DeepBass9
Race Dog
Thanks to Rob, for selling me the bike, and to Francois of FND couriers for getting the bike to me, and it was finally delivered this afternoon. I'm sukkeling at the moment getting photos from my cellphone to my pc without emailing them to myself, so here's the text, pics to follow.
So I immediately read up on how to kickstart the beast, on the second kick she fires up! (That was worrying me a bit but is actually very easy. I found it was stalling a bit a low revs (thumb instinctively looks for happy button, doh!) so I adjusted the idle speed up a bit and it was fine after that, I guess that comes from being on the highveld. The only bikes I have ridden similar to this one which I can compare it to are an 08 KLR and an 81 XL 500. The bike feels lighter than the KLR, and the throttle reponse is very snappy (I'll fix the lawn later dear) I took it up to the garage to fill up and the bike gets up to 120 very quickly and is quite happy cruising at an indicated 125kph. I then took it it up the mountain, over some rocks and deep sand, and it handles that type of riding with ease. Its a lot of fun to ride.
Some things which I need to change to my liking, the handle bars are a bit low for me and if I stand on the footpegs it is in arse out position, so higher bars or raisers are required.
The back suspension is very hard (I assume from touring Rob?) and the front is quite soft (as Rob also pointed out) I'll reduce the preload a bit on the rear, and I think some progressive front fork springs and new oil should sort out the front. (Ping Lecap).
I'm not sure if the jetting needs to be changed for the highveld, is it worth messing around with that? Opinions?
Other than that it is a great bike to ride, I'm enjoying it and I'll put a few more km on it this weekend!
Piccys to follow....
So I immediately read up on how to kickstart the beast, on the second kick she fires up! (That was worrying me a bit but is actually very easy. I found it was stalling a bit a low revs (thumb instinctively looks for happy button, doh!) so I adjusted the idle speed up a bit and it was fine after that, I guess that comes from being on the highveld. The only bikes I have ridden similar to this one which I can compare it to are an 08 KLR and an 81 XL 500. The bike feels lighter than the KLR, and the throttle reponse is very snappy (I'll fix the lawn later dear) I took it up to the garage to fill up and the bike gets up to 120 very quickly and is quite happy cruising at an indicated 125kph. I then took it it up the mountain, over some rocks and deep sand, and it handles that type of riding with ease. Its a lot of fun to ride.
Some things which I need to change to my liking, the handle bars are a bit low for me and if I stand on the footpegs it is in arse out position, so higher bars or raisers are required.
The back suspension is very hard (I assume from touring Rob?) and the front is quite soft (as Rob also pointed out) I'll reduce the preload a bit on the rear, and I think some progressive front fork springs and new oil should sort out the front. (Ping Lecap).
I'm not sure if the jetting needs to be changed for the highveld, is it worth messing around with that? Opinions?
Other than that it is a great bike to ride, I'm enjoying it and I'll put a few more km on it this weekend!
Piccys to follow....