Stevie’s French '98, Mid-90's WR/YZ/DT (An idiotproof guide to building your own DTR)
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@Calum said in Stevie’s French '98, Mid-90's WR/YZ/DT (An idiotproof guide to building your own DTR):
@Stevie-Wonder I mean? It takes me hours to write blog posts? How quick are you expecting it to take.
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I appreciate the advice, it helped a lot I do believe I’ve cracked it. The return button is now my friend, for the sake of both my eyes and yours.
My only shortfall with blogging is keeping in the routine however I enjoy writing a lot so there’s a trade off I suppose. -
I completely agree but I honestly think if it wasn’t for having a smartphone I’d blog at all. Even being 22 and doing film and editing stuff I just don’t ever get my laptop out to use it for anything then things that you have too.
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True, true, I’m not saying it stumped you but it certainly had me and a lot of much wiser mechanics. Something like that could’ve been recognised easily but unfortunately I hadn’t cracked image uploads.
It just highlights how much experience matters
as all the help in the world couldn’t fix a problem when they have as much experience dealing with it as I do.
“If you've never seen the bike before, I'm not sure how you'd figure out the plastic thing was on the wrong way.” Just a reminder to me and all, in a journey of learning we often don’t know any better. We’re all learning.
Also what you said about the YPVS etc n all that me too. I’d spent so much time fiddling with the YPVS, getting it aligned countless times before working out where it was wrong ripping the exhaust off that now It doesn’t even seem like a task to do. I also leave the pulley cover off to keep an eye on it (every now and again if I’m out I’ll kill power to the YPVS and ride it pinned for a bit of fun) I’m gonna get a custom clear acrylic cover for it though.
Anyway next item on the list....
So I must admit I’ve been a bit bad at keeping this updated but then again I really don’t think I have much to update.
No big stories this time.
Updates are really as follows, had a hilarious eureka moment that ended two days of anxiety about if I majorly hugely fucked up buying that swingarm a while back. I didn’t. My gamble paid off massively. I’m a proud owner of a DT200WR Deltabox unit and well, what a beautiful piece of shit it is. Honestly
. Not only was it simultaneously the most confusing and biggest pain in the ass to dig up info on but the welds look like they where done my Ray Charles left hand whilst he wiped his ass with the other.Not that many people will get the opportunity to see one, plus photos and info are rare so I’ll do why I can to upload some.
But basically the DT200WR variation swingarm is literally a fully built 4BF that Yamaha’s took a 45-30 degree cut to the rear section to weld in the different style chain adjuster.
You can literally see how the cut runs straight through, including the slide for the calliper mount
facepalm
Is it nice? Yes. Is it rare? Very. Do I love not having tortoise shell chain adjusters? Fuck me do I. Was literally everything about it a pain in the ass? You have no idea. Even locating axle blocks for it took over a week and wasn’t until a couple weeks ago I finally knew 100% for certain it was what I had.
Nonetheless as you can probably tell I’m glad to finally have that all over and sorted. Only thing to do to it is get it polished up proppaOne other thing, I’m now on the hunt again for a shock to with the swinger. Unfortunately I passed up the opportunity of buying another rare part a DT230 Lanza Shock. Seller didn’t know what it was and neither did I until I found out it sold. The geezer only wanted about £60 for it but I didn’t have the funds. Lanza shocks I’m pretty sure are completely adjustable and also don’t have a fixed piggyback design, perfect for our DT’s.
Seen a couple 86-87 YZ 250 shocks in the states that after a few beers don’t look too terrible...I’ve also had the 19” rear on her a while now and I’ve got to say what a lot of fun. Highly unstable above 70 mph though to a point of being scary. Had to play around with the gearing a little bit too and come to the conclusion that stock gearing and dropping a tooth at the front with a 19” rear actually has some surprisingly good and useable results depending on what you’re doing.
Was also very pleasantly surprised with the performance both on-road and off-road of the Michelin AC10 I have on the rear. (I paid £110 for the wheel and got a free set of new AC10’s with them). Now I’m really picky when it comes to tires and I’m also a huge fan of the Maxxis Maxxcross IT’s and thought they’d be hard to beat but honestly the results have been really really good. I’d never gravitated toward them before due to their huge spacing however on the bike they provide a very nice continuous contact patch along every angle of tire, they’re surprisingly nice on road too just a little less forgiving if you lean to far on a corner due to the nature of their tread design.
Last but not least:
The only other update I have is that I’m thinking about selling up my 4FU and 4DL topends. It’s just been a recurring thought recently of being uncertain if I’ll ever actually get around to using them / if using them will give me the things I want.
I’ve been preaching to a lot of people recently how for the amount of money you’ll probably get into modifying a DT the biggest gain HP for your buck would be to buy a 170 kit and have it ported and I feel I might fall victim to my own advice.
I want to play with the 125 top ends so bad and see the difference but I also think for the amount of £££ I’ll spend I’ll be disappointed. Especially if I get into tuning that 4FU. -
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@Calum said in Stevie’s French '98, Mid-90's WR/YZ/DT (An idiotproof guide to building your own DTR):
@Darty A picture says a thousand words
@calum that would explain the volume of written content..
I will eventually learn how tag images in I promise.
Once you see a photo though you’ll see what I mean. Although calling it a bit of shit probably wasn’t choice words.In other news I’ve made a nice discovery.
I think I’ve cracked how to run my modern Yz front end and keep the old standard clocks or potentially run some DT200 ones if I need to slim the cockpit space down a little.
Now I spend a bit of time on the webs n that and I’ve never come across anyone who’s done that to their DT before so it’d be cool if it works.
I know I’d be really happy because I never really had any plans for having an LCD display. The old clocks just give me too much nostalgia, they remind me I’m sat on an old bike. Something I don’t want to take away from.
Whilst it’d be super clean and convenient it just ruins what the bikes about. Motorcycling is a very visceral mechanical experience. It’s very much you and the machine and computers spoil that. I want to see those revs rocket at 7k not because a sensor tells a computer, that tells a screen, that that’s what it’s meant to be doing but because the engine is actually making it ‘ya know what I mean? I remember @Darty having a thing against this too just glad I wasn’t going to have to resort to a gps bicycle speedo or something ridiculous -
I made my own brackets out of old Aluminium cuts, with a Bandsaw and some hand files.
I even eventually spray painted them Halfords Special Black (Show Bike m8)
Didn't even use any maths, just cardboard templates and some callipers.
Even the YZ Yoke for 1997-2002 has threads you could use.
Keep it real
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I haven’t crossed that bridge yet but that was kinda the idea i was going for. I’d seen it done before and figured it’s simple as couple little bits of metal and if you’re lazy you can get brackets premade on eBay, easy peasy
I might have to use a gps bicycle speedo for a little bit though if I can’t get hold of the parts I need or my plan don’t work. I guess one way to keep miles low is to remove the device that counts them should circumstance force it for a little while
...Although that’s all very much at the future because without a certain someone moving his ass and helping me with something I’m stuck. Or am I??? I dunno, this is a blog after all isn't it? I suppose I ought to write about it.
So as luck would have it I managed to find someone who for swapped their DT with a set of YZ426 forks (Facebook groups and their size do have their advantages)and I’m pretty sure they’re 100% identical to my YZ ones. Even better though the guy used the bearing cup method.
You want to know the shocker though? He was a down to earth, nice bloke and was very helpful. I was humbled. How wholesome. None of that weird toxic one-up-manship you’d usually see from Facebook/the internet.
Anyway said bloke was even nice enough to share with me his plan and measurements which as you can guess is very very helpful for me.
Why is this so useful? Surely I could do it myself?Well this is the thing I’ve been relying on help from a family member to give me some help and explain some stuff because there’s parts to it I don’t understand. I get the concept and basic idea behind it. I think I’ve got the stuff I need for it it plans and measurements wise. I’m just stuck because I don’t know how to translate that information or understand the other basics behind it. In my mind I still compare bike forks to bmx forks. However if I understood all of that I wouldn’t have to relying on and stuck because my family member. I could go to the engineering shop and get them to make me the bearing cup I need this week.
I guess that just about describes exactly why I’m at a standstill currently because even financially I can find a way to make it happen. -
Precisely that @SpookDog! The issue isn’t bodging the clocks in, it’s making them useable in the first place
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I haven’t had a chance to get a really good look into it. It’s just replacing the right side spacer with the gearwheel. Matching the diameter of the front wheel spindle and width. Then fixing 1 or 3 ‘teeth’ to the wheel hub to drive the gear-wheel...
That’s oversimplifying it, but it
...
I’ll get round to it when I finish MOT readying my bike. Weather s’been A bit of a bee-atch lately...
If someone has done it already I’d love a link... -
So it’s late
Can’t sleep. No money. Tax and Mot ran out a few days ago and winters drawing in and my bike isn’t even stood on its own wheels.
I need to do something and fast.I didn’t expect this to a be a 3 month thing. The lack of money, the for an MOT and the amount of time already passed etc has just made my way up my options on what I can really do. That’s 1) Say fuck this and just find a way to get it done on my own or 2) I just put the original front end and just forget about it for a while.
I’m not one for giving up (and a storm vanished the original steering head bearings) so I started reading @Calum’s Leviathan project and the USD fork post to try and crack what I couldn’t understand rather then relying on someone else. In the process of reading it over for the 5th time a lightbulb clicked and I think I get it now.
The thing is it doesn’t help me with the sketching up and taking measurements side of things, I hands down admit I don’t know where to start.However.... in a very very strange twist of fate things seemed to have worked out again.
So the guy who I mentioned earlier who shared with me his USD plans and who I was pretty sure has the same forks as mine?
Well it turns out they where Callum’s plans from the forum all along.How is this good? Well I did a little looking and in a twist of fate it turns out Cal’s ‘01 WR450 forks are identical to my ‘02 YZ’s.
And there’s me thinking I was going to be different... Sorry mate
On the upside Cal I know I understand things a lot better now, makes my life a billion times easier and I can rely on you to point me in the right direction.Another thing, I’ve decided on selling one of my top ends. Which one? Probably the 4FU outfit (I couldn’t get definitive technical answers why ones better then the other, a lot of people prefer the P setup and I don’t think the £130 spent on nicasil plating is going to be as much as an improvement as £130 doing a good port job).
My engine is healthy so touch wood and may someone smile down upon me... that she continues to run like a champ.
Anything engine wise is all in the future. Need to get everything else chassis wise done first as originally planned.
But when the time comes I want to port the top end, get a Mikuni TM30, zeely and just enjoy it having a Revvy little 125 two stroke for a good while. Nothing too fancy, expensive or crazy and still fairly reliable. I’m sure with a good port from what I’m told the results will still be plenty enjoyable enough.I’ve also now come to conclusion I’ve probably spent more time changing my bike and fiddling with it in my entire ownership then I have enjoying it. Worst off all it’s through no fault other then of my own either
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So the plans I uploaded are good for a template, the part that slots into the DTR frame stays the same. The upper half you just measure the outer diameter of the race that fits your forks.
The rest isn't really that all relevant. But you still need someone with a lathe to fabricate it for you.
Personally, I would stick with the 4FU barrel. The 3MB00P barrel feels like it's lost power. The shift of the exhaust port doesn't work very well. The extra "performance" gained in the higher revs has just resulted in loss of performance low down.
I would use the 4FU barrel and have that ported.
Always Originate, Never Pirate!
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@Calum said in Stevie’s French '98, Mid-90's WR/YZ/DT (An idiotproof guide to building your own DTR):
So the plans I uploaded are good for a template, the part that slots into the DTR frame stays the same. The upper half you just measure the outer diameter of the race that fits your forks.
Wicked, thanks a lot for helping me get it sorted Cal and also for bearing with me when I didn’t quite get it. If what I found out last night is true ‘01 426 forks are the same as ‘02 yz.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/293695067645
I mean it makes sense, looks the same and there parts are always coming up in searches and even the fork seals I bought where 96-03 yz250.
I’m gonna see if I can cross reference it through Fowler’s and then go from there. Once I know that we’re laughing
luckily we have an engineers shop and a couple friends with lathes although given the fact I don’t want to rely on anyone I’ll probably just head to the local engineers shop. Just out of curiosity too what’d pay to make it (even if that’s just cost of materials)
taking from what you said there I must agree. Upon reflection i don’t think my bike ever really like the dep pipe as much as the standard unrestricted pipe but that could just be me. IMO it felt like it lacked the mid range to be able to really pull hard as high into higher rpms. I don’t know though, it’s all just theory’s and spitball ideas. and was just generally a bit quicker.
one advantage to a ported 4FU is I can make it 150cc and have it ported to 150cc and I only ever have to worry about replate it and the spec will always be the same unlike if I had to rebore everytime which would fuck up the port timings
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The YZ headstock is longer than the DTR125 one, no?..
The YZ125 headstock/clamps I have are threaded lower down. So all I have to do is tighten down the bearing with the ‘ring nut’ to the right spec, then put a spacer on (about 3/4 inch maybe), then put the top fork clamp plate on and tighten the dome nut on top to clamp it in place...
I’ll have to measure the dome nut thread size, see if the ‘bearing ring’ are the same size or different. I think the previous owner threaded into the wider tube lower down. It seems to work... -
HOOOMOTHERFUCKINGRAYYY
I’ve cracked uploading photos on here on my iPhone!
Must say feels bloody good to bring this into the 21st century and it not just be walls of text now
Here’s a couple pics to celebrate
Found this cool mural after an afternoon in the woods. Couldn’t pass up grabbing a photo.
One of the local slices of bliss I have the ability of being able to ride to with a motorbike.Only issue is now I’ve got about a year and half worth/500+ photos to sort through all of which are completely out of order. I’m sure one night with some beers I’ll get it done.
At least with everything sorted now posts become a lot easier for me, I don’t have to type as much because I can use photos and everything from here on in will come out chronologically as it happens.
