[PJungnitsch]

Put most of this up on the last forum, but now that the season is winding down thought I would repost and update here.



This is what I had the last few years:

Last year I wrecked it in a bad accident, My link.



Didn't have much money for replacement, so in the spring I looked for something cheap at least to get me back on two wheels, and ended up with this 1996 TW:

 

[PJungnitsch]

It had been used as trail bike its entire life, puttering around the mountains. The owner said it had never gone above 40 km/hr.



It had only 4000 km (2500 miles) on it, but was showing some wear and tear. Headlight and instruments were bent or broken, frame brackets gone, grips worn out, brake lever bust, etc.

 

[PJungnitsch]

It would never look as pretty as a fancy new one, but the advantage was modifying it was no big stress.



Now what I really like a motorcycle for is using it every day, and with few to no trails around here that means driving back and forth to work, getting groceries, etc.



I had really liked the topbox and small side bags on my Vstrom for this, and part of the reason I got the TW was that hard gear could easily be fitted to it.



Plus this forum showed that all kinds of other mods could be done. Add in a (briefly) strong Canadian dollar, the much cheaper prices for TW stuff compared to Vstrom stuff, and what I ended up with was boxes of stuff after a trip to a Montana parcel pick-up.:

And so on.

 

[PJungnitsch]

This is kind of the look I had in the back of my mind, the 'Thin-strom'.

It was going to take a while, especially as I was driving the bike every day to work.

 

[qwerty]

This is gonna be good.

 

[PJungnitsch]

First things were a round headlight and a topbox, plus the JC Whitney seat pad:

Used the 8" sidemount headlight from Fly N'Cycle, combined with chrome brackets from ebay.

Fitting was easy, the old headlight assembly comes off with a few bolts. The chrome brackets just clamp to the fork tubes. One thing I should have done is attached the back of the headlight to the instrument panel backplate with wire to hold the headlight aim. Instead I just tightened up the side bolts alot and I see now it is screwing up the mounting bushings.



For the top box I ordered the same large JC Whitney unit I had been happy with on the Vstrom. The mounting bracket bolted on easily in place of the stock pad, just had to drill a few holes in the bracket:

It worked good for me like that, and with a little reinforcement would probably be enough for most things. The only thing I'd do different is slide the mount a little further back to make it easier to take the seat off.

 

[qwerty]

Looks like you could use 1cm longer bolts, bend a piece of flat steel and a couple lock nuts to affix it to your longer bolts, and u-bolts and lock nuts on the frame would provide plenty of reinforcement for your box mount.

 

[PJungnitsch]

Next were the plastics. Used Krylon Fusion to make them black:

I think I would try some other product next time, the Fusion is fairly brittle and doesn't seem to adhere super well. Not bad, just not great.



Richochet bash plate OTOH, easy as pie to fit, nice solid unit, and 1/3 the price of a Vstrom equivalent:

 

[PJungnitsch]

Looks like you could use 1cm longer bolts, bend a piece of flat steel and a couple lock nuts to affix it to your longer bolts, and u-bolts and lock nuts on the frame would provide plenty of reinforcement for your box mount.

Yeah, exactly. Just bridge the plastic.

 

[Gerry]

I did not have much success with the Fusion Paint on my Clarke tank either. Should anyone find a good/better plastic 'paint' process, please let us know. Gerry

 

[migopod]

I'd like to recommend the "Trippel" or "Abbey" from New Belgium over the Fat Tire.

 

[PJungnitsch]

I did prefer the Redhook, the Fat Tire was a bit bitter. Get a real kick out of buying beer in Wal-Mart though.

 

[PJungnitsch]

Eventually added the Happy Trails side racks and top rack. Took a bit of persuasion with a big hammer, but they all fit. Givi E21 sidebags went on the side rack.

Then bolted on the top box plate and slid on the top box. The Happy trails top rack on its own is plenty wide, probably wider than I'd like, but it fits nicely with the side racks.

All together it adds a lot of lockable and waterproof hauling capacity, really makes the bike useful around town. All comes on or off with a key, depending on the mood of the day.

All this has held up well over the summer, no issues. The top box is big enough to hold a full-face helmet, which is handy.

 

[PJungnitsch]

Moose grip guards:

These needed some threads chased before they would bolt on, not quite machined right:

Put them on with Oxford heated grips, LH side fitted easily:

RH side not so much, thought I cut way to far into the (electric) part of the grip before the throttle would turn with the handguard in place:

Ended up they worked, but should probably have redrilled the throttle assembly hole and pushed it farther in the bars, before fitting the grip.

 

[PJungnitsch]

So far so good. Some maintenance stuff had to be attended too, based on the SA photographers account, I changed the original tires to Shinko 428's:

Much, much quieter on pavement, got rid of the 'little tractor' roar. Seems to be fine on gravel. No doubt not as good as the knobbies on mud or sand. Breaking the bead on the rear tires was extremely tough, needed a jack inbetween the tire and my truck.



Chain changed to DID O-ring, rear sprocket from 50 to 47:

Found changing the master link on the 0-ring tough as they are semi-press fit units, ended up buying a mini chain press:

The 47 sprocket was a big improvement on the street, really liked it.



Rear shock changed out to free Yamaha update:

Also brake pads front and rear, front brake cable, O-rings for tappet covers, oil fill cover, set the cam chain tension, valve adjustment, set the idle mixture as rich as it would go.



Bike was looking like this now:

 

[busyweb]

Thanks for the good write-up on the Mini-VStorm.

It looks like Great-Mini-VStorm for me.

You transformed it very wonderfully, jealous of your skills... ha ha ha

 

[PJungnitsch]

Some carb work, the engine seemed to run pretty hot at speed, checked the installed main jet and it was a 108! As he was up quite a bit higher than me it might have made sense for him, but I changed it out for a 116.

Turning out the mixture screw to 4 made the bike start and idle cold much better than before, but it would still not run rich at any setting, so I switched the 40 pilot jet for a 42:

 

[PJungnitsch]

Found out here about those wide footpegs and fitted a set:

That's a great cheap mod.

 

[abyssdncr]

From a fully Givi'd out Vstrom owner, I say well done, sir!

 

[PJungnitsch]

Next job was more painting, sobering up that bright OEM paint scheme. First the tank:

And then the frame:

Aye Caramba that was a lot of work. I envy the people that have a garage and can take their machine apart properly for this.



Still, with some cheap black fork boots 'Polisport':

And some Ebay turn signals:

It was looking more like what I had been thinking of:

Note, those Ebay turn signals blow. They look like the Buell ones that are a popular Vstrom retrofit, but don't have the flex. Plus the bulbs were seized in and had to be broken and twisted out with a vice grip. I'll be replacing them with proper Buell ones this winter.