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New Bike

2K views 15 replies 10 participants last post by  natesdsu 
#1 ·
I just bought a 2009 TW200 and I'm excited to begin learning more about the bike. Found it on craigslist with about 1,700 miles. Looks stock to me other than the luggage rack.

I've put about 50 miles of city riding on it so far and have loved every minute of it. Please let me know if there is anything you think I should look into replacing/updating.

I'm looking at a chain replacement, larger footpegs, and swapping the front tire. I'm open to all suggestions. I want to be able to ride trails but still handle well enough to enjoy the street.
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#2 ·
Nice bike bro, welcome to the forum!! :D
 
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#4 ·
Welcome from NE Oregon. I have the same year and color of bike. If you are going to be doing much off- road riding I would suggest a set of hand guards. They are great for keeping your levers safe in a tip over and stop brush/branches from hitting your hands while riding. Here is a pic of your bike's twin in its natural environment.
 

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#5 ·
Welcome from San Diego.
 
#8 ·
Clean looking bike. Doesn't look like it's seen a hard life at all.
I've had an o-ring chain most of the summer. I keep going to adjust it, but it still hasn't needed a click from the day I put it on. Huge improvement over the stock chain. So good idea on the chain.
Ditto on the pegs, and a huge ditto on the front tire. The 241 seems to have the largest amount of fans, so that's the way I went. Really happy with it. And I'll echo what was said about the handguards. I had one hard flop, and several of those flops where you stall in a goofy spot and it just flops on its side and you step off...any one of those could easily snap a lever off. So far the cheap-o ebay guards have soaked up the abuse and protected everything, so at $40 they've paid for themselves at least a couple times already. I mounted an off-brand Pelican case on the rack and love it. Holds a fleece, 2L of spare fuel, a couple bottles of water, survival kit, improved tool kit, first aid kit.. I came from an ATV with a big rear seat/storage case so I could bring tons of stuff I needed plus another ton of crap that I didn't. Some change when your storage for a day of riding drops to zero.
Depending on what you want to do with the TW, the forum will give you all sorts of ideas do spend money on.
 
#9 ·
Welcome. There'll be a lot of great advice from guys that really have their bikes dialed in. You might need to try a few things before you find what works for you. All my riding is city streets so I changed tires, chain and both sprockets all at the same time. I sourced used TW203 and 204 tires from a long term forum member and got a new X-ring chain with 15/45 sprocket combo. I ride every day and like the setup. I can hit 70 mph but the truth is my bike will probably never see much over 55. Great city bike, especially with all the potholes in all directions. If I keep it, I'd like to address the front and rear suspension. Cheers and enjoy
 
#10 ·
Thanks for the warm welcome.

Mountain Yawp: Can't wait until my bike sees some mud, great pic!

GCFishguy: Thanks for the advice on the O-ring. Did you need to cut any links? I'll look into the Shinko 241

Badgerflorida: What's the difference between an X-ring and O-ring? have you taken the 203 and 204 off road?

I really appreciate the input from everyone. Looking forward to putting a lot of miles on this bike!
 
#11 · (Edited)
Don't need to cut any links, you can buy the chains in the length you want/need.
I also went to a 45-tooth rear at the same time I got the o-ring chain, so I checked on here and a 120-link was the right length for a 45-tooth rear.
Fits A-1, the adjusters are at spot #2, I believe.

If you're sticking with your stock sprockets, the stock length is what you want...it's on the forum, and in the specs on the bike, but I forget right now. 122, maybe?

The wear point for chains is inside the rollers, on the pins. (Sorry, no clue on the right terms...but it's in the yellow area in the diagram below) With an O (or X) ring chain, there's an O-ring at each end of each roller, so in theory, water and dirt can never get inside the rollers. When you lube a standard chain, you want oil to get inside those rollers. When you lube an o/x, you're just lubricating the outer surfaces since the inside of the rollers are 'factory lubricated and sealed for the life of the chain'.

If you look at a cross section of an o ring, it looks like a circle. An X ring will have a cross section that looks like an x. They both seal crap out of the spot that crap needs to stay out of. You can decide yourself if one is better than the other.

Clip art Furniture Fictional character


And on the 45-tooth rear. If you're dropping the coin for a good chain, make sure you think a bit about sprockets. If you don't care about losing a tiny bit of grunt at the bottom end of 1st, to get more comfortable revs at the top end, you might want to consider a sprocket. I only mention it because if you're thinking of a different sprocket, you might as well wait and buy the chain to match it.
 
#12 ·
Thanks for all the information GCfishguy. I'll definitely consider changing the sprocket at the same time as the chain.

I'd love to spend more time on trails, but I live in San Diego so I'll probably always spend more time on street than I want to, so a dip in grunt in 1st gear probably wouldn't be deal breaker.
 
#13 ·
About the only time I notice the slight loss in 1st is somewhere that I'm no longer on a trail, picking my way over roots and junk...where you seems you always have to climb over a root or something from a dead stop.
Starting out on a bit of a hill or something is no problem. And it's nice to stretch each gear out just a bit on the street...rather than having to shift 3 times before you're all the way through an intersection. hehe
All the secondary roads around here have an 80km/h speed limit (49.7 mph) and that's were I seem to do a lot of my riding, exploring back country roads....so with the stock sprocket it was nearly always running high in the revs. Not high enough to hurt anything, but it was obvious it could be running fine at that speed with a higher gear ratio. All the gears are 'low' stock, so a 45 just bumps them up enough, but not so much that you end up with it wheezing and topped right out.
Now I find it's 'comfortable' at 80 (50mph), and only loses grunt on the steepest of hills. Even at 225 lbs I can still tuck and get 71mph out of it on the flat.
 
#14 · (Edited)
I just replaced the stock chain on my 2017 with an x-ring.

122 links for the stock 14/50, plenty of room for adjustment with my new 47T rear.

I did need to get help from YouTube as I struggled with the clip on the master link. Key was rather than sliding it on both pins simultaneously as I was used to doing, slide it over the "front" pin first and then gently pry the ears over the second pin. About 2 minutes in here:



I used a small socket instead of the nut over the pin he recommended.

I bought a Shinko 241, but have not yet installed it.

I installed the <$20 wider pegs from eBay and they're fine.

And Tusk Pro handguards.
 
#15 ·
Wow - I was pretty late on this one.

I'm not an expert. X-Ring chains have x shaped seals designed to keep grease in the pins and bushings and dirt out. O-Ring chains have o shaped seals. I don't have any experience with O but they both do a good job of keeping grease in and dirt out. I got an X because I'm too lazy to adjust my chain. Both X and O ring chains do not stretch as much as conventional chains.

I have only had my tires on loose gravel and wet and dry grass and I personally don't recommend them for even the most tame trail riding. In my opinion, if you know you're going to go off road get the 241 or one of the other tires recommended by the trail guys here. I strongly recommend getting the stock front tire off your bike as soon as you can. Lots of stories and videos of front washouts. Cheers and enjoy.
 
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