THE BIGWHEEL THREAD!!! Yamaha BW350, BW200

Happy Seal,

That's not the Cub from the opening scene. It's just a dogeared, old Cessna. I have plenty of plain footage. I should be able to oblige with some Amish style video.

Today's ride report:

I rode the shoulder of the road to the B-29 trail. A big thank you goes out to all those snowmachiners who have done an excellent job of packing the trails down. The mercury was at 0 fahrenheit when I left and was all the way up to +7 by my return. I got to send text message photos to everybody I knew who was stuck at work. That alone made it all worth while.

The BW performed admirably, in a way that I don't think too many bikes could. I'm still working on the suspension setup, however. The first 25 miles of whooped-out trail was entertaining, the next 25 a little less so.

It's a lonely trail on a Wednesday.

Regards,

Mr. BigWheel

AMS Fox A/T

Has any one bolted on a pair of Werks shocks on the 200?

MR. BW
What front suspension do you have on your bike? I see a disc brake.
What changes to the rear suspension?

Mr. Bigwheel, how far did you make it up the B-29 trail? Did you make it up cable hill? Cable hill can be challenging in a Jeep in the summertime, I was just curious how a bigwheel would do on a packed snowmachine trail in the wintertime.

Rebelyell,

I'm guessing that at the price of a set of Works Shocks, there have not been too many installed on a 200. They cost more than some people pay for their bikes. If I put The Ultimate BigWheel Upgrade on one of my 350s, I might be tempted to get them to build a longer than stock shock for me.

Shercoman,

The forks on both of my 350s are from a Tri-Z 250. One is an '85 and the other is an '86. I'm rebuilding a second set of '86 forks so that they will be the same on both bikes even though I don't really notice much difference between in performance. The '85s are 35mm and the '86s are 39mm. The original BW forks are 33mm and have less travel than the Tri-Z's

The forks do boost the front end up, so a longer rear shock is desirable. After a number of trials, I have found a Yamaha YZF600 shock that works reasonably well. There are some years that have a remote reservoir that are fully adjustable but those with the reservoir on the shock body are too bulky for a BW installation.

Even though the YZF shock is an improvement, the rear suspension is still the biggest shortcoming of the suspension.

Regards,

Mr. BigWheel

mr bigwheel-

dude do you know how many people light up anticipating another kick ass video when you post here ? do ya ? huh ?

(nudge, hint)

rock on !

ohgood,

Sorry to raise your hopes and then dash them so cruelly. However, I did manage to get about 15 seconds of usable footage on the last ride. So in other words, the 2013 Season is coming along nicely.

Cliff,

I failed to make it up the cable crossing hill. I made it to within 10 feet of the top but quit trying because I was tearing up the snow too much. This is the first year I've seen it back there where the trail conditions are perfect for the sleds. I don't want to leave too much BigWheel DNA at the scene of a trail wrecking since the list of suspects riding fat-tired motorcycles in the winter is rather small.

Some of the other trails were more amenable to being climbed by the BW and provided plenty of entertainment.

Regards,

Mr. BigWheel

Part's have been ordered , and are comeing in daily , for the rebuild of my BW-200 . Complete motor gasket set , new kick starter shaft , and kick starter pedal , clutch lever , rear drive chain and master link , chain guard , decal's , carbarator , brake shoes , oil filter cover plug .Going to put in the starter shaft and pedal , and get her running again , see why she was puffing a littel blue smoke when I bought her. Thank goodness you can still find alot of these part's via the web . Next on the list to order will be all new cables. Have any suggestion's or comment's , about who to get part's from and any no OEM part's to stay away from ? Tire reccomendation's are diffantly needed .

Holy Smokes! I do not visit this thread for about a month and it grows by 5 pages?!

I have been working on my old '99 400WR getting it all sorted out and ready to sell. NOW, MR. BW goes and posts a link from the guys in Phoenix that are going to make kits to transform this style bike into a BW!:huh

NOW I am not sure whether to sell it or transform it!

I went through all the reading to get me current and here is what I got.....

THAT big ole tire on the back of the Trailway does get me all worked up too!

Cliff H. you had asked about the yellowing of tanks. Nothing will stop it as it is a reaction from the plastic and the petrol. Also the yellower/browner the tank is the more brittle it is. If riding one that is WAY yellowed be careful as they can break from a pretty slight hit. I imagine more so in colder climates too. I have wasted two white (well at least when they were first manufactured) Yamaha tanks over the years and one was a pretty easy bump in just the right (wrong) area from a dead stop tip over when it hit a small tree. Sucked riding home sloshing gas out for the first couple miles! BAD way to go out, in a giant fireball!

Even my blue Yamaha tanks yellow and age. All plastic tanks will do this too.

You can slow down the yellowing if you drain the gas out after each ride and especially if storing/not riding the bike for several months. I try to do that but get lazy more times than not so just live with discolored tanks....

Mr BW. MAN! I like the pic of the studded up tires as well! Maybe it is just the smell of new rubber that gets me going?

You mentioned you were looking for a new light. I bought a kit for this tiny little LED light last year and built one to check it out. It was AMAZING! I have since bought several more partial kits and am building my own style housing for the light as after a bunch of reserach and talking to the people who made up this kit I found the output can be bumped up further, but since they are the new style LED's that need to shed the heat they make, I needed a bigger finned aluminum housing for the higher output one I am constucting.

The kits are about 70 bucks, but even the basic kit light they are selling puts out more and better brighter light than ANY stock M/C light I have on any of my bikes, including street bikes. They are not street legal (way to bright) but man for off road they rock! That price also includes about 12 bucks for this silver heat epoxy used to build the kit and there is enough glue in one tube to assemble probably a dozen lights so if you get a buddy or two to go in the price will drop down further.

I am building my own housings so that saves me 23 bucks more, but of course I probably have much more than that timewise in the construction of the different housing.

I am not affiliated with these guys in any way I am just amazed at the amount of light these little LED's will throw out there! And the package is so small I am going to mount one on my helmet visor using a self coiling cord so in addition to having one face forward mounted off the bike, I will have one that points anywhere I turn my head.

Best thing is since they are LED they do not draw hardly any power (each light is three watts) and unlike an HID light they are instant on so require no warm up.


Here is the linK if interested:

http://www.thumperjockey.com//index.php?main_page=page&id=3

dvgonzo,

Thank you for your responce. I was aware the the yellowing was caused my reaction of fuel with the plastic tank. I was unaware of how brittle it made the plastic. I have seen new old stock bw 350 fuel tanks for $350+, but at this point I am unwilling to pay that much for one. I will consider draining out fuel when the bike is unused for periods of time, (I hope to get out during the winter months with Mr.Bigwheel soon). I did have new bigwheel graphics made to replace my peeling discolored ones.

dvgonzo,

Thanks for the links. I'm fascinated with the rapid advances in the LED technology. Since my fabrication skills are mostly concentrated on my recent resumes, I may just buy an off-the-shelf Chinese helmet light. The best place to look at them is on ebay, under the "fiction" section. Each seller has to one-up the next with their hypothetical claims about the available lumens from the same emitter. 1000 lumens? 1500 lumens? 1800 lumens? All from the same emitter and battery pack? The sky is apparently the limit in Hong Kong.

Concerning the BW conversions, the only issue that I have with the kit is that there is no positive way to locate the jackshaft. It slides the jackshaft in achannel and is secured in position with bolt pressure. The eccentric bushings on the original BigWheel are a pain only because they are unavailable and they don't allow the swingarm to use bearing like every other bike has used for the last 30 years. But it is a solid system.

Cliff,

The only thing that I have seen that had been recession proof has been the price of BW gas tanks and CDIs. I wish I had put all of my money into them 10 years ago. Then I might still have some of it. I suspect I'll be saying the same thing ten years from now, however.

Regards,

Mr. BigWheel

Sometime's she likes to get dirty...



Then I clean her right back up...

Very nice.....

I like to get mine dirty too. It's just the cleaning up part that never seems to happen.

I figure that we do enough river crossings.

Regards,

Mr. BigWheel

Cliff h.
Yeah I seem to remember when I broke the tank on my old TT600 after it was about 12 years old by barely dinging it against that small tree it cost me 300 bucks for an aftermarket one. I could have at the time still gotten a stock new one but they were an additional 150! MAN! Talk about them paying for the tank mold every time they sell a tank...OUCH! But if you HAVE to have it........

MR.BW,
I was a little apprenensive about putting the light together as I am a machinist and me and electrical components do not get along to well. It was real easy. Has a couple things to watch out for in that you use that epoxy in a couple spots and do not have but about 5 minutes to get things right before it hardens up. And there are two little wires that need to be soldered and you have to be careful to not put a bunch of heat into the assembly or it can get cooked (That was the one that worried me but went well once I did it.)

The kit light puts out around 700 lumens and is spread out real nice for night dirt trail riding. They offer different drivers for it which bump the lumens up to just over 1000 but also increase the heat output. The one I already built in a side by side comparrison with the stock model is about a third again brighter! A REAL noticeable differance! The whole thing is about 2 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. (The actual LED is only 3/4's of an inch in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick!) I need to get started on that project as I want to build about 5-6 more for various scooters. I also built a couple mini ram type ball mounts as I do not like the commercially available ones as they are so big and bulky.

I did look into some ready to use LED lights but they were from about 150 to 250 apiece! I guess THAT is why I went with the do it yorself ones.

I too have noticed you cannot believe much in print from Hong Kong...anything is legal if it helps them sell a few more parts!

Like I mentioned both my BW's are pretty much shed queens. I always seem to ride the blue bikes when headed out to the hills. I would be surprised if they have 1000 miles between them so have not had to worry about even adjusting that eccentric chain adjuster.

If I ever need to, I can build extras due to my background. I would imagine they are just made out of oilight (A bushing material the Japanese tend to use quite a bit, but it is pretty soft and due to it's nature tends to wear pretty quickly). If the material was changed to a good quality bearing bronze I bet they would last a LOT longer.

Would you happen to have a drawing/print of the bushings? I should probably try to get some dimensions for them so I am ready just in case.

matt556.

NICE before and after mud washing pics! I wish we had more river/stream crossings down here in the desert...Then I could be more like Mr.BW and I would not have to wash my dirt scoots near as much.

You know I been meaning to ask. Does it seem hard to you guys to wheelie the BW's? I know the 350 has enough hit and can get it up but it always seems to come down fast and hard from a wheelie....and sort of seems to track slightly to the left (I think) when in one.

I think it probably has something to do with the jackshaft.

I am pretty good at doing wheelies but have always thought the BW's felt "weird" once the front wheel was airborn? MAybe due to the size tire?......Maybe it is just me??

I think the weird part of a BW wheelie has to do with the soft mushy tire.Try making the tire hard and see how it feels. A dirt bike tire does not flex like the ATV tire on the BW.
Just my .02 cents....
When I built the TT500 bigwheel I had a really "firm" tire and it wheelied really well. The wheelbase was longer due to the jackshaft so it was hard to get up in the air.

More part's came in today ! I'm gett'n excited , almost have everything to get the job started !

Have you owned or ridden a Bigwheel before?
Most fun I ever had was trying to be like Kenny Roberts and flat tracking my BW200 in a big snow oval. I crashed more times than I can remember but man it was fun!!!
Get busy so you can try it out!!!