TW200 Adventure Bike Build

My father decided to buy a TW a couple years ago and we soon decided it needed a few mods to turn it into the bike we really wanted. Soooo......

We decided to dive right in with the mods. First up is comfort! The stock bars are way to low (for us) and leave my arms in a uncomfortable position (plus it makes it hard for me to stand up and ride without bending over). We replaced the stock bars with Pro-Taper High Bend ATV bars. Between the Bars and the Adapters to install the bars onto the stock triple clamp we gained about 2.5" rise over the stock bars. WAY more comfortable! We also added some Factory 909 hand gaurds/bark busters. Helps keep the wind of your hands and keeps limbs from smacking your hands.

Next up....panniers. It's nice to have a place to carry stuff that you pick up running around town, plus makes it easy for hauling gear for trips. We ordered a Cycleracks rack for the back, then ordered a set of Happy Trails Panniers. We fabed up the mounts for the bags and attached them to the Cyclerack rack. Came out pretty nice. The bags are easily removable when you don't need them but I'm sure they will remain on most of the time. They are very well built and completely water proof. Not the cheapest option but worth every penny.

We then added a 44 tooth rear sprocket, After riding this setup some time now I think the 44 tooth is just to low...I think I'll install a 47 tooth and try that next.

Here's the bags mounted to the bike....(More mods to the mounts to come later)







Here's a shot of the rack setup without the bags installed.




The hand guards had stickers on them that said "Factory 909" but they were pealing off when I got them. I peeled the stickers all the way off and there was a indent in the plastic where they had been. Grrrrr.....Soooo. I made up these in the same shape as the factory ones that say TW200 instead of factory 909.

We decided to powdercoat the bags to keep maint low. I really like the look of the bare aluminum but its a real pain to try and keep clean looking. My friend bought a powdercoating setup at an auction for $200 and we've done quite a bit of coating with it over the past winter. We coated the bags with Columbia Coatings Mini Tex, its a flat black finish that has a slight texture to it. It covers very well and is extremely durable. Now I need to make up some kind of sticker for the back of the panniers. Hmmmm......





Here I'm just getting ready to put one of the lids in the oven to bake. About 15 minutes and it's done.



On the bike.




More Mods....

I wanted to add a bigger foot print for the kick stand. I hate having a loaded bike sink into soft ground when you are trying to park it. Here we cut out a plate to weld to the bottom of the factory kick stand.





All welded up, powdercoated and back on the bike.




Since we installed the panniers we needed to shorten the stock turn signals so they would tuck in behind the bags. Here I started by taking the stock turn signals apart and cutting down the signal stocks.




Next I went to the local hardware store and bought a couple of these hollow threaded shafts that you use to hang light fixtures in your home. Here I'm marking it and getting ready to cut it to size.




Here I installed two layers of heat shrink tubing onto the exposed wires of the turn signals, now that the signal stocks are shorter the wires will be exposed to the ends of the threaded tubes .




Here's the wiring installed back on the bike. The factory rubber boot that keeps water out of the signal will no longer work with the new size nuts that are used on the new threaded piece. Soooo, I used some black RTV to seal the wiring where the shrink tubing comes out of the threaded tube.




Here you can see the difference in the shortened turn signal vs the stock signal.




Next up is a extra brake light LED unit. I've installed some kind of supplemental LED brake light unit on all my bikes. I like to be noticed when I'm stopping. This unit is for a BMW motorcycle and is made by BMW. It's not the cheapest unit available but its one of the brightest units that I've seen. It's about 3 times as bright as the stock TW tail light. The unit is on steady all the time just like the stock brake light, then when you press the brake the unit flashes real fast 5 times and then acts as a SUPER BRIGHT brake light. Cars defiantly notice this light!

Here is a shot of the unit on the bike. One set of wires heads up behind the light for the sensing wires (taps into the brake and tail light wiring), the other wires you can see running up along side the tail light assy, they head to the
battery for power.




Here's a side shot, you can see how the unit mounts. Very clean and solid.




Last shot. Hard to tell in this pic but the LED unit is SUPER bright. Plus if your brake or tail light bulb burns out this unit is still going so your still covered.



Continued Below...

Hodakaguy

Tool Tube! We wanted to build a tool tube to occupy the open space behind the left pannier. My father looked all over town for something suitable to build it out of and finally came across this....a Stainless Steel toilet bowl plunger . The handle screws off and you are left with a nice shiny tube. Sweeeet!

Here's a shot of the toilet bowl plunger assy before we started on it.




Here we just finished powder coating the tube. You can see the mounts that we welded onto the tube so the lid can be
attached to the tube.




Here's the lid. The white plastic cup was in the bottom of the tube for the plunger to sit in. We just slid it back into the tube when we finished the work. It might come in handy if you ever have to disassemble anything out on the trail/road, always nice to have a clean tray to place small parts in. We cut a rubber gasket and glued it to the back of the lid, makes it nice and water proof.



Here we just finished making the mount for the tube. The mount hasn't been fully welded yet, but will be when the rack comes back off for powder coating.




Here the tube is mounted up into the mount. We used stainless steel T-bolt clamps to hold the tube onto the saddle. Nice and solid.




Top Shot








We are fabricating a custom fuel tank for it now, I've also added in some more supports to the rack assy (I'll post pics up soon). I think Craig2211 and I are going to do an Alaska trip on our TW's, that should be a blast!


Hodakaguy

I like that a lot. Did you see the picture of the one that has a trailer towing behind it?

Inspector wrote:

I like that a lot. Did you see the picture of the one that has a trailer towing behind it?

Thanks, yeah I read his ride report. That trailer was really cool. There is something about the little TW's that just make them a blast to ride. I'll have ours out this Sun for the breakfast meet.

Hodakaguy

That thing is totally awesome! And you're right, there is something very cool about TW's. And it is not any one particular thing, but rather their ability to almost everything well. A lot of fun.

I can't say I've seen that one before. Is that a Blue M oven in your garage!?

That is a friggin' great idea for powder coating small parts! Not to mention you've got some very admirable fabrication skillz! (jealous)

Very unique build! Thanks for sharing

griz

Did you get a bigger tank built for the TW?

Backwoods Boogie wrote:

Did you get a bigger tank built for the TW?

It's built but still not installed yet , just to busy with other stuff. We will try and get to is this summer some time though.

Hodakaguy

I need to take a couple shop classes over at the college! Somewhere in my bucket list, basic welding and sheetmetal fabrication are floating around in there.

Your work is inspiring

griz901 wrote:

I need to take a couple shop classes over at the college! Somewhere in my bucket list, basic welding and sheetmetal fabrication are floating around in there.

Your work is inspiring

Thanks, I enjoy building/fabricating parts that I need and can't buy. Pretty much all of my family are Pipe fitter/Welders so I've been lucky growing up to be able to pick up some of the trade.

Hodakaguy

Here's a few pics of the tank sitting where it will be mounted. I'm going to add some bars on the sides so straps can easily be attached to the tank. I plan on packing a large dry bag on top of the tank when we take our long cross country trip with it. I made an aluminum plate to attach to the top of the tank for that purpose but I don't think it will really be necessary.

I decided on this setup since I really like the looks of the stock fuel tank and I'll only need the tank on long cross country trips, the tank will be easily removable when not needed. It will clamp to the bars with 4 mount points (yet to be welded onto the bike) and the tank will have it's own petcock so you will be able to reach back and turn on the reserve tank while in motion. It has baffles built into it to keep the fuel from sloshing around. I'd have to calculate the capacity again to make sure but I think it was around 2.5 gallons...Double the stock fuel range!

Now I just need the time to get it finished up








Hodakaguy

What kind of top end do you guys get out of those? Will they cruise at highway speed or less?

XCR500Rider wrote:

What kind of top end do you guys get out of those? Will they cruise at highway speed or less?

Depends on gearing. With my current setup I can cruise at 60mph, 50-55 real comfortable. This gearing is a tad tall and you'll end up slowing down a bit on steep hills, everything is a trade off. They are plenty capable of long distance trips.

Hodakaguy

Getting ready for my winter reading and stumbled across this

Which reminded me of your project

Really enjoy the pics as you work on the TW200. Great fabricating skills, and inventive too. Plus, you got a toilet plunger out of the deal also.
Thanks for sharing the build as it progresses, looking forward to more!

Hodakaguy wrote:

Hodakaguy

I would Stencil "Remove before JATO ignition" on the end of the tube.