How does it feel, Nico?
How does it feel, Nico?
When I stand on it and make high rpm 2 stoke sounds with my mouth (been practicing since I was 10)it feels good, but when I sit and lower the decibels it feels like is a little tall in the saddle. I don’t think a high level rider would want to be throwing in into the turns on a flat-track the way it sits, but for the dunes it’s probably fine.
Suspension feels tight, no doubt due to the cut fork springs and slightly more angled shock, but that’s a good thing given that the ground clearance is almost the same as the suspension travel. If the tires were to flatten more than an inch when the suspension was bottomed out the frame would probably hit the ground.
Anyway, it will have to be ridden to know anything for certain and that’s a ways off.
It sucks to get old
First of all it looks amazing Nico! Nice job!
Secondly it is a bit high in the saddle as you already know. I can tell by looking at it. If you start with a bike frame, this is very hard to avoid. I was just looking at my options for lowering the saddle on my 650L last night, and sadly there are none. It is what it is.
The good news however, is I am completely used to it so it really doesn't matter. It took me a long time, but I pitch that bike sideways in third gear no problem, and you will be able to do the same with yours if you'd like.
Cruising might feel a little odd at first but again, you will get used to it. You can put high bars on it to help the feel a little bit, but it's likely just going to have to be a bike that you have to have a feel for, which is fine.
If the different feel were that bad I would have gotten rid of my 650L a long time ago, but that is a street trike so... Anyhow, you'll be fine!
85 Tri-Zinger 60
85 ATC250SX
86 ATC250SX
87 ATC250SX
02 XR650L conversion
84 ATC 480R
If you happen to have a tape in your hand one day, I'd be interested to know what your seat height is and how high the top of your foot pegs are from the ground. It would give me an idea how far off I am from what you're describing.
I really don't want to make the mods I suspect this 220trikes fellow made to position his seat as low as he did as I'm guessing there's a hole cut out of his seat pan that acts as one of two points that secure his seat to the trike, whereas mine has 3 points and no gap at the tongue. NOT knocking his work, heck, I'm not even sure how his did what he did, but I do wish I could lower my seat 2" without making a mess, or having an unsecured seat tongue.
It sucks to get old
After putting 2 seasons of seat time on my 450, it's the regular ATC's that feel strange to me. After a few rides the height concern will be less and less. I find that it is more comfortable on long rides also.
YAMAHA 450 HYBRID
85 350X- RED
85 350x -BLACK
86 350x-WHITE (with Goki)
85 250r
83 atc 70
84 atc 70
84 atc 110
09 yfz 450
2006 Arctic Cat Prowler
RZR XP 900
Did a little port work this evening, nothing crazy, just raised the transfers 1mm, widened them .5mm, widened the primary exhaust port 3mm and opened up the secondary exhaust ports 1mm each way.
Also drilled a compression relief hole in the cylinder. The first used KTM I bought had one and I assumed they came that way from the factory, but they are a mod. Starting one of these 300s with the hole and Slavens head isn’t bad, starting one of these without the hole and a stock head isn’t bad, but trying to start one of these without the hole and a Slavens head bolted on is a mother bear as I recently found out.
I plan to raise the cylinder .004” with a thicker base gasket and then cut the head to get the desired squish band.
It’ll ship to Kustom Kraft tomorrow.
It sucks to get old
Time to get back on this thing.
Figured I’d go with a mild steel grab bar and weld it to the subframe rather than bolt one on. It’s lazy, but it strengthens the subframe a bit.
Next up is mounting the silencer. I could have sworn it was going to clear the air-box/rear fender, but it won’t, so some bending is in order.
Getting hard to walk around the shop, I hate that.
I love your workspace!
Red Rider's Sand Machine Updated 07/23/14
I haven’t mentally psyched myself up to modify a perfectly good brand new silencer, so I decided to deal with the tail light mount first.
KTM was kind enough to include the wiring for one, so all I had to do was buy a wire from the street legal version and a tail light from someone in China that claims it will work.
The stock ATV mount is extremely close to the seat latch and the grab bar would have blocked most of it, so I decided to make a mount that lowered the location.
Once again 18ga. sheet metal is used instead of aluminum. Sometimes you just have to work with what you have.
That’s a lot of tool box’s
Chris
Nice fab work.
Hope I don't ever run into the back of you!
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Would you please quite messing with the fine details take it for a rip? You have the patience of a friggin monk. WE WANT A RIDE REPORT!
Looking for a Bassani silencer for a 2nd gen tecate, the style with the movable mount. 1st gen will work
Been collecting tools for over 39 years. It’s an illness.
Let’s hope our trikes get close enough to each other for that to happen one day.
That’s still a good ways off. You’ll have to suffer the details along with me for a few more months.
Thrilled to report that I did NOT have to cut my new silencer.
As luck would have it I burst an FMF silencer a couple years back and destroyed it while trying to take it apart, so I still had the stinger and with a little grinding and trial and error cutting I was able to turn it into an extension that ( I hope I’m not jinxing myself here) appears to fit perfectly.
Note the offset silencer mounts, the there’s a slight angle, but I think it looks ok.
I see I’m almost out of CO2 and Monday is a holiday here, so this may be where my progress ends for a bit.