A forum for owners of Yamaha TTR250 trail and enduro bikes!

PurpleWheels · Veteran Member

RE: Raid restoration

PurpleWheels · Veteran Member

Some pictures of the result of my efforts. Still got some minor fixes and improvements like replacing the cam chain and finding a new emulsion tube and main jet. That can be done when I next travel to Europe. The speedo also stopped showing the actual speed and started displaying zero during one ride, so I'll need to look into that too. I have a spare sensor so I'll try that. The magnet is fine and wiring looks OK. Overall it runs well and I'm happy.

Compare the pictures of the tank in my first posts and how it turned out... It was repaired and painted in a local garage and they did a stellar job. This was done last year and it is still perfect.

You could look at the before and after pictures and say; "OK, the bike was repainted and the seat reupholstered, nice job", but you always run into a million smaller or bigger surprises and challenges. Anyhow, it was all good fun and I enjoy doing this. Working on old motorcycles keeps me off the streets! biggrin

PurpleWheels · Veteran Member

As I was working on the carburetor and testing different needle positions, and had to take off the air filter housing, I decided to reroute the battery cables so I could mount the right hand side cover properly. I made new longer cables that I could route over the top of the battery rather than the outer side. I retained the original cables from the starter and just made new extensions that I screwed on. I properly insulated the positive cable to avoid any risk of short circuits.

I need to find the hook used to attach the outer end of the rubber strap that holds the battery, until then I just use a fabric strap with the bucle now placed on the back/wheel side. The side cover fits perfectly now.

-- Edited by PurpleWheels on Friday 11th of September 2020 09:13:23 AM

ttboof · Super Guru

Good idea another option is cheap kitchen cutting board

PurpleWheels · Veteran Member

That's a good idea, similar plastic, easy to cut. Then again, I have collected more wine corks than cutting boards.

ttr steve · Super Guru

Love the wine cork fix biggrin biggrin biggrin

mark_the_rider · Newbie

Wow wonderful work. How much it all cost you.

PurpleWheels · Veteran Member

I didn't really keep track of the costs.I think that all in, the bike, parts and some work I paid for I've spent the equivalent of around 1700 Euros. That's excluding parts I ordered but didn't use (yet). Now I have leftover parts that I could sell, but there's no demand here and I can't ship overseas.

Labour is cheap here, but parts like tyres and batteries can cost 2-3 times more than in Europe, and I cannot bring those in a suitcase. I ordered most parts, new and used, from Steve at Totallyttrs.com and had them shipped to family and friends where I could pick them up during my trips to Europe. That site and their service is one of the reasons I decided to get a TTR, knowing that parts are still available. And visiting this forum and seeing the strong following that these bikes have was a good motivation too.

tripodtiger · Senior Member

Nice to see another one returned to the roads and tracks.

It's hard to comprehend how rough repairs can be. I understand it's pretty easy to break a float post but, how do internal carb parts get bent / damaged? Must be using the carb for baseball! Still, they manage to keep the thing running.

Sounds like bikes are flogged past their point of death. And then someone comes along and breathes life back into them. Excellent.

PurpleWheels · Veteran Member

The bike definitely looks and works better, and is safer too. People look very surprised here when I tell them that the bike is more than 20 years old. Then again, the focus here is to keep them running, not to keep them looking new. And most Chinese bikes sold here will look like my "before" pictures after just a year. Part quality and part the way they get used (or abused).

As for flogging the bikes to death, here are some pictures of the engine I got with my spares bike. When I started taking it apart I noticed that two cylinder head bolts were missing, and two cam shaft caps, and two valves as well. Removing the cylinder head revealed there was no piston! I did later find parts of the piston at the bottom of the crank case, together with some other selected parts seen in the picture. All lying in thick layer of oily sludge. A valve had dropped into the cylinder, and that was the end of that bike, which must have been in a bad shape already at that point.

The crank is dead, but the crank cases are still fine and the gearbox as well. I'm planning to put together a new complete crank case with new crank and pushrod, and new bearings. I'll use the top end from the current engine and I'll have a virtually new engine for my bike.

Cam cap 2.jpg Head 1.jpg Valve 3.jpg Valve 1.jpg Valve 2.jpg Engine case.jpg

TerryK · Super Guru

What a good read, well done on the rebuild

Cheers Terry

TerryK · Super Guru

TTRfan wrote:
Great pics - looks like its gonna be a good thread
As Simon says, the forum needs a bit of spicing up
Brian

Agreed

Horizonti · Veteran Member

An excellent thread, fantastic detail, photos and achievement!

Thank you for making the time to share it all with us Purple Wheels, much appreciated! :)

PurpleWheels · Veteran Member

Here are a few more photos of the final result.

I have just mounted my "street" rear wheel, with a 100/90-18 street tyre which I had lying around and a new 43 tooth sprocket to ride in town or longer distances. In front I have a 14 tooth sprocket. For more serious off road riding I have a second rear wheel with a proper off road tyre and a 50 tooth sprocket. I can easily swap the wheel and the chain from one setup to the other.

This was a 120 km ride, partially on this dirt road between the Atlantic and a lagoon that stretches about 10 kilometers. The bike is surprisingly comfortable even on a longer ride. The seat on these Raid models is quite good, even if I'd prefer a bit less of a slope towards the tank. I have a second seat and I may try to do something about it with that one.

Fortunately we have no lockdowns here so we are free to move around as in the pre-Covid times. The vaccinations have started here and my wife and I already got our first jabs, so that provides some extra safety on top of distancing and wearing masks in crowded areas. It's been said that the virus doesn't like sun, heat and humidity, and here we have plenty of all three smile

IMG_2047 S.JPG IMG_2046 S.JPG IMG_2044 S.JPG

-- Edited by PurpleWheels on Friday 26th of March 2021 08:46:44 AM