Orangeville and Africa

Mad Mike said:
Would you jump on it tomorrow, ride 10,000km to California and back with the expectation of zero repairs?
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To answer your original question, if I had one with 50,000 kms and full/proper service history, yes. As for mine, not tomorrow, but next year I am waiting to hear about a West Coast Rally, and may take mine after correcting a number of things "wrong" that appear to be from either lack of (correct) regular maintenance. For example, the sprocket carrier bearings are so bad and loose that the sprocket has enough wiggle that the chain is eating the tire edge. Not surprising considering the missing stator gasket I mentioned in another thread and a missing engine mounting bolt I haven't mentioned yet, amongst others. I got it as a cheap project, so I'm still happy so far. Engine is in great shape.

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Good ol gtam, forget dead horses, they're beating dinosaurs.
 
bigpoppa said:
How accurate are random forums again? If I lived by wives tales, Id get a vstrom/klr

Because...you know...just in case...I might be in Timbuctoo and a thing-a-mabob might fail after 50000 kms while I get attacked by a coyote whilst getting hit by lightning while *insert another statistically improbably event occurs*

🤷‍♂️
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I'm mostly on BP's side regarding the "wisdom" of the forums.

I have found plenty of useful and practical information on bike specific forums and threads on ADV Rider etc.

However to find the useful stuff I have to shovel through a ton of BS to find it.

When I had my 950ADV I followed the advice to block off the emissions stuff and re-jet the carb. While I had a very enjoyable day in the garage working on my bike, I don't think the end result was any better response or power-wise, but it now popped a little on deceleration.

Where the forums had page after page about fuel maps, exhaust/ air cleaner swap to address slow end throttle response on my 990SMT I found a guy who said to file a little groove in the throttle tube to create a bit of slack in the cable at the bar, which worked perfectly and cost nothing.

I continue to read the forums religiously because there's no more bike magazines I'm willing to pay for.

I think there's 4 groups who post the most to bike specific threads and one group that posts the least:

  1. Those who don't own one but hate them and will contribute 3rd hand accounts of failures/issues/perceived flaws.
  2. Those who bought one and believe ALL the press stuff (such as "Ready to Race") and expect the bike to perform like a road racer one moment and a trials bike the next (on the same set of tires).
  3. The farking farklers who buy every single accessory made and who firmly and LOUDLY believe that their mechanical genius FAR exceeds that of the team of engineers who designed the bike.
  4. The ones who bought one, have had an issue and are determined to post enough complaints to get some compensation/satisfaction from a dealer or manufacturer one way or another.
  5. Finally there's the guy's who bought one, have had no serious issues, maybe have a couple mods or accessories that work pretty well and just ride it with their expectations and needs met. They/we are under no illusions that this is the best machine ever made but it works for us and if that changes in the future we'll move on to another machine/forum.
 
xrljoel said:
Where the forums had page after page about fuel maps, exhaust/ air cleaner swap to address slow end throttle response on my 990SMT I found a guy who said to file a little groove in the throttle tube to create a bit of slack in the cable at the bar, which worked perfectly and cost nothing.
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Woah, you've got a 990 SMT? We need to talk...
 
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