Hi from the UK as well

[foxxy]

Hi Ben. Glad to hear from you.
Mine in one of the earlier models. I have fitted the SW Motech centre stand and as you say well made.
I fitted one to my last bike and was very pleased with it. As you will see from my previous posts I am not 100% happy with it yet as the bike is not terribly stable on it as in it seems it would roll off fairly easily.
Axman and others have comfirmed that this is a known problem but also it seems that it may improve with use, and Motohaus have told me that SW Motech say that sometimes the plastic coating is a bit thick and can cause this problem. how have you found yours ?

I have fitted a pair of Fuel oval cans now
Also I have fitted the Givi rack arms, but not a Givi plate as I have one which goes with a box. So yesterday I made up some cross supports and in a bit will fit the plate.

I am on the lookout for a touring screen Yamaha or other make, as you say I gather they make quite a difference. I have looked at the adjustable Vario screen and may well end up with one, though imho its not the prettiest thing in the world ? Others have said the Puig double bubble is not very efective ?
So at the moment I am looking for a Yamaha touring screen, shame Yamaha don't sell them anymore
though last night I found that Ermax do a touring screen (£56 plus P+P from demonbikes ) so that may be a possibilty.

I am off on a longish run this weekend , so will hopefully get properly acquainted
thanks for the tips re the Avons. I see Jack Allens does a carb upgrade kit, which I think is the Topham kit though I might be wrong there ? I will probably leave this for the moment but will review it again after a while.

Cheers Foxxy.

[Ben]

Foxxy
I fitted an MRA Vario screen to my MT 01, it is very well made but I did not like the look of it so took it off. I think the Ermax screens are also well made. I also have some fork gaiters to put on the bike. I got the idea after seeing one on this site. Having been riding from the early seventies I do like the idea of front fork gaiters but they are often quite difficult to find. The ones to get for the Bulldog is from a Triumph scrambler.

Ben

[foxxy]

Hi Ben and you other good people.
I spoke to the Ermax distributor/stockists about their screen but they wanted £80 plus p+p , Lol I should coco.
I might as well get a Vario if I am going to spend that kind of money.

Did a 170 mile round trip the other day, after 50 miles much wriggling !
Now I see or should I say feel what you guys are talking about re the seat
I am thinking about getting a strap on Gel pad as most of my trips the seat is fine.
I did talk to a firm called Lics ltd but they wanted £180 to fit internal Gel pads for the whole seat,
but I figure with a strap on I can use it on a different bike of course.

Lol still trying to remember to change up early and use the torque, 10 years on a 600 Hornet with a 13,000 rpm redline, shall we say necessitated a different riding style !

I have tried the Fuel exhaust cans with no baffles a couple of times , ooh ooh certainly get noticed
I will try one more ride with them out (perhaps a little too loud round here with no baffles) then decide in , out or adapted baffles .

Still thinking about the Carb upgrade kit, I gather the Jack Allen kit is actually the Topham one ?
Or I am thinking about getting a TDM airbox cover etc, looking at JR s post I found this
Tune up B)
: 1) as 1 above
: 2)Change Air duct using TDM P/N 3VD-14422-OC
: 3)Change Front & Rear Main jets from #125 to #135
: Power increase to 7HP
: Does anyone know if this is the same as the Carb kit
: as mentioned in the re-tune forum, or is this something different?
jr

I gather these parts are a viable alternativeto a Jack Allen/Topham kit ?
Could someone please let me know which actual TDM airbox cover I need 850 or 900 ? and which year please ?
as I see the part number above but don't know what it relates to.

Hope you good people are enjoying this lovely weather
and have a great time at the international meeting , wishing I was there

Cheers catch you again Foxxy.

[Axman]

Hello there,

with all these upgrades you are thinking about there is only one thing missing : you should remove the stops from the inside of the carb-covers. If you forget to to so the slides can´t be pulled up all the way

cheers

Axman

[foxxy]

Hi
would seem it was
Foxxy.

[Axman]

Hi
would seem it was
Foxxy.

...eehhhh..say again...??

greets

Axman

[foxxy]

Hi Axman.
Sorry just me chuntering to myself.

Could do with a bit of advice if anyone will help pls ?

I have taken the carb tops off and removed the restrictors.
Had a look at the jet needles and the clips are already on the the 3rd groove from the top.

I have got a TDM airbox cover and some size 135 yamaha mikuni main jets.
Now comes the fun part
I have not removed the carbs yet to fit the 135 main jets.
Looking at them on the bike looks like a bit of a nightmare to get them out
any advice on getting the carbs out and what parts in what order would be much appreciated pls ?
If anybody has any pics that would help that would be great as well

Regards Foxxy.

[Axman]

Hi Foxxy,

taking the carbs out is not as complicated as it looks at first sight..it just takes a little fiddling.

After removing the tank and airbox (leave the rubber "snorkels" - between carbs and airbox - on the airbox so you won´t get mixed up. They look the same but aren´t and only fit one way!)
Now remove the throttle and choke cables and the electrical cables for the throttle-sensor and the carb-heating (please remember to install them again when remounting the carbs or you´ll have massive starting problems) Now remove the gas hoses and you are nearlly done. If it is easier for you, you can take these steps after removal of the carbs.

By now you should have noticed, that both carbs are mounted on a common bracket and can be taken out as a unit. If the hose-clamps on the intake side are loosend you can now wriggle the carbs out of the rubber boots. By tilting the whole thing sideways you can take it out of the engine-"V" Put rags into the intake-manifolds so nothing can fall into the cylinders.

When taking the float-bowl off the carbs be very careful not to strip the four little screws. It seems that they are "Loctited" in place, so its best to use a brand new screwdriver. As the idle-jet and the main-jet look nearly identical, make sure to change the correct jet...yes, it has happened (why did you opt to install 135 main jets?? By extensive dyno-testing here we found out, that the Bulldog runs best with 132,5 jets..)

Now put everything together again, make sure to remove the rags ( ) that all the cables are correctly connected and reinstalled, make sure the hoses are not crimped...be parient when installing the airbox..and you are ready for your first testrun..

If the engine runs, you should now take the bike to a Yamaha-Garage to have the CO adjusted to the proper 4,5% (Important : with disconnected AIS) and to synchronise the carbs. Now adjust the idle to at least 1.050 rpm and you are ready to go..

Look at my album...there are a few pictures of the dismounted carbs

greets

Axman

[foxxy]

Hi Axman .
Thanks again for that very helpful.
I had posted earlier re whether to go for 132, 132.5 or 135 main jets.
As I had seen all these sizes mentioned in various posts.
But I guess nobody noticed it or was on holiday etc as I got no reply regarding sizes.


As I wanted to order the parts from my Yamaha dealer I noted that in JR s, Erwin s and Brunner s post s
the 135 size mainjet seemed to be the most common one talked about so I went for that.
Also when enquiring at my dealer he said that he could only see 135 as the next size up from 125
on his Yamaha parts list so I didn't really have much choice.

For the record for those that are thinking of going the TDM airbox cover route it cost me just over £45 for the following new original yamaha parts.................
TDM airbox cover
new rubber seal to go with this ( I possibly could have got away without renewing this, from memory about £4-£5 so obviously only about £40 all in if i hadn't got it)
2X 135 size mainjets Yamaha/mikuni

Jack Allens wanted £108 for the Topham kit .

Thanks Foxxy

[Axman]

Hi again,

you wrote, that you got a "Topham"-Kit...included in this kit should be a new aluminum airbox-cover...

By the way, this Mr. Topham is the European distributor for Mikuni carbs and parts ( www.mikuni-topham.de ) As our carbs are from "Mikuni" you can get the jets much faster and cheaper directly from Topham...you don´t have to buy them from Yamaha. Just give him a ring (0049 5474 9011)

I know that 135 size jets have been an issue here in the forum...but that´s just because some people think, that bigger is better...tecnically speaking this is not always true..

regards

Axman

[foxxy]

Hi this is my 3rd attempt at posting this reply so here goes again.

Also last night and today I couldn't get on the site at all.

Anyways thanks again for all your help Axman, much appreciated.
I guess I haven't made myself clear enough , sorry about that.

I have not purchased a Topham kit.
I counsidered it but decided to go the TDM airbox cover route. I purchased the TDM cover , seal and 135 jets from my local Yamaha dealer as I said previously.
Thanks re the advice Axman re getting 132.5 jets rather than the 135s.
Having another look I found a Mikuni dealer here in the UK, ordered some 132.5s yesterday and they arrived this morning

Besides the 135s flowing more fuel, how have people found the 2 different sizes in relation to feel, power etc ?

I got the carbs off yesterday morning, eventually
Then I left them for a few hours with plusgas on the float bowl screws.
EEEEEEEEEEK
What on earth were Yamaha thinking
What did they decide to araldite them in or something and ooh and lets make them out of plastice as well just for good measure !
I managed eventually getting the wife to hold support them to loosen 6 of them with a T bar philips * diriver being able to keep a decent amount of down force whilst turning , then hearing a satisfying crack as them gave up their grip and loosened. Of course it goes without saying that the 2 most difficult ones to get at were the ones that were having none of it. So I left them over night with more plusgas soaking.
Today after trying heating with a hairdyer , tapping the heads gently etc etc, still no go and was thinking I was going to have to give up and take them to a local engineer. I had one more go and no 7 * decided he had played me up enough and came out. Phew. one more to go.
No 8 was a right little so and so and this was the only one that ended up being chewed up.
So no I didn't resort to an impact driver or dremel but very carefully cut a slot for a flathead screwdriver with a hacksaw blade, finally this too gave up the fight and came out
I covered the carbs as best I could to stop and swarf getting in , left the bowls on and have cleaned them to make sure no swarf is hiding. Thats as far as I have got at the moment so am getting there slowly.
I have bought replacement allen bolts when I come to refit the float bowls , coz I am not going through that again

Thanks again for your help Axman.
Regards Foxxy.

[Axman]

Hi Foxxy,

it seems that yesterday we had a bad case of "server-overload"...nobody could get on the site I talked to Joerg (our webmaster) and he had already spent hours trying to iron out the problems...if you can read this he succeeded

The differences in feel and power between 132,5 and 135 size jets are not much noticed while riding - except that with both jet-sizes the vibrations between 3.000 and 4.200 rpm are very much reduced - but you can see the difference clearly on the dyno-chart. The increase of hp is more or less the same..but the increase in torque is 4Nm better with the 132,5 jets!

But after all the mods, it´s crucial to adjust the CO-settings and to synchronise the carbs...then you´ll have a new bike

When do we start to modify the suspension?? At least the fork is badly in need of an update..

regards

Axman

p.s.: what exactly is "swarf"??

[Blubber]

regards

Axman

p.s.: what exactly is "swarf"??

Laut Leo: swarf [tech.] die Metallspäne

Klugscheissende Grüße

Blubber

[Axman]

Moin Ralf,

von "swarf" habe ich tatsächlich noch nie gehört (die Amis nennen das anders ) aber danke, so habe ich etwas dazu gelernt

Gruß

Axel

[foxxy]

Hi Axman.
Sorry took a few days to reply,
you know work, family life etc.

Swarf is like small metal particles that result from say either using a file or a saw.

Still getting used to the handling, haven't found a problem yet, so handling mods as and when I feel I need them.

regards Foxxy.