It is impossible to say that maintenance was an issue with my Tecate-4. When I bent the axle I had only had the bike three days. Again, no off camber landings, and I had hit the same jump several times on my 250R without a problem. Everyone was in disbelief, especially me. At that period in time, I firmly believe that both Kawasaki and Suzuki used inferior materials (to Honda) in their quads. I don't have any first hand experience with Yamaha quads from the late 80's, but quite a bit with my Tecate and my friends half-dozen or so Quadracers. The Suzuki frames were notoriously weak, and he broke the frame on every Lt he had, 500 included. I am not trying to bad mouth anyones' quad or trike, but am only speaking from the experiences that I personally had. That being said, I would buy another Tecate or buy a Quadracer today, and use my previous experience to make them bullet-proof. I am not trying to sound like the world's biggest Honda fan; I bought the Tecate because I liked it, manufacturer aside. If anyone knows the exact material and thickness that these three quads used for frames (250R, Tecate-4, Lt) then please chime in.

 

I owned a Tecate 3 1985 I believe it was. That thing was scary fast and all it had was an aftermarket pipe! It would easily smoke the 86 250r I used to have.

I have never owned a Tecate 4 but would love to. Sometimes mint condition ones pop up on ebay for less than 3k. Wish I had the cash to ****** one up.

 

I would like to clarify one thing; I will agree that proper maintenance is key, and the reason the Tecate seized was because of my friends lack of common sense. It was the second quad I had sold to him, and he managed to basically destroy them both. Other than the axle and frame, I never had a problem with it the entire time I owned it, and again, it was extremely fast.