It's been a great season, lots of amazing trail riding around BC! But now it's time for some end-of-season mods!
The shovel holding the license plate and the rear turn-signals (original inset) were always in danger of being ripped off when trail-riding. So we replaced them with a smaller and sleeker aftermarket rear fender kit with flush-mount turn-signals. The legality of this is highly suspect, so I decided to venture all the way into TicketTerritory and got smoked turn-signals as well...
We also put these DoubleTake RAM-mounted mirrors on a while ago
They allow us to move the mirrors out of the way when tackling gnarlier stuff. They're great, and don't vibrate any more than the stockers - the design of which look like they haven't changed since the 1980s.
Neda has done a lot more trail riding than I have and her TKC-80s have worn down to a point where they're still ok for street, but losing grip in the dirt. We did some research and she's going to try out the MotoZ Tractionator Enduro I/T tires, which we're going to swap out as an end-of-season exercise.
Also, I get to try out these new spoons and tire-changing tools (Bead Buddy and rim protectors) I got for our travel toolkit:
The tire irons are kinda short (10") but they are super-lightweight, which is the main reason why I got them. I'm going to simulate a trail-side repair, just to see how they work out in the field.
Yes, plastic buckets *are* very common trailside.
One thing I did realize while lubricating the rubber: soapy water in a spray bottle might be hard to carry around. Debating whether to carry some detergent in a small capsule I can mix with our drinking water in a pinch, or carry around a small can of WD-40, which can serve other purposes trail-side. Leaning towards the WD.
The TKCs were easy enough to get off, but the Tractionators had a stiffer carcass and the garage was cold...
Yes, hairdryers *are* very common trailside. Shut up.
Check out the tread on the Tractionators, tho. The centre knobs are all in a line, almost acting like a paddle tire. Should be great for the loose stuff! Also the tread depth is a lot deeper than the TKCs. Should get good life out of them.
LOL. Yes, rimlock...
Without a rimlock, we're only comfortable deflating to about 15psi. The rimlock should allow us to air-down to much lower pressures for better grip.
The tire irons were okay, still required a lot of elbow grease to get the Tractionator on. Trail-side, I'd just be yanking out the old tube and stuffing a new tube in, so I think the short spoons will be good enough. I like the Bead Buddy, it's small and doesn't take up much room. The rim protectors do their job, but they are too large for a riding toolkit, so those will probably just live in the garage.
I don't need all four irons on the trail, so I'll just bring the two Bead Pros and the aluminum iron with the box wrench for the rear axle nut.
Never used to worry about space and weight so much till now...
Even though I bought the lightest rim-lock, it still throws the balance of the tire off by ~ 75g, including the valve stem, which is only 3 spokes away from the rim-lock. The wheel is very narrow, which doesn't leave a lot of room for that many stick-on wheel-weights, so I got these bling brass spoke-weights. Instead of crimping on, they tighten to the nipple via a screw. Fancy!!!
They seem to be holding pretty tight, we'll see how well they fare on the trails. They look great and another nice plus is that they're re-usable!
Neda has been doing a lot more single-track than I have and she's complaining that first gear is too twitchy and second is too high. Stock gearing is 15-45, so we're trying out a 14T front sprocket. The chain is still fairly new, so it hasn't stretched and we're able to push the chain adjusters out without running out of room. I took the bike out for a test ride on the street, it seems to pull a little bit harder and at 100 km/h the engine doesn't complain too much. Second gear should be a bit more useable now.
If the change is too subtle, we could go up 3 in the rear. In addition to more pull, a nice side-effect would be that the resulting 14-48 would match the original chain length, preserving the original geometry. The only drawbacks would be $$$ and topping out on the highway.
I still have a lot of life left in my TKCs, but when I switch them out next season, I'll try out the Dunlop D606s. I'll also leave my gearing stock, I don't have as much problem with first-gear control (don't do as much single-track as Neda) and I do worry about gearing for the highway.
These are soft bags we are eying: the Mosko Moto Reckless 40. We've seen them at previous motorcycle shows, and we were waiting for the company to bring stock up from the US in January for the Vancouver Motorcycle Show, but they cancelled that event because of COVID. May have to bite the bullet and order them online and pony up for shipping and duty.
Eagerly awaiting for the borders to open up, so we can take this show on the road.
The shovel holding the license plate and the rear turn-signals (original inset) were always in danger of being ripped off when trail-riding. So we replaced them with a smaller and sleeker aftermarket rear fender kit with flush-mount turn-signals. The legality of this is highly suspect, so I decided to venture all the way into TicketTerritory and got smoked turn-signals as well...
We also put these DoubleTake RAM-mounted mirrors on a while ago
They allow us to move the mirrors out of the way when tackling gnarlier stuff. They're great, and don't vibrate any more than the stockers - the design of which look like they haven't changed since the 1980s.
Neda has done a lot more trail riding than I have and her TKC-80s have worn down to a point where they're still ok for street, but losing grip in the dirt. We did some research and she's going to try out the MotoZ Tractionator Enduro I/T tires, which we're going to swap out as an end-of-season exercise.
Also, I get to try out these new spoons and tire-changing tools (Bead Buddy and rim protectors) I got for our travel toolkit:
The tire irons are kinda short (10") but they are super-lightweight, which is the main reason why I got them. I'm going to simulate a trail-side repair, just to see how they work out in the field.
Yes, plastic buckets *are* very common trailside.
One thing I did realize while lubricating the rubber: soapy water in a spray bottle might be hard to carry around. Debating whether to carry some detergent in a small capsule I can mix with our drinking water in a pinch, or carry around a small can of WD-40, which can serve other purposes trail-side. Leaning towards the WD.
The TKCs were easy enough to get off, but the Tractionators had a stiffer carcass and the garage was cold...
Yes, hairdryers *are* very common trailside. Shut up.
Check out the tread on the Tractionators, tho. The centre knobs are all in a line, almost acting like a paddle tire. Should be great for the loose stuff! Also the tread depth is a lot deeper than the TKCs. Should get good life out of them.
LOL. Yes, rimlock...
Without a rimlock, we're only comfortable deflating to about 15psi. The rimlock should allow us to air-down to much lower pressures for better grip.
The tire irons were okay, still required a lot of elbow grease to get the Tractionator on. Trail-side, I'd just be yanking out the old tube and stuffing a new tube in, so I think the short spoons will be good enough. I like the Bead Buddy, it's small and doesn't take up much room. The rim protectors do their job, but they are too large for a riding toolkit, so those will probably just live in the garage.
I don't need all four irons on the trail, so I'll just bring the two Bead Pros and the aluminum iron with the box wrench for the rear axle nut.
Never used to worry about space and weight so much till now...
Even though I bought the lightest rim-lock, it still throws the balance of the tire off by ~ 75g, including the valve stem, which is only 3 spokes away from the rim-lock. The wheel is very narrow, which doesn't leave a lot of room for that many stick-on wheel-weights, so I got these bling brass spoke-weights. Instead of crimping on, they tighten to the nipple via a screw. Fancy!!!
They seem to be holding pretty tight, we'll see how well they fare on the trails. They look great and another nice plus is that they're re-usable!
Neda has been doing a lot more single-track than I have and she's complaining that first gear is too twitchy and second is too high. Stock gearing is 15-45, so we're trying out a 14T front sprocket. The chain is still fairly new, so it hasn't stretched and we're able to push the chain adjusters out without running out of room. I took the bike out for a test ride on the street, it seems to pull a little bit harder and at 100 km/h the engine doesn't complain too much. Second gear should be a bit more useable now.
If the change is too subtle, we could go up 3 in the rear. In addition to more pull, a nice side-effect would be that the resulting 14-48 would match the original chain length, preserving the original geometry. The only drawbacks would be $$$ and topping out on the highway.
I still have a lot of life left in my TKCs, but when I switch them out next season, I'll try out the Dunlop D606s. I'll also leave my gearing stock, I don't have as much problem with first-gear control (don't do as much single-track as Neda) and I do worry about gearing for the highway.
These are soft bags we are eying: the Mosko Moto Reckless 40. We've seen them at previous motorcycle shows, and we were waiting for the company to bring stock up from the US in January for the Vancouver Motorcycle Show, but they cancelled that event because of COVID. May have to bite the bullet and order them online and pony up for shipping and duty.
Eagerly awaiting for the borders to open up, so we can take this show on the road.
