New to me Steamer and some general questions

[Me_Rock]

Howdy all!

After a long search and nearly a decade since my last Steamer, I found another one! It's in great shape and is reasonably farkled, but there's a few things I had questions about.

Pod filters - This bike has K&N pod filters installed on it. The previous owner said it had been rejetted for them. It sure seems to run well. Are these a good idea to leave alone, or is it worthwhile to replace them with a stock airbox again? What are the drawbacks of pod filters? I live in a dusty place.

Fork gaiters - Anyone have a source for replacements, OEM or aftermarket? It doesn't look quite right without them.

Shifter slop - The shifter is loose, but the linkage is adjusted with an acceptable amount of play. Is it advisable to put some sort of nylon washer on the shifter bolt to remove some of the sidewards play?

Thank you for the help, I'm glad to be rejoining this forum!

[Nick Calne]

Looks like you found a good one. Well done.

The rule of thumb on steamers air intake is don't mess with it if it is working.  If it isn't, make sure everything is stock otherwise you can be into a lot of fiddling around.

Fork gaiters... that's a hard one. You are going to struggle getting original items. I wonder if you could use some from a different bike.  I know they are generically sold on ebay and amazon etc. Should be easy enough to measure the length / diameter you require.

Enjoy the bike!

[ghulst]

If it runs well on the pod filters, keep them on as the original airbox is a terrible thing to change a filter on. Ask any steamer owner why. ;-)
As Nick says, you ought to be able to get a set of universal fork gaiters to fit the steamer. I personally have no clue on the shifter slop, but someone will be along shortly to tell you all about it.

It looks nice!

[ssevy]

Congratulations!

I always liked that green, and the Imperial green on the Legend. Very unique colors! You've already gotten great advice from ghulst and Nick, but I'll add my two cents as well.

The only negatives I have heard about pods is that strong side winds can affect the mixture and cause rough running, as can hard rain (which may be an issue in your neck of the woods?)
Unless/until this happens to you, however, I would also leave it as is. If you do have to mess with it in the future, there are several threads here to help. The Mikuni carbs have about a zillion different sized o rings inside, and if you do have to rebuild, I bought mine in bulk, so I can send you some.

My fork gaiters look like shit, and this was probably the reason the PO discarded them? If you find a solution, please let the rest of us know, and you will instantly be a hero on the forum!

Can you send a photo of your shifter? I'm not sure I understand the issue?

Again, welcome (back) to the Tiger world!

[Sin_Tiger]

First, welcome back, that certainly looks like a cracker 

In reverse order:-

Shifter Slop - There is a bronze / white metal bush in the lever itself, it could well be worn given the amount of dry dust in your area. Easy and reasonably cheap change, just a push fit, drift it out and push the new one in, less than 15 AUD I'd guess T3750020. There might be some wear on the lever pin but less likely as they're pretty hard steel. The bearing on the selector shaft can wear but again less likely as you'd notice a bit of oil leak there before it gets that bad. The ball joints can wear if the rubber boots have gone and allowed a lot of crap to get in and rust, so check the boots and pack them with fresh grease from time to time. If the ball joints are past it, replacement of the foot and shaft levers is necessary as the balls are riveted in place. A decent engineering shop could drill them out and fit generic threaded ball joints (LH & RH) and might save a few $.

Fork Gaiters - I agree, looks odd without them and in WA, you're going to need the extra protection. After market versions are often not very good quality and more plastic than rubber. The genuine ones are usually better but the last Triumph set I had were not as good as previous. I'd suggest finding your best dirt bike supplier in the area, there should be plenty in WA, and ask them what after market brand they'd recommend for 43mm forks, a bit limited choice as dirt bikes are often less than 30mm. As a last resort you could fit Neoprene sleeves, avoid the velcro jointed versions, they don't work as well, use a tube type, slide the fork legs out of the yokes and slide them down. They should last 20k kms in road use.

Carb Air Box - This might be a tricky one for you for two reasons.
1 - Your model should have Keihin's rather than Mikuni's, I know almost zero about them and have read even less about re-jetting them for pods. Most of the information and feedback on here is based on the Mikuni's, opinions vary. Reportedly running pods with a re-jetted Mikuni's can result in a slight loss of mid range grunt and or poorer fuel consumption, some have had better results than others. From my own experience with my first Steamer which had a "Factory" jet kit fitted when I got it, it was like a Massey Ferguson until it got to 2800 or so then someone hit me in the back with a cricket bat and it took off sounding more like a Boeing as it emptied the fuel tank in a hurry. Back in stock trim it just pulled from 2000 all the way and returned 45-50 UK MPG.
2 - Where you are in WA, you're going to have to clean the filters a lot more frequently than most of us, just a fact of life I'm sure you've had to deal with on all your bikes but it's a real drag having to do it on the Steamer with the stock airbox. My suggestion would be to consider putting it back to stock with a modified airbox split at the cover to make life a bit easier. Used stock airboxes are plentiful and not expensive as they are the same on all 885 triple T300's (Daytona, Speedy, Sprint, Trophy, Trident) so even if you wanted to experiment or messed one up, it's not the end of the world. Before you jump, ride it and see how it performs against your previous Steamer experience of power / torque delivery and fuel consumption, if it works for you, leave it and at most consider a foam pre-filter on the pods. If it's still got the little side panels that attached to the original airbox and don't want them I'd offer you a swap with some very nice rocking horse 

Further searching and reading on here I'd recommend Tripod Tiger (also an Ocker) he just about wrote the book on modified Steamer airboxes 

[Sin_Tiger]

 U-Haul trailer the penny just dropped, I was thinking WA Western Australia rather than Washington State, it's late here, cut me some slack 

[Me_Rock]

U-Haul trailer the penny just dropped, I was thinking WA Western Australia rather than Washington State, it's late here, cut me some slack 

Thanks for the advice!

The mix-up is understandable given the red gravel my driveway is made from! I'll have to add ", USA" to my profile. It's still nearly as dusty here, with only 15" of annual rainfall on this side of the mountains.

I haven't given up on digging deep in to the Chinese offerings for fork gaiters/boots. Somewhere out there, some factory is probably making or has made something that fits. The bushings for the shifter linkage will get looked at as well. I'm still scratching my head over these pod filters. I'm tempted to try designing and 3D printing an airbox out of ABS that would take a common filter size, but I may be getting ahead of myself there. I'd still need an airbox, boots, and also the snorkel boxes for measurements.

[Sin_Tiger]

I'm tempted to try designing and 3D printing an airbox out of ABS that would take a common filter size, but I may be getting ahead of myself there. I'd still need an airbox, boots, and also the snorkel boxes for measurements.

Not such a daft idea. Happy to help if I can, photos, dimensions etc. There's a post I did on my take of splitting the stock airbox cover somewhere in the Steamer section.

[Madruss]

Very nice Tiger, never seen one in that colour scheme in Australia 
I had my local bike shop (75klm up the road) overhaul my forks & he supplied new gaiters. They look OEM

[fishnbiker]

Howdy all!   
......
Pod filters - This bike has K&N pod filters installed on it. The previous owner said it had been rejetted for them. It sure seems to run well. Are these a good idea to leave alone, or is it worthwhile to replace them with a stock airbox again? What are the drawbacks of pod filters? I live in a dusty place.
.....
Thank you for the help, I'm glad to be rejoining this forum!

I have a 95 with the Keihin carbs on it. 122.5 main jets, other parts all  stock. I run a homemade Porche K&N modified  to fit. Over the accordion portion I fabricated a section of 1/8" UNI filter to help screen the dust. You might consider how to build some socks to fit over yours, paper or cloth/mesh. Foam filter oil squeezed over your fabrication inside a Ziploc bag, then a quick pat-down with a paper towel & it's ready to go. No change in jetting needed.Keeps the pleated filter much cleaner & pulls off easily for cleaning.

What are your plans for this bike? I ran mine as a gravel road Dual Sport long distance for 15 years before deciding to restore it to stock (not yet finished; waiting on decals for painting). Did a whole lot of upgrades for riding that I now have to remove to get my"Collector" certification for licensing.

[fishnbiker]

My 95 during stripdown to rebuild.