The official XT225 thread!

I ran yesterday with a Gerbing microwire jacket liner, and an older pair of their gloves. I was sufficiently warm, and based on past experience, pulled the plug about 5 miles before I stopped to allow enough time for the battery to recharge itself. It restarted on the button fine. In the past, I've had dead batteries if I stay plugged in until I stop. I installed a kick starter for that reason. The bike will start with a dead battery and run fine. Run and bump works too.

My current battery is new this season, and I figured I'd experiment. As I was approaching home yesterday I decided not to unplug. When I reached home, I turned it off, and then hit the start button. It turned over and started, but just barely. At that point I plugged it into a charger.

Anyone looking for a XT250? Found this for sale locally...

For those of us not interested,... It has a very interesting mount for carrying extra fuel that some might be interested in copying for their bikes.

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/mcy/3520717598.html

first of all, thanks to speedo66 for the gerbings info. now for the age-old question of jetting... i bought a 130, 135, and 140 main jet that i plan on experimenting with. i don't mind modifying the snorkel but i do not want to modify the exhaust. so if someone has a suggestion as to what would work best with just snorkel removed.....let me know.. i saw comments on shimming the needle jet. i am familiar with shimming the needle but never heard of shimming the jet..so am i misinterpretting the way it was written or are we talking about shimming the needle? point me the right direction............thanks...

I recently messed around with the snorkel, thankfully I had a few snorkels laying around and could experiment with. Power was best with the snorkel completely removed but it was loud. Second best was with the section inside the air box removed and the top part installed backwards. Added a little intake noise but not much and with the helmet on I could hardly tell the difference. Pretty much any mod of the snorkel will add some sound so if you are completely against added noise you are best to leave it as is.

I kinda liked the colors on the 95 after I got used to them.... :eek1

Jet kit and some other parts have already arrived. Have re-registered over xt225.com. Hopefully can start tearing her down this weekend

Thanks for covering while I was away!

I'm not an XT dude, I'm a TW guy but we're saddled with the same crappy 110mm rear brake. I'm doing a 130mm rear brake conversion on a TW200. Don't stone me, but since there doesn't seem to be a TTR thread and a few of you may own both or have converted your XT to a TTR rear drum, I need a pic of a TTR rear brake backing plate.

More specifically I need an edge pic of the swingarm tab slot in the backing plate. Here's the TW:



And here's one from an XT350, which is one of the few that shares the same brake shoe diameter and axle hole size. The bottom of the slot is too far out from the drum. The TTR is a candidate and I'm hoping its slot depth is at least somewhere between the two. If anyone can help me out with this I'd sure appreciate it:

Check post #8065, you may have done this already. I can confirm that with a few mods the ttr225 wheel will fit an xt225. If the hubs share the same parts numbers on the ttr230 and ttr225, and the xt225 and tw200 share the same exact rear hub, then indeed, you are in business. Just check the parts fiche on one of the mailorder places (Cheap Cycle Parts, etc.) for parts #'s. #8065 has a link to an earlier post that describes the process in more detail if they do indeed match.
Keep us in the loop.

Thanks. I asked at the time but got no response.

The fiche are pretty funky line drawings. Not much detail, prolly because there isn't much need for it. Unfortunately your post doesn't include didn't a pic within the swingarm. I can't tell how far outboard the slot is in the brake plate.

The TW rear brake drum is removable without unlacing the wheel and the larger 130mm TW front drum can be bolted to the rear hub with a couple of mods if the right 130mm backing plate can be sourced. Unfortunately the only TW's to ever wear 130mm rear brakes were Euro TW125's which were never sold here.

Go figger. Yamaha puts the big brakes on the slow bike. Just like the way they treated you guys. They put the least effective rear brake on the street version.

Anyway at least the brake shoes are common to both swaps. Don't wanna accumulate a bucketful of doorstops in the search for a backing plate if anyone has pics. Just need a quick visual.

I am also interested in any information you find but I'm a little confused by your post.Are you changing the rear brake size without changing the hub?I bought a TTR225 hub because it has a bigger brake and is ten times thicker in most places-it's still a weak cast aluminum however.I know in advance that I need shorter spokes because the hub itself is larger and I'm getting new rims as well.You said something about the front fitting the rear which really confused me.Here is a link of someone who put a huge disc on the front of a a TW200 if that interests you. http://tw200forum.com/index.php?/topic/1267-installing-a-320mm-brake-disc/

What size jet should be used with snorkel removed or modified?I put a 130 in today, couldn't believe how much quicker it warmed up without a choke. Went for a very short ride with snorkel intact. Seemed to run better than it did stock. Then went for ride with air filter cover removed, seemed to run about the same. I expected it not to run well with it one way or the other. My road is covered with snow so these have been short rides. I'm about to put on riding gear and attempt longer ride with 130 and snorkel removed.

I have a 132.5 with the snorkel turned 180 degrees and the section inside the box trimmed off. I then have the screw out about 2.75 turns (goes to 3 turns if I put my modified exhaust can on) and it runs perfect from sea level to over 5000 ft.

I think someone smarter then me in these subjects should figure out a disc rear conversion for our bikes! Any takers?

TW's had drums on both ends until 2001. Mine has a later model disc up front and drum rear. The front is adequate (sorta), but in the rear we have twice the rubber on the ground as an XT and bringing it to a halt is even more "interesting" at times.

It's apples and oranges in a way, and probably difficult to follow if you've not seen the hardware.. The TW has a steel hub and the brake drum bolts to it rather than being integral to the hub.. In stock form it uses the same 110mm brakes as an XT, but swapping them is far easier since the TW setup bolts to the drum rather than being laced into i it. The larger 130mm front drum can be bolted to the rear hub, but this calls for a larger diameter backing plate.

The hardware is the same, but different. Due to Yamaha interchangability we share a lot of components of the same dimensions and in a lot of cases the parts are identical. Nearly all the backing plates for a given brake shoe size are dimensionally the same but differ in axle hole diameter and offset of the brake engagement slot.. I've ruled out the XT600 and XT350 backing plates because the holding slot is too far outboard I have four candidates left and wanted to rule the TTR in or out rather than buying all four if I can.

Sorry for taking up so much space with this. I'll return the favor if any of you guys ever need to know how many of our parts will swap with yours


.

Problem solved, got my pics. Thanks for indulging.

If anyone's into it there are pics of the process over on the TW200 thread.

Thanks again.

Winter sucks!
Anyways, if I end up removing the snorkel or putting holes in the airbox cover, do I HAVE to rejet. I mean, is it 100% neccesarry?

Yes unless you want to run crazy lean and risk serious damage.

Maybe not, if your running slightly rich (unlikely, though that is) you may be fine without a re-jet.

My bike was running ok but some things you've just got to try.
I took the snorkel out & bike improved performance. Put the snorkel back in & the thing bogged & was unridable.
Mine has a mind of it's own!

Had to get a few jets & try them out.
Ended up going a smaller jet than stock. Plenty of km's since without an issue.
Mind you, it's generally warm & dry here.

I just installed the large footpegs and Tusk mini high bend handlebars and "Wow!" I can't believe how they transformed the bike. The ergonomics are great. I'm 6' w/ a 32" inseam and the bike feels so much better.

The bike doesn't look & feel like it's undersized anymore. I didn't realize how much of a difference the handlebars would make. The little footpegs had always felt odd, but weren't really a problem on the street. The large footpegs really make the bike feel more capable, agile, and stable on technical woods type riding. I've only played for a few minutes in my "yard" (I live in the woods, on a mountain), but it was immediately apparent. I can't wait to get it out in the rough stuff.

I might just end up putting the 450 on Craigslist!!

Not in my experience. Half Pint is my 2006 XT225. Her power train is unviolated right down to the brass plug. At 28,000 miles and counting we lived at -200' (Death Valley) the past two months. To date the highest elevation we've ridden is +10,000' which she pulled in upper gears until road/weather conditions slowed us down. (All averaging 90 +/- 5 mpg BTW.)

Mine appears to be a minority perspective. (shrug)

More help please... first off, I have 2 identical 2001 XTs. When I got them a year ago, they we re both sitting for 4 yrs. Carbs were extremely bad.got them both running well enough to ride. Biggest problem was hard starting and hiccups on road speeds. So now trying to get them to run a little better and have more power. I put 130 jet in one, removed snorkel, went for 40 mile ride. It ran a little better than it did before but not a lot better. I checked spark plug had a nice brown color so jetting should be close. So then I went to second bike....put a 130 jet in it and 42.5 idle jet..left the snorkel in....went for a 1 mile ride,....seemed to rUN good. Has the same hiccup as before and the other bike, they both also tend to idle high when you let off the throttle for a good 5 to 10 seconds. I have tried spraying the intake boots...no signs of leaks. So any help on figuring out why the idle is hanging or the hiccuping would be greatly appreciated...I'm getting frustrated so sorry for the length. The one carb was professionally cleaned so pretty sure no issues with that aspect.