Tag 22mm offset triple clamps...for YZ's

Rcannon

~SPONSOR~
Nov 17, 2001
1,886
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I bought this kit off of **** a few days ago.

Why? Number one is I love trick stuff. Number two, I was able to ride a 05 Suzuki RM 250, a 04 CR 250 Honda, and a 05 CRF 450.

I liked these bikes a great deal. I fully intended to trade in my old 97 YZ 250 on Monday. I slept on the idea and figured out a few things. The thing I disliked about my bike was the handling. The steerign felt heavy. The bike was hell for stable, but slow responding compared to the newer bikes.

For under 300.00 I hoped these clamps might give me another season out of the old yz. This bike is as clean as any works bike despite its age. Any trade or sale woudl let me take it in the shorts money wise.


UPS delivered the clamps at 1204 this afternoon. By 108pm I had them installed and was ready to ride. After 50 feet I knew I made a good decision. The steering is light. The bike turns like the RM. The stable feel is there as well. For the old 97 it is a no lose deal. The kit included a new lower bearing, stem, race and bearing. The ionstall took about 20 minutes. So far I am shocked and in love. This bike will not be traded for a while.


It just so happens my step son left his 2001 YZf 465 in my garage. I offered to re-grease his steering head bearings (ha, ha)....

This work was for you guys. The newer YZ's and YZf's have a 1/2 degree steeper steering head than my old 97. All other geometry is identical.

Hell, his steering head was apart...lets install my YZ forks and 22mm offset triples on the beast.

The steering was much lighter. Very 05 CR like. I expected that. Now it was time for a high speed run. I saw no possible way that this bike would not be twitchy and scary at high speed.

I topped thsi beast out in 4th gear. Somewhere around 65 mph according to my gps. I had to back off then due to the area being slightly small to test high speed runs.

To mu surprise the bike felt as stable as ever. Nothing scary or concerning. Just a normal YZ..

This is a great mod for the YZ/YZF's 2003 or older. The newer forks are too large to work with this old triple clamp set. You lucky 04 and 05 owners are ass out this time!

If you are trying to stretch another year or two out of your 98, 99, 00, 01 or 02 YZF read no further. Click buy it now.

Was my step son impressed with his YZF? Well, he ordered a set. I believe this leaves three available for purchase.

I dont know the seller. I get nothing if these are bought or not. He did ship fast and is great to work with.

The coolest part is the cost. 277.00 shipped to my door. This includes an upper and lower clamp set. Stem, bearing, bar pad and lower race. I did not need to change my lower race. It also included a set of oversized tag bars (89.00)

I can sell the new tag bars for 60.00 or so. My old applied clamp should fetch another 75.00. The new tag bar pad should get 15.00. 277.00-135-15 equals 127.00 total out of pocket. How can you beat that ?

This is a great mod for the older bikes. On a 1-10 scale I will give this kit a 12. I would rate it higher if it installed itself.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Chris_S

Member
Nov 25, 2002
143
0
gonzo843 said:
I put the Matrix top clamp on my 250. It made a huge difference in the handling. I was very impressed.


How would only an upper clamp make a diff. in handling? You need both the upper and lower to change the offset...

I got some benefit from adjustable bar mounts on my aftermarket upper TC, but it was more better ergos improving my comfort/weight dist. than a real handling change of the bike itself.
 

NO HAND

~SPONSOR~
Jun 21, 2000
1,198
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You need both clamp to change the offset in relationship to the stem. If you only have only the top clamp with adjustable bar mounts, the change you can feel is in weight transfer when you adjust the bars fore and aft.
 

Rcannon

~SPONSOR~
Nov 17, 2001
1,886
0
Correct you are, no hand. This offset stuff is strange. It took several minutes to measure the difference.

Basically all it does is mobe the steering stem foreward 2 millimeters. Thats not much. Hoe coudl that make a difference, I thought? Still...the Honda owners raved about the Honda cr's when this changed. OK, here goes. DAMN!!!!


The feel in low speed steering is like this. Remember when old cars did not have power steering? Sure, you could steer the car, but it took a lot of effort. Powersteering made it so a thought woudl tur the car.

Its that big of a difference.

Stability had to suffer, right???

Not exactly. I took my bike up to a gps indicated (speed deleted to protect the innocent)* and it was rock solid. The 99WR 400 went up to a gps indicated (speed limit plus 40 mph) without any funny stuff happening. My step son offered me 500.00 for the set. I declined, but ordered a set for his birthday.

Mach 1 used these for supercross, or tested then for supercross.

I love them for neighborhood cross!
 

gonzo843

Member
May 24, 2004
199
0
NO HAND said:
You need both clamp to change the offset in relationship to the stem. If you only have only the top clamp with adjustable bar mounts, the change you can feel is in weight transfer when you adjust the bars fore and aft.

Correct but the added advantage is you dont change the sweep of the bars. So you get more weight over the bars but the feeling of them doesnt change like it does when you just rotate them.
 
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