Big Wheel on a Budget

[SRTeric]

Bought my 1990 (my 3rd tw over the years) about a year ago for $80. it was a basket case, and a rough one at that. didnt run, trashed out, but it was largely complete and wasnt locked up. got it home, got it to run for about 5 minutes before it sucked crap into the carb, and mothballed it until about a month ago. for whatever reason, i got a little antsy to start another bike project (just finished painting my klr) and started creeping craigslist before i remembered that i had the old tw sitting up in my dads barn. i originally wanted to paint the bike and clean it up, but the poor thing just needs everything and i didnt want to spend the coin. for what it would take to clean this bike up, i could buy a nice one. after conceding that it would stay rough, i started messing around on google images and saw that a few guys were doing the big wheel swaps and others were running atv tires on the rear. the gears started turning and i decided to see how cheap i could do both mods. so far, i have just shy of $800 in the turd. i buy everything possible used or cobble something together with components that i have laying around, but stuff still adds up. 800 includes the bike, gas tank, new carb, new tubes, tires, wheel, drum, axle, triple tree, tank sealer, seat, new chain and sprockets, and a ton of other little giblets. technically, the big wheel swap and atv tires ran me about 320, so im pretty happy with that. the klr is super fun but its honestly too clean to trash off pavement. this tw will be just the opposite and will likely be restricted to farm duty around our property, but itll probably be a blast in the woods, as well. technical stuff shouldnt be an issue with the 13/55 gearing and pavement duty will be limited to 35 and below while running errands around town. between tires, gearing, and sub-par front drum brake, pavement time will be limited. i enjoyed creeping through the old how-to's and write-ups on here even though a lot of the pics didnt work. figured id throw in some new images.

[Fred]

Nice.
A Big Wheel or Fat Cat front fender might complete the look.
Or to continue the affordable theme re-fender by riveting on a piece of plastic garbage pail. Cornelis from South Africa has made impressive windscreen from a trash can. That way can save money for the missing right side cover.

[Heli-Mech]

Absolutely love what you've done. The rough patina look, the double fat ATV tires and the racks. Great work man!!!