My name is Mark and I grew up in a northern suburb of Buffalo, New York. As far as I can remember I always liked taking things apart and putting them back together. I learned a lot about mechanics and tools from my father. At a young age I started with bicycles and lawn equipment and eventually bought my first real dirt bike (1980 Yamaha GT80 enduro) when I was around 13 years old. After this I was hooked on motorsports and I started buying and selling all sorts of vehicles like dirt bikes, snowmachines, 3 and 4 wheelers. My first three wheeler was a 1983 Honda 185S. I bought it with my best friend because it was a good deal. We ended up trading it for a 1985 Honda 250SX that needed some work. I eventually bought a 1986 Honda 200X when I was around 14. I still remember this white and blue ATC with little flat track tires on the back. It was a ton of fun sliding the back end around on wet grass. I sold the 200X for the money to buy a 1986 Kawaski KXT 250 Tecate. Wow what a machine it was. The Tecate stayed with me for years which is rare. When I turned 16 and could drive and I started getting into more vehicles like cars, trucks, and street motorcycles.  A lot of my buying, selling, and working on vehicles went on hold when I went to college for mechanical engineering. Although I did a top end rebuild on my first Harley (1972 XLCH Sportster) in my dorm room. After graduating I got a job in Allegany county New York working with steam turbines. I spent some time away from home working in the field but this career allowed me to buy a house with property and a shop. It was great (and still is) to have a place of my own to work on and ride off road vehicles. One of my first restorations in the new shop was the 1986 KXT Tecate. After I was done I decided to sell it. I was just afraid to ride it. Not that it was too fast- I was afraid I would break something during normal use and I wouldn’t be able to find parts for it. Shortly after the sale of the Tecate I picked up an 85 350X and restored it. All the while I was improving my skills and my tool collection. At 29 I joined the Army reserve and was trained as a wheeled vehicle mechanic. I eventually got deployed to Afghanistan. I came back home and back to the engineering job and back to getting my hands dirty in my shop. My first BIG RED was a 1984 200ES and it is a great utility machine. I was always into performance machines but I soon found out that I needed a utility machine for getting around and maintaining my property. I found that the BIG RED was a low price (as compared to 4 wheelers and side by sides), useful, and reliable machine. As the side by sides came into popularity I saw more and more BIG REDS for sale. Knowing myself these vehicles still had value I started buying them. Some get restored, some get broken down to sell parts, and some get fixed mechanically and sold to be put to work again. So far it has been very enjoyable working with the BIG REDS and connecting and learning with others that share the same passion.

​

I would like to hear your story about you and your BIG RED/S. Please consider joining the justbigreds.com forum – A forum dedicated to the Honda BIG RED ATC.

​

​

I don't just work on BIG REDS. Here are a few pics of other vehicles I have owned and projects I have done.