Survival and Emergency Preparedness

Was kinda looking for another ATV to use up at the hunting property now that I have a house and a garage to store it in.

I started looking around and am in a state of sticker shock. A basic new sit on 4x4 (Polaris 450) is $6400. Of course you can find used ones but even used ones don't depreciate in price very much. 10 year old ones are still going for $5k. Side by sides run $15K and up. Yikes!

How about something cheaper?

Well, I found a "motorcycle" sold by Coleman (i.e Coleman lanterns) that has fat off road balloon tires and has a 196cc/6.5hp engine. It is basically a large off road mini bike. Depending on the model they range from $500-700. Yeah, they are Chinese made but are at least backed by Coleman. There are 7 different models on the Coleman website 4 of them being the 196cc version and 3 smaller 100cc versions.

https://www.colemanpowersportsusa.com/p ... mini-bikes

BTW, a 200cc or smaller name brand dirt bike (Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki etc) will run you at least $4k. Cheap Chinese motorcyles run $2K.

Colemans are sold by places like Walmart, Tractor Supply, Cabelas/Bass Pro, Rural King, Farm & Fleet etc etc. Some have headlights, some have racks, some have front suspension, some have all. There's one that's exclusive to Walmart, it's not on the Coleman website. It has a headlight, front suspension, rear rack and is the only one with a disk brake. All the other have drum brakes.

It's called the RB200


It also comes in Real Tree camo, called the RT200...either one is $600+tax. In my state that would bring it to $635 out the door.



There is quite a following of these things. Guys use them on the farm and for offroading. You also conceivably license them for the street with the addition of tail/brake light and turn signals.

They seem to be a relatively cheap alternative to an ATV. There are some places on my property where the trees are too narrow together for the ATV to get through. This would be an ideal way to get around. Seriously thinking about getting one (or two).

They don't go very fast, max speed is about 20 mph but they are geared pretty low so you get good torque. If you disable the throttle screw it will go about 25. There are also lots of mods to make them go a lot faster and a pretty big aftermarket source for parts to beef up the engine and transmission. It uses a pretty basic/common 4 cycle lawnmower engine.

The nearest store/gas station to my new house is 3.5 miles away. It is accessible by country roads and state forest, both of which you can ride off road vehicles on legally without a license plate. You do need an ORV sticker however. There are also hundreds of miles of state ORV trails accessible within 5 miles of my property.

Should be fun to play around with and may provide some benefit as a bug out vehicle. I have a small trailer for my lawn tractor that would work pretty well with this bike. It has balloon/turf tires but I'm sure they could be replaced with off or on road tires for hauling stuff.

I have one of those and I like it.



It was the one sold at Pep boys called Baja Warrior and it is basically the same as the Coleman. It is very governed but is quit torquey off the line as a big fat kid can get his kicks pulling some very controlled wheelies. When you first take off on one it feels like you are going to go real fast but the governor kicks in and it just cruises. I think mine was clocked at about 29 mph with no modifications. It is great for beginners as all the young ladies at my work had a blast on it and no one crashed. I do not plan to modify this one as I like how it helps with longevity= I bought it used about 8 years ago and it's still running very good.

Cool looking bike.

The Baja Warrior was an earlier version of the Coleman. Another version is called the Trailmaster MB200. It has front and rear suspension, disk brakes etc but is around $800-900.

Another version was called the Mini Moto. They stopped importing that brand last year. Another the Massimo MB200, virtually identical to the Trailmaster and Coleman brands.

All of these are made in China, probably by the same manufacturer and have been around for a bunch of years imported by various importers. It appears that Coleman is the latest and probably best known importer. They sell a bunch of them through various retail outlets.

The benefit to owning one of these is that they use a basic 4 stroke 6.5 hp Honda clone engine. They are easy to modify, lots of aftermarket parts available and You can replace the engine with one from Habor Freight for around $100.

Yeah I bought mine used for 200 bucks and it needed a gas cap and a carb. Cost of gas cap was $14, cost of carburetor was $30 and my local mower shop had them both on the shelf. Color was originally a faded red(pink) so a couple of military green spray bombs and a little white (the wife made the stencil for the star) and it looks like it goes with the truck. It currently needs the twist grip replaced and the rear tire leaks, other than that it works. I want to make a leather scabbard to mount to the front fork to carry a rifle and I have an extra 30 cal ammo can to mount to the side for secure storage. I may put a real fuel tank on the frame for axillary fuel storage- to extend it's range.
When I replace the twist grip, I think I will try to adjust the governor some for a little more top speed.

It's all fun...

I think I'm more a fan of a legit Enduro-style road/dirt bike in the 400cc class.

- High power
- high speed
- high center of gravity for clearing streams/logs/hole etc


But those look cool!

Bob wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 9:20 am I think I'm more a fan of a legit Enduro-style road/dirt bike in the 400cc class.

- High power
- high speed
- high center of gravity for clearing streams/logs/hole etc


But those look cool!

I had a Suzuki DRZ400s dual sport motorcycle that I road on and off road. Had it set up for long distance riding. Belonged to a Dual Sport club. Took it on several long trips and a lot of short ones. I rode it for 6 or 7 years. It was a lot of fun but I scared myself riding it a couple times and as I got older I didn't need to go fast anymore so I sold it.

I still have a couple Honda Trail 90s (CT90s). Those are the original dual sport motorcycles. They were a lot of fun to ride but they have been sitting for 6 or 7 years.

They are low and slow but can go places ATVs or bigger motorcycles can't go. They also have a low, low gear switch for hauling stuff or steep incline. The problem is they are about 50 years old and finicky. They have 6 volt electrical systems. To make them reliable I would have to dump money into them. I also thought about converting them to 12 V and swap out the engine with new Lifan (Honda clone) engine. The thing is that running CT90s are fetching crazy money these days and I really don't want to ruin an iconic, historical motorcycle by swapping out parts with Chinese ones. I do have another CT90 as a parts bike. It's a '75. Maybe I should build that one back up.

The red Honda is a '72, the yellow is a '69


It would cost about as much to fix the Hondas as it would cost for one of these Coleman mini bikes. The advantage of the Honda's is that they are street legal motorcycles whereas the Coleman's aren't but could be. Even so you can ride them on trails and county roads around my property without a license, just need an ORV sticker. Not to mention the Coleman tires are a lot more stable in sand than the skinny motorcycle tires. I could never ride my motorcycles in the sand very well.

Couple more variations of the Coleman mini bikes.

This one is called the CT200 U. It's their basic model. They all use the same engine, wheels/tires. This one has a drum brake and fore and aft racks but on a different frame. No front suspension. It typically is $500-600 at Tractor Supply



This one is called the BT200. BT stands for Big Tube. It has a heavier frame and sits a little higher up. Same engine, wheels/tires, brakes as above. Additional headlight and front suspension. Currently $525 + $80 freight charge to your nearest Walmart. They were going for just under $500 before Christmas. Very popular bike.



This one is the CT200u ex. It is typically found at Tractor Supply. It uses the same wheel/tires, engine, brakes, as the others and has front suspension. That tank is fake, it is a storage compartment. Typically $700 at TS but only $579 + $50 freight charge to you local Walmart



So yeah, I'm still looking at mini bikes. Probably will pick one (or two, since my wife wants one) up in the spring. I also need a tractor and a pole barn to store all this stuff in. And BTW, these mini bikes don't need or use a battery. They are pull start and the headlights run off a stator in the flywheel. The light will work only when it's running. You can run a tail/brake light off the stator as well.

In the mean time, I'm starting to drag out the Honda CT (Trail) 90s to see what they need to get running as well as a Honda Spree scooter that's been sitting for 10 years. If I can get the Honda's running I'll probably sell them. Running CT90s are going for big bucks but as I said, being 50 years old they tend to be finicky. Best thing is to get them sold while they are running and then use the money for something more modern like these mini bikes.

I had that yellow ct 90 back in the 80s- it was fun, it was the 4th motorcycle I had owned. I currently have the DR350 and it is also fun. We don't have the woods around here like we did when I had the ct90 but I ride the DR home from work via the RR tracks some times and remember how much fun trail riding was.

Mac66 just went up a notch on the cool level here...

Back when I had the Honda's running I would take them into the state forrest and ride them around. There is several thousand acres of state forrest near my property. . It was in an area where off road vehicles weren't allowed. I wasn't riding on trails, just the dirt roads. Never the less I got stopped by a conservation officer. My CT90 was licensed as a motorcycle and licensed vehicles are allowed on the dirt roads so I was wondering why he stopped me. It turned out he just wanted to look at my bike, as he had one when he was a kid. I let him ride it up and down the road which he enjoyed.

The problem with them is that being so old they are finicky. One of my sons was riding with me one time in the state forrest and the one he was riding quit running. I didn't have a rope to tow him so I had to ride all the way back (about 10 miles) to the cabin to get the truck and go fetch him.



I'd like to keep them for my grandchildren to ride someday but being so old they are hard to keep running. I'll probably sell them in the spring and buy modern mini bikes instead. The Honda's are worth quite a bit of money these days.

I was recently in a Family Farm and Home store and ran across this mini bike. It's called the Trailmaster MB200. It has both front and rear suspension, disk brake and comes with a torque converter. Price $849. It is the Cadillac of mini bikes but that's $250 more than the RB/RT200 which doesn't have the rear suspension or torque converter. You could put a torque converter on the RB/RT for less than $100 but adding the suspension (maybe springs under the seat) would be more difficult.

Sitting on the Trailmaster feels like a real motorcycle. Now that I sold my Honda Trail 90s, a pair of these just jumped to the top of the list. Oh and that tank is fake. It's just a hollow shell over the frame




And I just saw this one in Dunhams Sports. It's the original basic model. I sat on it and while it uses the same size engine and tires as the one above the frame is smaller. It think it would make a good running around the farm bike but with no suspension it would be rough on the trails. The racks are cool though.