That seems to be what people do with TW's...push them to their limits! In the dirt, in the desert, in the snow and on the highway.

 

Your video and remarks confirm what I have said for many years: as long as these little Jap engines have sufficient oil in them, they will last a very long time. Revs don't seem to matter much. Good engineering/design/build quality are factors that do. As well as regular maintenance. Someone else on this forum has 53,000 miles and counting on a TW.

 

Yep, I just hit 53,103 miles on mine today. You are probably good until about 40,000 miles.
That's when I had to do a valve job, timing chain guides and my first carb overhaul.
You'll go through a few chains and sprockets, a few sets of tires, a couple of sets of brakes.
I have some bigger bikes now, much more comfortable at the higher speeds but the TW is my daily commuter
back and forth to work, hopping around town or my flood bike if the weather is really bad and the
water is real high. My brother used my bike for chasing a horse back home one day.
Have fun

 

Yes I know top speed has been discussed much here. It is not a highway bike. I have a condition which makes me unable to refrain from pushing the limits however.

Also, I thought it was interesting how good the performance of my 2025 TW200 has been! Worth sharing perhaps.

A large percentage of the miles I put on my bike are highway. Posted speed limit is 70mph in my area. Surprisingly, my TW does pretty well! Highest GPS speed I have seen was 77mph, which totally pegs out the factory speedometer (see video below). I can very confidently cruise at 65mph, and regularly hit 70+mph (gps). I even occasionally pass in the left lane on the highway.

As far as performance mods, all I have done is install the Bradley Performance oil cooler, and swap the front 14 tooth sprocket for a 15 tooth. Carburetor is totally untouched. I typically run 93 octane, E10 fuel. I haven't noticed any difference when running 87 octane.

Another thing that surprised me: despite a very large percentage of my miles being literally wide-open-throttle highway miles, with the engine turning 8000-8800 rpm for 70 or 80 miles at a time, the engine is doing very well. Hopefully I didn't jinx it just now. I checked valve lash at 600 miles per the manual, and it was perfectly in spec. I checked again at about 1700 miles, and still it is right in spec.

I have changed the oil 4 times since I have owned it. Always with full synthetic.

View attachment 252860

The only actual problem I have so far detected by my highway cruising and high-rpm max-power operation is that the buzzing vibrations keep burning out my dash-lights. The tungsten gets twisted up or detached from it's support wires and it burns out. Replaced 3 of them so far with OEMs. I will try some from an industrial supplier I frequent to see if they do any better. If not, I will pursue LEDs.

If it ever blows up, I will of course let you all know.

If you're able to run those speeds, and do over that many miles, why not run a 47 rear as well?

Would prolly only lose 3-5mph, but would lower the revs even more. Granted you're not running any off-road, or in fairly hilly terrain.

Guess, I'm sayin' why run it that hard, when you could run it a bit easier (a bit lower revs) if you're riding mostly like that.

You do have a good tolerance to withstand those revs for that length of ride. Me, not so much!

 

I actually did buy a smaller rear sprocket (45t if I remember right), but I was so pleased with just doing the 15t front sprocket that I never installed the rear. I may still try it sometime.

The main reason I haven't is because I like that my usual speeds are a bit over the peak engine power rpm (8000, according to yamaha). That makes it easier to maintain higher speeds, because slight slowdowns (hill, change in wind, etc.) will drag the rpms down closer to peak power.

Losing 3-5mph is the difference between keeping up in traffic and becoming a hinderence, in my case.

I wear gloves with a bit of padding which cuts down on the buzz I feel in my hands. It definitely is not zero, though.

 

I think the newer tw's run a little better than the older ones. I have a 2018. I ride 2 up 99% of the time. I can run 70mph no problem. I have not done any sprocket changes. A lot of our riding is 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear mountain dirt/gravel roads. It is nice to know we can go 70 (or more), if needed though.

 

Are the new bikes really that much faster then the older models?? Cause the few I had 2010 and older would hardly make 55mph. What did they change??

Only thing I can think is you are 75lbs with riding gear, going down a mountain. Maybe running NOS.

 

Are the new bikes really that much faster then the older models?? Cause the few I had 2010 and older would hardly make 55mph. What did they change??

Only thing I can think is you are 75lbs with riding gear, going down a mountain. Maybe running NOS.

I weigh 160lbs. The bike is equipped with many farkles. Cycleracks rear rack, some other brand side racks. A small windsheild. A large bag on the rack with a variety of things inside. Big skidplate.

Personally I attribute the performance to it just being new, with good maintenance and very little wear. The real test is to see how it is doing in 10 years.

 

Just thought id chime in here on the top speed thing. I’ve had my 25 model touch the 80 mark with about 5 miles of over 75 indicated . Gearing is stock and rpm was showing right around 10k on my cheap tach, Not sure how accurate that is . Im pretty sure it used a little oil but seems otherwise fine , probably had around 2500 miles on it at the time.
Im pretty comfortable running it sustained at 55-65 and even 55 in 4th if climbing a hill.

 

Just thought id chime in here on the top speed thing. I’ve had my 25 model touch the 80 mark with about 5 miles of over 75 indicated . Gearing is stock and rpm was showing right around 10k on my cheap tach, Not sure how accurate that is . Im pretty sure it used a little oil but seems otherwise fine , probably had around 2500 miles on it at the time.
Im pretty comfortable running it sustained at 55-65 and even 55 in 4th if climbing a hill.

Sounds like your experience is nearly identical to mine in this regard. Mine is also a 25 model. This is good to hear!
I personally haven't noticed any oil loss, but my oil changes so far have been exceptionally frequent for other reasons.

 

Yes I know top speed has been discussed much here. It is not a highway bike. I have a condition which makes me unable to refrain from pushing the limits however.

Also, I thought it was interesting how good the performance of my 2025 TW200 has been! Worth sharing perhaps.

A large percentage of the miles I put on my bike are highway. Posted speed limit is 70mph in my area. Surprisingly, my TW does pretty well! Highest GPS speed I have seen was 77mph, which totally pegs out the factory speedometer (see video below). I can very confidently cruise at 65mph, and regularly hit 70+mph (gps). I even occasionally pass in the left lane on the highway.

As far as performance mods, all I have done is install the Bradley Performance oil cooler, and swap the front 14 tooth sprocket for a 15 tooth. Carburetor is totally untouched. I typically run 93 octane, E10 fuel. I haven't noticed any difference when running 87 octane.

Another thing that surprised me: despite a very large percentage of my miles being literally wide-open-throttle highway miles, with the engine turning 8000-8800 rpm for 70 or 80 miles at a time, the engine is doing very well. Hopefully I didn't jinx it just now. I checked valve lash at 600 miles per the manual, and it was perfectly in spec. I checked again at about 1700 miles, and still it is right in spec.

I have changed the oil 4 times since I have owned it. Always with full synthetic.

View attachment 252860

The only actual problem I have so far detected by my highway cruising and high-rpm max-power operation is that the buzzing vibrations keep burning out my dash-lights. The tungsten gets twisted up or detached from it's support wires and it burns out. Replaced 3 of them so far with OEMs. I will try some from an industrial supplier I frequent to see if they do any better. If not, I will pursue LEDs.

If it ever blows up, I will of course let you all know.
[. LED lights are brighter than OEM and will last longer. I’ve replaced my OEMs with LEDs and have run it with over 2000 miles with success.

 

I actually did a speed test last week with my gps, I've been proud that I thought my TW was breaking the 70 mph barrier but it's not.
Speedo says 72 but gps says 63

 

What is the age and mileage of your TW, if I may ask?

 

It runs great otherwise, very very noisy motor though. I am in Florida at about 90' above sea level, I weight around 195 and removed passenger legs and have a skid plate and tail rack both are aluminum though. I also have the xt225 exhaust on it.
Maybe it's a weight thing I'm not sure but anything above 55 and it's working hard

 

I am doubtful it is a weight thing. My TW is loaded up quite a bit. I wonder if the exhaust is hurting performance?

Have you adjusted the valves?

 

Interesting about the new bikes having a little more power. Now we need an OCD person to compare the parts lists of an older and a newer bike and see what seems to be the most likely part difference. Maybe the cam or carburetor has been improved for more power.

 

I was thinking about this too. I know oil manufacturers change the formulas all the time. People with older cars that have flat lifters are recommended to run a zinc additive. There are also oils blended specifically for old motors.

Point is: Maybe Yamaha changed the hardening process on the cams (and other things) to compensate for the change in oils? They may have changed the cam profile a little too since they were making these changes.

Just a theory.

 

My all stock 1999 tw's speedo is so off I peg the speedometer out. I figure it's going 60-65. 5k miles on it.

 

They are quite off, but for me and my particular one, according to my phone GPS, a pegged speedometer is about 75-77mph.