This fatty is a 1986 Honda TR200, better known as a Fat Cat. It’s on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $2,650, or you can make an offer. There is no opening bid price outside of those options. It’s located in Woodruff, South Carolina, about halfway between Charlotte, NC and Atlanta, GA so there will be a fair amount of shipping charges as well if you’re not in the Southeast US.
Honda’s Fat Cat was made as a hurried response to Yamaha’s BW200 and was only made for the 1986 and 1987 model years. Yamaha stuck it out until 1989 with their BW series and they’re arguably better bikes than the Honda TR200s are. Of course, I like both of them, as usual. Any Honda collector probably has one on their master wish list just for the limited production value alone. Hagerty lists a #1 “concours condition” Honda TR200 as only being worth $2,000 compared to this one’s Buy It Now price of $2,650! Ouch.
As you can see, this one is a long way from being in excellent condition, let alone concours condition. From reading the description, I would say that it’s in #3 “good condition” at the most, which Hagerty lists as being worth $1,000. Or, dare I say that it may be closer to a #3 “fair” condition TR200 for $700? The seller talks about the dented and rusty exhaust, stress fractures in the paint, the battery is shot, the brakes need adjusting and it needs a rear brake light, but other than that!.. $2,650 is a pretty ambitious starting place but maybe the market for the Fat Cat is even more than I think it is. Luckily, parts-wise, things like the mechanicals and even tires will be fairly easy to source because they were lifted directly from Hondas ATVs. This one has a new rear tire so that’s one less thing you’ll have to buy, and the old rear tire was about as worn out as it gets. The rear brakes were changed, although they still need adjusting. I would probably do that before listing it for sale, but, call me crazy!
I would have this thing taken apart and spread on the garage floor, pronto! Sending out parts to be painted, and otherwise restored. But, putting $1,000 or more into a bike that’s already priced above the concours condition level wouldn’t make sense. At least to me it wouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean that I still don’t want this one. The Fat Cat is powered by a 199.1 CC four-stroke single with close to 40 hp and it starts on the first kick, but you’ll need a new battery to use the electric starter. Have any of you owned a fat-tire two-wheeler like this Honda Fat Cat TR200? What do you think a fair offer for this one would be?
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