The Yamaha TW200 Thread...

Not yet, but ya never know!
I was wondering how long it would take for someone to catch the Zappa reference.

That too, probably!

In my solo TAT thread I think I mentioned wondering what other bike I would possibly use for the western half...while laying on the ground next to my DR, also laying on the ground.
A Tdub (even though I had not yet ridden one) was the only bike I could really light on. The 650 engine only came in handy for burning down freeways. Considering the routing of the TAT, especially out west, you could choose many, many worse bikes.
Below Brett's post I'll list my mods and opinions on them.

Mrs. Molochnik and I spent a couple hours out in our super secret testing area of the western Mojave.
I can say unequivocally that the money and time I spent on the changes to the bike were well worth it...for us.


RT cartridge emulators and .70 springs from Procycle completely transformed the front end from a clacking/bottoming thing I had to tolerate, to a set of forks I never thought about on the short test ride I did. Well worth the money if you're any heavier than 180 or an aggressive rider. I'm 5'10" and around 220 with gear on.
The 19kg rear spring also made it feel like a proper dirt bike even if the shock valving is a bit light on rebound. However, there isn't much to be done about that without a swap.
A had a set of high mini bars that have no rise built into the top bar. You can see this in the pics attached. I have no idea what the bars were for anymore but they are better than stock.
The DG V2 pipe went on with no fuss and the bike runs fine with no jetting issues at all. The carb is an eBay carb the prior owner put on since she left the gas on for a number of years. I have no idea what the eBay carb is actually jetted for but I do intend to revive the stock carb as soon as I feel like it.
I bought a set of IMS Super Stock pegs for a 2002 YZ250 to graft onto my XS650 frame. With some whittling, I got them to fit the Tdub instead. Yuuuge difference in how the bike feels under you.
Went with 15/49 gearing and a new x-ring 428 chain. The higher gearing is not troublesome for myself or my wife. It just feels like a regular bike now but with a lowish first gear - not the granny gear it had.
The stock air filter was growing onto the backfire screen so I had scrub that clean before putting in a new UNI filter. Nothing remarkable except no need to re-jet (I suspect there's a lot of latitude on a detuned 200).
The front UFO supermoto fender I installed high for looks. The squared off shape suits the dated '80s aesthetic of the bike.
the Procycle fender eliminator kit obviates the goofy mudflap and replaces the brick of a taillight. My only quibble is that the brake light flashes when the bike hits a bump. I'll need to investigate that, but switch adjustment doesn't cure it.
The Acerbis handguards finish off the look and provide the expected protection I got from the set on my DR; and they have been tested thoroughly.
In regard to the top post I quoted, in this configuration (with the new Clarke tank installed) I wouldn't think twice about taking this on a TAT ride. My expectation would be that I could make better time with less exhaustion and injuries presuming the bike will be more suited for the "billy goat" stuff, be easier to pick up, if necessary, and just be a mellower ride.
The times I had to hammer down interstates were to make up time I wasted on the trail - recovering from getting beat up, recovering from a hangover, recovering from a crash and then recovering from getting the bike back up. If one stays on the trail, you won't really need to do more than 55 even if ours does 70 with throttle left, and that was before the pipe and UNI filter.

Yes, the TW is an EASY bike to ride off road.
The only thing you have to worry about on REALLY rough trails is ground clearance.

Thanks for the replies Brett & Molo. The more I research and think it out the TW seems like a suitable TAT ride after a few mods. My Shinko showed up today and might get wrestled into place this weekend. Bars and pegs are on there way also.

RoadVirus, the TW will be a great TAT ride. Two New Zealander’s just did it on Groms. (Search You’Tube for “KiwiGrom“) I’m about to ride the BDRs on my TW, I have no doubt it’ll be great. Keep us in the know. Ride well. Be well.

I just ordered a set for the TW I bought Saturday.
Thanks!

Anybody with a Clarke tank that the mid-side panels won't pop in? Any advice on work-arounds?

As a broke airman and a dumb kid, I'd just drill a hole in the fairing and use a zip tie....the pokey parts snapped off of the fairings on my CBR600F; I don't really wanna do that.

That’s pretty common with those tanks and I have no idea why they’ve chosen NOT to fix the problem

I hear ya George, fm not a fan of the ubiquitous “blemish” either. If Acerbis suppported the bike , I’d have bought one of those.

Evidently top quality is not job 1 at Clarke.
That's sad, and too common.

It would probably require a new mold, or at the least modifying the existing one.
Which costs time and money.

If they sold the tanks for half price it would be more acceptable, but when they charge full price for what we would consider a "seconds" quality it is maddening.
And why I won't buy one.

Do members get any discount on the DMO pegs?

Rotopax look cooler than tumor-tanks for the same price anyway. Separate fuel containers give you an excuse to stop and enjoy the scenery and pet the occasional snake.

I think the tw would be perfect for the western half of the TAT.
I have ridden the eastern part from SFL on a 690, did co, nm parts of Utah on a dr650, and did the whole thing from my doorstep in sfl on a Cb500x RR. I want to do it all again on my TW Skipping OK. My take on the TW, I will take it places I wouldn’t even consider taking any other bike, especially solo. I ride solo on my trips mostly so the capabilities of and the ease of recovering from a fuck up on the TW are far above anything else out there.
.

Reading through the list of questions in the quoted post:

For bars I use the Protaper SE in "ATV high" bend on the TW and it's a perfect fit for me at 6'2" as well as my wife at 5'4". In my opinion it's the bars that should have come factory on the TW. As to jets, the stock ones work just fine for me and I live at 5,500ft and regularly ride to 11,000ft elevation.

I just got done with my Clarke tank install...

I had read off the issues with the tanks on the TW for quite a while before even getting my TW last month so was aware of what I was getting into to a degree. But, I've also read a few reports where people got lucky and the tanks fitted right up without issue. I debated for a bit, but in the end decided to take the chance. I wanted to go plastic for a few reasons... I don't like steel tanks on bikes that I'm likely to drop a lot, IE, off-road bikes. Dented up tanks look like shit to me. Steel tanks are prone to interior rust if neglected. I wanted more capacity. I like the built in "fuel gauge" of the natural tanks. So, I took the plunge and ordered one. Clarke does offer a discount now due to the "blemish", BTW.

So, the tank came in. I took it out of the box and had to really look to see the "blemish". Maybe it's more apparent on colored tanks, or maybe I just got lucky, but I'm not the least bit concerned with the way mine looks...


Here's the area in question:



Other than that area, the tank looked great, IMO. And this location is in the lower part of the fork cutout area, so when mounted isn't really noticeable to me at all.


Now comes the fitment issues...


I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly when you said, "mid-side panels won't pop in", so I'll just discuss what I found with mine and what I did to rectify it...

First off, I read the instructions twice. Then I followed them. Didn't make a difference in my case as I still had the issue that seems to be most common.... The tank's left side panel grommet lined up perfectly, the right side however, was about 1/2" too far forward and slightly too high to allow the right side panel's tit to be inserted. So, I had an idea... The tank is plastic. Its also a rather large oddly shaped "box". My "theory" was that even a small deformation in the overall shape of this "box", spread out over the entire outer surface, just might allow the rear grommet hole to be moved back enough. So, I mounted the tank as best I could. I removed the rubber grommets from their holes in the tank. Then I took a ratchet strap, tied one end through the right side hole, hooked the other end to the rear of the right side passenger footpeg bracket, and applied tension.

Now comes the tricky part... Different plastics behave differently of course, but in general, most start becoming a bit malleable at around 180*F. I considered heating water to this temp, but was a little afraid that it could be too much heat and cause more problems than it solved. So, I settled on the hottest water as provided by my water heater... 130*F. I filled the tank, added a couple more ratchet clicks of tension then let it sit...

Was busy with work, etc, so it stayed that way for a week. The following weekend I drained the tank, and repeated the above and let it sit again. Then, I removed the tank, drained all of the water out, and left it to dry out.

Tonight, I finally had time to fool with it again... It worked reasonably well. The tank's right side grommet hole had moved back almost enough. If I had been a little more brave, and used hotter water, I figure it would have been better, but it's close enough for me to get that right side tit into the hole now.

That brings me to the second issue I had. And this even applies to the left side grommet that lined up correctly... The Clarke tank is much thicker than the stock tank in the area where the grommets fit. On the stock tank, the tits pass through the rubber grommets all the way and are held in place by the flairs at their ends. On the Clarke tank, the tits are far too short so there's nothing to hold them. In my case, the grommets were tight enough to want to push the tits back out rather than retain them. To resolve this, I removed both grommets, and using my Dremel with a little grinding bit, I carefully created a small recess in the inside of the grommets at the depth to match the tit's flared portion. I made this recess just 180* of the ID of the grommet (my tits are only flared on one side), being careful to not go all the way through. This allows the tits to be inserted into the grommets and sort of "snap" into place and be retained.

Not to make excuses for Clarke... I have no idea why this tank has fitment issues. Perhaps it's a case of stacking tolerances. I know there's a guy over on tw200forum that's bike was used by Clarke to create their TW tank. Maybe his was at one end of the spectrum for Yamaha's frame manufacturing. Looking at the hole where the tank's front mounts, and the tabs on the Air/battery box where the right side panel mounts, etc, I can see a lot of places where small differences here and there could account for the problem. And then there's their mold, and molding process, etc. This may account for why some people get lucky and things fit, IDK.

Either way, I've changed things on my TW as well as a great many other bikes, to work better. As with so many things, sometimes we just have to deal with things, and modify them to work the way we want .So, with the knowledge going in, that I could have issues, I was willing to deal with it in order to have what I wanted.... a larger, opaque plastic tank. If a better one was available, I would have bought it instead. But, there's not, so...

Anyway, while not perfect, and it took a little fettling, I now have the bike I wanted...

Oh, and one more issue that I had with the tank that I neglected to mention...

The petcock sealing surface was not flat. A dry fit revealed that the stock petcock o-ring would not seal. Clarke does provide a rubber gasket for this reason, so that may have worked. But, the plastic in this area is thick so I elected to sand the surface flat instead. A little time with various grits of paper on a sanding block had the sealing surface flattened out and sealing just fine with the stock o-ring on the petcock.

I did not want to spend a lot of time on it, so for fitting my Clarke tank I cut the side trim stud off flush, drilled a small hole in the correct location and using a flat head screw into a metal stud out the back.
Works fine.
Cant move the hole in the tank, then move the stud...

I have the bigger tank AND carry fuel bottles, the fuel bottles get used by the guys with race bikes that have little tanks mostly.
I LOVE being able to SEE the fuel level and knowing I will not run out when I get lost in the woods.

Yeah, something similar was my backup plan. My idea was to use a pan head SS allen bolt to create a friction fit setup similar to a bark buster bar end mount, so that I could secure the side panel to the grommet, and release it with a simple turn of the bolt. But ultimately, I wanted to be able to reinstall the stock tank with the stock side panels unaltered if possible. So, I decided to attempt to slightly alter the tank's side panel mounting points first. It worked, so I'm all good now.

Great write-up of how you dealt with the common problems!