No problem. Most people probably won't find most of this useful, but it always makes me feel important when I get a chance to spew useless info on these old bikes on the net. I used to do lots of that 10 years ago on this forum. LOL!

Probably the strangest difference between the 230S and 230E in my opinion is the reverse mechanism. the little foot operated lever near the shifter on the left side of the engine look nearly identical on the two machines. However, you have to kick the lever forward on the 230S for reverse, and you have to kick it backwards on the 230E for reverse. What's stranger, the '89 and '90 250S was changed to be like the 230E. You have to kick those levers backwards for reverse too. Who'd a thunk it?

 

The 86 Honda 200ES is equally peculiar they only made the 200ES for a couple of years but changed from "down for up" to "up for up" gearchange, mid production. A local farmer still uses a couple of these 3 wheelers and yes, he has one of each!

 

Is that the Big Red? I know those were originally 200 cc's and had an "upside down" shift pattern, and were later changed to 250 cc's and had a "normal" shift pattern.

 

Yes they are Big Reds, but no they are both 200ES. The 250 had a smaller version of the 300 engine used on the 4 wheel Big Reds with (for Honda) the conventional down for reverse. The 200ES had a hand lever behind your left ankle for changing into reverse.

 

Gotcha. I didn't know Honda had a 300cc 4 wheeler called a Big Red. I remember the 250 Fortrax that came out in about '86 or '87. I thought it had nearly the same engine as the 250 Big Red. They sure looked similar.

Growing up, I had a good friend who had on of the 250 Big Reds. I rode on it quite a bit. Years later, my younger brother worked for a distant relative on his turkey farm. The farmer had an older 200 Big Red with the upside down shift patter. Until then, we had no idea the Big Red's weren't always 250's, much less that they ever had the upside down shift pattern. But we never new there was a 200 model with the normal shift pattern. Learn something every day.

Those were GREAT machines by the way, especially the 250 Big Red. We did some really stupid things on my buddy's. I remember sitting on the front rack while he would do wheelies in his field. Can't tell you the number of times we flipped that thing over and nearly killed ourselves. But that thing never missed a beat. It had to be one of the most indestructible ATV's ever made.

 

Yes, I think the 80s four wheeler 250 had the same engine as the three wheeler. The 300 came out around the same time and lasted to 1999. Honda could still be making it if they had any sense, it had a lot smoother engine than the 250 longtitudinal engine (2WD) that replaced it, and Honda don't have a mid size 4WD model now, it was in many ways better than the 350 and old 420 that were mid size Quads, anyway.

 

It IS a pretty strange reverse mech, yes.

Interesting list of diffs, YAGER. Suzuki quads have alway been special to me
as they were my first quad experience, on brand new LT185s in '83 I believe.

I had 2 '86 LT230S QuadSports, and the biggest diff between them and
the QuadRunners was the latter had batteries and electric start. The
LT230S had no battery and kick-start only. One of mine had an add-on
battery and starter motor, which is rare.

I have never heard of a Honda Big Red 4-wheeler (ATV). I know they
used that name for some ATCs (200 and 250cc), as well as the new
UTVs. I had an '85 ATC250SX and an '86 TRX250 FourTrax both, which
seemed to have identical engines and drivetrains.

 

Strange, that you have never heard of the 300 Big Red, it was Honda's best seller by far in the UK and they built their reputation for being the best farm Quad on it. Google Honda big red 300 for photos.

 

I see pix of the Big Red 300 quad available in the UK. It was not sold in North America, as far as I can tell. Here, the TRX300FW Fourtrax came in 2wd and 4x4 utility configurations and was sold in 88 and 90-2000. It came in several colors and I have had both a green one and a beige one. It overlapped a bit with the TRX350D Foreman, Honda's 1st 4x4 (86-89). I had one of those, too.

Perhaps just the red TRX300FW 4-wheelers in the UK are labeled "Big Red"? Here, they just say "FourTrax".

This photo is of a red 89 Foreman.

 

Honda do use different names for the UK. The Recon name was never used, perhaps because "recon" is short for reconditioned over here, and Rubicon was dropped when they changed the engine and fitted disc brakes, we refer to it as the 500AT. Late TRX 300s were badged FourTrax here.