Turbo Blastin last night!

After my issues last week with my vstrom were finally resolved over the weekend so I can ride out to Ohio in a couple weeks for the Vintage days meet, I finally got a chance to take my turbo out for a back to back ride with my Vstrom 1000. Riding them back to back, it really is pretty amazing how much power that little 653cc engine has compared to the DL's 999cc's.

Unfortunately, it's been a couple weeks since I've ridden the turbo and it passes a little oil past the bearings and into the turbine area so for the first 5 minutes or so, it burns this extra oil up....then it's smooth sailing. I found that riding it everyday, this doesn't happen but I've got too many other things and don't get a chance to ride it every day. I have another set of bearings for it and should probably get around to pulling it and switching them out to see if that makes a difference but it's running great so it's awful hard for me to disassemble a great-running bike!

I completed my turbo about a year and a half ago and it still has no problem producing upwards of 20 pounds of boost. I honestly don't remember what the total mileage on the engine is but it's held up very well. My only complaint is that at 6 foot even, it is a very small bike and I get cramped very quickly but one twist of the right wrist and all that is quickly forgotten as it lunges ahead, increasing its rate of acceleration as it builds more and more boost.....that's what I call turbo-blastin!!

jeff

 

Jeff I have always been curios just how fast are the turbo bikes? Yours is running a good deal more boost than stock correct?

 

Yes, stock was 12 pounds, I believe Jeff is running around 18 pounds.

As for performance, the original 12 pounds of boost wasn't much faster than a normally aspirated 650 Seca, but I'm sure Jeff's makes the NA 650 Seca look like it needs a carb sync :lol:

 

Supposedly, and I say supposedly because the factories lied back in the 70's and 80's, the 12 psi version made 90HP. Where that was measured has always been a question though. As Tskaz correctly pointed out, the 83's came with 12psi and I am running 18 and have ocassionally let it spool up to 20. Yamaha provided a "powerup kit" to retrofit the 8psi '82s as they had originally been delivered with only 8psi. They up'ed it to 12 when Honda increased the CX turbo from a 500cc to the 650 cc and the Yamaha couldn't keep up. The method they employed to accomplish this wasn't very good for the turbo though so I do not use that method of control now.

I have built 90hp H1 kaw triples that "felt" faster then mine at 12psi but at 18psi, my turbo would have stomped them but it's all subjective without hard numbers to back it up.

I have three fairly fast bikes, my turbo, a 1000cc Vstrom(which supposedly does 11.9's in the 1/4) and a ported and chamber matched Kaw H2 750 two stroke triple.I did all the port work myself and had the chambers built to match the porting, a very very rare combination to have. Most guys buy chambers and if they had port work, it only really matches at one rpm area. My H2 is a pure animal and I rarely really let 'er rip and only if I'm pointed straight with lots of room ahead of me! Opening it up is like riding with Satan himself!

The stock Seca 650 did 12.87 (Cycle '82)& 12.78 (Cycle World '81), the 12psi Turbo did 12.06(Cycle'82) for comparison. What mine would do with 18psi, I don't know. I did meet up with a guy one one of my fav roads with a custom built big Zuk and he guessed I would do mid to high 10's but I honestly don't know, that sounded a little fast to me. Mid 10's from a 650 anything? I don't know about that<lol>. I do know that it is as heavy as my V at 550 lbs and it takes a lot of power to get that much weight moving off the line....after that it's like being shot out of a cannon though. I can tell you that the fun really begins at 14 psi....and once you use that much boost, you'll never go back to 10 or 12!

jeff

 

Dang that sounds like a blast. From the pictures you have put up it looks like a beautiful bike!

 

Well thank you but from the reactions I get from my friends and coworkers...it's definitely a love it or hate it styling<LOL>

My Vstrom is much easier....it's the ugliest bike I've ever seen and everyone agrees but it grows on you with it's huge torque and solid riding, kind of like a wart.....it's ugly if you pay attention to it but otherwise, you really don't notice how ugly it is......

jeff

 

577 pounds, according to "BIKEZ.COM" - however their stats are often wrong. They don't list a difference of HP between '82 and '83 or the extra gallon of gas.

http://www.bikez.com/motorcycles/yamaha ... o_1982.php

You can shave 35 pounds by replacing your right "muffler" with a small silencer, leave the mainstand at home, and only put 2 gallons of gas in.