Way back when this magazine was called 3&4-Wheel Action, I came on board as
associate editor the same year Yamaha
introduced its revolutionary Big Wheel
BW200N two-wheeler ATV. The 1985
BW200N was an absolute hoot to
ride, and then-editor Steve Casper
and I would set up courses in sand
washes and race for hours on end,
rain or shine. For 1986 Yamaha added
the BW80S, a fat-tired PW80 and an
electric-start BW200ES. The kick-start
BW200 was dropped by 1987, which
was the year Yamaha went big with the
BW350T. I loved the BW350. It was an
awesome machine, and I was thrilled to
wheelie it for what seemed like forever
on Estero Beach in Baja. I even raced it
at an Arenacross race in Bakersfield. It
was only “Crashsper” and I who signed
up, so the promoters put us in with the
Open Novice bike class. I holeshot and
led the race until some yahoo ghosted
his brand-new Husqvarna 500 into
me. The BW350 had a lot more power
than the 200, but it was still lacking by
today’s standards. In 1988, all three Big
Wheels were produced, but none were
made in 1989. The BW80 returned in
1990, but that was its last year.
Honda made its own version with
an automatic-clutched five-speed
transmission. The TR200 Fat Cat was
also big fun in a small ATV package.
Crashper, “Winkle Wally” and I rented
three while on vacation in Cabo
San Lucas, Baja, Mexico. We rode
them, wide open, on Highway 1 to
a snorkeling spot in the morning,
and then we went off-road to an old
abandoned lighthouse. It had a dune
covering one side, and we’d ride
through a sand-level door, through the
lighthouse and then jump 6 feet to the
beach. We also did some big-wheel
freestyle, doing kick-turns on steep
faces of beach dunes. So, we had a
ton of fun on these under-powered
big wheels, and we really hated to see
them go the way of the three-wheeler.
WITNESS THE BIG WHEEL REBIRTH
Extreme Fabrication Racing (XFR) in
Saint George, Utah, missed Big Wheel
Yamahas as well, so they decided
to bring them back with a new twist.
Instead of a low-tech engine from the
old Yamaha Warrior 350, why not use
the modern version of the engine that
spawned the four-stroke revolution,
the 1998–1999 Yamaha YZ400F?
XFR set out to develop Big Wheel kits
for the YZ426F through the YZ450F.
XFR built a wider swingarm for an
11-inch-wide rim and incorporated a
54 www.atvaction.net
Give your old YZ426F
Ripping bowl turns
is big fun on the Big
Wheel YZ-F, and ATV
tires make the two-
wheeler ignore ruts
and float over silt and
fine sand.
