Reader’s Photos

By the staff of Dirt Wheels KTM 2-STROKE 3-WHEELER It would be great if KTM made 3-wheelers, but since they don't Nico Smith built one himself down in Laredo, Texas. He started with the frame of a 2002 KTM 250 SX dirt bike. For the engine, he installed a freshly rebuilt 2003 KTM 300 EXC 2-stroke. The seat and rear fenders came from a 2009 KTM quad. The wider triple clamps for the forks came from Emig Racing. Nico made the swing arm and sub-frame himself. Various other parts came from Yamaha Banshees and Tri-Zs.…

KAWASAKI KFX450R RACER Hi Dirt Wheels, my name is Mack McDermott from Rhode Island. This is my 2009 Kawasaki KFX450R. Bought it a little over a year ago in bone stock form and after riding a track a few times I decided to get full-blown into racing and build my KFX450 to as close to a national level build as I could. I Teamed up with Tranghese Motorsports out of Springfield, Massachusetts to help me build it and race in the NEATVMX series. Photos by Mike Fig Photography KAWASAKI KFX450R RACER MOTOR: Carillo rod,…

LOUISIANA RAPTOR LOUISIANA RAPTOR Travis Heltz has been reading Dirt Wheels and riding quads down in southern Louisiana for many years. His first quad was a 1993 Yamaha Blaster and then he moved up to a 1996 Yamaha Banshee. From there he graduated to a newer 1999 Banshee and then a 2011 Raptor 700R SE. So, for this year Travis bought a new 2019 Raptor 700R, and then he decided to do something he always wanted to. His previous quads had all remained mostly stock, but for his new Raptor, he went to work tricking it out…

HOW MANY ATCs DO YOU SEE? Preston Frasier is a man who loves Honda 3-wheelers. He began collecting them some time ago and each year his ATC fleet has grown larger. One of his annual traditions is to roll his entire ATC collection out into the yard and take some pictures of them. Preston has sent us some of those photos in the past and here is the latest bunch he has taken recently. This year's collection is the largest of all. Preston says there are 61 ATCs in the photos along with 4 TRX quads. Is this the world's…

ATC SCREAMS THE BLUES Bradley Bamber is a Dirt Wheels reader in Australia. In that country, most people live either on the east coast (Sidney) or the west coast (Perth). Bradley does his riding on the western side which has plenty of sand dunes along the coast. Here is the 1986 Honda ATC250R that Bradley rides. The first thing you'll notice is that it's not red. Instead, he gave it a different look with a blue frame along with blue plastic. He also enhanced the custom appearance by polishing and chroming various parts.…

UTV TAKEOVER INVADES OKLAHOMA It was tons of fun for everyone when the UTV Takeover Invades Oklahoma event came to Little Sahara State Park in Waynoka, Oklahoma. This was back in September of 2020. Cara Miller was nice enough to send us some good photos of the action. From the looks of things, it seems like a good time was had by all.  Kevin Morris and his RZR put in some quick laps around the Short Course Competition. Tyler Hill put on a good show in the Wheelie Competition. Rusian Yankilevich catches some big air…

HONDUKI 450R Dirt Wheels magazine has the best readers. They have the most passion for ATVs and UTVs. This is proven by the machines they build. Take for example this quad here owned by Donald Lovell. We'll let him tell you about it... Hey Dirt Wheels, Here is the quad I built. It is a 2007 Suzuki LT-R450, but I took out the engine and put in a built engine from a  2005 Honda CRF450. HONDUKI 450R ENGINE SPECS: '05 CRF 450, Hot Rod 3mm stroker crank, Mayhem ported head, +2+1 Kibble white valves, DCR cam,…

A GERMAN BANSHEE Hi Dirt Wheels,     I'm Robby from Germany and I would like to present my modified Banshee. I bought it in 2013,  my first Banshee after I sold my old 2006 Raptor 700. The Banshee was in a stock condition but was not well maintained. At first, I rebuilt the chassis and the plastic (they were painted very badly). At the next step, I revised the wiring harness. In the end, I could fill a 10-liter bucket with electrical garbage. The other improvements I did from time to time.  This is now an MX quad,…

By the staff of Dirt Wheels 2020 HONDA ATC250R? Ever since Honda dropped their ATC250R after 1986, people have wondered how one would look today if it suddenly returned to the line-up. Well, that has not happened yet, but what we have here is probably the closest thing to a 2020 ATC250R that Honda would build. It has an aluminum frame, inverted front forks, and a 2-stroke engine with a power-valve, raising and lowering the exhaust port to make a broader powerband. So, how did this modern ATC250R come to be?…

By the staff of Dirt Wheels DISCOVERING GOLD! Imagine you're out in a remote section of woods you've never been to before. You go between some bushes and accidentally discover the opening of a cave. Out of curiosity, you wander in to check it out. After a few twists and turns, your flashlight beam focuses on something shiny. Your heart suddenly starts beating frantically as you exclaim, "GOLD!" Well, that's kind of what happened to Dirt Wheels reader, Hunter Lovelace, up in Ontario, Canada. He was rummaging around in…

By the staff of Dirt Wheels STREET-LEGAL RAPTOR Jeremy Othelet is a Dirt Wheels reader who lives in Margut, France. In his country ATVs can be made street legal with the proper equipment. As you can see here Jeremy has turn signals, mirrors, and a license plate on his quad. His Yamaha Raptor 700 is a good quad to make street legal because it has enough power to cruise along at speeds above 70 mph. To improve the power Jeremy added a performance exhaust and intake system, fuel controller, and hotter camshaft.…

By the staff of Dirt Wheels BUILDING A SUPER BLASTER Ben Shaffer in Ohio has a fondness for 2-strokes and he decided he should take an old 2-stroke quad and build it back up to be even better than when it was new. He found this 1996 Yamaha Blaster 200 in a friend of a friend's barn. Blasters were known for being the best bang for the buck. They didn't cost much, the air-cooled 2-stroke motors were simple and easy to work on and they were pretty peppy for 200ccs. Ben's Blaster looked to be in sad shape when he first…