TwoWheelTalk

I've spent most of my free time of late on the bike. Since I bought it new last March I've put over 23,000 miles on it. (23,510ish as of yesterday). I've now taken it through 10 states counting our own. The g/f and I have even "camped" off of it now.

















I did have to get the starter replaced over the winter, but it was covered under warranty. No other repairs needed thus far. I've added a Power Commander V, Loydz intake, and Freedom Performance Tru-Dual exhaust. I'm hoping to add cams and get a full Dyno tune in the spring. I've also upgraded the speakers to 6.5" Alpine SPS' and added a Rockford Fosgate amp. Navigation duties are handled by a Garmin Montana and my iPhone.
 
Also this summer with a lot of help from my friend Dave I scored this 1992 Sportster 883 for really cheap. It had been sitting in a garage neglected for 10 years or so.



After going through the carb, replacing all the fluids, "new" handle bars, new cables, and a battery we got her back to life.




I tossed a leather diamond stitched 2x4 on it and had her close to where I wanted it without any major work




I've since put the Mustang seat and the windshield back on and my g/f has been learning on it. Eventually she wants to get one of the new Indian Scouts and then I'm going to go back to stripping down the Sporty. I'm torn between a cafe type build, a hard tail bobber, or a board racer theme. There are so many options for these little Sporty's it's ridiculous.
 
RedHeep said:
Progressive springs and shocks are very easy to do and will change the ride for the better. The front fork springs take like 20 minutes.
Click to expand...


On the Sporty? Its getting a springer, possibly even a Indian style leaf-springer front end and then either a hardtail rear or some burly brand stilettos out back.
 
Because a hard tail kit is about 1/3 that cost and it's only 3 tubes to cut. Plus then I still have my VIN plate.
 
I'll just leave this here

harley-davidson-sportster-custom.jpg
 
I had a big long post typed up about how i have ridden pretty much every adventure bike after deciding to sell my tiger to a buddy of mine, letting you know some of my impressions on the bikes after riding them all back to back. Then my laptop died.... so Ill just say i ended up buying a 2016 Yamaha Super Tenere last thursday.

29999527006_118208529e_c.jpg


Rode it around for a couple hours the night I bought it, then Saturday i went on a ride with my buddy that bought my Tiger. He has never ridden a bike on dirt before so i took him down to colorado springs via perry park and then the highway from monument down to the springs. We took rampart range back up from Garden of the Gods to Sedalia. It ended up being an awesome ride, about 55 miles of dirt road! The leaves are changing so the scenery was beautiful and we both had a blast! I have 330 miles on the bike now...270 more to go before the motor is broken in and i get the first service done.

30036540936_d51ded31e9_b.jpg
 
What bikes did you compare? The Yamaha SuperT is appealing to me but I like the "smaller" F800GS and Tiger more on paper. The new African Twin also looks really cool. If the 950/990 Adv would only have cruise and a slightly lower seat height. Having short legs sucks when you want an Adventure bike.
 
I rode the 2017 tiger 800 and tiger explorer 1200, ktm 1190 adventure r, 2015 BMW r1200gs and 2016 r1200gs adventure, 2016 Yamaha fj-09, and a couple used bike here and there.

The f800gs has never appealed enough to me to actually buy one, especially when there's a tiger 800 siting next to it. The f800gs just doesn't have the power that the tiger 800. I actually debated a new tiger 800 but I wanted something new, I already know the shortcomings (for me) of the triumph.

On paper the tenere scared me, 100+ lbs heavier then my tiger and only 10 more horsepower! But the tenere was the only bike I rode that I did not know any of the specs on before I rode it, itfelt really smooth and powerful, and felt just as light and nimble while riding. The tenere has so much more torque and makes power from 2,000 rpm to redline instead of the higher more peaky power and of the triumph triple. The weight is all carried down low on the tenere so it doesn't feel heavy.

My second favorite bike out of the bunch was the r1200gsa, but the BMW twin was a lot more thumpy/vibey then the tenere motor, and the BMW transmission was a lot clunkier. I thought I would like the explorer 1200 over the r1200gs based on the specs, but riding the two the BMW beat the triumph in every department in my opinion.

One of the things I really wanted in a new bike was something shaft driven, 13,000 miles on the tiger last year made me realize how much I hate chain driven bikes. I like the tubeless spokes wheels of the tenere, the cruise control is something that I don't know how I lived without before. The different rider modes and traction controls weren't a big selling point for me, but I have already found them to be awesome. The linked brakes and good suspension really help the front end not dive as much as other bikes I rode.

The suspension is another department that the tiger really lacked in...it only had rear preload adjustment and no adjustment in the front. The tenere has awesome suspension out of the box and the forks have adjustable preload/compression/rebound and the rear has preload and rebound adjustment. I would routinely bottom out the tiger suspension and could use about 70% of the fork travel on the pavement under hard braking. I set the sag before my ride on Saturday and rode some of the dirtbike trails on rampart and didn't bottom out the suspension once.

I could go on but I think you get the point, I already love the bike and it has proven to be better in every aspect then the tiger, in my opinion.
 
Good review, I'll keep it in mind if/when the Adventure bike makes a comeback to my stable.

Ha ha, yeah that cruise control thing is amazing. People who try to say a throttle lock is just as good have never experienced it. Nothing makes killing the miles on open slab more enjoyable.
 
So I finally took the plunge, I took my rider introduction course earlier this month, got my endorsement, and have purchased my first bike.

I found a 2001 Kawasaki KL250 Super Sherpa, 67XX miles, and from what the previous owner had said, it was purchased and then stored for the most part, for the last 5 years. I have a oil filter to replace already, but I need to know what is the best oil to run in this area, viscosity wise? I will be primarily riding on the streets for the first 500 or 1000 miles, but then want to transition to more fire roads and mild offroad riding.

I'll probably be looking for some more advice as I get deeper down the rabbit hole.
 
So I survived my first moto adventure.

We started in Colorado Springs Sunday morning about 7:45, headed up highway 24 to Divide, turned onto CR42, took that to Teller County Road 1 south, turned onto CR11 and followed that all the way down to HWY 9, from there we joined CR2 and the first real dirt I had seen on the bike.
IMG_7717[1] by Adam Nurmi, on Flickr

My friend re positioning his bag on the back of his KTM 990

So we continued on CR2 a good bit ending up on 291 in Salida.

IMG_7718[1] by Adam Nurmi, on Flickr

Stopped over at Cafe Dawn for a snack and some coffee.

After that we jumped back on 291 and decided to take the Ute Trail back up to HWY 285

IMG_7719[1] by Adam Nurmi, on Flickr

Nice little overlook camp spot before we rejoined 285.

Rallied down to Hartsel on HWY 24, got poured on just as we were getting into Hartsel. Put on some rain gear and proceeded to HWY 59 into Lake George, finished out the rest of the ride on HWY 24, with minimal rain.

Couple of take aways from the day..

Why did I wait this long to get into it.
The 250 is just fast enough to get around but harder to get in trouble with.
Better rain and riding gear is a must.

Other than that.. I had a blast and will definitely be out on the bike a bunch.
 
Xhavier_5478 said:
So I finally took the plunge, I took my rider introduction course earlier this month, got my endorsement, and have purchased my first bike.

I found a 2001 Kawasaki KL250 Super Sherpa, 67XX miles, and from what the previous owner had said, it was purchased and then stored for the most part, for the last 5 years. I have a oil filter to replace already, but I need to know what is the best oil to run in this area, viscosity wise? I will be primarily riding on the streets for the first 500 or 1000 miles, but then want to transition to more fire roads and mild offroad riding.

I'll probably be looking for some more advice as I get deeper down the rabbit hole.
Click to expand...

First of all congratulations on the bike! I'm always looking for people to do some adventure riding with! Pm me if you wanna go riding any of these weekends and I'll give you my #. I know a few good dirt roads around we can ride!

Seth
 
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