New Convert – First impressions and questions

[Wilbot]

All right, you guys finally got me. All of the ranting and raving on this site (great site btw) and a test ride on a YZF finally convinced me that I needed to dump my XR for a WR. I picked up a 99 WR (green stickie) and man is it awesome. The suspension is perfect, the power is un-real, and the handling is great (even in the tight stuff). I think that all of those rumors about the WR not pulling down low like an XR, not being able to handle tight terrain, and having too stiff suspension are propagated by sour XR owners. At the end of a 50 mile loop in the San Berdo mountains I chose lines that would have killed the XR (and me) and the WR handled them with no problems. This bike is perfect, well almost perfect.....

I couldn’t believe that the bike could run any better than it already did but with all of the YZ timing talk and quotes such as “free power” and “4th gear wheelies” I couldn’t resist and had to try it. So after only 1 ride on the bike I changed to YZ timing and de-octopused it (thanks Clark) – and did all the valve checks, greasing, etc. while I was at it. I ordered the 426 needle from Sudco, rotated the TPS, and changed all of the jets. Last night I tested the bike out with the following settings:

48 pilot

2 turns out on the screw

170 main

a OCEMP needle 3rd clip position (this is what Sudco sent me and I ran it at the 3rd clip position before I saw on James’ post that this needle is 1 clip leaner)

The bike ran great down low but the needle was way lean (obviously). So my questions are:

1) Is this OCEMP needle in the 4th clip position the same as the OBEKP needle in the 3rd position? I do not know what the difference between the “C” and “B” is.

2) I know it’s been asked before but does anyone know what the reistance at closed throttle is after rotating the TPS clockwise? The manual says 0.13 – 0.15 x TPS resistance. I measured mine at 0.23 x TPS resistance. Is this the desired result of rotating the thing or do I need to get it back in spec?

Thanks for your help. Again, great site.

[Guest Guest]

Unfortunately I am not knowledgable enough to answer your jetting questions. But I am glad that you chose to take a chance to see what life is like outside the world of XR's. I have always enjoyed riding the XR's even though I have not owned one for a long period of time. Great bikes and they definitely kept up the interest in 4-strokes when nobody else would/could. But Yamaha has created a (used to be unique before KTM & Suzuki) bike in the YZ/WR. And the great part is it will only get better! Other manufacturers will push the development of better thumpers. I am dreaming of the day that I retire my '98 WR for a 250 pound aluminum framed WR 426. Sincerely glad to see you're are satisfied and welcome to the BOBT's (Brotherhood of Blue Thumpers).