THE BIGWHEEL THREAD!!! Yamaha BW350, BW200

Thanks, I joined the Yahoo group today as well. I will hopefully have pics up there soon too.

http://youtu.be/blJRbo7pGtU

Howdy......

New to site but not to BW`S. Had a 200 sold bought 350 sold it [what a]

Just picked up a low miles 200bw. Hope to find a 350.

Read 85 pages ....you Fellers in Alaska giturdone!!!

welcome tierod, any pics of the old and new bikes.

For the moment I am admiring the shiny spot on the pipe and contemplating ...
hate the thought of bending anything ..
there is a full 200 exhaust on craigslist except baffle for $40 that i should get and play with..

Dirthog350 and Tierod, wecome aboard. Please enjoy the lunacy.

I've been absent as of late due to a marathon traveling session to get the new 350 RACE BIKE secured.

The Desert 100 is a much storied race run by the Stumpjumpers: http://stumpjumpers.org/desert100/

There will be BigWheels competing in the 2014 event and that will officially make them RACE BIKES.

I would like to have the 2014 event be the largest gathering of Racing BigWheels ever seen. I think Shercoman would have a distinct advantage with his 400cc's of light weight, two stroke power but I encourage everyone to attend.

While the logistics are still a little dodgy, I think Cliff will be attending with his RACING 350. Hollywood has expressed a distinct interest in riding if his work schedule will accommodate it.

This is a shot of my latest 350 in the back of the race transporter:



Strangely, after a voyage of planes, trains and automobiles, this was the only photo I ended up with. The bike is in position in Washington and the details will be sorted out.

Who else is in?

Regards,

Mr. BigWheel

So I've wanted a BW for a while and I started reading this thread and that made my affliction worse. So on Tuesday this week a BW200 popped up on Craigslist in my area and I jumped on it. Then I thought I should look around and see if there is a BW350 near by. So after much searching I found one 400 miles away..... and bought it. It would seem that once you have one you feel the need to buy more.

As will be asked I will upload photos soon. I won't have the 350 in my stable until next weekend. I can't wait.

Also I don't know how many times I can get away with it but every other bike I buy I tell my wife that one is for her. I am just going to fix it, maintain it, ride it, and tell everyone else it is mine.


If anyone has pics of the DC side plastic install that would be helpful.

If anyone has a side stand for a bw350 the one I just bought is missing. The only other issue is the electric starter doesn't work but I will need to investigate that before looking for parts.

FutZ,

Congratulations for surrendering to the sickness instead of trying to fight it. You would've ended up with a 350 anyway, so it's best to get it right away instead of waiting patiently, responsibly and sanely.

I'll try to get a picture of Cliff's DC Plastics installation. It is essentially a bolt and a stack of washers so if anyone has a more involved solution, let us have a look at it.

Regards,

Mr. BigWheel

Dirthog350,

These are the bar risers that I favor:



They allow you to set the angle of the handle bar independently of the forward or aft position of the clamps. They raise the bar 2 inches but still allow the use of the stock throttle and clutch cables. This particular model has the option of using the stock 7/8" inch bars or a set of 1 and 1/18" bars.

They are not the cheapest choice but I think they are the best.

If you do get a set of Mud Lites, please let us know what you think of them. We probably ride in similar conditions but I've been too chicken to pull the trigger on a pair.

Regards,

Mr. BigWheel

Welcome to the forum.

I've read how many bw owners say they don't fit and aren't worth the trouble or cash, when you get them, please write a review and take some pics, heck take some pics now, gets the forum rockin.

rod

For the plastics for the BW200 my plan is to dremel the top notch to match, and cut out the vents to look more OEM. As far as a bolt I think I will see if I can't find some quarter turn quick release bolts with the D ring on top. Not that they need to come off quickly but I like the idea of these better then a stack of washers I will forget are back there and shower my garage floor on removal. Maybe run a short bolt through the hole and JB weld the lock washer to the head of the short bolt for the stand off the washers would provide. Look clean from the outside and be convertible back stock after.

I will try to put together part numbers and a step by step pictures as I go.

Last night I was able to do searches with the OEM part number for the kickstand for the BW350 and found a site that didn't say out of stock so I closed out the shopping cart but I don't have high hopes they won't just refund the money and say sorry our bad. *fingers crossed*

My Dad test drove the BW350 for me when he picked it up and mentioned the kick start was really difficult to get to turn over. But after jumping on it hard it started first kick. This made me think the decompression release is not working correctly and that is why the PO killed the starter again and again after rebuilds. So my question is on your BW350 when you kick it how hard is it to kick over?

Its not that hard to kick over without the decom lever, but as you would expect, it makes life way easier.

Sorry folks, I have been away for a bit, working north of the Arctic Circle. I (or what's left of me) am back. Since DC is our only option saving paying extortionist's prices for factory plastics on ebay, The side panels worked ok for me. The panels were completly missing on my (race) bike, and there were no factory plastics on ebay at that point in time. The finish on the DC stuff is not as "finished" as smooth as factory plastics, but the rest of my 25 odd year old factory plastics aren't in the best shape either. I have heard the the DC headlight surround plastics are sans the headlight mounting tabs, but I have no experience with that.

As Mr. Bigwheel said, logistics are being worked out for the desert race. I am not sure if my best option would be to ship one of my bikes down, and (hopefully) ship what's left back to Alaska, or to try and find a 350 in the Pacific Northwest, and make the necessary mods down there, and ship the bike up here afterwards.



Cliff.

here is a example of what they cost on ebay. I think this is a DC product. I post this a couple pages back, no interest then. they have sold a few since, wonder if these will appear in photo's here.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/270978720866?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Not mine, nor am I affiliated but I used to have an miss my bw350 and troll this post. Found this today and wanted to share in case anybody interested.
http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/mcy/3838651558.html

they are even rare-er in Canada. i'd buy that, if it was located here.

So as I guessed, the kick stand order was canceled but I was able to search all of craigslist and found a guy with parts in NH and he is willing to ship me the kick stand for a reasonable price.

If anyone else is looking for parts you may want to hit him up.
http://nh.craigslist.org/mcy/3795588230.html

I'm not having any issues yet with my CDI but after reading this whole thread it is something we all need to be worried about for the future.

I found a programmable CDI for around $150 for the whole kit, but after I got the timing curve recorded then I could program the boxes to be replacements for around $70 plus shipping. Granted it would still be a custom wiring job and I'm not 100% sure on the kill switch and lighting coil. But it still looks worth investigating.

I have a working 85 BW200 and the 87 BW350 so I could get the programing for both.

www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=KC5442&form=CAT2&SUBCATID=965#11


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Sounds like a great option if you can get it sorted out. Please keep us updated.

(Successful solution of the BW CDI problem leads to one being awarded an honorary title still under development, but something like "Champion of the Big Wheel Empire".)