The ground up yz/wr/xt/tt adventure build

It all starts today
I have been recently prowling around various forums and web sites to steal idea's from more inspired people.

My decisions have been made and I have started down a path I can not return from.

I purchased a 1991 ex army xt 600 e after a quick engine spruce up (valve seals and rings) this was all that was required to get the motor running well and with no smoke. After riding and racing enduro bikes for a long time I was less than impressed with xt's handling and the way it wanted to tip into corners Then push the front wheel out during the apex of the corner.

It also had the weight of a overweight sumo wrestler. SO what to do about this situation?


I was luck enough to buy a tt 600 frame on ebay for a song It was already sand blasted and cleaned up ready to paint.


So I have Gone on a buying frenzy over the last month to start my desert warrior. I have made some fittings to start the rolling chassis the first was the lower bearing sleave to fit a standard yz/wr bearing race into the frame it is a good fit and this allows to use of standard readily available parts


Once i pressed the lower race in it fitted up perfectly and the lower triple clamp fitted perfectly


I also turned some adaptors to fit the yz swing arm into the frame this wasn't to hard the swing arm pivot bolt is 16mm and the yz is 18mm. The frame opening of the tt was only 6mm wider so this was not hard to fit this swing arm int the frame. I do not have any pictures yet but I will post them when I set up the swing arm linkages. I have made sleave's like this to keep all bearings close to the wr/yz standards because of there ease to locate.

The next step was to cut the old steel subframe off and get the frame ready for the future modifications (new top shock mount and the lower linkage mount) I have a wr250/450 subframe with an airbox and single carb which will get mounted properly over the coming months keep you eyes peeled


So without boring you people too much this is what I have roughly planned


So things are not set in stone but this is where I am going with this bike Lots of small fiddly bits to fabricate and fit but the end goal is set Melborne to Darwin off road the whole way!

Looks Great !

Whats the difference between the XT and the TT frames?

Cool.

with a title like this, i'm hooked

yeah ... I thought the only diff was .... minor extra brackets and stuff for mounting the street legal stuff ?

... and move the remote oil tank from under the seat (TT) to out back next to the rear fender (XT)
(which ... I just realized I don't know why Yamaha did that - TT shock is bigger dia ?)

Looking forward to next update!

I'm in for the whole shebang

Can't wait for more!!!

how old is the tt frame ? is it a belgarda, or an 80's model ? and how new is the front end you're using ?

Same here.

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The main difference between the xt and the tt in the oil resivour. The xt is a lot heavier frame, the stearing head angle is raked out a lot more (road orientation) and the oil tank is in the frame. The tt has the oil tank under the seat and a steeper head angle (off road orientation). The xt is a heap heavier as well. (I also didnt quite have the guts to cut the frame up either)


SO I got home tonight and straight out to the shed to turn up the top bush for the fork adaption job


I have put nickel anti sieze on the sleeve so it doesn't jam into the frame fitted everything up and


The forks I am using are off a 2004 wr 250 They were damaged and I had them re-chromed and revalved by Chad Talbot

http://www.chadsoffroadsetups.com.au/


Once I have the rolling frame going I will get an over all weight and send the rear shock to get revalved by chad to suit the adventure nature of the bike

When he did my YZ it transformed the bike from being a bit unstable and wanting to defect off every thing, to giving me heaps of confidence to hit things harder and made the bike much more stable in the bush.

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^^ ditto

Well a night spent in the shed with some tape measures and my lazer level and a bit of lateral thinking has me set for the top shock mount to be fabricated tomorrow as well as a new strearing stop and a stearing damper mount.



I have replicated the swing arm geometry of my YZ so that the rear end will operate as the cleaver little bastards originally intended it to, Hell I am not smart enough to redesign somthing like this.

This is the melbourne cup weekend and we have four days off, so i had a full day to work on the bike today .



First up was the front end this was quite easy all I had to do was fit the actuator arm mount for the damper arm and the new steering stop as the one that was there broke off really easily when I was playing around so it had to be replaced.



The next step was the shock top mounts where there was a bit of cutting and grinding to make them identical and ensure the holes are centralised. Turns out the gap between the new plates are the same width as the shock top pivot so no need to machine any bushes.



I have just used a set of vice grips to hold the subframe in place.
I have to copied the mounting points from the same model that it came off in relation to the top shock (07 wr 450/250) I also stole the seat off the bike to be copied, so I can get all of the alignment.



The only thing I missed was the lower linkage mount I tacked it together and then proceeded to leave it at work on the welding bench! oh well, I will have to do it on tuesday

I am amazed the bike just seemed to fall together today so lets hope my good fortune continues through the rest of the build

Coming together nicely

Very nice Project.
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damn, i wish i'd had your skills and equipment handy when i slapped a yz rear end onto my xt. would've made the whole thing go together a lot more cleanly.

however, i am very curious to see what you do for a single carb/intake manifold/hose to airbox solution. that ended up being the weak link in my project, and is still something that i wonder about fixing in those quiet sleepless hours in the middle of the night.

well, that, and the fact that i am a total hack...

Have you looked or thought about the secondary snorkel issue your going to have from the Shock Resevoir?
I was looking at something similar for the XT350 and mating a YZ490 suspension to it.
I remember reading mothef's issues with his build and building a new snorkel.