Hey chaps, nice to meet you all and hope you are ready for Christmas! Im interested in buying a tdm900 and wondered if there are any major differences over the years apart from colours? The later models with the black frame are better looking in my opinion. Thanks.
At the risk of getting flamed. The 900 is the best for modern fuels, EFI no carbs, do not burn oil. Blue Spot brakes.
The 850 Mk 1 have lots of character as do the 270° crank MK2a.
On the 900 always check the lower frame bush is free as soon as you get it. After 2004 they had a more secure rfid ecu so having the red key with the bike is essential.
There was a change at some point in the lower fork clamp design, which was flat in the early models and then became cranked in order to hold the forks lower down the stanchions, which gives a bit better control at the front. And it is only a little bit of improvement. I changed mine from flat to cranked and only noticed a small difference, it probably wouldn't make a difference to me when buying one, which type it had.
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The fact that there are few differences over the whole production run probably speaks a lot about how well it was made in the first place.
A well sorted 900 will see you ok for years, its strange lots of others are now making parallel twins now, the TDM was years ahead of its time and is known to be reliable.
Can't help ya with 9er differences... whatever the differences they ain't not a patch on da mk1. It takes peeps a long time to learn this...but the 9er is a good enough place to start the learnin. (â â â¿â â )
Doin valve clearances? Use dappers valve shim exchange program and the job will be carroty - Free (other than you postin me yer shims) for sporting members.
There have been many changes over the years, on the various models, but being a biased person, I'd nominate the TDM 900A for safety, availability of bits (not that you'll need them very often if you buy wisely), for looks (personal preference), comfort, easy to maintain and relatively cheap to insure. On a 900 you can easily do 250 miles a day, with reasonable consumption as they are supreme "mini" tourers. I bought mine 3rd-hand in 2016 and have enjoyed faultless motoring across the UK and Europe since. Good luck with your new choice.
Thanks for all of the replies. I think a post 2004 bike might be the way to go, need to offload a Triumph first then Ill start looking seriously. Cheers!
my 2002 model doesn't have the red key for the ignition, just 2 black keys nice and simple, I had an MT03 that had a red key ignition and the ignition barrel was faulty,
to replace a 'red key' ignition barrel costs hundreds of pounds because of the computings or whatever is built into it, the older 2 black key ignition barrel can be replaced for about fifteen quid,
luckily with perseverance and singing some soft songs to my not so good MT03 ignition barrel it eventually surrendered and I was able put the sword away again
it's not my time to go, it's not my time to die
the last thing I want is for my family to cry
Lee, you do know the red key secretly unlocks another 50bhp if you with the ign on and off in the right sequence. That's why the blue ones are faster :rotflmmfao:
