Quote:
Originally Posted by Tmall
Tye, Jtemple...
I broke my hand this summer, and haven't been riding my Kx at all. So, I'm thinking since I didn't ride it much (11hours) I'm going to throw some money at it.
What is the best bang for the buck pipe? Full system? Could you suggest one that offers a bit of power and a little less noise?
What about springs? Are they expensive? Hard to replace on your own? I'd love to get the suspension sprung for my weight, but the local shop wants way too much money. I was thinking of doing it myself. I see the rear shock as no problem to re-spring. What about the forks? Is it worth doing it myself or just dropping it off to the pros?
Tye, What kind of tires would you suggest as an all around off-road tire/mx? I'd like to specify exactly what I ride, but it's a mix of hard pack, rocks and sand. To try and pick a tire for one, would leave me lacking in other areas. I don't race, but when I do ride hard and hit jumps it's usually in soft dirt or sand.
Hope I didn't side track your thread too much Jtemple.
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Let's see, pipes...
The stock pipes, at least on my bike, sounded great. The problem with them is that the system ran very hot (due to the catalytic converters stashed inside the mufflers) and weighed 30+ lbs. The heaviest things on the bike that you can quickly swap out to shed some fat are, in order of weight savings, exhaust, battery, passenger pegs.
I never ride 2-up, so the passenger pegs were removed right after I got the bike.
You can shed 7-8 lbs just by switching to a lightweight battery. I haven't done that yet.
Bill over at Bill's motorcycles plus has a son that has a TE630. The two of them set out to shed as much weight as they could. Bill had some FMF slipons that he picked up on closeout that were made for a 2008 RMZ450 quad. As it turns out, they were the perfect shape for the TE630. He fabbed up a slipon collar that fit the 630 and offered the pipes up for sale, with carbon heat shield for a hair over $400 shipped to my door. I bought one:
That saved me about 10-12 lbs. The FMF was louder than the stock exhaust, but I didn't mind. It wasn't obnoxious and the sound was easily controlled by my right hand. I liked it a lot. The bike felt lighter and more responsive, and ran cooler.
However, what I
really wanted was that Leo Vince Ti system. 17.5 lbs lighter than the stock system and just a thing of beauty. But, $1100+ MSRP was mind boggling. I know you get what you pay for, but I had recently bought the bike, a whole buttload of riding gear, and had 2-3 road trips planned. I had already spent a ton of money. So, I went with the FMF kit from Bill and bought my own iBeat so I could tune my own ECU. The iBeat will also troubleshoot fault codes, so that's an added bonus, especially when there's no Husky dealer within 450 miles of me.
When news got out that the 630 was being discontinued for 2012, I knew the aftermarket was going to dry up. The 630s were marked way down to unload dealer stock. People were now buying them up left & right and buying up the add-ons. So, getting the Leo system was a now-or-never thing, and I decided to go for it. I got 3 price quotes on it, and Bill's was the best, at $925 shipped. I bought it.
Anyway, back to sound. The Leo system is a little quieter than the FMF, and this is without the db killer installed. It falls somewhere between the stock exhaust and the FMF, as far as sound is concerned.
Bill is out of the RMZ450 slipons, but FMF has an official single sided slipon for the 630, but it's priced in the $650 range. Leo Vince also makes a pair of dual slipon cans for it. Neither of those options will get you the weight savings that a full Ti system will. When you think about it, the full system really isn't that much more money.
I haven't done any suspension work on the bike, except for setting the preload on the rear shock. The front is rebound damping adjustable only. You can't set preload. You can get some compression damping adjusters pretty cheaply, but I haven't had the need for them.
I have done fork work in the past on mountain bikes (MTB suspension is almost identical to motorcycle suspension - just smaller), and on my SV650. It's not all that hard.
Being a DS rider, I need tires that are decent off road, but will still take some highway punishment. So far, I've settled on Pirelli MT21s.
People that ride 90% off road seem to like Motoz tires a lot, though they're hard to get in the states.
I tried some, and they barely lasted 600 miles. The pavement eats them alive, but they're awesome off road.
Here's where I got mine.
There's also kind of a cult following on some other forums of running trials tires, specifically the rear tire. I haven't tried it yet.