A Thailand Yamaha X-1 project / blog
With all the bikes on the road here, and the way the Thai kids make their bikes look, I decided to mod my bike in a "serious racing fashion" using my knowledge from racing bikes in the USA.
I got some ideas from the motorbike riders in the Philippines, while on vacation. The Filipino guys have the right idea when it comes to making a bike suitable for street riding and racing, I give them a thumbs up.
A typical Thailand bike's tire, amazingly only 1 1/2 inches wide
The typical Thai mod is to put a tire the size of a bicycle tire similar to a 10 speed tire for "fashion", along with a skinny soft aluminum anodized rim which will flex easily. Many also put exhaust pipes on the bikes and do not tune the bike accordingly, it is only for fashion and sound to get attention. Many anodized and chromed accessories are added too, the mirrors are removed for fashion, that gets the rider a fine for 200 baht which is the equivalent to a whole days wages.
Most Thai customized bikes may have very good low end, but will lack on high end. The bike is unstable due to the skinny tires. They may holeshot you, but at high speed they are easily eaten up. After you beat them, they do not want to look at you in the eye, they sheepishly look to the side and down when beaten.
There are only a small handful of shops and people that are knowledgeable of how to do a bike properly. I see them racing 2 stroke bikes on the streets or riding vintage bikes that are hopped up, they are very fast at all speeds.
Some of the more knowledgeable guys can give you a good run for your money, I dont discount all, there is a small handful of smart racer types here that I will take seriously, I wont race the 2 stroke guys until I get a 2 stroke bike. I have been able to beat most guys I challenge, and most people will pull over to the side so I may pass. I think this guy would eat my bikes up! http://www.youtube.com/user/nuuyai
My bike:
I started with a stock 2005 yamaha x-1 similar to the one in the picture below, it is the silver version.
I bought a pipe for it, and adjusted the carbs, the reason I know why the riders here at my province in Thailand do not know about working with carbs is that the shops here do not sell main jets here in this town...........I thought WTF???
I learned a long time ago to keep the stock airbox intact and use it if all possible, it is still on the bike and the bike is easily tuneable.
I then carefully planned to cut and remove some plastic from the tail section, the ugly mud flap/fender was removed and thrown away. I added a very big tire to the back, and moved the rear tire to the front, it is the appropriate height and width to match the back tire.
I designed a plastic tail section for the tail lights, and re-routed the lights on the bike. This gives it a sleek racing look like the bikes I saw in PI.
This page will be updated when I find a good paint shop, the bike will be painted like my old Yamaha RZ-350 Kenny Roberts special.
Before the Team Yamaha racing stripes! Cost to paint the bike yellow 900 baht, the black stripe was 400 baht, and is being re-done. The license plate is on a bracket that is removable for night time usage, this is a lawless town I am in and the police wont stop you for no plates at night, only in the daytime.
After the stripes were completed, I painted them on at first, then removed them and re-did it with white vinyl stickers, cost me 60 baht for 1 meter.
I just got rid of the backfire problem, I opened up the carb, pulled the pilot jet and made a micro reaming tool out of a piece of spring tension wire. After reaming out the pilot jet and created more flow, the backfire went away. No sense in trying to track down proper sized pilot jets in this town, everything has to be either hand machined or brought in from Bangkok.
The seat's locking system was removed so I machined a T- screw and made a bracket with a nut welded on it to keep the seat locked down.
The bike will wheelie easily and a fast clutch to 2nd gear will make the bike wheelie 6 to 10 inches without trying too hard.
Update: after finally tuning in the big carb mod, the bike will wheelie like a 2 stroke bike when rolling, then throttle backed off then slammed open, it will do 12 inches easily.
Update: After doing a high speed run, I decided to switch the fast tapered needle in the slide to a slow taper needle, it would sputter as if too much gas was flowing and the bike could not burn it. I also switched the front sprocket to a 15 tooth, the back has a 38 tooth sprocket, I will eventually decide what is best after a few runs, I need a mid range bike that will also have top end. If I can only find my original 16 tooth front sprocket! I may also switch the rear sprocket to a 36 tooth gear.
Update: I went to a small local shop where the guy is very smart, I had the cylinder head removed and the shop owner port out the intake and an intake manifold to match, I cleaned up the exhaust port and took it all the way from 150 grit sandpaper to 1200 grit finishing sand paper. Amazingly enough the Thai guys never seen a head polished or the exhaust made to look like a mirror, all that took me 2 hours to do. My shop labor was 600 baht or about $18.00 for the disassembly and porting, the reassembly, I have to go back and give the guys a bottle of whisky, Thai mechanics dont work for beer like in the US.
Same as on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GDOwNDVw-g&NR=1 , but I did not remove any metal in the dish, I want to keep the compression, I just dont want the carbon to stick to the head or exhaust port.
The bike really kicks ass now, I really have to gear the bike down to use the bikes 4 speed gearbox more efficently. I'll put the smaller back sprocket on again.
Note: the bikes fuel consumption has doubled so it costs 2x the amount to ride with all this extra power, I never seen a bike eat so much gas!
The rearsets are next, I got them for dirt cheap, because nobody wanted to buy them, there are very few yamaha spark z or x1 bikes here. Freaking 550 baht or less than $16 for a set of rearsets by yoshimura. I have to fabricate the lower bolts to fit the sets, I am using an exhaust stud for a car or truck, and will be welding a hardened bolt onto one of the bikes original bolts. I had to buy a shifter lever (only 50 baht!) for the clamp and will modify it for attaching to the tierod. I had to buy new bolts for the sets, some were too short and had to be longer, I have re-fabricated the shifter tang so it looks cleaner.
I bought a set of pegs that match and cut one down for the rear brake pedal, I had to cut it down so the kick starter can pass it. I just re-installed the rear brake light by welding a rod to a washer and then another ring to hold the brake switch, I wired the bike back up so none of the brake switch or wires can be seen........totally trick!
I spent a few hours lowering the handle bars for the cafe racer feel when riding, the rearsets without the low bars felt like crap, so I removed the bars off the bike and cut a notch of about 1/4 inch as a wedge from underneath, I bent the pipes and welded the cuts back to full strength, the rake is lower, the mirrors dropped, the clutch and brake levers are more comfortable. The cut of a 1/4 inch made a 2 inch drop in height of the bars, and a shift of 1 inch on the cowling on both sides. I have a 220v arc welder in my shop, it is a big bastard and I had to turn it down to #75 so I would not burn the tubes!
New skin for the seat, the old one was slippery when riding, I need to stay in one spot because of the rearsets, cost 180 baht or around $6 to remove and replace with a new skin. The Thai seat shop did a really good job, they only do bike seats.
I mirror tinted the plastic panel in the back, harder to see the stuff behind it!
I will be adding a spark enhancer box on the bike, similar to the MSD ignition, I think too much unburned gas is being wasted?
I just added an aftermarket CDI box made in Thailand and as I read on some forums it is a non rev limited full race CDI ignition, I can now do 45 kmph in 1st gear, before the limiter stopped me at 30, this means 2nd gear should do 80 kmph. I dont know if the timing is advanced, but now the exhaust seems to smell richer. Cost? 800 bt or $20.......lol
Just a small update: I have seen 2 other bikes in my town that have been modded like mine, all the way down to the rear end and no license plate, the guys added the big fat tires & pipe to the bike! I dont know if they did the full on extensive engine work like I did, but they look cool!.........thumbs up to them!
My mikuni modifications to the bike
The bike on youtube
If you modify a bike and do everything, all the way up to adding rearsets, you should remove the stupid shopping basket off the bike!
My new bike project a yamaha speed mx 2 stroke
The tuk tuk, a 3 wheel race vehicle http://999thai.com/tuktuk.htm