Guest Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 Well. I sometimes wonder why I bother. If you have ever ridden a proper Off-road motorcycle, you quickly realise when thraping a DT, just what a sqeegey, pogo stick, slightly too small, floppy forked, 80s steel timer chassis it really is. When it comes to modifying a DT. You might aswell buy something better. But anyway, I like playing with it so.. First up, appearance. Usual stuff. I missed many times to get a Yamaha WR400 headlight. Got one of a Aprilia RX, had to do some wiring for this. Needed to be painted white of course. Its worse than the DT headlight.. If your into DTRs. Then the DT200R (3ET) is the one to have. I couldn't find much information on these (YZ) wheel upgrades I've seen. I wanted alloy wheels on it like the 200. So after some research and a failed attempt at getting a set of WR200 wheels, I did some more research and concluded that 1988-94 Yamaha YZ wheels have the same size rear hub as the DT. Straight swap. For the front,had to be 1986-1988 because they ran similar sized discs back then. However the hubs are wider on the YZ, So I chose some YZ 1986' front spacers, looked similar proportion to match a DT fork in the pictures. If your going to swap to a YZ wheel, I gave up trying to fit the Speedo drive back on and took it off. Took of the clocks. Then fitted a bicycle wired speedo, just for an MOT really.. its crap and does not register the pick up past 60 mph or so.Only £22 though. Yamaha built the 1986-1988 YZs with Gold anodised rims and man.. wish I could find a back one. The front is a 1988- the back of a 1994. Looking up YZs from 1988-89, same year as the launch of the D125R. I start seeing bits and pieces that probably fit. The swingarm from an 89' YZ and linkage is a future straight swap instalment. The rear shock is crap on the DTR, or at least mine was. Did some googling' and a man in Australia agreed with me. The DT uses the same shock to dog bone set fixing as 87-88' YZs Shipped a 1987' Yamaha YZ490 Rear shocker that bolts right in! Its even got Yamaha's 'B.A.S.S' system on it. Which is rubbish.. but cool anyway. When fitting it, the top damper mount on a YZ frame is different, apparently much narrower than the DT frame, so you will need to use the bearing with it's fixed spacer off the DT shock and replace the YZ one with it. I actually used two big cable ties instead.. wish I had some pictures, I will update this! Anyway I now have Adjustable spring rate, Damping settings and Rebound settings. It will sit pretty high on a firm setting. 4-5cm lift. I also stuck with my short Dogbones 3cm riser ones. It gives the shock better clearance of the swing arm, its a tight fit. I already replaced the battery with a capacitor from '2strokeracelab' - check it out. The shock is bigger than DTs, longer and a fatter spring with of course, a piggyback reservoir. So there is no room for the battery. It is also no going back as there is the tang which the battery tray is bolted to on the frame, which has to be cut of to for the shock to be accepted properly. I also cut the side cover apart. Bit easier to get a flat head in for adjustment. I use 15w Fork oil and it makes the best of the standard forks. I do own a very nice set of 1991' WR200 Kayaba Forks. I chose them because the WR yoke had an Ignition mount. They are just the right forks for it. But I don't want to modify the frame to accept the WR stem. I'm looking at having the Stem pressed from the WR yoke, and getting it machined down with an extended thread which would allow me to just use the original top cap and ball bearing race on the DT. So a bit of time in Solid Works so I can tell the machinist what the hell he has to do. Any help on this or ideas, experience, drawings, measurements etc, please let me know what you've got.
Chalkey46 Posted November 1, 2015 Posted November 1, 2015 All you have to do is have the dt stem pressed in and use the dt head stock bearings and a collet to take up the slack on the top yoke I'm currently running 2001 yz 125 front forks and 2006 yz 250 swingarm and an adjustable 420mm oxon shock
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