!! Sometime in it's life, the bracket holding the rear mudflap above the muffler went MIA. I fabbed up replacement brackets out of some scrap aluminum using the very rusted one from the left as a model. Also got the "Yamaline" assessories all installed too. Headlight guard, hand guards, foot guards, etc all mounted up. Battery box on with a new battery, brake levers, shifter, etc all hooked up too!

[350X'inNY]

In the wee hours late Saturday/Sunday morning, we finally started it up and basically moved it forward and back with reverse and started loading it in the truck. Too late to take it for a hot lap, so we just loaded it up.

What most rebuilds take a season/months, we had accomplished in a weekend. Loaded up the Yoda and went back to NY. That truck made it from Indiana to a gas station in NY on ONE tank. 250,000 miles, O2 sensor out and it still got over30 miles to the gallon! I totalled up my expenses on this project that night talking to John, and even including the gas from NY to MI and back, I still only had under $800 into this Tri-Moto!

[350X'inNY]

Amy loved her own little trike of her own. She and her family were very surprised how well it came out. Little did she know what other surprises I had up my sleave.... here are some pics that night when I got back from MI. Pardon Amy's attire, she was out to the barn helping her father milk cows when I finally rolled into the driveway!

Quite a change from what I started with in the first post!!

[350X'inNY]

Now at this point, as with any project - especially a 48 hour job such as this - there are some bugs to work out. The trike ran, but needed to have some tinkering yet. After a top end rebuild, including the new Web Cam and lifters, there was some jetting issues and getting the rings to set in and such. Among these issues with the trike, I had some other issues to iron out with Amy.... how to propose to her. As an avid triker, I figured a nice trike of her own would be enough, but there's that whole engagement ring thing that the ladies like. SOOOOooooo... I had to make a plan to propose to her. Then the idea hit me... :headbang:... as only Hondaline Hartman could do!

Amy wanted to ride her little Tri-Moto in the worse way, but I was still ironing out the kinks in it. So I figured it'd be good for her to give me a hand throwing wrenches at it.... It still had the spark plug in it from when John and I first fired it in Michigan. So I grabbed a new spark plug and got down and took the boot off the plug. I asked Amy to pop the seat off and grab the spark plug wrench from under the seat for me.... to much to her surprise, the tool kit was missing, but a nicely wrapped present and card were there instead.... she thought she was just popping the seat off... but I was actually popping THE question. :thumbsup:

She was speechless at first... I was still down on one knee and asked..."Ummm... you going to answer the question?" (Will you marry me was on the card...) She said..."YES... but you have a spark plug in your hand!!! " I replied... "But I AM on one knee!"

It was great... her family was in on it, so they were all kind of waiting around for it. The funny part is, her brother helped divert her attention the night before when I "planted the ring" under the seat. I was going to do it that night, but she didn't feel like it. The ring sat under the seat of that trike ALL night.... I was SOOOOooo glad it didn't get stolen or anything... I was so nervous having to wait another day to propose!!!

It took a couple more weeks to finally work out the bugs. The timing was off from a stretched timing chain and I also replaced the CDI with another one. Of course... I replaced the spark plug too.;)

[350X'inNY]

Here are some wedding day pics.... figured since the Tri-Moto was such an intregal part of our engagement, it had to be present and accounted for. :thumbsup: The cake toppers couldn't be more appropriate either. :D Amy's brother took the DX for a hot lap around the tent too! There were other trikes involved in the wedding too..... the US90 in the back of a restored truck... ATC70 hot laps too. Could be an entirely other thread! :headbang: Enjoy!!

[350X'inNY]

Since being married... the little Tri-Moto is still enjoyed by Amy. Since the initial build and the wedding I haven't had to do much to it. It did get rid of those rear Trail Pro anchors and got "new shoes" and NYS tags before heading out to the Badlands for vacation. (see pics on their site www.badlandsoffroad.com bottom of page 4 pics...) She also drove it in the 4th of July Parade here in town too. She says it can never be sold. :nono: It never will be. :oldfogey:


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