TE/TC 17 TE 150

In my bosses infinite wisdom and adherence to the Peter Principle, I have been promoted to my position of incompetence. The past month+ has sucked and it doesn't look like it is going to get much better with time. I didn't sign up to be a GM but that seems to be my function now and going forward. What is the upshot...I have had this very cool RK Tek head to test out for a month now and I will finally get to ride it Thursday if we survive the 1100 mile trip south. I hope to actually ride and report on any number of cool TE150 things I have to try. From the awesome head to a very trick new one off experimental rod from Lectron. Hopefully I will finally have something to add to the discussion other than likes and wishes.

Walt,

Make sure you have an I Phone that is on 24/7.

Congrats!

Yeah, report back some good stuff.

Been helping son some on his bike.

Made it back to the shop last night. At first I was worried the solid plastic carb boots would make it hard to deal with the carb. Nope, loosen the clamps and rotate. Changed the PJ to 37.5 and pulled the float needle to clean the fuel inlet looking for the source of fuel running out the drain. Nothing obvious. I told myself to be careful with the float shaft so of course I dropped it on the floor and played hide and seek for a couple minutes, LOL. So easy to work on this bike.

I tried to check float height but need to get a better way to measure. I'm guessing at the moment its about 6mm or just a bit under. I also see what is being talked about to drill the float bowl. The float bowl itself has holes in it to allow fuel into the well around the MJ but the float drain bolt does not and the treads are long enough to block the holes in the bowl.

For now, I can only enjoy "my" TE150 by reading about "all y'alls." I'd like to thank everybody for working out all the bugs for me! Should be easy once I get mine. That fuel bowl nut is an odd one. As many of us have noted, when the Mikuni came on the Italian 125/144 (mine was 2012) it was already drilled. At least mine was.

Darin once again you're a nut case! That bike is comin out over the top! Im slightly jealous (ok VERY jealous)...

You can drill some holes in the drain plug bolt and it will allow fuel to fill the well without having to spill over the rim of the bolt/plug. I drilled 4 in my Mikuni on my 09 WR250, the down side is debris can go into the well that might have stopped at the ridge like sediment. I didn't worry about that and never had a problem.

Drilling it is the plan. I think if I put a drill bit in my Dremel I can reach in and drill it in place. If not I'll have to mark it and take it out to do it.

Yeah, no doubt about that!

Thanx guys!

Stay tuned it is coming out awesome!

Just not ready to reveal quite yet.

My bowl had holes but the drain plug didn't.

Ok, got the drain plug drilled. I wouldn't advise trying to drill it in place as it is quite close to where the oring seal is. I used a small drill to spot the positions on the drain plug then pulled it out and drilled the holes. I always try and measure oring sizes when I can so I don't have to pay exorbitant prices for orings with the manufacturers part number on it. The oring size for the float bowl drain plug is 19.8mm ID by 2.4mm thick. That info might be in the manual but mine is on back order along with the skid plate for some reason.

Should see your carb today or tomorrow Darin

Yeah, like the frame decals and FC 250 frame guards. The Acerbis, full length ones have to be modified on the bottom of the grip stuff. I kept getting my boot stuck between the foot peg and grip ridges. You have to use an exacto knife and taper them. I thought it was my boot sole stuck to foot pegs. But was the acerbis guards.

Also, here are my new handguards.

I went with Brighter blue instead of the darker Husky color.

Seat done.

Made sure staples were extra long for more grip!

Looks great, the stock seat is incredibly grippy, how does this compare?

Yes, nothing wrong with stock cover. Grips really good.

This is third Guts cover I've had. They grip even better and quality is A+.

Just make sure your riding pants aren't too big. Cause your pants will stick to this seat good.

I am back from a bunch of rides down south. Darin, the use of the 46's in the front and a 44 in the back in combination with a switch to 7.5 wt synthetic fork oil really helped the suspension. I was able to run the forks with no pre-load and the shock back to where it came stock with pre-load and meet the sag numbers that are suggested. I was also able to go back to stock sport settings on the forks and shock. All but eliminated the diving problem when under heavy braking or steep down hill braking. Forks stay nicely in the upper part of the stroke and worked great. No deflections even on wide open up hill climbs over pineapple sized trail trash. Just really good and no bottoming on severe landings or g-outs. I did add rebound into the shock as I went along to get it to balance with the front. Overall I was really happy with the suspension and handling and this is with a riding weight of 240#.

The motor with the RK Tek head was outstanding. Really improved the bottom and mid with no loss of that screaming top end. It was capable of riding up most any hill a gear or so high and just pulled like crazy. It doesn't have the same bottom as my 177 which is expected but it is by far the best running 144cc motor I have ever ridden at all rpms and throttle openings. I didn't spend a lot of time messing with the power valve or springs as the motor just ran so good. I was using the blue spring with it adjusted to 2 turns in from full out. I played with it going from 1 1/2 turns in to 2 1/2 turns in and settled on 1 3/4 to 2 as best for that spring with this head. I will be in touch with RK Tek in the next day or so to give them feedback, but I am really happy with the head as delivered and I am pretty sure it would run just fine on pump premium. I also think in conjunction with the Lectron the new head cleaned up any slight jetting issues.

Kevin from Lectron sent me a new rod to try with my 150. Other than needing to be richened up from initial settings(RK Tek predicted this with their head), it ran flawlessly at all rpms and throttle openings from 1000' to 6000' that I rode on this trip. I think another benefit of the Lectron is that it works seamlessly no matter the power valve adjustments versus a standard carb which will probably need some tweaking as you tweak the valve timing. Not a knock on the standard carb just a benefit for those of us that are not wanting to spend time jetting.

I think I have some videos of riding up some hills that I will post just so you can get a feel for how it pulls on the bottom and mid versus lit up with hair on fire. I just got back to Montana in time for a blizzard so I should have some time to work on getting a vid posted.

Nice write up wally, I need to order me a lectron up, butttt I just found a deal on a YZ250f id like to supermoto out... Anyone Interested in a KFX700?

Lol its too good in the woods for that! The kid bailed on me said 'someone els had dibs on it' after we had set up a time & place today, i was about to leave.. whatever that means. Id like to find a WR450 anyways for the long gears. Looks like that lectron will come sooner than I thought now that thats settled ha.

Here are a few short clips of me lugging around the TE 150. The first cloudy clip was my first ride in 2 months and before I made any adjustments to the Lectron with the new rod and it was fairly lean. A few adjustments and it ran perfectly. I apologize ahead of time for the boring rider. I am old, fat, and slow. Remember my riding weight is 240# and this is a 150 pulling me around. The videos imbedded backwards with the first, lean running vid on the bottom. It was really lean on the bottom/mid.