TW200 Forum Folk--
I have a 2006 TW200 with about 4500 miles on it that I got six years back from a buddy, he got it from the original owner his dad. Apparently his dad accidentally dropped it off the bed of his truck and it creased the gas tank and tweaked the rear-fender section of the frame rendering it worthless. To them, not to me. I have already straightened out the frame, easy peasy, and I don't care a bit about the crease in the tank, didn't even break the paint. I live in the Pike National Forest in Colorado and have been using it as a get-around ranch/farm type bike on our property, which sits in a valley and has some very steep hills and terrain, and also for scooting around on forest roads, checking on my neighbor's cabins for them, etc, but almost no pavement. I've had a lot of bikes over the years and to me this thing is the perfect platform for this application, but it leaves a few things to be desired, mostly the suspension and the gearing. Looking through the forums I see lots of discussions on how to convert the TW200 to a more highway-friendly bike, but not nearly as much discussion on going the other direction and making the TW200 an almost exclusively off-road bike. So, starting this thread with a brief account of what I'm planning, and hoping others might chime in on what they've done or would suggest doing to this end.
Suspension: I have followed TWBigBlake's lead and bought a custom rear shock from MS Shocks, also ordered the Procycles 'Fork Solution Kit' with cartridge emulators and stiffer springs, I am guessing that this will solve the first problem or at least get me in the ballpark of a solution for that.
Gearing: although the 1st gear is sufficiently low for nearly everything i want to climb, it's not quite low enough, so I am planning on dropping the gear ratio slightly, not quite sure just yet if I want to just bump to a 55t in the rear or combine that with a drop in the front to 12t or 13t up front. What I'd really like would be to change the gearbox to span a narrower range of gears so that I'd have more usable trail gears and just lose the highway-friendly gearing completely, but I realize that's a next-level modification I probably don't want to get involved in. Barring that, any suggestions on an optimal front/rear sprocket combo specifically intended for a bike spending all of its time off-road?
Other things I'd be curious about...
Handlebars: lots of discussion on here about getting more comfortable handlebars for highway cruising, but what about for trail only use? As a mountain biker I am inclined towards less rearward sweep than I find on a lot of motorcycle bars, so have been looking at bars like the Protaper SE with the Windham/RM Mid bend, also thinking keep it a little narrower for treebashing, plus people here seem to get the wider Protaper SE ATV bend bars and then cut them down anyway so they can stick w/ stock cabling, but I'd love to hear what others think on the subject.
Other: Any other things you have done or would do to a TW200 that is going to live exclusively off-road?
Thanks in advance for any input you can share, this forum has been an amazing source of information and problem solving for me these past six years, really looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with on this subject!
Thanks!
--Josh (forum user 'ConZFC')
I have a 2006 TW200 with about 4500 miles on it that I got six years back from a buddy, he got it from the original owner his dad. Apparently his dad accidentally dropped it off the bed of his truck and it creased the gas tank and tweaked the rear-fender section of the frame rendering it worthless. To them, not to me. I have already straightened out the frame, easy peasy, and I don't care a bit about the crease in the tank, didn't even break the paint. I live in the Pike National Forest in Colorado and have been using it as a get-around ranch/farm type bike on our property, which sits in a valley and has some very steep hills and terrain, and also for scooting around on forest roads, checking on my neighbor's cabins for them, etc, but almost no pavement. I've had a lot of bikes over the years and to me this thing is the perfect platform for this application, but it leaves a few things to be desired, mostly the suspension and the gearing. Looking through the forums I see lots of discussions on how to convert the TW200 to a more highway-friendly bike, but not nearly as much discussion on going the other direction and making the TW200 an almost exclusively off-road bike. So, starting this thread with a brief account of what I'm planning, and hoping others might chime in on what they've done or would suggest doing to this end.
Suspension: I have followed TWBigBlake's lead and bought a custom rear shock from MS Shocks, also ordered the Procycles 'Fork Solution Kit' with cartridge emulators and stiffer springs, I am guessing that this will solve the first problem or at least get me in the ballpark of a solution for that.
Gearing: although the 1st gear is sufficiently low for nearly everything i want to climb, it's not quite low enough, so I am planning on dropping the gear ratio slightly, not quite sure just yet if I want to just bump to a 55t in the rear or combine that with a drop in the front to 12t or 13t up front. What I'd really like would be to change the gearbox to span a narrower range of gears so that I'd have more usable trail gears and just lose the highway-friendly gearing completely, but I realize that's a next-level modification I probably don't want to get involved in. Barring that, any suggestions on an optimal front/rear sprocket combo specifically intended for a bike spending all of its time off-road?
Other things I'd be curious about...
Handlebars: lots of discussion on here about getting more comfortable handlebars for highway cruising, but what about for trail only use? As a mountain biker I am inclined towards less rearward sweep than I find on a lot of motorcycle bars, so have been looking at bars like the Protaper SE with the Windham/RM Mid bend, also thinking keep it a little narrower for treebashing, plus people here seem to get the wider Protaper SE ATV bend bars and then cut them down anyway so they can stick w/ stock cabling, but I'd love to hear what others think on the subject.
Other: Any other things you have done or would do to a TW200 that is going to live exclusively off-road?
Thanks in advance for any input you can share, this forum has been an amazing source of information and problem solving for me these past six years, really looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with on this subject!
Thanks!
--Josh (forum user 'ConZFC')