Muffin Man
Puppy
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2012
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- 25
- Bike
- BMW R1200GS Adventure
My Kove 450 Rally February 2024
- Thread starter BuRP
- Start date
Muffin Man
Puppy
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2012
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- 25
- Bike
- BMW R1200GS Adventure
Done 2,5k and really enjoy this bike. Just fitted a throttle tamer and will test it next weekend..
Thanks for the chat - and a really good looking stickerset you have! 👌
I've glossed over this thread again just now..... and there's a few things I reckon I should mention.
I did use it for the abovementioned rides but not for Wildwood's 'Wild' Kaokoland ride.
Gideon Joubert (he who will wheelie from Stellenbosch to Messina without even once putting the front wheel down) is the backup and/or sweeper of John's tours - so he was also present during the Transkei/Lesotho/Drakensberg trip. He knows Namibia like the back of his hand, and no he didn't warn me.... but just told me I better bring my 500 instead of the Kove to Namibia. You see, Gideon's never lied to me yet, and such casual friendly advice coming from him I'll take to heart!
Robbie's Pass - plus some runup bits to it included - turns out to be 300 territory rather, the "pass" itself simply a relentless rocky bastard, and the combination of Kove with me on it would have suffered - the Kove some damage, and me/my fitness ditto, never mind my temper then (I get grumpy when I'm klaar).
Suffice to say I'm glad I took my 500 for that trip - Thank you Gideon!
During Hardy's May Kaokoland trip the Kove shone on almost all days, for it likes space, sand, speed, and rough bits are soaked up by its suspension in a way one must feel to really appreciate: magnificent!
The 'loop-day' from Marble Camp to Van Zyl's Restkamp, then down Van Zyl's Pass, the glorious open fast red sandy Marienfluss, then the now surprisingly rough Rooidrom Pass (I know it has a different name but forgot it) where 4x4 drivers have stacked truckloads of rocks there to make it driveable, and back to Marble Camp was a tiring one, I felt knacked.
The entire runup to VZ Restcamp is rocky, loose rocky, as due to past rains almost no soil is left inbetween the rocks/pebbles, making for slipsliding one's way all the way to VZ Pass itself. This wore me out, and I was running out of water there so was perhaps a bit dehydrated - but luckily Striggs gave me a bellyfull of water once down the pass, and this miraculously cured me - again my thanks pal!
I remember riding the Marienfluss fast, alone on that glorious red sandy plain (it's my fave in Nam I'll admit), and the whole experience of flowing riding combined with that superb suspension had me floating over all & sundy.... it's one of those moments one can't describe, again (I know) I'll use the word glorious - for the dyslexic that's 'fucking awesome'!
Once at Marble, after several cups of Oros first of course, I discovered that I was tired, more so than usual (I'd done this loop before).... and then I realized that this bike is heavier than a 300 or 500, and this must have made me work more: duh! Anyway, was a superb day, and a bitofa lesson to be learned this day that this ain't an enduro weapon per se, however it'll do it though.
During this trip I asked Hardy about Robbie's Pass, and got 'dis malligheid, you can't ride there' as reply. Oh well, that's clear enough then, 500 it'll be on John's tour!
Thank you also Hardy... and perhaps you should have mentioned "300"? 😋
The CST tyres the bike comes with were an unknown quantity for me (quite like the entire bike yeah).
I've remarked earlier here that they were fine, however now, with the benefit of hindsight, I should rephrase that to 'great'!
They perform well on anything I've been through/in/over, and yes, that includes tarred roads too, Lesotho in the rain at night even - they're SO good that I've asked Offroad Cycles for an identical set to replace mine!
They've done over 5000km's and need replacing now.... but that's a LOT for me, never have done this much before with the tyres I use (on my 500's yeah), and with the sterling performance anywhere I'd like the same tyres again please!
Can't have them though, noone stocks, a pity.... and I can't find a Motoz Tractionator Desert HT for the rear either.
Sirk at Offroad Cycles yesterday gave me a set of CST 'Rally' tyres they'd ordered though, a goodlooking set of sturdy hard-compound rubber, and I'll fit these this week - with the same mousses , they feel fine still so I'll reuse them.
The fuel-gauge is shit or at least mine is, no other word for it.
When the 'Low Fuel' warning pops up on the dash there's anything from ~10 liters to almost 0 liters left - which is a bit of a too-big margin for my brain, call me dof.
Luckily the 'Average Fuel/100Km' indication on the dash is accurate, and so is the milegae kept.... so I've adopted to calculating what fuel I have, and this works well enough.
I get between 18.5/21.3 km/liter, call that 20 for longer trips if not hammering it all the time - that's good!
Next week I'll service the bike and will take the tanks off, and will flush them (I may have some Nambi sand in there as I lost two fuelcaps - MY stupidity yeah) but also will see what's going on iside wrt the fuel gauge's pickup.
The bike performs noticeably better at sea level, I've not mentione this - a CLEAR difference! Super-eager, quite a bit more oomph hence way more fun!
The last day of our trip, on the Transkei coast, Gideon wanted to ride my bike. It was a short onlygohome stretch - so he did whilst I drove his bakkie, over a lot longer road stretch. I found him behind a milkshake grinning from ear to ear, and rumour has it he was on the back wheel for most of the time 😋
I did use it for the abovementioned rides but not for Wildwood's 'Wild' Kaokoland ride.
Gideon Joubert (he who will wheelie from Stellenbosch to Messina without even once putting the front wheel down) is the backup and/or sweeper of John's tours - so he was also present during the Transkei/Lesotho/Drakensberg trip. He knows Namibia like the back of his hand, and no he didn't warn me.... but just told me I better bring my 500 instead of the Kove to Namibia. You see, Gideon's never lied to me yet, and such casual friendly advice coming from him I'll take to heart!
Robbie's Pass - plus some runup bits to it included - turns out to be 300 territory rather, the "pass" itself simply a relentless rocky bastard, and the combination of Kove with me on it would have suffered - the Kove some damage, and me/my fitness ditto, never mind my temper then (I get grumpy when I'm klaar).
Suffice to say I'm glad I took my 500 for that trip - Thank you Gideon!
During Hardy's May Kaokoland trip the Kove shone on almost all days, for it likes space, sand, speed, and rough bits are soaked up by its suspension in a way one must feel to really appreciate: magnificent!
The 'loop-day' from Marble Camp to Van Zyl's Restkamp, then down Van Zyl's Pass, the glorious open fast red sandy Marienfluss, then the now surprisingly rough Rooidrom Pass (I know it has a different name but forgot it) where 4x4 drivers have stacked truckloads of rocks there to make it driveable, and back to Marble Camp was a tiring one, I felt knacked.
The entire runup to VZ Restcamp is rocky, loose rocky, as due to past rains almost no soil is left inbetween the rocks/pebbles, making for slipsliding one's way all the way to VZ Pass itself. This wore me out, and I was running out of water there so was perhaps a bit dehydrated - but luckily Striggs gave me a bellyfull of water once down the pass, and this miraculously cured me - again my thanks pal!
I remember riding the Marienfluss fast, alone on that glorious red sandy plain (it's my fave in Nam I'll admit), and the whole experience of flowing riding combined with that superb suspension had me floating over all & sundy.... it's one of those moments one can't describe, again (I know) I'll use the word glorious - for the dyslexic that's 'fucking awesome'!
Once at Marble, after several cups of Oros first of course, I discovered that I was tired, more so than usual (I'd done this loop before).... and then I realized that this bike is heavier than a 300 or 500, and this must have made me work more: duh! Anyway, was a superb day, and a bitofa lesson to be learned this day that this ain't an enduro weapon per se, however it'll do it though.
During this trip I asked Hardy about Robbie's Pass, and got 'dis malligheid, you can't ride there' as reply. Oh well, that's clear enough then, 500 it'll be on John's tour!
Thank you also Hardy... and perhaps you should have mentioned "300"? 😋
The CST tyres the bike comes with were an unknown quantity for me (quite like the entire bike yeah).
I've remarked earlier here that they were fine, however now, with the benefit of hindsight, I should rephrase that to 'great'!
They perform well on anything I've been through/in/over, and yes, that includes tarred roads too, Lesotho in the rain at night even - they're SO good that I've asked Offroad Cycles for an identical set to replace mine!
They've done over 5000km's and need replacing now.... but that's a LOT for me, never have done this much before with the tyres I use (on my 500's yeah), and with the sterling performance anywhere I'd like the same tyres again please!
Can't have them though, noone stocks, a pity.... and I can't find a Motoz Tractionator Desert HT for the rear either.
Sirk at Offroad Cycles yesterday gave me a set of CST 'Rally' tyres they'd ordered though, a goodlooking set of sturdy hard-compound rubber, and I'll fit these this week - with the same mousses , they feel fine still so I'll reuse them.
The fuel-gauge is shit or at least mine is, no other word for it.
When the 'Low Fuel' warning pops up on the dash there's anything from ~10 liters to almost 0 liters left - which is a bit of a too-big margin for my brain, call me dof.
Luckily the 'Average Fuel/100Km' indication on the dash is accurate, and so is the milegae kept.... so I've adopted to calculating what fuel I have, and this works well enough.
I get between 18.5/21.3 km/liter, call that 20 for longer trips if not hammering it all the time - that's good!
Next week I'll service the bike and will take the tanks off, and will flush them (I may have some Nambi sand in there as I lost two fuelcaps - MY stupidity yeah) but also will see what's going on iside wrt the fuel gauge's pickup.
The bike performs noticeably better at sea level, I've not mentione this - a CLEAR difference! Super-eager, quite a bit more oomph hence way more fun!
The last day of our trip, on the Transkei coast, Gideon wanted to ride my bike. It was a short onlygohome stretch - so he did whilst I drove his bakkie, over a lot longer road stretch. I found him behind a milkshake grinning from ear to ear, and rumour has it he was on the back wheel for most of the time 😋
Curious to hear how these bearings are holding up. We had numerous failures on ZZ bearings of C&U bearings fitted to new Actom motors recently.No.... but if you zoom in on the cush hub then "C&U" appears - which I just now Googled:
Are C&U bearings any good?
C&U Bearings are used by some of the world's leading manufacturers and service providers in a wide variety of applications. Every C&U Bearing is made to exacting standards to deliver the ultimate in the precision, performance, and quality.
As I've said earlier, I didn't find anything 'chinese' on this bike although quite a bit of the components are made there.
All RS bearings (Rubber Seal) so it's what you would expect in a bike's wheel
ZZ-bearings have metal non-contact seals (dual plates) - which if you ask me is an oxymoron as a non-contact seal MUST leak!
These bearings are often found on sliding-gate wheels.... and will fail, if not quite soon too.
Here ingress of water, with or course affiliated debris, will dissolve the grease inside and wash this out, in doing so grinding the innards.
This is the reason why I, when I bought mine, have knocked them out and replaced them with 2RS (dual rubber seal) bearings.... which hold up exceptionally well, I've not replaced mine since (which is 8 or more years ago).
Quite frankly I dunno why anyone would use ZZ bearings as 2RS are only marginally more costly.
Their use points to intermittent-use-only or cheap applications, and take heed when you find them.
The Kove's wheels use 2RS bearings (as they should) so I expect a normal lifespan out of them - but I will check next week, and will report here if anything is amiss
(For those not knowing it, both ZZ & 2RS bearings are supplied with socalled LifeTime Grease inside, this is never (it can not!) be renewed)
These bearings are often found on sliding-gate wheels.... and will fail, if not quite soon too.
Here ingress of water, with or course affiliated debris, will dissolve the grease inside and wash this out, in doing so grinding the innards.
This is the reason why I, when I bought mine, have knocked them out and replaced them with 2RS (dual rubber seal) bearings.... which hold up exceptionally well, I've not replaced mine since (which is 8 or more years ago).
Quite frankly I dunno why anyone would use ZZ bearings as 2RS are only marginally more costly.
Their use points to intermittent-use-only or cheap applications, and take heed when you find them.
The Kove's wheels use 2RS bearings (as they should) so I expect a normal lifespan out of them - but I will check next week, and will report here if anything is amiss
(For those not knowing it, both ZZ & 2RS bearings are supplied with socalled LifeTime Grease inside, this is never (it can not!) be renewed)
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In continuous applications (like motors) the grease inside will heat up hence becomes thinner, and may leak out.
Any air inside will expand also when heating up, and this will contribute to leakage if not 'breathing', and remember these seals do not really seal.
Also, ingress of debris (say dust of carbon brushes used) will negatively affect the lifetime of these bearings.
In your case @1985xr200 , I'd contact Actom and ask them for 2RS bearings to be used at their assembly. As said, the cost differential is only marginal.
Welsh
Grumpy Mutt
ZZ-bearings have metal non-contact seals (dual plates) - which if you ask me is an oxymoron as a non-contact seal MUST leak!
These bearings are often found on sliding-gate wheels.... and will fail, if not quite soon too.
Here ingress of water, with or course affiliated debris, will dissolve the grease inside and wash this out, in doing so grinding the innards.
This is the reason why I, when I bought mine, have knocked them out and replaced them with 2RS (dual rubber seal) bearings.... which hold up exceptionally well, I've not replaced mine since (which is 8 or more years ago).
Quite frankly I dunno why anyone would use ZZ bearings as 2RS are only marginally more costly.
Their use points to intermittent-use-only or cheap applications, and take heed when you find them.
The Kove's wheels use 2RS bearings (as they should) so I expect a normal lifespan out of them - but I will check next week, and will report here if anything is amiss
(For those not knowing it, both ZZ & 2RS bearings are supplied with socalled LifeTime Grease inside, this is never (it can not!) be renewed)
In an electric motor ZZ is ok, in the electric motor any .001% efficiency improvement will be taken.
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