Gary Holder's TT600R

Where to start ? Well in my case I took an exceptional off road machine, the new Yamaha TT600R. This already has quality components such as Paioli forks, Ohlins shock and Brembo brakes. All this for only $11,995 from your friendly Yamaha dealer.

This model was tested in “Kiwi Rider” Jan 2002 issue.

On this bike the first essential mod is to disconnect the ignition retard wire (required for Aussie rules). The black – black/red wire from the CDI box. No need to cut, a bullet connector already exists for our non under-arm bowling nation.

Next I added TZR250 wheels, 3” x 17” front and 4.5” x 17” rear. These are reasonably common and can be found at most bike wreckers. If you go for Honda wheels ie: NSR or CBR250’s you may well be up for expensive bearings as they have unusual axle diameters.

The rear wheel has a “cush-drive” and meant that the sprocket would not line up correctly with the front one, the hub was too far out. This was remedied by milling about 12mm off the hub on the sprocket side, not too difficult if you know someone, in this case, Omega Engineering.

A TZR 320mm front disk was added with an adapter bracket made up for the brake calliper. Because the front wheel was originally made for twin disks, a blanking plate was fitted to the right hand side.

On the TTR the speedo sensor is fitted on the R/H side and takes up quite a bit of axle length between the two forks, no way to fit with the TZR wheel which is designed for a left hand sensor anyway. The fix was to use an electronic bicycle one, calibrated to the new tyre circumference. The sensor picks up off the brake disk and is accurate up to 300KPH (I wish). It also has ODO which records up to 99,999Km, trip meter, av. speed etc.

Bearing and spacers to ensure a correct axle fit were also required but overall a relatively simple job.

At the rear end we had to add a new disk. TZR's have 3 bolts, the TTR has 6 and besides I didn't want to have to change disks when converting back to off-road use. Also because the rear wheel / tyre is now smaller in circumference, only 84% of OEM tyre, a rear sprocket approx 84% less teeth was used, 36 teeth, down from 44.

Finally adding some sticky rubber that would heat up and perform under a lighter load was needed. Bridgestone's excellent BT56SS's 110/60/17 front and 160?60/17 rear completed the transformation. Alternatively Dunlop's GPR70's would be a good choice.

A mention must go to Corey Taylor of Omega Engineering and Don at Cycletreads, both in Christchurch. Between them they sourced most of the bits and did the conversions.

I still have my off-road wheels and knobbly tyres and can convert to mud use in about 30 minutes. Both chains (the original and motard) have links to enable the swap and it pays to put a little sticky solicon sealer over the links to help prevent unwanted shedding of the clips.

Wanna know more? Gary can be contacted on 021 222 1592.

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