Motorcycles BS Thread 2.0

ahh makes sense then most hondas ive been told are a pig from the factory

 

You should watch jakethegardensnakes latest video. It talks about where all the $6K he put into his 300 went and why he didn't go for the 450. Sounds like a majority of it was maintenance intervals and how high strung the engine is compared to basically a detuned street engine in the 300. He starts at the 1 minute mark on the comparison.

https://youtu.be/CKL2JK9s4tM

 

Yeah, I don’t think I could throw $6k at a $5k bike. Haven’t figured out what the perfect do it all bike is yet. Formula of N+1(N=number of bikes owned) is still the only real answer at this time. Cant see myself riding a 300 across country, would want a high strung bike as a supermoto and I have the Honda Grom for transcontinental adventures.

 

I meannnnn $2200 of that was the wheels alone haha but youre not wrong, he went overboard in a lot of areas. And yes, N+1 is the answer.

 

The 800 mile oil change interval is horrible

 

800 mile oil change? That's insane.

 

Yup, I thought it was 800

Apparently it's just the MX street legal version.


The maintenance schedule on the 2021 CRF450RL is a bit more daunting than you might expect from a street-legal Honda. The manual calls for an oil change every 600 miles and checking the valve clearance every 1800 miles. The piston, valves, crank, and crank bearing are all due for replacement at 20,000 miles.

2021 Honda CRF450RL Review: Dual-Sport Motorcycle Test (ultimatemotorcycling.com)

 

the short intervals of the excf ktms and the crf450l/rl sound crazy on paper
it freaked me out at first

but for bikes that are typically not run continuously for long stints, its really not that bad, they dont use much oil either so it wont break the bank in that sense

that being said, people have and do travel with these things and there are many reports of people going far being the recommended intervals without any issues

 

I guess this just shows how limited my knowledge of this segment of motorcycling is. 800 mile oil change, heck, I'd need to stop part way through some of my rides to change oil then change it again when I got home. 20k miles and replace the crank, bearings, and piston? I'd be buying parts in case quantities.

 

My little Rally has 8K oil changes with valve checks every 16K. I plan to change the oil every 5K or once a year anyway. I would never run into a problem with the 450L, but in my head ......I'm gonna do the TAT or some other "Itchyboots" travel so I need long intervals

 

lol my ktm owners manual did recommend to rebuild the top end at like 100 hours or something

but again, tons of people with 10x over the recommended scheduling

 

The FJR1300 calls out 4k oil changes and 26k valve checks. Owners forums are full of people that have owned multiple FJRs and have crazy amounts of miles on them so they're a great source of real world info. Running good full synthetic oil and filters 4k change intervals have been shown to be overkill. Some owners report going as high as 10k changes. On my own bike I'm doing 5k intervals and mostly it's a mental block of just not feeling comfortable going too much higher than that. On a trip out west several years ago I went almost 8k and nothing bad happened.

Manual calls out spark plugs at 8k but that's definitely overkill. Most owners change plugs when they do a valve check since you'll be pulling them for that anyway. Very few FJR owners have needed to change any shims at the first check so many owners skip it and do the first check around 50k. I did my first check on my '14 last winter at 30k or so and all valves were within spec. I did the coolant change at the same rime as that must be drained down to pull the cam cover. On my previous FJR no shims were needed until 116k miles when we changed 3 shims.

 

IIRC my 2018 cbr600rr said 8k mile intervals in the owners manual

I thought that was insane, for a bike that needs to be revved to high hell just to get out of its own way

needless to say I was doing one change per year, comfortably

 

I don't blame companies for putting intervals lower than what is a "must". I can see it as helping the "reliability" rep. I was willing to give up the grunt of the 450 so I can have the longer intervals. It's all give and take

 

Me changing the oil and air filter every 15 hours...

 

Just saw the CRF150L and 300LS is being released in the US..............maybe they'll make a Rally version that looks like the CB125X concept Perfect camp trailer bike

American Honda to Introduce XR150L and CRF300LS for 2023 - Motorcycle.com

 

Call me crazy, but that navi looks bigger than the grom, seeing them both in person. Am I wrong in my assumption?.

update… the yellow 23 DRZ sold 2 hrs later after I looked at it last weekend. Then Had snow flurries falling Saturday morning and said hell no on buying a bike in that mess. I see it as bad juju on me. Soooo, no two wheeler yet.

Side bar: there seems to be a lot of plastic on the new trail 125’s.

 

Not wrong! Navi was probably on it's center stand, so the rear was propped up a couple inches compared to the grom on it's side stand. Then when you factor in the swingarm-mounted engine, it has a wider rear-end than the Grom. Then going up front, the storage tank underneath is really wide as well. Width wise and seat height-wise, they're about the same, the Navi might have have a half inch or so taller seat, but it is just so much fuller down below it feels bigger. That was my feeling when I saw them next to each other at least.

 

My wife is awesome, surprised me with these shirts today...

 

I dig those