I'm a bit of a Japanese Auction addict, whilst picking up parts for another project I found these gems.

As I designer I love automotive brochures and presentation of the original product. These seem to be extremely rare and the Japanese material of the time the most compelling,

Check out my Flickr for more: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brodie-dart-pieces/

First up the original release of the Yamaha DT200WR '1991

Was it better than the Kawasaki KDX200? It's an odd motorcycle.

1992 DT200WR

1993 DT200WR

1994 DT200WR

Note Yamaha dropped the curved Kickstand in '94, not the easiest to fit onto a DTR, but an amazing upgrade if you can find one!

Be Riding Friends?

Finally, the JDM DTR. Not as special as you might of thought. The 3FW is the Japanese version of the DT125R. They came standard with Alloy wheels and Electric start sprocket cover and wiring.

The biggest note, pretty sure all 3FWs came with the original Mikuni VM26ss carb, so we didn't miss much..,

1991 DT125R - SUPER TRAIL...,

1994 DT125R - SUPER TRAIL

1999 DT125R - SUPER TRAIL

90s forever.

@rogering Using a Capacitor is just fine.

I ran one for over 2years. If you are woods riding/ trail stuff then I highly recommend keeping the Servo Motor on it.

YPVS gives the mid range torque you need out of it

Some little bits.

Removing material to clear the flanged nut I'm using off the fork leg for the correct position. Renewed this bit a while ago, the YZF carrier is not the best idea.

Finished setup for now, Lathed up 16mm Brass spacers and fitted together with 10.4 HT bolts.

98' YZ 250 1/4 throttle with billet alloy throttle tube, is plush like em snappy

New ceramic resistor.

Trying to keep Jap with a Denso W27ES-U plug. £1.70!

Call me the 'Artful bodger' Ran into some issues just using a capacitor to run the Ignitech. So strapped in ol' faithful in what's left of the only space available on the bike.

Slowly rebuilding my TM32. Sanded, wet sanded and polished internals.

Satisfied like glass. Giving a helping hand to the inevitable ingress of dirt to be combusted.

Remounting the WR rad, cutting the thermostat housing down, deleting the oil tank cap fixture from the support and shortening the rear radiator outlet futher to clear the tank. Then moving the whole thing forward to sit flush and safe.

Having alot of fun tearing it about, led me to ignore a serious issue. After letting the chain eat my original WR200 chain guide and very good condition Delta-box swinger, it was time to go back and fit plan A.

Drilled and M6 taped new mounts. Didn't feel like sacrilege after fucking it over already.

I wanted to do this for ages, fitting a YZ/WR 98'-02' chain guide looked to fit in my head. Can now replace it without having to take the swinger off, and readily available to replace now, as WR200 and early YZ 1990-94' sliders are rare, or silly money new.

Ugraded to RFX slider in blue, made from a hard polypropylene instead of silicone rubber. Should do the trick.

Running the airbox door removed and older 3MB airbox tract now with a 450 Main jet can you believe. It's now absolutely perfect with peak power dropping away at about 10,900rpm. She sings. Ready for my new ported top end. Looking to go full road racer at 12,600rpm with the larger carb.

Shortened the chain, back on a Steel sprocket with a 45T 520, good for 80 again which was missed,

I always preferred the original clutch cases, got a nice oil pump housing design. Had to use my 4DL one.

Standard (left) vs EBC's heavy duty clutch spring. Good upgrade, firm clutch with a quicker release.

New EBC clutch plates a while back had trashed my gearbox oil, found this, cause race bike..

Threaded insert and bolt for oil pump delete, re-sharpened foot pegs and brake pedal from the trail bike days.

Prototype V4, 3D printed in a TPU at 80A Shore Hardness like the original. This is chemical and UV resistant filament and it's rather tough!

This is the final design for use with a pressure mold.

Concessions need to be made for 3D printing rubber unfortunately, so now I'm using M5 Socket cap bolts and the original flange that's molded in the Airbox as a sealing face, it actually works out to be the most effective alternative. Much like a YZ Airbox will use the same design.

The Airbox is so important when jetting a 2stroke road bike, we need to control the flow of air and have a place to store some also! Induction theory carries on. The area inside is free of interruption and the boot helps to increase the velocity upon entering the carb. I'm hoping to gain more torque down low by using that stock Airbox volume.

The design now minimises any angles greater than 55deg, this means material does not have to be supported as we print. As you can see, this is the optimal version as the rest of the print can completed cleanly as a vertical slice.

Job done,

So much more flexibility with jetting. Measure 69 times, draw it once.

Mikuni TM34ss finally finished.

*Nobody

ME:

*A custom inlet tract for a DT125R.

Couple beers and some eyeballing and you can make whatever you want.

Getting to old for Pod filters and hacking shit bits together. So if you could, why not re-design OEM equipment in your favour?
Knocked these up on Solidworks to be a straight swap into the frame and Airbox.

The brief, for my application, getting an inlet tract as straight as possible for 34mm or larger Carburettor to fit around my YZ490 shock, which is way larger than the original DTR unit.

Science bitch.

I have access to a 3D printer, so I've been designing and making prototypes just for a bit of fun after work,

Technology these days....,

Had to get out the shed today,

Rebuilt my 3RM02' - TM28SS, polished internals and re-jetted with the Ignitech ignition.

Fitting a Modified 1991'-93' KX125 throttle cable.

She's no looker, the body needs to be blasted, but inside she is minty.

Had a play and uploaded a new Ignition Map and it works well, Noticeable increase in torque low down and a big! improvement between 6-10k. + the 13t/51 setup keeps the power in. I'm having more fun squirting out of corners and sliding the back around in the revs. I don't think shes good for more than 70 flat out, it gets there quicker and that is the fun bit on any bike for me.

Mugged off a bandit 600 in a little uphill race, the dude was definitely surprised. I HATE the Suzuki Bandit. Just do.

Excellent upgrade. I like that the unit was labeled for me.

WR setup on the rear is definitely more rigid and thus more responsive, the back comes out progressively with a lower ride height, and the steering is slower upfront of course, Raising the rear another 1.5 cm should make this a little ninja!

The rear is a new bike, the YZ damper is so nice on Cotswold roads, if you can call them roads, A shock rebuild one day, but it's all just right as is.

So, now the Front end feels rubbish, A YZ Nissin caliper, TDR 320mm Disc and YZ125 - 3JD Fork legs on the shopping list.

Current Jetting:

280 Main
35 Pilot
Needle 5J25 - 5th grove from top.
6mm Reed Block spacer
Pipe Cross Airfilter
Drilled Airbox/w Snorkel in.

3MB00 Barrel - 3BN Cylinder head - Standard Bore.

It's nippy, but would be destroyed by an RS/MX/SX Rotax.

Good old facebook marketplace and £500 cash. That was our challenge, me and a mate seeing how much motorcycle we could fit in the back of an old Hilux.

Unfortunately it was the Works Christmas party the night before I went to pick this up. So I took my chances by taking the only available car, the Fiat Panda and some tools with me.

It was nice of the seller to leave half a tank of old Petrol in the tank aswell. High as fuck on petrol fumes on the way home, I decided I got a cracking deal on it.

How can you not love pitbikes? Poor build quality, awkward to work on, typically poorly serviced and maintained, poor part design and silly gearing.

For £500, it's well used, but the engine was a peach so provided you have the patience these things can be fixed.

The Suspension was awful, had about an inch of free play in the swingarm and the Forks had no damping left. To start with, I had to get into the forks by creating a tool to undo the caps. You cannot buy this item anywhere!

New Seals, and new Fork oil to suit my weight and riding style and it's transformed. The inner seals are blind, so you will need a sharp puller tool to get them out especially as the fork tubes themselves were slightly different internal diameter! Well done Chinese engineer.

Fixing the play. The shock bushes and seats were very worn. And you guess it. You cannot purchase any replacement bush, a completely unique item. Nothing is designed to be fixed here!

So rather than engineer the solution and hit the Lathe with some custom oversized bushes, I wrapped the old ones in some Bronze Paper to pack them out and the pressed them in. Bodge of the Year. Works a treat. And that fix was free.

A Mate bought his a day after, and similar issues to mine all rebuilt by us. This is the first time I could not get a carburettor to run properly, it was Mikuni Copy 26mm piece if shit that would not cooperate. Pitbike 1-0. In the bin.

So I've done the unthinkable and bought a Chinese carburettor...., NIBBI N26mm Race Carb. Yikes.

It's actually pretty good, the overflow circuit is only routed to one side which is irritating and I had to up the jetting considerably from factory settings. But I'm happy with it, Comes with a handy jetting guide for the novice which is decent for Kyle's.

Yes it's cheap....,

Pit bike throttle cables are the wrong thread size, so I couldn't just put on my old KX or YZ throttle housings. So I bought 3 piece CNC thing, apparently these are popular but my god what a terrible design. It does work though.

And Anodising makes you faster.

Someone put a Hydraulic clutch master on this at some time. It works, and that is all I can say about it as it's a heavier pull than the standard cable action...

After replacing all the odd bolts, bolt to long with 6 washers on. The Hex cap next to the Cross pan screw, the missing bolts... Undoing much of the previous 'servicing' by previous owners,

A bit of TLC and a good service, it's a fun little toy making a decent bit of torque with short gearing and enough suspension travel to ride it flat out along the trails. Certainly better than I remember pitbikes being.

Anything you can stick in the back of a 4X4 and be a hero is good with me.

Something different;

Me and a friend organised and got funding for a road trip of a lifetime, starting Cape Town (South Africa), climbing Mt Kilimanjaro in (Tanzania) and then flying home from Mombasa (Kenya). 60 Days in Africa.

The aim, to raise money for The Grand Appeal Charity which help Bristol Children's Hospital.

We called ourselves 'The Rough Riders' and this is our trip, organised by ourselves and sponsored by local Gloucestershire companies and even some backing from Haynes Motor Manuals!

We prepared and imported our own vehicle, a 2005 Mitsubishi Shogun Sport 2.5TD from the UK, and ended up driving for 40 days and covered nearly 4500 miles.

Lots of things went wrong, some butt clenching moments driving as African standard of driving seems to degrade the further north you head.

But we managed to make it home safely. And we are completely broke, but it was worth it.

Rear storage unit I designed in Solidworks, was a bastard to build into the rear.

Our Oil cooler, rear brake line, head gasket and powersteering all ended up failing on us throughout the trip. But we bodged what we could and made do. The mighty shogun limped us home.

And off she went back to the UK.

It was a blast, cheap living, Diesel, and hospitality. It was a hell of a journey, and Africa is a special continent. Not very scary really.

Safe to say, it's nice to be back in rainy UK. And the next project awaits..,

It was our own Top Gear adventure, read up and give us a follow on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/theroughriderproject/

I bought this edition ages ago. Interesting read. Also proof of concept for Ignition tuning on these bikes, I highly recommend it to anyone.

From Germany... on to the 1997' 125R. Love that riding gear.

Then came 1998. The last year to use the original Oil pump design. The last of the real DT125Rs. You could still get 11,500 RPMs when you wanted it.

This is the end of the DT125R, 99-03' models are completely sanitised and the heavier Generator design that followed make these engines even more soulless.

So quite enthusiastic I own a 2001...

Oh well.

If your are looking for the most refined 125 2stroke ever made, it would be 3RME DT125R.

I found quite a rare copy for the 2005 DTRE 'Stefan Everts Edition'.

No love for the DTRE at this point, fatter and confusing ergonomics, It's amazing Yamaha stretched the DT125R from 1988 to 2007. The everyday 2stroke market was finally dead.

Production of the DTRE completely moved into Europe to.

The RE borrwed dimensions and design from the 1997' DT230 Lanza, Yamaha's last attempt to keep selling a 2stroke relic at that point.

No offence to you DTRE owners. Be assured!

To a great bike, that is actually best when you leave it alone and original..

You can fit later 96-06 swingarms actually in the frame, but you have to remember the linkage designs are all different and the width of the Engine Castings Swingarm pivot all vary.

I’ve seen a 06 YZ250 swingarm fitted to a DTR, but he had to cut and weld new linkage mounts to the frame

Then you have to work out the link Geometry for the New shock you’ll need to put in, which needs to have a DTR specific shock bush into the frame.....,,

Then the battery wont fit. You’ll have to modify that completely and cut the frame mount there...,

New rear axle

New rear caliper

New wheel spacers

A custom chain length

Then with a later YZ swingarm, you’ll have to space the swingarm to be sure the rear wheel is inline with the front

@Calum It’s probably quicker than my Honda Civic EG6 B16 - 170hp ,

@Louis-DT-WR This has turned out real nice! Bet those tyres are loud

I’ve ridden a Duke, and it’s a weapon!

Really good chassis, and revvy motor. Brakes were excellent.

Forgot about the KTM Duke 390.

That’s 2 votes from us @Calum

Suzuki DRZ 400 SM is good for a short arse like yourself, and it’s cracking do it all motorcycle

I think the best deal I could get on a Pro Skill DT200R - 3ET Expansion pipe only was around £650 imported.

They are top notch though, and really hold their value in Japanese Auctions.

Prototype V4, 3D printed in a TPU at 80A Shore Hardness like the original. This is chemical and UV resistant filament and it's rather tough!

This is the final design for use with a pressure mold.

Concessions need to be made for 3D printing rubber unfortunately, so now I'm using M5 Socket cap bolts and the original flange that's molded in the Airbox as a sealing face, it actually works out to be the most effective alternative. Much like a YZ Airbox will use the same design.

The Airbox is so important when jetting a 2stroke road bike, we need to control the flow of air and have a place to store some also! Induction theory carries on. The area inside is free of interruption and the boot helps to increase the velocity upon entering the carb. I'm hoping to gain more torque down low by using that stock Airbox volume.

The design now minimises any angles greater than 55deg, this means material does not have to be supported as we print. As you can see, this is the optimal version as the rest of the print can completed cleanly as a vertical slice.

Job done,

So much more flexibility with jetting. Measure 69 times, draw it once.

Mikuni TM34ss finally finished.

@oldman I’m 6ft 1inchs and it’s rather comfortable

Being a 4T it’s just pinned all day, I even discovered this thing called engine braking??

Might take the brakes off to loose weight.

The answer is in the question, the main difference between the two was just the Displacement.

DT200R - 3ET Yes?

@Arild No, a solid de-restricted Rotax 122, pre 2007 stuff, 25hp. Tuned bikes making 28-30hp is impressive.

I think a brand new KTM SX 125 makes 37.5 peak HP, but you are talking just 30 hours on a set of rings here.

It's the lack of torque that's the real issue with 2strokes, just gets harder and harder to ride the powercurve.

Yeah will be interesting to find out if Auxiliary ports can really help this design,

Just look how tame the DTR is compared to a ROTAX 122