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dema posted:Yup, road legal. KTM 500 EXC-F. Looking forward to doing some dirt and light ADV poo poo with it. Already have a trip to Moab booked next month. Siiiick mooooiite just need 17" wheels now. builds character posted:Nice! Consider getting a JD tuner (or GET/vortex ecu) and then doing all the air stuff - reeds out, drill out the two little screens in the back of the exhaust. You’ll lose MPG, but it’s well worth it. Reeds? Like a PAIR system or something...?
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Mar 29, 2021 03:15
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Slavvy posted:Siiiick mooooiite just need 17" wheels now. Like in a 2t.
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Mar 29, 2021 03:35
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builds character posted:Like in a 2t. What are they for? Some kind of variable intake/noise reduction thingy?
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Mar 29, 2021 03:57
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Slavvy posted:What are they for? Some kind of variable intake/noise reduction thingy? I’d just be speculating really. My guess is it’s a combination of restricting intake and noise reduction. I do know that these bikes come pretty lean from the factory and it makes a huge difference to add either a tuner or ECU and then take out the intake restriction (the reeds) and cut out the two little baffles at the end of the silencer (also noise reduction, the spark arrestor is deeper in and still there). Folks also often take off some of the emissions stuff but I’m not 100% clear on that making a difference or not to HP. In the end you get way more HP (like 10 or 12 which when we’re talking about 50 —> 60 is a lot), the engine runs a lot cooler and your mpg goes from ~50 to ~30-35 depending on how aggressively you’re riding.
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Mar 29, 2021 13:18
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Interesting, I want to know more about this because it seems at first glance that putting reeds in the intake is just throwing away the benefit of airbox resonance. But then most dirt bikes don't have a real airbox anyway. Just trying to figure out the effect they're trying to take advantage of, possibly it's an effort to smooth out part-throttle response while maintaining super lean running cause I'm guessing they aren't fbw?
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Mar 29, 2021 18:51
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Slavvy posted:Interesting, I want to know more about this because it seems at first glance that putting reeds in the intake is just throwing away the benefit of airbox resonance. But then most dirt bikes don't have a real airbox anyway. Just trying to figure out the effect they're trying to take advantage of, possibly it's an effort to smooth out part-throttle response while maintaining super lean running cause I'm guessing they aren't fbw? Here's the thread from KTMtalk https://ktmtalk.com/showthread.php?535125-12hp-Increase-2017-FE450-450EXC-with-Simple-Mods-Closed-Course-Race-Setup Apparently JD (of JD jetting) doesn't think it's louder without the reeds. So maybe it really is just to restrict the air intake on the street legal version while still using the same air intake on the off-road version. JamesDean at KTMtalk posted:12hp Increase- 2017 FE450/450EXC with Simple Mods, Closed Course Race Setup I'm lazy so I only c/p a couple of pictures and there's more discussion following but you have to join to view. In terms of airbox resonance, the airbox is basically just a giant foam filter where there's space so I'm skeptical anything is going on with resonance at that point. Maybe before (which would be after the reeds)?
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Mar 29, 2021 19:48
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 Another analog selfie with a screw-on self timer (the blurry thing on the bottom right). Taken with a Canon Dial 35 half-frame camera for the camera nerds. LimaBiker fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Mar 29, 2021 |
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Mar 29, 2021 21:16
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builds character posted:Here's the thread from KTMtalk https://ktmtalk.com/showthread.php?535125-12hp-Increase-2017-FE450-450EXC-with-Simple-Mods-Closed-Course-Race-Setup Ok so having read through that, it is very clearly a low-cost, last-minute cludge they did for either noise or marketing reasons. The fact that KTM, kings of bespoke bullshit for every tiny little thing, just bodged a part from a completely different bike on there and shrugged leads me to believe it was a very late, half-assed addition that happened too late in the production process to change by design. Also 39whp on a 450 is loving tragic holy cow.
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Mar 30, 2021 00:14
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Slavvy posted:Ok so having read through that, it is very clearly a low-cost, last-minute cludge they did for either noise or marketing reasons. The fact that KTM, kings of bespoke bullshit for every tiny little thing, just bodged a part from a completely different bike on there and shrugged leads me to believe it was a very late, half-assed addition that happened too late in the production process to change by design. Yeah, the 2017s were quite delayed because of epa issues. I think what actually happened is that KTM had basically been slipping in under the radar and then Harley got in trouble and someone at either KTM compliance or the EPA noticed and was like “no u loving don’t” and then the dealers stopped doing euro/Australian ecu reflashes for $100 and we got a reed in the air box to reduce intake and lower hp without making it too hot. All that said and thinking about it the real way you can tell it’s last minute is that on these bikes they’re absolutely obsessed with weight. Doesn’t explain why they’ve kept it on the new ones though unless it’s “yeah but everyone knows how to fix it now.” Anyway, you think that’s tragic, Honda’s crf450l puts out a massive 25hp in Europe. All the 450s are similarish once you uncork them and get a new tune/ecu.
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Mar 30, 2021 00:29
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I mean, a honda race bike turned into a road bike having a miserable power output is nothing new, because honda work to the spirit of the regulations rather than the letter like everyone else. They may have kept it on the new ones as a CYA thing, or perhaps they had so many reeds kicking around it was cheaper to just keep doing that than design things properly when you know it's just going to get binned anyway.
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Mar 30, 2021 00:33
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After waiting to replace the wheel, finding a helmet that didn't give me a headache, coming back home after several weeks of dealing with a family emergency, and some good weather, I was able to take this lovely piece of machinery out on a splendid day.
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Mar 30, 2021 01:26
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Slavvy posted:I mean, a honda race bike turned into a road bike having a miserable power output is nothing new, because honda work to the spirit of the regulations rather than the letter like everyone else. Presumably it's cheaper than making a new intake that's restricted and makes more sense when they know most/a large % of folks are just tearing them out anyway, but I'm still a little surprised they don't make a smaller intake and then force you to install the sx bike intake just because they really do spend so much time and effort shaving pounds. The current version is 248 (233 lbs + 15 for 2.5 gallons of gas) vs. the wr450f at 271 or the honda at 289 (in fairness, the yamaha isn't street legal in the US but I included it so I wasn't just picking on honda even though they're the only competitor). Yamaha's YZ450 is 247 wet so it's crazy that they've managed to get a street bike down to supercross weight. All numbers from the internet of course. Even the CRF450x is 260 wet.
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Mar 30, 2021 01:45
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T Zero posted:After waiting to replace the wheel, finding a helmet that didn't give me a headache, coming back home after several weeks of dealing with a family emergency, and some good weather, I was able to take this lovely piece of machinery out on a splendid day. Oh goood you need to leave it like that with just the rim tape on the front. Looks really good for some reason. Beautiful bike, enjoy! builds character posted:it's crazy that they've managed to get a street bike down to supercross weight. Yes. It's this. And people whine on and on about last minute reeds or some bullshit but KTM really does know how to hit the numbers and their owners know how to pull the bullshit off and get  power to weight.
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Mar 30, 2021 02:07
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I'd be interested to see the actual weights of these bikes because manufacturers love to bullshit about power and weight and play silly well-actually games when it comes to measurement. My own investigation with a set of bathroom scales have revealed that most bikes are 10-15kg heavier than on paper, while a few have been surprisingly light - my b12 tips the scales at 185kg with about half a tank, but in fairness the half fairing, cluster and headlight are all missing. I'm fairly certain the gixxer forks and TB's are lighter than factory stuff too. But I also suspect that Honda would look a lot less bad after you remove all the needless Honda bs that will be on there. The five kilos of sound deadening, the six inch bar end weight dampers and so on and so forth, all the minor quality of life stuff ktm just completely ignore. Plus Honda build every bike to last twenty years of commuting rain or shine so maybe weight is reliability. Plus all the little things like indicators, switches etc will last much much longer and have much much more r&d behind them than whatever garbage KTM knocked together in CAD with five minutes to go when they remembered it needs turn signals. Slavvy fucked around with this message at 04:16 on Mar 30, 2021 |
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Mar 30, 2021 04:13
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Here’s my Honda with its mirrors removed to save, like, 2lbs. 
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Mar 30, 2021 04:38
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I know it's the angle but the length of that plate holder makes it look like you could save 20 lbs by getting a tail tidy to replace it.
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Mar 30, 2021 06:32
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LimaBiker posted:
I wish I could find some market research or something on gear brands, because it feels like everyone wears rev'it stuff these days and I'd like to know if it's baader-meinhof or the fact that their jackets have extremely prominent branding or if they really are that popular.
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Mar 30, 2021 07:09
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Slavvy posted:I'd be interested to see the actual weights of these bikes because manufacturers love to bullshit about power and weight and play silly well-actually games when it comes to measurement. My own investigation with a set of bathroom scales have revealed that most bikes are 10-15kg heavier than on paper, while a few have been surprisingly light - my b12 tips the scales at 185kg with about half a tank, but in fairness the half fairing, cluster and headlight are all missing. I'm fairly certain the gixxer forks and TB's are lighter than factory stuff too. I appreciate your commitment and yes, you’re right that manufacturers do that. This guy has a 350. They’re supposedly a couple pounds lighter than the 450s according to KTM. His weighs 248lbs so it’s probably fair to say the 450 actually weighs 250 wet. I’m sure there are folks who have weighed them but this is close enough for me to say that the stated weights aren’t off by much on this case.  You can lose 20 lbs on the Honda but it’s still 20 lbs heavier even with that reduction. Maybe you’re right about indicators, maybe not. But those aren’t a thing that matters unless you’re making a dual sport bike. 40 (or 20 to be generous) pounds does. I have some real complaints for ktm on these bikes - you shouldn’t need to tune it to get that hp and stop flameouts. The tires it comes with are bad for off-road. Last but worst of all, the wp forks still aren’t as good as KYB.
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Mar 30, 2021 12:22
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That last comment genuinely surprises me, because all the brain damaged meatheads (mx riders) I know seem to prefer the WP stuff and often cite suspension as the main reason for going orange. What's worse about it? I know there was a phase when everyone was touching themselves to the thought of air forks but that seems to have disappeared back into the 80's again thank gently caress. I also have not taken apart a current kyb so I'm not familiar with the most recent advances there.
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Mar 30, 2021 18:51
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It has just occurred to me that WP forks are black now on these bikes and, if they changed the name accordingly, half of advrider would have a mental breakdown.
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Mar 30, 2021 19:32
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Slavvy posted:That last comment genuinely surprises me, because all the brain damaged meatheads (mx riders) I know seem to prefer the WP stuff and often cite suspension as the main reason for going orange. What's worse about it? I know there was a phase when everyone was touching themselves to the thought of air forks but that seems to have disappeared back into the 80's again thank gently caress. I also have not taken apart a current kyb so I'm not familiar with the most recent advances there. I don't know about MX (although I googled it and dirt rider likes KYB the most there too https://www.dirtrider.com/breaking-down-kit-suspension-from-kyb-showa-and-wp/) - may well be different there, but the KYB forks are super plush out of the box compared to the WPs. Just much better for woods riding. Seemed like they did a better job soaking up bumps and had less deflection to me. They've also been around a lot longer so I think there's a lot more tuning knowledge generally out there. I had someone revalve my forks and shock and now they're great but I would rather have had them be great out of the box. Air forks, fwiw, I think were also about weight. Anyway, there are a ton of WP to KYB SSS conversion kits out there but approximately zero KYB to WP conversion kits. I think the WP 4CS that came on the KTMs from like 12-16 were pretty universally reviled too. Pre-revalve, my suspension was fine. But not as good as the out of the box KYB SSS I'd ridden on a yz450.
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Mar 30, 2021 21:09
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See this is really interesting because the prevailing opinion around these parts is that most Japanese bikes are all set up for MX and are therefore too harsh and stiff for trails, ktm/husky are more enduro oriented and a bit better, and then things like the yz250fx are the last word and the plushest and easiest to use. But KTM's are also to some extent an ongoing fad here - all the cool middle aged dirtmen have them so I must have one too etc and that might be distorting things.
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Mar 30, 2021 21:28
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Slavvy posted:See this is really interesting because the prevailing opinion around these parts is that most Japanese bikes are all set up for MX and are therefore too harsh and stiff for trails, ktm/husky are more enduro oriented and a bit better, and then things like the yz250fx are the last word and the plushest and easiest to use. Yeah, that's just a bad opinion I think. Maybe they're getting the YZ450 which is an MX bike and comparing it to KTM's XC-F which is a trails bike and not playing with the clickers on the forks at all? YZ250FX is a very good woods bike though and it comes with the KYB SSS forks. Which are what the YZ450 comes with so I really do have nothing. KTM is definitely shiniest and here at least there's no real competition if you want a bike that is street legal out of the box/with no problems and can ride trails and race. I really can't overstate how important that weight difference is (if you're not very good) when you're talking about a big 4t in the woods. They also keep working on the 2t bikes which for some reason all the japanese manufacturers have just stopped doing at all. I'm actually thinking about selling my 450 bike to get a 2t because I do mostly just singletrack riding now and it's basically KTM, Husqvarna or beta as the choices. There's a YZ250X but Yamaha is just sitting on it in terms of R&D for like the past 15 years. At least it means in five years you can get a super cheap 500 and put sumo wheels on it.
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Mar 30, 2021 22:54
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Renaissance Robot posted:I wish I could find some market research or something on gear brands, because it feels like everyone wears rev'it stuff these days and I'd like to know if it's baader-meinhof or the fact that their jackets have extremely prominent branding or if they really are that popular. The only market research i can find, is paid-for stuff. In my area they're popular because i live within 15 minutes of the outlet store that offers 50% off on almost everything that was only used for product pictures, or as demo models on brand/motorcycle events. So i got my suit essentially brand new, for just €350 euro. But even at normal price, they essentially offer quality on par with, or close to A* and Dainese while it costs significantly less, and they serve pretty much all types of riders, so it wouldn't surprise me if they're just really popular. Dainese does still have more supple leather than Revit, but their racing suits are easily 25% more expensive.
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Mar 31, 2021 11:05
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First ride of the year yesterday, had to take a couple of self-indulgent photos because I was so excited to be on the bike again.
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Mar 31, 2021 11:42
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Beautiful picture of a pretty bike.
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Mar 31, 2021 11:59
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Jcam posted:First ride of the year yesterday, had to take a couple of self-indulgent photos because I was so excited to be on the bike again. Great shot, cool bike. The bike makes its own shade, but you can actually use flash to lighten it up in direct sunlight like that. Not necessarily in this exact photo, it looks good already, but in general.
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Mar 31, 2021 15:40
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Mirror cut off by the frame, 0/10.
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Mar 31, 2021 19:19
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 Too busy background, and poo poo on the left side of the image.
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Mar 31, 2021 21:16
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Supradog posted:
What engine is in that domi? Doesn't look like the standard 650 lump
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Mar 31, 2021 21:22
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It's the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_NX250 Sub 300 lbs fun. Main detractors is overtaking, fuel range.
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Mar 31, 2021 21:31
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Didn't even know the 250 existed goddamn
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Mar 31, 2021 21:37
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You also have the nx-4 and nx-400i falcon, but only sold in South America. They're as heavy as the 650 versions so nothing special except for the fuel injection on the i version. https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/Honda/honda_nx400i_13.html The Asian only ax-1 is also cool with the dual round headlights, but from what I've read some led drop ins are needed, stock lighting is poor. https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/Honda/honda_ax_87.html
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Mar 31, 2021 21:54
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Jcam posted:First ride of the year yesterday, had to take a couple of self-indulgent photos because I was so excited to be on the bike again. Yeah! There it is! Happy to see more yellow scrambler pics.
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Apr 1, 2021 04:11
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My business partner/friend told me that if I didn't write at least 1 article per month he'd take our website down. This is me at the 11th hour: https://www.electric.motorcycles/post/cannonball-run-the-east-coast-responds
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Apr 1, 2021 07:35
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Salisbury Snape posted:When they were doing the reevaluation on mot rules there was talk about making the emissions apply to bikes, turns out it never made it to the final bill so yea, all fine. Like I said, I'm out of the loop from like 2018 when I last had 2 wheels on the road I feel like we've just had this conversation, but it was probably in another thread with other posters and possibly in a completely other forum because I'm very old and confused. Anyway the requirement to test bikes was dropped because MOT centres had already all just paid out a shitload on new emissions testing kit for cars and there was a worry that combined centres would just choose not to renew their ticket for bikes if they also had to buy a load of new kit for bikes too, leaving big areas of the country with basically no coverage for bike tests.
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Apr 1, 2021 08:07
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You're not imagining it, it was me like last month or something who thought bikes were about to start needing annual emissions checks. I don't remember what thread it was in though 
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Apr 1, 2021 09:49
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The latest in the MethRex part out. Took off the rear wheel and swing arm last night: Only to discover some significant dents in the swingarm, pretty bummed because they're selling for $200ish:  
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Apr 1, 2021 18:09
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LodeRunner posted:My business partner/friend told me that if I didn't write at least 1 article per month he'd take our website down. Good read. I'll probably always have at least one gas bike, but I'm looking forward to electric getting more practical.
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Apr 1, 2021 19:15
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dema posted:Good read. I'll probably always have at least one gas bike, but I'm looking forward to electric getting more practical. Thanks! The next trip is where it's going to get interesting. The West Coast lads wish to do Anaheim to Reno in a day. ~500 miles, decent day of riding on a gas bike. But as you just saw it took over 12 hours to do 400 miles on relatively flat land. The route I've chosen is ~550 miles because it has infrastructure and includes both the Grapevine and the 7k elevation climb at Lake Tahoe. There are a LOT more people going, including (likely) me. It feels odd saying this but I'm more experienced on long trips than most of the dozen or so people signed up for it. This trip should include: 4-6 Energica 21.5kWh (Plus model) bikes 1 2017 Energica EVA80 with aerodynamic bodywork 1 2018 Energica SS9 <-- me 1 Zero SR/F 2 Harley-Davidson LiveWires I'm reeeeally hoping for a Zero SR/S rider with the rapid charge module, but so far no volunteers. The thing is... I expect the vast majority of riders will be worn out and call it a day in Sacramento. It'll be later in the afternoon and suddenly folks will realize Lake Tahoe looms ahead with temperatures dropping and battery-killing hills as the sun sets. I think the large battery Energicas will slow down as their charge rates get throttled due to thermal limits. Neither my bike nor the 2017 will have that problem, nor will the LiveWires. Other than the guy with Aero beating us all shamefully and the Zero guy taking 2, maybe 3 days, I legitimately don't know how the rest of it will pan out. Can I even deal with Lake Tahoe at night? I have wimpy California summer gear.
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Apr 2, 2021 04:19
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