Well over the past summer my family went from never owning an ATV, motorcycle, or anything with a small engine really other than a riding lawn mower... to owning three ATVs!

We dove in after a friend of ours invited us to come out and ride, welp the rest is history being written.

First one we bought was a 2001 Arctic Cat. Had for about 2 weeks until the starter went out! It's pretty well used, but it runs smooth and seems like it will be pretty capable after some TLC.


The wife then wanted her own to ride. We went to go look at a Yamaha Blaster. I test drove it and could tell it had been sitting a while. Not a lot of oomph and smoked more than a 2 stroke should (a lot). But we got it at a good price, so we hauled it home. I replaced the crank seals, cleaned the carb and that woke it right up! She rode it twice and said, "Nope!". It just scared her when the power band kicked in. But I like the little bugger.


So we figured we'd sell the Blaster now that it actually ran well and she could get a four stroke. Long story short we ended up paying too much for a TRX 450ER, but she LOVES it.


Been spending the winter getting everything buttoned up for spring. Kinda hoping for some snow to take the Arctic Cat out and make some trails! Looking forward to checking out all the good info on here and drooling at yall's sweet bikes!

 

Welcome to the forums.

Nice rides!

 

Welcome.

 

Welcome to the forums! Congratulations on the new rides. We love pics here so don't be stingy!

 

Hi from Colorado: I've been a motorhead for just about forever. I was interested but limited as a kid in the early go kart boom of the early sixties. That's one motorsport that never died out. Now in my retirement I'm joining the ATV hobby for some scenic trail riding and just motorsport fun. You jumped right in. I'm glad you like to work on your own machines. I enjoy that aspect too.

David

 

Thanks for the warm welcome!

I do enjoy working on them, though it's hard to find the time between work and family. Was driving the Arctic Cat the other night and it was driving fantastic, then all of a sudden all it would do is idle, and would die with any throttle. So at some point will have to tear the carb off there. This carb has some sort of vacuum diaphram on there that I'm not familiar with, and my gut tells me that's the culprit.

When I tore the Blaster apart for the crank seals, I found that a previous owner must have used a screwdriver instead of spending $15 on a proper seal puller.... Scratched my head for a while, and ended up using JB Weld to fill in the gouge. It's held up so far! But now I noticed it's leaking oil around the head gasket area, so that's next.... You never know what you're going to get when you tear into somebody's old junk, haha.




I know it's going to take some time (and money), but hopefully once I'm a year into this thing I have some reliable machines. Haha.

Here's a few more pics of the rides and the crew!