I found a post describing a mod (kit) of the front triple tree to give the TW a fat tire in the front just like the back. (click) http://tw200forum.com/forums/94385/ShowPost.aspx its a very expensive mod - i think around $1700 -so i guess there isnt much interest- but dam! has anyone at all installed this as an off-road mod and have photos?
I found a post describing a mod (kit) of the front triple tree to give the TW a fat tire in the front just like the back. (click) http://tw200forum.co...5/ShowPost.aspx its a very expensive mod - i think around $1700 -so i guess there isnt much interest- but dam! has anyone at all installed this as an off-road mod and have photos?
$1,700 would buy a really nice BW200 or a fair BW350. The entire front end (triple clamp, forks, axle, brakes, cable, lever, fender) would cost a fraction of that. Then, you would have a very simple bolt-on project that would run a 25x8x12 tire. The only fly in the ointment is the drum brake, unless yours is vintage enough to have one already.
Kyosuke san's bike may be one of the nicest dirt oriented builds, but I see room for further refinement...this is probably the baddest TW or at least most expensive
I will defer to BIG WHEEL, but I have heard that a "big" front wheel can create as many problems as it solves. Now our Friends in Japan I suspect have very little 'off-road' to enjoy, so some of what we see is not used in the way we think. I have heard that the really fat front wheels may look like 'serious off-road' equipment, but in fact, they can be a hand-full to deal with in many situations. I have been told that big wheels can grab ruts and be very 'hard' to pull out of.
It is a matter of what you are looking for. An off the lot HumVee looks pretty gnarly, but suspect no serious off-roader would have any desire to take one 'cross-country'. Just my opinion. Gerry
I will defer to BIG WHEEL, but I have heard that a "big" front wheel can create as many problems as it solves. Now our Friends in Japan I suspect have very little 'off-road' to enjoy, so some of what we see is not used in the way we think. I have heard that the really fat front wheels may look like 'serious off-road' equipment, but in fact, they can be a hand-full to deal with in many situations. I have been told that big wheels can grab ruts and be very 'hard' to pull out of.
It is a matter of what you are looking for. An off the lot HumVee looks pretty gnarly, but suspect no serious off-roader would have any desire to take one 'cross-country'. Just my opinion. Gerry
This guy says as long as you don't plan on mx'ing it, then it makes a fine woods bike:
So, I tried it out in the dirt for the first time this past weekend and was very impressed! I was afraid I had created a dune only bike when I did this conversion, but it proved to ride just fine in the dirt too! I found a set of used stock Rhino tires and threw them on. I need to find a softer compound tire as these were so stiff I had to run them down to 5psi to get any traction out of them. The thing climbed hills like a billy goat! big rocks and root wads were no problem. Luckily these tires (25" tall) are taller than quad tires so I didn't fall too far into ruts and holes. I'll probably put a 26" or 27" on the front though just to make it even better. I also want to find a tread pattern that more closely resembles a dirt bike tire. The bike is definately heavier, I wouldn't ever try running a MX moto on it or anything. But, I did not ruin it for bombing through the woods!!
Kyosuke san's bike may be one of the nicest dirt oriented builds, but I see room for further refinement...this is probably the baddest TW or at least most expensive"
Mr. Gould is one of my biggest heros. He will build you a replica of of his Fat Bottomed CRF450s for about $7,000. Or you could buy three and one half of those evergreen and oh, so cool BW350s for the same price.
The BigWheel will not handle stadium whoops or supercross triples but you will still feel like Ryan Dungey when makng a 6" jump.
When I win the lottery I'm going to build a TW with the rear tire on the front, ATV tire on the back, and triple disc brakes, a TW with stock tire sizes for dualsporting, a TW cafe racer with a pirate theme, and a Factory 5.0 Cobra.
In 1982 I bought a chevy chasis for $50, as an aside he asked me if I wanted the bike sitting in the back of garage for another $50, I was about to pass when I said WTH, so I bought a dusty old 1973 RT1. A few weeks later I installed a paddle on the RT1 and for a grand total of $150 I was off to Pismo....Where, everyone else I went with, with their high dollar buggies and new yz's, promptly broke down, succumbed to the evil sand. In the meantime, me and my $150 went on to lay utter waste to all those brand new 250x's, conquer competition hill, devils slide, and tow a broken yz 10 miles down the beach. Sometimes, It not about how much you spend, but sometimes it is
Mr Gould will be my hero when he
Plus this
Nothing goes like a large bore 2 stroke in the sand....I don't care how much money he sinks into that high strung, high maintenance, 4 stroke
Let's cut through the effluvia! Rules changes made the four-stroke what it is today. It didn't get there by virtue of its power per cubic centimeter, power per pound or power per dollar. Nope! Without the AMA four-stroke exemption rule of 1998, the modern four-stroke would still be defined by the Honda XR600. Forget about EPA rules (they don’t affect closed-course racing machines), fleet fuel averages (they don’t apply to offroad bikes), cost savings (four-strokes cost more to produce) or any of the other hokey reasons that the nattering nabobs of negativity credit the rise of the four-stroke on. None of those things are players. Engine for engine, cc for cc, ounce for ounce, the two-stroke motocross engine is a vastly superior piece of equipment. If the two-stroke was invented today, it would sweep the four-stroke motocross engine off the face of the earth (which is exactly what it did 43 years ago—when the displacement rules were equal).
Pit pundits will always tell you that horsepower doesn’t matter as much as torque. They wax on about the torque advantage that a four-stroke engine has over a two-stroke. Guess what? A Yamaha YZ250F four-stroke makes 20.1 foot-pounds of torque. Are you ready? A YZ250 two-stroke pumps out 30.6 ft-pounds. For comparison purposes a 450 four-strokes produces approximately 34 foot-pounds.(they neglect to mention what a 500cc 2 stroke makes in torque, but it is a hell of a lot more than that crf450)
and if it's trail friendly you want, Here's an interesting article on the Maico 760 single tuned for 4000rpms peak:
No sir. It merely pulls like the friendliest tractor you ever did see in your whole life.The bike peaks out at a mere 4000 rpm. In this day and age of Open bikes turning 7000-plus rpm, it’s almost leisurely. Peak horsepower is rated at a very conservative 43. However, at a mere 1200 rpm, the massive engine puts out 26 horsepower, more than the hottest 125s produce at peak revs. And we’re talking rear wheel horsepower, too. None of those namby-pamby readings at the crank.Now, think for a moment about those numbers and try to translate them into some sort of reality in your head. It means that the rider can loaf down the trail at just above idle and, with a flick of the wrist, have a big bucket of torque at his disposal. No radical rpm needed. Just roll that sucker on a little bit and get a lot of forward motion in return.To try and give you a good idea of what this feels like, think about the following for a moment. The Blackwater race was held in quite possibly the nastiest conditions imaginable. Deep bogs, tight woods, water crossings of death, etc. Grim. Some of the sections threaded through narrow tree-lined paths, with slippery roots criss-crossing the trails.
Here, the 760 could be comfortably left in third gear, with no clutch work required.We could let the rpms drop off to almost nothing and smoothly roll the throttle on; the bike would respond by pulling strongly, with no snatching or grabbing. Almost like a Husky automatic, but with none of the irritating lag and hesitation.Long uphills were almost a joke. Just leave the bike in third or fourth and roll the throttle on as needed. No down gearing or clutch slipping needed. This was truly the only dirt bike we’ve ever ridden that never ran out of power, no matter how low the engine was forced to lug and grunt. The closest thing to a tractor imaginable.The second most asked question was: "Is it a bear to ride? Must be a real handful, right?"No. Actually, the bike was incredibly easy to ride. The power delivery was as flat as any stretch of Kansas landscape you can picture. It literally pulled from idle. Now, we know that’s a widely overused phrase, one that journalists like to pull out of their editorial hat to "dazzle the spectators." However, in this case, it holds true right down to the gnat’s buttocks.You can chug the 760 right down to the last few wheezes and it’ll pull back without a hint of protest. There are no odd surges or sudden bursts of power. Rather, there’s a smooth, steady and seemingly endless flow of vibration-free torque. Combined with the heavy flywheels, there’s almost no wheelspin. The meaty Metzeler on the bike simply hooks up and pushes the bike forward with no fuss.NO SHAKES... NO BREAKS
You might well wonder how they get a single-cylinder engine of this size to run without vibrating itself to death. Simple. The crank is balanced as if the engine would turn the more-or-less normal 7000 rpm. But, with the power peaking at 4000, the engine never even gets into the shaking range. In fact, it puts out less vibration than a mildly tuned 250 play bike.
That honda CRF450 fatcat looks like a blast- thanks for bringing that big wheeled beast back!! i really cant fully appreciate the time that went into that but i know it must have been tedious. - now just make it street legal and it would be one awesome dual purpose. One thing it does have in common with the TW, and i think people are attracted to, is the low seat height. $1700 seems like alot for the TW fat tire mod but i dont see it being possible (homemade) without some real skills and equipment to work with.
yup the 300 is the hot ticket, BTW, they do make an AWD frame for that model as well, and they rule hare scrambles.
I just think the 500 engine is the proper powerplant for that fat tire beast. 20 hour Pistons are cheaper than 20 hour titanium valves, and he needs raw horsepower for those oregon dunes, not a finely tuned supercross thumper.
I totally agree that a big engine and AWD would be an incredible design for the ultimate fat-tire machine. The mechanical complexity of the Christini system makes me somewhat nervous, given the disrepair of all of my other motorized vehicles.
If you combined the Christini AWD with Mr. Gould's fat-tire machining, you would have a dirt bike that is approaching $20,000. For that kind of money you could have an 850 pound Harley that does zero to sixty in about three days.
I totally agree that a big engine and AWD would be an incredible design for the ultimate fat-tire machine. The mechanical complexity of the Christini system makes me somewhat nervous, given the disrepair of all of my other motorized vehicles.
If you combined the Christini AWD with Mr. Gould's fat-tire machining, you would have a dirt bike that is approaching $20,000. For that kind of money you could have an 850 pound Harley that does zero to sixty in about three days.
hey, this is my first post, figured id share my tw with you guys. I've been having a blast riding and modding this thing over the past 2 years, but its cold out today so here I am haha.
mods:
15 tooth front sprocket
fmf slip on
Clarke tank
pro taper bars and grips
Rox pro bar riser 1" forward...
I bought a procycle high fender mount not to long ago, but visually it wasn't doing it for me. Today I was bored after work so I pulled out some scrap, and the angle grinder, and decided to build a new one
first I traced out the shape I wanted onto the steel, then made a rough cut with the...
Got a good deal on two 2000 TW200's. Ones for my buddy and the other for my wife. I've been restoring USMC dirt bikes for awhile and my wife decided shed like to ride with me on the dual sport trails. Plan on making some upgrades and covering the usual problem areas. Here's pick of both bikes in...
Does anyone know where I can get a custom shock build for my Tw200? I like the height the banshee shock (340mm) gives me but I would like it to be stiffer than what a stock banshee shock offers.
I’ve seen the Marvin Shaw option talked about here and it did not work for me. The shock they sent...
FIRST OFF, is there a Military theme thread here on the forum already? I looked and search a bunch of different ways!
I've been digging deep within the forum today, so please don't blast me for not doing so...
So, I have to ask! Does anyone know anything about this Military themed TW200, as in...
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