Funny enough in my opinion I think the perfect garage is one with a grom, a yz125 and a hitch carrier. No street bike are as fun as a real dirt bike in the dirt, the grom is great as an in town commuter. I don’t care about the touring capabilities of ADV or touring bikes. I have small kids so I’m not going on month long cross country trips. Although people have done that, even on a grom. Should watch the scooter cannonball run sometime. I really have no interest in riding a bike on the interstate here. It’s fun the first few times to be able to legally go faster. But it used to be that interstates were safer for motorcyclists than city riding. I think that’s changed as tech has changed. Too many bikers getting mowed down by teslas on autopilot, too many people looking at their phone instead of the road.
The 300 series were designed a inexpensive trail bikes, with inexpensive components. That doesn't mean they are poorly made, they are still Hondas. If you expect inexpensive trail bike performance, you will be pleasantly surprised by the 300's. If you expect them to compare in ANY way with a KTM (besides cost, maintenance requirements/cost, fuel economy, parts availability/cost etc.), you will have a lot to complain about. It's all about adjusting your expectations.
It can be done without completely removing the free hub, but acceptably easier and more thorough if you can remove it. BTW use the axle to hold the nut in place and avoid slipping when using a whip or chain
Great video, only wondering why it was necessary (or was it just convenient) to remove the free hub to flush it and grease it? If it’s possible, without removing it, it would save effort and the need of an additional tool. I’ll be trying without soon (so may answer my own question!), but thought it would help if you could mention it on any update? PS thanks for the diy chain whip idea too - simple, effective and even easier to handle than an actual chain whip tool!
That little black plastic thing is a fuse puller. Great vid btw, just bought a 300L yesterday and always like to be prepared. Wrote down all of these items!
When I got my Rally secondhand I thought the previous owner must have modified it heavily because it was so much better than I had prepared myself for. Turns out all he added was stickers...fast stickers I guess.
This seems like a great method (and I know it's been used for decades), but I'm guessing there are a couple caveats. For one, I would assume if the tire goes flat that the process would have to be repeated in its entirety. The same goes for when it comes time to refresh the sealant. I also wonder what happens if the tire is burped. Isn't it possible that the edge of the tube in that location may slip back behind the tire bead and release all the air? I can see how this is great for stubborn wheels, but I wonder if it's worth trying other methods before using this method. Still, this one has the advantage whereby it's very unlikely it will allow sealant to leak out. Thanks for creating a tutorial for this procedure regardless, as it's much nicer viewing a video tutorial than some text description in a forum.
Really useful video! Ive just been given a 1980s raleigh candice mitre bike. Nothing special - pipe steel but Id like to save from the scrape heap without investing much
My cassette is completely of the wgeels axel? I went over an english sized pothole and something gave 😂 its not surpising as unintentional as it was, but its no longer fixed to the inside of the wwheel. How can i amend this?
Thank you for this video. I purchased the light and mount from Amazon. Can you share the link to the mount screw that you used? The one I purchased from Amazon wasn’t long enough.
I have my trail bosses and dude I’m running tubeless with the stock tires. All i did was use helicopter tape and sanded the aluminum just a little for good measure.
I understand this method was developed to a mimic tubeless setup. Tubeless eliminates snake bite flats on the tube. Do you get snake bite flats with this? It's the same thing facing the rim.
I mean I have the CRF300L and I sort of agree with it being underpowered. It’s amazing for off road, but if you live far from the trails and the only way to get to them is highway, it sucks if you have any elevation. Now maybe I’m just more into long distance touring so I’m biased but yeah.
I have 1990 road bike with a 6 speed cassette. I want swap wheels for smooth pavement and light gravel. I bought a 11 speed bonteanger wheelset but it is too wide in rear wheel. Any thoughts? Do I just need 6 speed free hub?
Haven’t ridden a surly, but from all accounts they’re pretty heavy. These 80s triple butted frames will IMO have a better ride quality due to the thinner steel
G.A.S.-Gear Acquisition Syndrome. So many of us have it. This can be said about everything else: cameras, bicycles, cars, etc. In the end, the focus should be improving one's skills/artistry and mastery of the machine. Good review. I'm shopping for a bike, but the tall seat height is limiting my choices on dual sport bikes.
Great video. Only thing I'd add is a magnetic tool in case you need to fish out a screw or something like that. I keep one on hand all the time. It's saved my bacon more times than I can recall.
So I learned that same lesson many, many years ago pretty much the same way on a 73' super Beetle. You only have to learn it once fortunately. Here is the thing about the tolerances inside an engine. They don't stay the same as the manual over its lifetime and there are frequently other parameters other than cold steel that have to be true in order to measure those tolerances. An actual mechanic who does that kind of work all the time will have the correct tools for all of that and frequently, we only have a wrench and feelers. He will know if he needs to just change the tolerances. We won't. The bolts probably didn't back out, the tolerances were probably just wrong and it fried the engine, or any number of a hundred other things you didn't even know to look for.
I have a 2009 FZ1 Retro that Ive been thinking about getting the valves checked by the dealer. I commute with it daily and havent noticed any drop in fuel mileage or loss of power. The only thing Ive done with it is putting a Dyno Jet Commander 5 and a fuel efficient map in it. It has a Coffman exhaust. Everything else is factory OEM. Original clutch, rotors, sprockets, chain, spark plugs. I had the timing chain/guide replaced at 15k miles so they also did a coolant flush - and the tech said the engine looked flawless inside. I havent done any mods except deleting the EXUP valve and plugging the AIS hose to stop the backfiring on decel. What a fantastic, reliable bike. aNYwhO - Did you find your valves out of tolerance when you did the work?
Sounds like you’ve got a great setup. I wish mine was still rideable right now. When I did the valve check I had 3 exhaust valves that were out of spec. The bike has 31000 miles on it.
Open it up to see if your intuiton about the bolts was true. If it is rebuild and put red lock tight on the new bolts. You have to pass that mechanic treshold. Ride safe 👌
Well, there is another saying that counters the there’s no replacement for displacement and the saying is this. It’s more fun to ride a slow bike fast than a fast bike slow so with this bike unless you’re in a school zone or a 40, 4530 mile an hour zone, you can max out the bike and probably not even breaking the law. I have a 2020 Honda super which has the same size engine and I’m maxing that thing out often and when I say that I mean the throttle is getting up to speed now maxes out at 50 to 60 depending on the hill I’m going down or not, I have a 65 L locking box and nothing is not very dynamic and I weigh about 180 pounds. I think that 35 and fourth gear is the sweet spot where I get the best gas mileage on the thing so I don’t max it out all the time as far as top speed is concerned, which is good. I didn’t want anything that had like a top speed of like 40 or 30 because then you’re maxing thing out all the time and that’s probably not good for it but what I did do was I change the sprocket size in the front so the engine revs at lower RPMs so even when I’m maxing it out it’s not putting as much stress on the engine and I do change the oil every 2000 miles instead of the 4000 that Honda recommends because it only takes a cord of oil. And I must say that I personally have a ton of fun on that thing and for the highway, it’s definitely under powered but I have and can take it on the highway sometimes but I usually don’t there is a highway around me where the top speed is like 55 instead of 65 and the minimum speed is 40 and I can absolutely do 40 so it’s far as legally being on that particular road I’m good but of course I try to go as fast as I can, but I do live in slow lane and so far so good. But I have heard stories where there’s people who have these really fast bikes, and for them to even get out of second or third gear to get out of that they would have breaking law all the time as far as see the limit is concerned I know of one person that I know personally that he doesn’t but he could actually just stay in first gear all the time of course he would be revving up the engine quite a bit so he up shifts for gas mileage but I use the full range of my motorcycle all the time and that’s more fun than having to limit the use of the motorcycle significantly because it has so much more capability than is legally allowed on the road no having a track bike is one thing if you ride to the track and then use it on the track and then max it out getting it full capability or at least especially as you can. That’s all good but I don’t do track days. I use mine as a daily commuter so my philosophy is I would rather have a smaller bike. That’s more inexpensive that gets better gas mileage, but I’m using it to its full capability and still having a ton of fun with it and like I said it cheap all way around purchasing insurance the whole deal but yeah if you have a small displacement and you want to go faster in that case, there would be no replacement for displacement
I used this method just now to make my kid’s 20” wheels tubeless. Awesome that this works. I bought the Joe’s no flats conversion kit for my own bike, and the rim strips that came with that made me suspect that this should work. Thanks for the clear instruction. I did need some soapy water on the inner tube to get the tire to seat properly.
I have a street triple r 2018 and am looking at a grom rn I miss the fun I had while riding something slow fast haha it was the best and riding it was awesome
Completely agree, many years ago my first bike was a Harley Dyna Wide Glide in 1997 at 37 years old and yes with the L plates on, i since have had a Honda 500cc and others in between and the bike i have just sold a 2017 KTM 1290 Super Duke, but the best fun i had on a bike ever was on my little Honda MSX Grom. riding slow and off-road and weaving around traffic going to the front of the queue. There is a lot of truth in the saying " Its more fun to ride a slow bike fast than a fast bike slow " Also to add to that is that i live on a very small island where the max speed limit is 35mph so of course its pretty pointless having a powerful bike which is why as i said i have just sold the 2017 1290 Super Duke which was the most fun bike to ride next to the Honda Grom.
Versys is not sand friendly. I can’t believe you thought sand would be okay! Too too heavy and you’ll never get the right kind of tyres for it. 17” front wheel is very limited. Decent gravel is fine.
I love having a cup of coffee in the middle of the woods myself, it’s therapeutic for me. Those crows calling always take me back to my childhood. I’m 55 with a replaced knee and have contemplated everything from a Honda monkey, Vespa GTS 300, and about all the classic Triumphs but have yet to pull the trigger.
