Any opinions on the Yamaha TRX 850?

Put an R1 front forks and brakes and race cans,
and you've got a fucking good bike. IMHO
Bit slow, but good fun round a circuit.

 

Surely you'll be wearing your leathers, and have your lid tucked under
your arm? Even if you've come on the bus?

 

On Wed, 12 May 2004 17:13:26 +0100, SteveH wrote:
Snip about the merits of car oil/bikes/trx850

I was looking for one last year, then a Duke 750 came up at the same price
as TRXs were going for - £1500ish, and I got the Duke.Thats the best
advice - save a little more/or wait a little longer, and a good Duke will
come along.
Alan.

 

Depends on the car oil - some of the more exotic cage oils will do this
due to additives, but a bog-standard, quality, semi-synth will do the
job just fine in most situations.

Not really, as above, it depends on the oil.

I've used cage oil in loads of bikes over the years (GSX250, Z400J,
Divvy 6, CBX750, TRX850 and the VFR) without any of the clutch hassles
others have had. I put it down to using mid-range semi-synth oils.

(And before Dan says anything, the Divvy made it to 80k miles before I
sold it, mainly run on Homebase semi-synth)

 

Having ridden TOG's 750SS back to back against my TRX, I'd say it's
definitely the best thing to do. Everything about the 750SS was better -
engine (although down on power, it was just 'better', IYSWIM), frame
(much lighter), suspension, riding position / comfort.

Only downside of the 750SS is the regular cambelt changes - that's what
originally put me off them. However, I reckon that if I bought one, I'd
do the belts myself - I mean, if I can change the belt on a FIRE engined
Fiat Cinq (how fucking tight is the access.....), then changing them on
a 750SS where everything is accessible and visible has to be a doddle
(famous last words.....)

 

On Wed, 12 May 2004 19:02:46 +0100, SteveH wrote:
Snip about Duke 750ss

They really are a piece of piss to do.I did my MazdaMX6/Ford Probe V6
cambelts last year and that took a weekend - the Duke was done in less
than 2 hours, and when I do it next time I think it could easily be done
in an hour.
Alan.

 

Good stuff.... just got to find a way of persuading SWMBO that I need to
buy another bike.

 

Basis of a good bike in that the frame is OK, the engine is pretty good,
and it looks nice.

The brakes, suspension, seat, and just about everything else is crap.

 

(The Older Gentleman) struggled
to ejaculate:

The gearbox can go on the crap list too, imho. The two I had test
rides on were both bastards to get into neutral and the first to
second change was sooo fucking sloooow.

 

darsy says...

At least you had the 2.5 litre[1], not the cooking model.

[1] Basically a 944 without the arches.

 

Linger says...

No you're not, and anyone who says otherwise is a twat whose advice is
to be disregarded[1]

Bike oils are designed specifically for bikes, they do not contain the
anti-friction additives that will cause clutch slip in a wet clutch
bike. Car oils are full of stuff that a bike's clutch will not like.
Some wet cutches will slip even with a specific bike oil, case in point
being the Aprilia RSV Mille and other Aprilias that use the same engine.
These bikes should only use 15W/50 semi-synth bike oil, not a fully
synth.

[1] I say this as someone who has spoken at length to development people
from a major oil company. I was selling their products and the whole
bike oil vs car oil subject was a matter of discussion at a sales
meeting.

 

Yep. No disagreement here.

 

Every 12k, although 6k to be safe....

And the belts are 14 quid each. So 28 quid a time. And yes, it's an easy
job, except for the tensioning which *must* be done right[1]. There's
the Ducati special tool, or there's the Ducati Expertise[2] which says
"That's about right".

[1] The belts must be slightly slack when cold as the engine expands
when hot and tightens up the belts. Get them too slack and they jump
when cold. Get them too tight and they snap when hot.
[2] Which, to be honest, I don't have. Yet.

 

Every 12k, although 6k to be safe....[/QUOTE]

Every 100k on a GL1500.

--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
|_\_____/_| ..64741../..15361.../..3157./.19406
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17
'^' RBR-Visited:14 Pts: 270 Miles:1248

 

Salad Dodger said:

<tempted>

Every 90k on the Pan and I'm getting fed up with changing the belt every
five minutes.

 

Shocker: Linger finally shows he knows something about bikes!

 

There's also plenty of bike mechanics who will say otherwise, too.

ISTR it was Tuppy who asked me (when out getting the bits to service the
TRX) - 'Do you want your oil with a picture of a bike or a car on the
bottle.... it's all the same, but you pay double for the picture of a
bike'

 

What about 15W-40 commercial diesel oils like Shell Rotella, Mobil Delvac
1300, and Chevron Delo 400? No anti-friction stuff in them AFAIK. These
are USA market names, I don't know what they are branded as in the UK.

Swot I use in my bikes, with no clutch slip problems (but TBH, I wouldn't
expect any, with the limited HP on tap). A gallon of any of them costs
about $7 (£4) at Wal-Mart.

 

SteveH says...

Different people, different opinions. I made my mind up on the advice of
someone who develops oil specifically for bikes. You use wtf you like.

 

This would be someone who had an interest in encouraging people to buy
bike-specific oil would it not?