When Modern Cycle Magazine tested a '76, they loved it! You could add 25% more power just by dumping the stock boat anchor muffler and rejetting accordingly. A 2mm bigger carb added another 15%. I have owned 3 TT's (2 '77's and 1 '76...still have the '76) I also have a '79 SR500 with the 650 stroker by Hi-Per-Kinetics. Amazing, almost scary to ride. Hell, it IS scary to ride!
+Yamaha SR650 Hell yea man the TT500 was and still is 1 awesome bike even by modern standards in my book (of course I'm an old fat half crippled man now, but I owned and rode them back in the days when they were new or very nearly so lol)I owned 2 1979's a 1976 and a 1978 and a 1980 xt, and yes you can modify the hell out of them, one of my 79's was just that, it had the white brothers big bore stroker kit done to it that made it if I remember correctly 605 cc, the white bros. all out performance cam and heavy valve springs, ported head with oversize valves, lightened flywheel (quicker reving), 44mm square slide mikuni carb, throw away the factory air box and use the UNI pod style air filter for both performance and weight savings, ehxaust was just a strait pipe nothing else (both for weight savings and wicked ass sound),then I attacked the rest of the bike and installed Fox remote resivore longer travel shocks and lenghtened swing arm (about 2 inches white bros used to make them) ( added about 4 inchs rear wheel travel), Simmon's upside down forks and triple clamps( they where the cats ass back in the day, and were listed in the White bros catalogue back then) they added something like 5 inches of travel and were a bit lighter, and offered less unsprung weight (better handling that way), D.I.D. light weight rims and hubs with front and rear disc brake conversion (don't know if these are available any more but white bros again used to sell them), any how there might be a few things I'm forgetting of what all I had done and what not, but in doing all that you drop nearly 40 or so pounds off of the bike and just about double the HP, not to mention way less unsprung weight and way better suspension (not that those bikes arn't damn awesome to begin with), but with all those mods all I can say is HOLY F@#$% ! and WOW what a rush LOL,
+looseballs1966 Wanna buy another '76? The Modern Cycle test first sentence said: "This bike is the most fun we've had since C. H. Wheat let us play with his TT Maico for a day." It went on: "Sure, it's heavy and needs things fixed, but as delivered, the TT Yamaha is dee-lightful...Spend a few hours messing around with this bike and you'll want one...gobs of torque...between 30 and 33hp...Ah, but the torque!...in stock form, it can just about out-drag a full blown Open class MXer to the first turn...raw animal punch." Not bad, eh? My 650 SR 500 would probably soil your britches! It's scary fast when you open it up! Magazine article on Hi-Per-Kinetics says my Stage Two (of 4) 650 puts 43hp to the pavement. I went to start it for a dude a few days ago and it took about 35 kicks. If nobody's watching or standing nearby, it takes one kick. BITCH!
Yamaha SR650 Well my friend I wish I could still ride a bike but as I said I'm an old, fat, half crippled man anymore, quite actually to tell you the facts of it, about 16 years ago was the last time I was ever on a bike at all, and that is because that was when I had my bad wreck, a car pulled out in front of me, I was doing about 50-60 when I actually hit the car (at least as far as I can remember, I was going faster at first but did get slowed a tiny bit before I hit), well I hit hard enough to total the f150 ford 4x4 (at least the bike did, it was a 1985 honda V65 magna ), it hit it right behind the cab at the bed/cab area and bent the frame of the truck quite a bit, I flew something like nearly 100 feet someone said and was hit by an oncoming s10 chevy pickup so they said (I don't remember any of it though, the only thing past seeing my life flash before my eyes just before I hit was waking up in harbor view hospital about 8 days later and in so much pain that I wished I had just died) I had both legs broke in multiple places (something like 3 in the right and 2 in the left) something like 14 countable pelvis fractures the doctor said ( the poor guy that had been saddled with the job of gluing me back together again), and broke my back in 2 places, not to mention enough road rash that I looked like I got attacked by a run away crazed belt sander or something, oh crap did I hurt and still do just thinking about it, so that left me in a state of no longer able to ride at least 2 wheeled wonders (all the complications and other issues that doing so much damage to my lower body left me with weak and kinda messed up legs) so now my thing is 4 wheelers, I have a 2009 700 raptor, a 2007 700 grizzly, and just a couple months ago got a 2014 can am 1000 renegade, thinking about pumping the raptor to the nuts ( big bore, stroker kit, better head, cam, you know the whole nine yards just to see how much "go" can be massaged out of that 700, have to think hard on that 1 still), any how not to burst your bubble on trying to scare me with your SR, sounds like a nice old bike ( they sure are damn nice), but in my day I was all about fast 2 wheelers, I had several of the 3 cylinder two stroke street bikes built by Suzuki and Kawasaki over the years (ranging in size from 400 to 750) and I dappled into drag racing 1 of them I had for a while, it was a 750 Kawasaki that was pumped to the nuts, and was more like 900cc by the time I got done with it, fast hell yes nearly 160 mph in a quarter mile, no shit my friend (at least when everything went perfect, I could pull off about that, can't really remember my best times anymore, Oh well I guess that happens when you get old), after I got bored with draging I put the factory swing arm and tire, and all the road legal crap back on it and took back to the streets with it, lets just say NOTHING ever really gave me any competition there lol. I've also done some motocross, scrambles, and enduro type off road stuff over the years, up untill my big crash I pretty much lived bikes, like I said now it's 4 wheelers, and they are a blast too lol, take care my friend.
+looseballs1966 You need to contact me at my gmail. I wrote a book about my life on 2 wheels (off road...on road would be rated X) It includes my story on riding a Euro-version of Kawasaki's H2 750 triple while stationed in West Germany in 1975. Fucker was blinding fast! Here, the US version was only good for 119mph. I had this one up to 240KPH or about 150mph. Please contact me at daviddaveinternational@gmail.com Just let me know who you are when you write. Everybody is welcome but you must act accordingly or I'll be forced to print out your mail and do terrible things to it! See you there, Mr. balls?
