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Shiny's adventure with dirtbikes

30K views 571 replies 33 participants last post by  shinyribs 
#1 ·
So,I dig the KLR, but it didn't quite fill the bill in the offroad department. Who da thunkit? So I bought this '98 XR400R. Street title, partially installed Baja Designs dual sport kit. The engine was supposedly rebuilt, but who really knows without digging in? Looking the bike over I could easily see fresh gaskets where the cases had been split, and the seller had a clean looking shop...so I took the risk. His claim: new piston/pin, new rod bearings, new cam chain. Fingers crossed.


As I got it. Dingy, but looked solid. Hardware looking healthy, no crushed frame tubes, but a pretty badly bent rear rim. Started easily and felt strong, but I have no experience with these bikes to judge against. Talked him down to $1,200 and loaded her up. Baja Design kits are $500 and the street title has to be worth something. I figure if the engine dies I'm not in it too badly anyway.



As always, my new bike needed fork seals. But at least I finally own a bike that won't be needing a fork swap right off the bat! This is a first for me. Never had a cartridge fork apart before, but it wasn't a bad job. Turned up a fork seal driver and cleaned up a couple dings on the legs. Good to go.



Took her out for a ride and it had a pretty loud valve tick. Checked the lash, it was good. Did some research and found out the auto decompression system is known for going wonky on these bikes. When you press off the auto decomp it leaves oiling passages exposed. Typical approach is to put a sleeve over the passages and call it good, but there were a couple pressed in pins that I didn't like the look of. So I made a sleeve that would capture them as well.

Stock set up.



Exposed passages and pins.



Fixed.



Cam chain was supposed to be new, but it wasn't. Cam chain tensioner was just about at the end of it's travel. Found out that a CRF450 cam chain swaps right on, is a few bucks cheaper and is two plates wider, so stronger. Win-win. :thumbsup: Motor seemed clean inside. Cam lobes and rocker faces look nice.



Took her back out, tick was gone. :) With the auto decomp gone it was easier to start and a low speed stumble I was having was gone. Altogether just ran better. 2nd and 3rd gear power wheelies at will. The auto decomp was intermittently opening an exhaust valve. Motor was nice and quiet now. Went to change the oil and it was filthy. Black and speckly. :doh: Ran a couple gallons of gasoline through the motor, frame, oil lines and cooler. Figured the PO didn't clean things as well as he should've. The lie about the cam chain isn't giving me much hope about the engine in general. Didn't find anything alarming in any of the oil screens, though.

With the engine running strong, the clutch started slipping in higher gears. Pulled her open and found glazed steels. Springs and frictions are well within specs. Scuffed up the steels, back together....4th gear power wheelies if I hit it right, 5th gear clutch wheelies are easy. This thing is a horse. :shocker:

But....clutch started slipping again after a few rides. Tore back in to the clutch. Steels are completely polished smooth already :wtf: Took another look at the frictions plates and they're hard. Almost feel like ceramic. Dropped the oil to have a look....black and speckly....fook. Maybe the frictions have gone hard somehow ( baked? overheated?) and are grinding up the steels to make this dirty oil? Engine runs too strong/quiet to take a chance, so it's time to dig in.
 
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#501 ·
Hey, Cookie! Thanks man, the knees feeling pretty decent. Was gonna upload some bike pics but my internet is in the fritz.

The bike is generally ok and ready to ride now. Headlight bucket got busted and the mounting ear twisted around. Soldering iron glued the bucket back together, though.

The way the headlight ear was bent, and the direction the bars are bent, don't match which way the forks for twisted. Judging by wounds, bruises, bike damage and the hair I find in my jacket pocket suggests I caught the deer in the right hand side of the bars and chest. I think the initial slung me off over over dear, then the bike folded and slid with the deer.

Steering stop failed and let the fork dent the tank some. Gravel rash on the side bags, swingarm, shock, top of the front fender (?), but there frame and engine are untouched. Heavy leather saddlebag saved the seat and side cover.
 
#502 ·




How the bars were twisted on the ride home.




Saddle bag took a whooping, but the straps and buckles are fine. Back together and ready to rock. I think I'll be able to work the kick starter in a couple more days. I'm getting real good at growing new skin :D


Original tag bracket succumbed the thumper vibes. It was a bad design and I shoulda knew better. Redesigned and remade out of Kydex.





Lacing the bags together and making mounts for them. The pocket I added on the bag slips over a little stub and the clip locks them in place. Easy on-off. Not as caveman as it looks. The fasteners are smooth inside the bags.










Man, I loved this helmet. I gotta find another "Surrender to Cycle Pirates" decal, somehow :D Always got a chuckle out of that. Had a bit of rash on my forehead where the helmet slipped and made a raw spot. The EPS in that area is crushed flat. It's toast, but did it's job well.

https://advrider.com/f/attachments/dsc09990-jpg.1710759/

Anyone here make custom decals?
 

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#503 ·
There's probly someone closer but just in case my neighbor has a vinyl cutter just needs a pic to trace

Oh and pics no worky
 
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#505 ·
I think it's because the pic are on adv rider and your login there is allowing you to see them. They don't work for me either, here or following the links in your post.
 
#507 ·
Reposting the pics of some of the crash damage. It wasn't too bad, just annoying. The front end was twisted up pretty bad, but the bike is riding good now.




Aluminum tag mount wouldn't hold up to the thumper vibes, but it's been doing well remade out of Kydex



Today I cut up an old XR250 seat I had to steal some stiff foam. Just enough to try and beef up the main sitting area. We'll go for a spin tomorrow and see how it does. Whittled down and old screwdriver to make a seat staple puller. Amazingly helpful for such a simple thing.



Also put on a new rear rotor. The one I turned down warped quickly. Very quickly! $25 China jobby. Seems well made. We'll see. Will need new pads as the others had contoured to the other rotor. Note the road rash on the shock mount. My weld withheld the crash, so I'm happy with that :D
 
#514 ·
Hopefully done crashing for a while, so I decided to wax my bags last night. They look and feel so much better now.





Decided to stick a biscuit in my bag and go take a ride this morning. Found a nice little pavilion at a church and stopped there to eat breakfast and consult my pitiful map.

A bit later I stumbled on to this. Furnace? What?


Wasn't really dressed to do a 10 mile hike in 90+ temps...

...but I walked out a couple miles to check out a few of the falls and to see what the furnace was all about.


So this thing was built in the 1840's to make iron. Very cool to see. I was imagining what it must have been like showing to to work here when this was cutting edge technology.




There was slag still laying all over the place. I grabbed a couple small pieces and on larger piece to sit on my shelf. The larger piece of glass has a rusty chunk in it, so I've got Roaring Run made iron from the mid 1800's sitting on my shelf now :) I think that's cool.

Shiny like black glass. I reckon it's the limestone/sand content that causes this.




Check out the ingredients list! Whoa! Oh, and now I know why they call it pig iron. I always wondered about that.



Noticed someone had decided to start stacking rocks beside the railroad in Eagle Rock.


Not sure why they started it, but I added my contribution.


Very fun way to spend the morning. Was planning to take a spin for an our or so...ended up leaving a little after 8:00 and getting home around 2:00:D About another 100 miles on the bike today. It doesn't mind the heat at all. I think this is gonna be a good bike. I reckon I'll mow grass tomorrow...
 
#516 ·
Hard not to sound cheesy, but everyday is an adventure. As long as you go outside and just have a look around. Log off and leave the shop. I see so much cool stuff plodding around back roads. Barreling down the highway zips you past things you don't even know are there. Ain't nothing fancy about this 30hp bike, but it easily soaks up the types of roads I find myself on.

I'm not at a place where I can take long trips, and I don't think I'd want to anyway. I'm very happy going out and having a blast every single day, even if I never stay more than several hours from home. Yeah, I'm cool with small adventures. :rock:
 
#519 ·
Tag bracket broke again! I really thought the Kydex would hold up, but it only went about 500 miles. I was going up a hill over some pretty rough washboards one day and suddenly heard this horrible RarRarRarRarRarRar sound...my heart sank. It sounded like something in the transmission was eating itself alive. Imagine my relief when I pulled over and just found the rear tire chewing on the tag/bracket where it was lodged in the swingarm :D Suprised the bolt didn't chew the tire up.



Tag mount v.3. Not exactly what this stuff is. It may be some old conveyor belt material, but I think it's a belt from a bailing machine. Either way, its stiff rubber and I can't see vibration killing it. Doubled it up in the "hinge" area....a real piece of craftsmanship :D



I dunno why, but this bike is just damn fun to ride. The other two bikes have been doing a lot of sitting this summer. I'm even jumping on this thing to ride my trails at home vs taking the actual dirt bike :D Honeymoon phase, I reckon. This thing doesn't have much top end pull. I may look into some cams with slightly longer duration. It's such a fun bike I don't mind needlessly spending a little cash on it. I'm in it cheap anyway.
 
#520 ·
Oh, the RFY shocks. The damping was weak out of the box, but not horrible. Offroad they were pretty cushy, but they would let the rear end get a little too active on open roads that were kinda rough. I've been playing with the nitrogen charge and am surprised how effective such a simple change can be. I'm slowly raising the pressure a bit at a time and it always has positive results. Currently at 150psi and it really firmed up the damping without causing any harshness. The bike will occasionally get a little loose feeling over successive bumps at speed...gonna try another 25psi and see how it feels. I don't think I'll ever have to go inside them. The damping actually feels pretty progressive. They are short travel and I can bottom them offroad without a lot of effort, but I knew that going in and is totally my fault. So yeah, I may open them up at some time to see if I can coax some more travel out of them, but I really don't have any complaints. I'm actually good at tuning suspension and am kinda picky. For a shock, it's a very nice shock....for a $56 pair of shocks, it the fucking deal of the century :fu:

Gotten pretty used to how it handles now. It's a dream on the road. Super smooth and neutral handling. Brakes are good, but rear pedal leverage is bad. I'll redo that if I'm ever willing to park the thing. COG feels surprisingly low considering I'm 6'2" and can't flat foot the thing anymore. On gravel the front end will feel pretty vague if you carry much speed, so you absolutely HAVE to sit forward on the seat. But if you slide all the way up on the tank the front tire will track like it's on rails and the ass end will swing at a flick of the throttle. It's an absolute hoot :lol3
 
#522 ·
second one doesn't work for me
 
#526 ·
second one worked for me once you edited the post
 
#527 ·
Fixed :)



A buddy came over to ride. He ran in to a bit of trouble and gave me a scare, but now we have this cool gif that got made of it.



And hey, now you can be a gif forever. Kinda looks like a horror movie, being dragged off camera by some unseen being
:LolLolLolLol:



Camera doesn't do it justice. He really was less than a foot of going over a 20' straight drop. I ended up face planting in to a log when a piece of old fence wire caught my pegs. Stopped the bike immediately and sent me flying face first in to a log. Got a nice hole in my cheek now. Good times in the wood :thumbsup:
 
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