Great ride yesterday!

Wayne Meuir · Post by **Wayne Meuir** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:52 am

I met Terry (TLRam1) at his house yesterday morning at 7:30 and He and I and a close friend of his rode about 150 miles out through country backroads. Terry was riding his GT380 for its first shakedown ride. I was riding my RZ350 for its first ride except just tuning runs out around my house. Both bikes performed quite well. I put 200 miles on the clock counting the ride to and from Terry's house. Temp was nice and warm, wind was about 30-40 MPH, especially on the ride back.
Terry's friend was riding behind us on a Honda Shadow Sabre to pick up any loose parts that fell off

. Fortunately, there were not any. Pretty impressed with the 380. We rode for several miles at a time above 75 MPH and a few times even a lost faster than that.
After we got back to Terry's house he let me ride his KX250 (holy shiate!) and his WR250 (holy shiate again). Been a long time since I rode a dirt bike and when I was riding, bikes like these did not exist. To say I was amazed is an understatement. Those thing are spooky fast but really feel good on rough terrain. He also let me ride his ttr125, even that is a really fun play bike.
Had a great time and hope to do it again soon.
Thanks, Terry!

Wayne

H2RICK · Post by **H2RICK** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 12:25 pm

What ??? No pics, Wayne ???

Glad to hear the 380 ran along without problems....
No worries about bits falling off. It IS a Suzuki after all !!!

Craig380 · Post by **Craig380** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 2:12 pm

I'm jealous -- no riding this weekend as temps are sub-zero and there's plenty of snow ... hey, it could almost be Canada

h2okettle · Post by **h2okettle** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 5:22 pm

Yep I know what you mean about the good riding weather.. Still NO snow in Florida,

so in the last week I got to waste a 1/2 quart of CCI in the GT750... Thats 435 miles if your oil pump is readjused to the lean side... The one thing though, is the day when it was only 52 degrees, on the 260 mile day, the lower pipes would drip oil out of the rear when I stopped... I guess they were not getting hot enough to burn all the oil out of the pipes.... Or, maybe my oil rings or valve guides are worn out again on the center cylinder??

It still smokes, but is possibly heading to see H2rick and his younger twin brother Allan (suzsmokeyallan) in August, up in Canuk county Calgary... Gotta get my first stamp in my new passport...

Allen......Heavy smoker...... GT brand

TLRam1 · Post by **TLRam1** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 6:47 pm

Of course we have photo’s Rick, since you asked!

None from our ride though.

Wayne seemed excited to get his RZ out and I my 380. We did have some good roads, Wayne took over leading at one point for a nice detour through the country side I had not been through. Great to open them up some, performed well on the winding roads. The 380 road a little rough I will have to less the preload to see if that helps.

The highlight of the day for me was, not in any certain order

1. Riding Wayne’s RZ350, Wow, it’s only a 350? So last night I’m scanning to find one, although I don’t need one. Glad none were a steal of a deal.

2. Putting miles on the 380 w/o issues, maybe one, I have injector oil leaking from what looks to be coming from the case junctions. I did use sealing washers when it went back together, I will have to figure this out.

3. Getting the dirt bikes out.

The 380 ran well but going against the wind in 5th gear it was all the bike could do to maintain 70 MPH. The pipes are rusted out inside, not sure how much this affects performance.

One day we will have to ride to Oklahoma to see what your up to Chris.

Oh man, I forgot Rick will see this...and a Yamaha in the pic.

Wayne admiring his RZ.................so that's what dreams are made of....gosh I just love you! Easy Wayne.

Wayne explaining the many moons of the atmosphere.

Water is that way.

T500 Blinker

I PMed Allan, decided to go ahead and post this up. While riding it broke off, is this stud removable?

The stud was bent before I had the bike and guess vibration finished the job.

TLRam1 · Post by **TLRam1** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 11:36 am

Wayne,

I ordered the items to plate my WR250.

Headlight will need to have the high beam connected, same with the brake lamp (wires are suppose to be there), add a horn, pressure brake light switch on the MC, 1 fold in mirror, need to make a license plate holder and attach a LED plate light.

I will have no blinkers, no battery, the electrics are AC so I am told the horn works under 3K RPM, may be able to put a diode inline so the horn functions better (any ideas from anyone), plan to run not DOT knobbies, switch control on the handlebars for the headlights, horn, high beam indicator LED, I think that's it.

This will not add much weight or items prone to be knocked off, broken and the bike can still be used in enduros. I added the ATV seat pad, seems more comfortable, I will know more as time goes by. I need to soften the front suspension, seems harsh compared to the KTM 525 EXC I rode.

jkevinlilly · Post by **jkevinlilly** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 3:59 pm

Sounds like a fun ride. 40 degrees here with rain.

But Sunday it is predicted to be 75 and sunny.

By tues night, 24 and snow.

This time of year if you don't like the weather, just wait a day or two, it will change.

Kevin

H2RICK · Post by **H2RICK** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 9:30 pm

Thanks for the pics, TL, but.....my eyes, my eyes.....all those tuning forks....
Arrrrggghhhhh........
Nice 380, though.....

TLRam1 · Post by **TLRam1** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 10:59 pm

Thanks Rick, I would replace the WR if I found a good deal on a KTM, rode a 535EXC, handled well.

I am heading out of town Saturday to Galveston, TX. so unable to correspond but....any ideas on the diode idea for my horn?

Wayne Meuir · Post by **Wayne Meuir** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 8:29 am

Terry, keep me posted on how the plating goes. I plan on plating the KTM as well, but it already has a battery cause of the electric start. I will have to add a horn, brake light switch, mirror, dual beam headlight and high beam indicator.
The guys on the KTM forum said my current stator will pull everything fine, so I don't need to get it rewound.
I need to adjust the sag, it is a little soft for my weight as it is, but all the suspension has a ton of adjustment built into it, so I don't anticipate having to buy anything. The seat is hard, just about like the one on your WR, so for a long DS ride its gonna need something done to it.
I am probably going to put radiator guards on it as well. They are expensive, but a heck of a lot cheaper than a radiator, or pushing the bike out of the woods because of a busted radiator.
It still has the stock pipe with spark arrestor on it and I am going to leave it alone. It is not too loud until you wind it up, then it barks pretty good.

Wayne

H2RICK · Post by **H2RICK** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:51 am

Terry:
If the horn is seeing AC volts then you may need a diode AND a voltage-dropping resistor as well, if there isn't a battery in that circuit anywhere.
Don't ask me for specific bits because I no longer have any of my paper catalogues of electronics stuff. That's one of the reasons I miss the job I used to have.....instant access to electronics engineers AND all the supplier folks. Your problem would have been duck soup to those guys.

TLRam1 · Post by **TLRam1** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:17 pm

Thanks Rick, didn't think about the voltage dropping resistor, I will check out the output when I have a chance.

Wayne, I will keep you up to snuff how the plating goes. The WR seat is hard for sure, I found the famous ATV seat pad dual sporters use and strapped one on the WR, so far it's much better, that's only the one outing you missed I tried it out, further testing will tell me more. The seat pads are 17.00 but hard to locate, had many all over Texas looking for these, one guy found some in Decatur for me, I bought the last 2.

The WR is load, I have 1-2 ends to replace on the Yosh. pipe to change the decibel output, at some point I might play with these.

Did you find any other places to ride?

Wayne Meuir · Post by **Wayne Meuir** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 2:07 pm

I have not really tried to find anyhwere to ride. The weather is so screwy right now I have not been doing much of anything.

Enduro Engineering makes a soft seat for both our bikes for around $100. If I can't find a cheaper route, I may try one of them but I want to spend some time on the stock one first and see how it feels after a day of riding.

Wayne

TLRam1 · Post by **TLRam1** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 11:01 pm

Received my shipment of items to dual sport the WR with. I believe you have this on your KTM but I plan to use this on the WR.

http://www.amazon.com/BC1606L-16-Functi ... 974&sr=8-6

I looked at Enduro Eng. the seats they show are for KTM's unless I missed them, anyway I need to spend more time on my ATV seat pad to see how well it performs. You can still find these if you decide you want one.

I'll be playing with the horn and keep Ricks idea in mind.

TLRam1 · Post by **TLRam1** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:19 pm

I have decided to take my WR250 and dual sport it, put plates on, street legal. I am doing the bare minimum, high & low beam, tail light – brake light, horn, license plate light and one mirror, no blinkers and the horn is there as in fixture. The bike is all AC, no DC and no battery, I have no plans of installing one either. The horn works well on DC, I will attempt to adjust for AC voltage, if that does not work I will probably get a bicycle hand bugle horn to pass inspection with.

This bike is designed to go anywhere and with what I am doing will not take that ability away. I am excited to have such a bike I can ride on the street and run across any kind of dirt, mountain, hill, mud, creek etc and hit it without hesitation. When I take it to the hard core or enduro racing all I will need to remove is the mirror.

For a speedometer I will run a bicycle speedometer (called bike computers now), the device has a magnetic pickup, I plan to get a disk magnet from the hardware store to use with this.

With much of the parts installed, you will not notice much difference, this is the bike.

I bought this switch control that handles the headlights, horn, blinkers (if you have any), and on top is a blue high beam LED indicator.

You will see the pressure rear brake switch I installed, only the rear will activate the brake light, none on the front brake. I replaced the banjo bolt that secures the hydraulic brake line with the pressure switch.

Pickup an old car tire to make a license plate holder, turns out it the tire is too thick, so on to plan B.

Before license plate is installed.

Horn was installed in here, look hard.

Here it is.

The business end that makes all this work, all wires are green because that’s what I had on hand. Lol

Installed the LED light and that is the one mirror for the bike. It all worked tonight except I busted the inline resister for the LED. I will have to see what resister I need, the other is in pieces I squashed it with a washer. If you know, tell me, keep me from having proceed with research and the trial and error method.