TE/TC Finally Joined the 150 Club

[Stiggy Pop]

I put a deposit down on a TE150 back in late December. After many months of anxiously waiting it finally showed up!

This is the first bike I've bought since 2003. I bought a 2002 KTM 200exc when I was racing back in highschool, it took a lot of lawn mowings and groceries bagged to pay off a $5200 bike at 16yo. It's been a fantastic bike, but last year when I started riding more frequently again I really started getting the itch for something different. I really went around and around on what to buy, but decided I'm really a small bore 2-stroke guy so the 150 sounded right. I ride exclusively tight gnarly New England woods, so it should feel right at home!

Bike looks beautiful... I've never owned anything brand new before, It's gonna be hard when I drop it the first few times. Might buy a second set of plastics and keep the stock stuff on ice...

Already bought my EE hand guards, an SXS skid plate, and an EE carbon pipe guard (P3 are backordered out into May).

I also bought a JD jetting kit in advance. It was in the 30's this morning so I only rode it around the property a bit to see how it felt. Feels great, but honestly it ran like crap! I was basically expecting it but sheesh, it's not even close. It's got a crazy bog in the midrange, to the point you couldn't even get the bike on the pipe because it'd break up so bad. Thinking of just cutting right to it and putting the JD kit in?

Tomorrow will be baselining day. I'll dump the dealer fuel and start fresh and give it a once over. Any brand new bike tips? Buddy suggested I take apart and grease the linkage, what else should I get into? I really want to take my time now and do things right. Any break in tips you guys can share?

Pretty excited to get out and ride!

 

[Stiggy Pop]

Oh one more thought... if the thing is still a dog will the 38mm Keihin on my 200 be an option for a swap??

 

[tahoeacr]

Congrats! How the heck could you wait that long? Once I made the decision, I about died the three weeks it took me to find one. I never even road mine with the stock jetting. Put the JD stuff in right away. Some are switching to Keihin but I think you can get the Mikuni working fine. Asking about breaking it in is darn near starting an oil thread. lol. Over decades of racing motorcycles I go with easy break in now. When I raced it was break em in hard. They run better but didn't last as long. But if your racing 125cc 2 strokes and putting cranks in every month (anyone remember 1984 Honda's with the plastic bearing cages?) and racing every weekend you don't have that much time. Now I keep it to 20 minute heat cycles. Darn hard to do if you have to load up to go ride somewhere. Who wants to stand around and let your new bike cool off. No wide open throttle and no lugging of course. Lot of compression breaking. Change the tranny oil after a couple rides. Lots of crap comes out on the first change. Gearboxes do need to break in and get all the extra machining stuff out of there. The more you ride it the more your going to like it.

 

[dartyppyt]

Nice Bike!

 

[NCSteve]

Congrats on the new bike, very nice! If you read the other 150 threads there's lots of jetting info.

 

[Stiggy Pop]

Spent all day going through the bike. Greased some things that needed it, busted out the anti-seize. Still some work left to do but a good start. The axles and linkage and important stuff were properly greased in my opinion, but feels good to check. Nice to work on something so clean.

The stock reed block is, as others have discovered, not impressive. I might go for the V4 block when the wallet recuperates a bit.

I went through the carb, set floats to ~8mm and installed a JD jetting kit - night and day difference. Really happy with the big leap forward that got me. It could still clean up a little bit in the midrange but it went from almost unrideable to right in the sites.

Threw on the SXS plate, which was a surprising PITA to mount, and a pipe guard and got it dirty.

Where should I route the drain hoses with the skid plate? I just kinda pulled them down because I was running out of time to test ride, but don't feel like this is ideal?

First impressions are really positive. I've never ridden any 150 so I really jumped in with both feet. Happy to find that it feels more like a 200 than a 125 to me. It definitely doesn't have the same pull right off the bottom that the 200 does, it wants a little more clutch coming out of a corner, but it's a smoother engine and feels like it's faster up top. Still, considering the loss of displacement it's got a nice useable power band and good clean bottom end for the woods. The big WOW was the handling. I guess 15 years of suspension refinement make a difference - my 200 couldn't dream of going around a corner like this! I haven't even touched sag or a clicker and it really impressed me.

Going to be a fun season for sure. Looking forward to getting it dialed in. Need to buy a mount so I can put my steering dampener on it.

 

[hakkalugi]

Nice man, your gonna want a set of bark busters if you run alot of gnarly trails. I was also worried about dumping it for the first time but with rad guards & braces, wrap arounds, skid plate & link guard I dont really worry about it now (shes got some character already). Dirtbike plastics get trashed so dont sweat it too hard (i know the white is tough) but just try and keep it clean. Stock tires suck pretty bad but run em till they're dead. I couldnt get the stock carb right after many many hours or tinkering but im assuming its because my reeds are bad, I run a lectron now & wont look back, reeds will be my next investment.

 

[fletchman45]

Nice bike and congrats! I've had a lot of fun on 144's in my day. Awesome!

 

[dartyppyt]

Route your two upper carb vent hoses in a T. Then run single hose through air box and filter with fuel filter.

Run other two into back part of skid plate where doesn't fill up with mud.

Oh ! Nice Bike!

 

[Stiggy Pop]

Nice man, your gonna want a set of bark busters if you run alot of gnarly trails. I was also worried about dumping it for the first time but with rad guards & braces, wrap arounds, skid plate & link guard I dont really worry about it now (shes got some character already). Dirtbike plastics get trashed so dont sweat it too hard (i know the white is tough) but just try and keep it clean. Stock tires suck pretty bad but run em till they're dead. I couldnt get the stock carb right after many many hours or tinkering but im assuming its because my reeds are bad, I run a lectron now & wont look back, reeds will be my next investment.

Yeah I've got a set of EE guards on the shelf just ran out of time to install them. I was just about to buy a set of reeds but they're backordered a few more days. Also have to buy a mount set up so I can move my steering stabilizer over from the 200. This weekend looks to be good weather so I can start really feeling it out.

 

[Stiggy Pop]

Did a quick 15 miles on the bike yesterday, temps got up to 82 here! Crazy for April.

I'm really liking it so far, it's very easy to ride and move around the woods. Did some very technical hill climbs and I definitely can't take the 2nd gear climb for granted like I could with the 200, but a little clutch work goes a long way and it's pretty impressive for such a small bore bike. Still haven't touched sag or a clicker and the suspension feels better than my worked over '02 so I'm sure with some fine tuning it'll dial right in.

Unfortunately it's still got a killer fat spot right in the middle. At least I'm thinking it's fat. It breaks up and burbles, so the transition onto the pipe is terrible. It runs pretty decent above and below that point. I think it's still a little fat down at the bottom, as it tends to load up in very slow sections or down a long hill. The midrange is just really bad though, never dealt with something like it on a bike before so I'm not well versed in how to troubleshoot it.

While I don't think it's a contributor to this symptom, I did go ahead and buy a set of V4 reeds to replace the poor sealing stock block.

 

[cullenking]

Did a quick 15 miles on the bike yesterday, temps got up to 82 here! Crazy for April.

I'm really liking it so far, it's very easy to ride and move around the woods. Did some very technical hill climbs and I definitely can't take the 2nd gear climb for granted like I could with the 200, but a little clutch work goes a long way and it's pretty impressive for such a small bore bike. Still haven't touched sag or a clicker and the suspension feels better than my worked over '02 so I'm sure with some fine tuning it'll dial right in.

Unfortunately it's still got a killer fat spot right in the middle. At least I'm thinking it's fat. It breaks up and burbles, so the transition onto the pipe is terrible. It runs pretty decent above and below that point. I think it's still a little fat down at the bottom, as it tends to load up in very slow sections or down a long hill. The midrange is just really bad though, never dealt with something like it on a bike before so I'm not well versed in how to troubleshoot it.

While I don't think it's a contributor to this symptom, I did go ahead and buy a set of V4 reeds to replace the poor sealing stock block.

I just got my carb back from RB Designs, no real riding yet, but $200 got me a 39mm, up from 38mm bore, a divider plate, low speed circuit mods, a really nice easy to adjust air screw, and a drilled float bowl. Made a night an day difference, no more bog. I couldn't tune out the bog with the stock mikuni. Talked to a KTM dealer I race road bikes with, and he said he specs all his builds with a new Keihin. You can find one for $250 or so. Since RB is right by my house, $200 for him to fix up the stock mikuni was a better/easier deal. Good luck!

 

[Stiggy Pop]

I'm starting to consider a Keihin but I'm more than a little frustrated to do that to a brand new bike. Would I just be looking for a PWK 38? I am still enjoying the hell out of it though, it's a blast in the woods. I've got about 4hrs on it now and am getting comfortable with it. SO EASY to flick around in the woods! fun fun fun.

I've had a few guys ride it and everyone says it's off, but no one is a real jetting guru. Had two guys ride it back-to-back and one said it's lean in the middle, another said it's fat... sigh. My 200 was 'set it and forget it' so I don't have a good feel for this yet, so need to do more experimenting. My feelings are:
-that it is rich right off the bottom - so will experiment with the air screw
-it takes a LONG time for the bike to come on the pipe, which doesn't work great with a 150. I'm not sure if this is because of the mid-range jetting or PV settings? Considering trying the yellow spring but want to square the carb up first.
-It does not transition cleanly onto the pipe, it's got a bit of hesitation/break up unless I roll into it just right. This is where I'm getting mixed opinions on rich vs lean.
-One of the faster guys I ride with said he thinks it feels 'tinny' up top, which to me is lean.

Chasing tail a bit, but confident I can work through it. I'm running the JD Jetting with the initial rec. settings for 0-4k feet and trail riding. Going to try moving the needle around a bit and see how it responds.

Throttle response is a little better with the VForce reeds, but not a huge change. Much higher quality than what came out of the bike though

The forks are excellent. The e-start is a little unenthusiastic but hasn't let me down yet. The front tire sucks for the New England woods so I'll probably get my preferred M59/MT16 combo on pretty soon.

Got the stabilizer and hand guards on as well. What an awesome chassis.

[/img][/COLOR][/FONT]

 

[Stiggy Pop]

lol failed with the pics!

 

[dgargiulo21]

We have a lot in common, I'm from the Foxboro mass area.with the JD kit I turned out the air screw 2.75 out. 3 is max and that the only way the bike would run decent.Im running yellow spring 2.5 out from all the ways out, Gonna try Howt Owl tomorrow.

 

[Stiggy Pop]

Yeah it does feel rich down low. So you're using the 32.5 pilot?

I actually moved the needle up half a clip to clip four and it felt better up top. If I'm on the gas it runs good, but if I hold a steady 1/4 throttle it will sputter and break up in the middle. It also doesn't wick up as fast as it should if you whack the throttle.

Think I'll try the yellow spring today just to see.

Try pics again..

I bought a polisport clutch cover because my boot was killing the pretty bronze finish

 

[Notdoneyet]

^^^^ I see a steering damper on your bike. Can you tell me a bit about what you think of it?

 

[Stiggy Pop]

I moved that over from my 200, so I've been riding with a damper since about 2003. I am a big fan of it. A lot of my riding buddies who used to sneer at it now have them on their bikes. It's very rocky where I ride, so the damper is good for helping it track straight when dancing over a rock garden. It also allows you to set the front end up for a little more bite in the corners without having to deal with a head shaker.

Install was pretty straightforward. For what it's worth the steering bearings were properly greased from the factory. I just had to kiss one little bit of weld with a file to get the clamp set down properly. But very happy to have it on, I don't think I'll ride without one again.

Side note: I feel like this board would move a lot quicker/be more active if it didn't take sometimes 2 days for a message to actually post to the boards...

 

[dgargiulo21]

Just did a 75 mile trail ride and the bike isn't even close in jetting ,JD. Does get great gas mileage . Conditions were brutal and it ran horrible in the mid range. Muddy technical sections it ran great down low but would sputter in the mid range and clean out on top . After spending over an hour cleaning the bike I drop the needle and in my yard the bike ran much better. Gonna try it Friday in the woods and go from there. The bike has amazing climbing ability in the nasty muddy conditions. Suspension and handling is top notch.The rain has been real heavy to the point I almost backed out of this event.Happy I went and I have an other one in Conn. on the 20th of May so I really have to sort out this jetting this Friday.

 

[dgargiulo21]