I'm always looking for oddball cars and motorcycles. Love to find stuff you normally don't see. One of those is the 92-93 Yamaha TDM850. Not a sportbike, not a standard, not a touring bike, not a dualsport. Sort of in a category all it's own (at least in my mind). They've gotten pretty hard to find but found this one only about 35 miles from me. It's been sitting outside for a while (maybe a year). Previous owner had rejetted it and fit new emulsion tubes (common problem) in the carbs. Ran pretty bad though and actually quit on me twice on a test ride. Other than the running problems, the plastic has faded to a nice shade of dark pink (supposed to be red) and the tires are dual sport tires. Seemed to be pretty much original. Waited a few days and made him a lower offer. After a bit of delay he decided to sell it to me.
Brought it home last week and I've been digging into it ever since.
I'll be adding pics and descriptions of what I find trying to make it road worthy again.
What is that! I pride myself on obscure models and I have never heard of such a beast. Time to research.
Also, what tires are those? They look like shinko 705s. I had a set and hated every minute. Just my 2 cents.
Fantastic bikes. My brother (GRM screen name Tedium850) put a ton of miles on his, and it has been a jewel.
Wiki link
First surprise was that is a twin. I was guessing a 4 banger.
Also expected more power (77 hp) but the expect the torque (59) comes on pretty low. I hope it weighs less than my Tiger...
They always seemed like a neat bike, but I've only actually seen a few of them in person - they were pretty uncommon.
I was big into the British motorcycle magazine back around that time frame and remember they loved that bike. Don't know that I have actually ever seen one in person.
What are the plans? Get to running and keep your t stock, or modify it?
We called those Yamaha Tedium back in the day.
yeah, the tires on there are indeed Shinko 705's.
The plan for the bike is to get it back into decent running condition. There's not much available for it in terms of mods. So, stock it is.
The carbs need help. I've already rebuilt them but am waiting on o-rings for the main jets. I also discovered that the troublesome vacuum fuel pump has been replaced with an electric fuel pump already.
There's also some light surface rust in the tank. I'm trying to decide if I should leave it or try some of the new rust dissolving liquids.
The front brakes also need help. Took the front calipers apart. Way too much grunge built up on the caliper pistons. Took me forever to pop all the pistons out. Now that I've cleaned the calipers out, the master cylinder needs rebuilding. Waiting on that kit too.
52381935152__18187DB9-FF1A-45CC-9674-A020E31CE69B by Don Grubbs, on Flickr
I've looked for these bikes for years. Most were across the country from me. When this one popped up I did a large search to see what the going prices were. I only found 2 others listed on ebay, CL and cycletrader.
Yeees! Cool obscure bike! Parallel twin 270-degree-crank long before it was cool! I also like the dual-sport sport-touring midweight streetbike category buster!
Since this is a bike I've fantasized about, curious to see where this goes.
As for the tank rust, my bike had been sitting 1/4 full for over 10 years and the inside of the tank looked worse than it smelled. I mean scaled rust and a 1/2" of sediment.
Dumped it out, flushed with hose water, then the magic: filled to the brim with white vinegar for a few days and walked out and gave it a shake each afternoon.
I figured it'd be ok-looking. Well when I saw it looked brand new, I mean every word.
$3.00 for a miracle is damned good R.O.I.!
I had a thread here with pictures but Photobucket blows worse than Hennessy Honda 
I had a couple of TDMs. Great allarounders, Both of mine started smoking at 130K miles. I liked them a lot.
Great. You MADE me go look on CL for a TDM850 and I found one for $1700.
I want an adventure bike, but don't have the budget for a Beemer right now. I don't expect any real off-road capability, I just want the upright stance. How comfortable is that thing to ride?
...and it supposedly only has 29K on it!
In reply to NEALSMO:
They are like riding an easy chair. I always had street tires on mine since it was a messenger bike to me. Some progressive springs and heavier oil in the forks made it better for aggressive street riding. The brakes were adequate once you changed the Master to a sportbike style. For a long time the stock brembo from an R1 was super cheap from the dealer. One from a B-King keeps the look of a stock one.
NEALSMO wrote:
Great. You MADE me go look on CL for a TDM850 and I found one for $1700.
I want an adventure bike, but don't have the budget for a Beemer right now. I don't expect any real off-road capability, I just want the upright stance. How comfortable is that thing to ride?
...and it supposedly only has 29K on it!
I have to admit, these bikes were a mystery to me--- they seem pretty cool.
If you are looking for an inexpensive / versatile bike----but don't have the BMW funds--- check out the Suzuki V-Strom and Kawasaki Versys. I've been very happy with my Versys 650 as a do-it-all bike. They are cheap on the used market too.
I've been slowly collecting parts to start working on it. $160 worth of carb parts. Lots of nasty deposits in the carbs. Took my time and replaced every single part that was available. Put it back together and it runs great!!! Also picked up wheelsmithy's brothers bike to use for parts. Included was a pretty decent Corbin seat as well as some R1 front calipers. Forget rebuilding the stockers. Just bolted the R1 calipers on and they're good to go. Also took care of the instrument cluster lights, faulty speedometer as well as some incorrect front turn signals. I guess next on the list is insurance and a tag!! Still have a bunch of little things to do but nothing major.
44Dwarf
UltraDork
9/17/17 8:08 p.m.
Great bike once sorted. use startron in every tankfull and be happy if you never have to mess with the carbs again. A freind had one I got to ride it one weekend and loved it
I've never heard of it, but it looks AWESOME! Is it like a first incarnation of a Super Tenere?
I can sure see the family resemblance between that and the FJ_09.
Well, I've ridden it for about 100 miles and love this thing. A little buzzy between 4000 and 5000 rpms but it's tolerable. After riding for a while I realized that the R1 calipers are dragging a bit so those are getting rebuilt . Put the forks from the parts bike on. They have gold valve emulators already. Also sent the spare bikes Penske shock back to Penske to be rebuilt. Coming along nicely.
Hi guys. I found a 93 Tdm-850 on consignment in Lake Havasu City, Az. around 99. I used to sell bikes in Atlanta around 95 but had never laid eyes on one of these till I fell in love test riding it and bought it for 2800$ with only 9k original miles, had twin aftermarket Supertrapp pipes, gave it a nasty growl like a Ducati, one up each side. I took it back to the mountains of Wyoming and tore those roads up on this beast! Easily this was a 90+hp bike that pulled low 11's in the quarter mile. Torquey as hell but would do 150+mph!. Throttle on demand power wheelies in first! I loved this bike! I had a 95 Klr 650 already so this bike was just a pavement sport bike for me not a dual sport/fire road which the Klr was better suited for anyway. But this engine rocked. It was barely purring at 100mph in fifth at maybe 5000rpm's and redlined all the way up at 8500 and 150mph! Great bike for us tall guys(I'm 6'2") and you can stand straight up on the pegs and stretch your back totally straight like on my KLR-650. I bought a 2001 Fz-1 Yamaha in my lust for speed, great bike and blindingly fast. But when my brother came out riding with me from Atlanta, I road the Tdm 850 and let him ride my new Fz-1 with a Yoshimura pipe , 125h.p. 10 sec. quarters and I kicked his ass on my 90h.p. Tdm!
