Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's Rokon 2wd motorcycles?

Any one have one or experience using one and what is your opinion? In IA 4w ATVs have stupidly been made illegal for country roads, ditches.

I have had several. They will go anyplace but will not carry any amount of weight on board. You would need a trailer. They have a loyal following that will generate lots of over stated claims. If you have very powerful thighs and can use your legs as outriggers to navigate slow with weight on board you will be fine. But I've not yet met a human being that enjoys that level of effort.

They travel well at 10-15mph, they will be a lethal nightmare waiting to happen at 30mph, no suspension means the low air pressure tires bounce like a basketball when bumps are hit. I swapped mine to Bighorn radials and rand them at 2psi. This combination was far better but reduced top speed to about 22mph.

Over all they are the best off road machine ever for a slow rider. If you expect to go more the 20MPH most of the time forget it. If you expect to carry 100lbs on board forget it. I have packed out quite a few whole animals strapped on, it was simply brutal. You can drag stuff forever on level ground, but dragging on side hills causes the game to roll down the hill and pull the bike with it.

For the price they are simply stupid expensive, far more then a fully equipped ATV. If you're not gonna carry 100lbs of "stuff", or pull a trailer, the Honda Ruckus is a better machine, electric start, it's street legal. It's also less then half the price, better made, and way more comfortable. It will go 35mph safely too.

Repair parts are only available from Rokon, and they will rape you for every single thing. I'm not kidding like a 1000% markup. Most used machines have been heavily modified by the owners so beware of future repairs. If you're very mechanically inclined, and can weld good, the rokon may be a good option for riding point A to B. However do not mistake this for a economical user friendly "scooter" to get you around. It's a beast that needs work to keep going dependably. I never knew a single Rokon owner that ran a stock machine. They were all modified in some way to improve the design and make them dependable. Probably because the parts from Rokon were simply of the charts expensive, so most guys fabbed up some repair and improved the problem area.

JJ, thank you to the tune of $5700!! It's what I needed to know.

Is there something a little larger than the Honda Ruckus,yet sort of a street/trail hybrid?

For packing a heavy load, it's better to divide the weight and hang it low on the sides, NOT on top of the rack. The lower the weight, the better. 100lb behind your back is twice as hard as 100lb hanging below the rack and balanced.

The old Tote Gote was the best two wheeled packer out there..Low center of gravity and a centrifugal clutch(like a snow machine/no gears to mess with).A quarter of an Elk was a piece of cake...

I wished they still made them.

Jayco

A great option is the Yamaha TW200. Fat-ish tires, geared low and street legal.

I ride a TW. It's gets more smiles per miles than anything else....

It's a very specialized vehicle that will get you into some areas that you are unlikely to get into with other motorized options. The speed issue really isn't an issue as the areas that you'd want a rokon to access you aren't going to be going 30mph in.

If the trails are open enough to run 30mph, then there are much better options.

Tell me about the Y TW200 if you would. Can I go slow up and down hills? Skid a deer out on snow? Carry two adults slowly and short distances? Thx.

I've owned 2 TWs, 2 Honda Fatcats, and 2 Yamaha Big Wheels, sold 'em all but the Big Wheels. The TWs weren't geared low enough for me and wouldn't begin to go where the FC & BW would. If you want to scoot down lots of roads and not steep hills, a TW will work. The FC or BW are slower, but better geared, my BW might go 20 mph in 5th gear, a FC might make 30 mph. The BW came in 80cc, 200cc, and 350 cc, the 350s are power monsters, the 200s do me just fine.

I've always wished that Honda had made the old Trail 90 in something bigger than a kid's bike. They had a good design and some good ideas, but that pathetic 90 engine was totally useless. I tried twice to pack out a deer on one and both times I ended up carrying both the deer and the bike.

LOL, got a bunch of them also RC, the Trail 110s were still underpowered, with the big back sprocket they would climb!

Pardon the hijack, but when my daughter lived in Filer, her next door neighbor had a back yard FULL of bikes, you could walk from one side to the other without touching dirt.

But these bikes were made and dc'd in the 80's. If there was such utility to them why discontinued? Is there anything similar that's currently being produced?

The Trail 110 had a tiny bit more power, but they dropped the 2 speed. That was a big help for the tiny engine. They needed a similar bike with a 150cc or bigger.
I think they dropped them because everyone else was making bikes that would get the job done and sales dropped.

George, they weren't big sellers, irrigators and anyone who liked to poke around on sand could see some advantage over skinny-tired bikes. Horn hunters here love 'em.

Not much fun to ride, if you run 2-4 psi the traction improves, but the front wheel kinda goes wherever and you gotta follow it. Ride one all day and your shoulders will ache from fighting the wheel. No match for a Rokon, but better than anything else for rough country.

Been there, done that, with the Rokon. Yes there is a cult following of the Rokon, but they still remind me of a quote my dad had about a monkey and a football.

I have hauled a bear, small, but still a bear, on my Yamaha XT 250. It wasn't as nice as a 4 wheeler, but better than a Rokon...

The tw can be geared down by swapping out sprockets. It has a huge following with guys traveling thousands of miles on them. I would google tw200 and you will get lots of info.

It is good for a lot, but not perfect for anything. I generally take hills quickly, and then carefully going down. It handles sidehills well. The TW has a low seat hieght and is very light weight so it helps when navigating rough areas. The big tires give good traction and help on sandy roads (and paved roads)...changing the sprocket will help here, but will slow you down on the pavement...so I've left mine stock. It will allow you to drag a deer but I've not done it over snow...I did read where some fellows were studding an extra tire and playing on the ice with them. It will carry 2 adults with no problem. My kids ride on it with me often. I often use it when carrying a square bale of hay (cycleracks rack) and/or feed to a front pasture.

An ATV beats it for up/down hills with no need to balance and engine braking and hauling out a deer but you can't ride an ATV 20 miles down the road, then up a mt trail, call yotes until dark, and then ride it back home getting 80-90 mpg the entire time.

THAT perfectly sums up the little TW200. I've lusted over them for years, and if I wouldn't look like a circus bear on a bicycle, I'd have at least one of them in the garage.

I've got an old '72 Rokon that scratches a long time itch. No question they're the coolest looking bike ever assembled, but as others have stated, it's not the end-all of offroad travel. My Honda 4wheeler or XR650 get a lot more attention.

JCM and 222, and others too, that was very helpful. I'm mainly looking to run up gravel roads while running my dog 4-6 miles, and then in the hills for deer, turkey, etc. The reason for the OP was, IA seems schizophrenic on it's views, hence laws, regarding ATVs.

Keep 'em coming if you want. Still undecided.