For those of you locals that need suspension work I've had Dave Clarke at rideconceptscalgary.com rebuild a DRZ shock,KTM690 shock, and now the shock off my Beta Rev 3 trials bike. He's reasonable and does good work. He also works on quads, sleds and big bikes. He's a dealer for different brands as well so if you want good service at a reasonable price (who doesn't?) give him a call. He'll help you set your bike up as well. Garrett
I'm a firm believer of keeping it simple. No fuel pump, no injector, no starter, no battery = all good. This way anything that can fail is mechanical or my doing. I did the entire electrical system, including the re-wound stator. If your fuel pump would break down in S.A that could leave you stationary for months and cost you thousands to fix. That's huge. This isn't even going into the fact that it's too big, too heavy, and too dependant on sensors, etc. All of which you can't trouble shoot or fix in most places. Everybody likes different things. As previously mentioned I put a lot of emphasis on small and simple. Fuel pumps failing is not an uncommon thing on "new" FI models. Husabergs, WRR's, etc. This all being said is mechanical things still do fail. The XRR isn't known for high mileage, but it's also known to be very well built. I had a chain snap on me crossing the Great Plains of Wyoming. Thank whoever I should thank it was 10 KM from a town, and not the previous 4-5 hours of empty, bare landscape I just finished riding and not seeing a single person! I'd like a 990 in the future, but for right now I don't think it's the bike for me. I think it's the best big bike, but with motorcycles there's no perfect bike.
The 990 is capable for it's size, but some of my days would have went much, much worse if I was riding one. Picking up bikes in deep gravel switchbacks would not be fun. The one day it happened three times in the morning with no food for 12 hours. I was low on energy and just needing to get off a mountain top in the middle of nowhere in Mexico. I hate being limited to where I can go by what I ride. Hence the XRR. Its the closest you can get to a trail bike without actually being a trail bike. Somewhere in here. Hours into a ride (where I slept on a switch back in my tent), and hours yet to get somewhere I could get food: http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=15.616...92.340088&spn=1.740487,2.117615&num=1&t=h&z=9 One thing you want going south is a narrow bike. The more narrow the better. This helps immensly when going through traffice, down walk ways (don't laugh, I rode a lot of sidewalks and walkways), etc. Bumping cars with lugage is done often, but I don't think it makes the receiving end happy. I noticed I had much less issues then the others I've rode with that had hard, wide luggage on KLR's and DR's and a GS12. Spare parts add up. More spares, more luggage, heavier and bigger bike, and more to take off the bike when leaving it. It's actually a pretty big pain. My spares included fuel filters (tiny), a kicker (they can fall off), gear shift, tire tubes and repair tools. I had spare sprockets but they fell off at the top of Engineer's pass and rolled down 1000's of feet. No lie. I also had spare brake pads, wheel bearings, and some seals (gear shift, primary drive, fork seals) Never did end up using those but my bearings in the rear wheel were shot when I got back. Front pads are on their last rides too. I still believe the best trip bike is a modified DR650 but that's mostly because of maintenance and simplicity. As for my electrical system, the coil that runs the bike is separate so unless something happens to the CDI feed, the bike will run. If anything happens on the rest of the electrical system it's isolated from the part that runs the bike. I believe most simple bikes are wired this way. I hope ALL bikes are wired this way, but I feel they aren't. I believe I've decided to keep what I have because of it's capability and simplicity and work on a few additions / modifications to make it better maintenance wise and improve my lighting. I hope to do S.A fall 2014 for 6-7 months.
Yes - the simplicity of the DR and ease of maintenance makes it my choice as well for a multi-month tour in Latin America. Of the bikes in my garage, the DR requires (and gets) the least amount of wrenching from me and is the only bike that seems always ready to ride. Not sexy, fast or good looking, but a solid runner for sure.
A good close 2nd though is the XRL 650. Better suspension than the DR and more dirt but less street. Simpler too. I'd take either but lean more XRL.
This may be a silly question, but does the XRL have as much aftermarket support? The DR has a good selection, including a 9 gal tank. Mmmmmm. Most people do complain about the suspension but the ones I've seen ridden were all re-sprung and revalved. I can attest to how much improvement there was when I did my XRR! Night and day. My next feat is to improve my lighting. Right now I have lots of light with an 8" HID, but I want to add high/low with better optics. Thinking of installing a projector with clear/plastic housing to reduce some weight. Otherwise selling it all and going LED, but I have yet to see one that has good optics. Some have dimmers but still blind oncomming traffic. If you guys know of something better let me know.
Show me what Alberta regulation states that you may not street plate a RUM bike. I haven't found it, and I have looked. For a bike purchased, or already registered in Alberta this is a grey area where there is no stated policy on the part of the government.
Technically, if you ask an insurance company about it they say it has to be "street legal", but that's a wide term. Myself and my buddy ride em. No problems and mine is technically not very complacent with "legally set-up", but then again using common sense and not drawing attention helps. I also ride mine 95% offroad. This goes for all the KTM's (less EXE's), WR's, and 2010- Husabergs you see thumping away on the streets too.
There was a post here a while ago where an inmate posted a letter from the government of Alberta that said it was not legal to register an off highway vehicle for on road use in Alberta. It was definitely a stated policy-it was on Alberta Transportation letterhead. You might be able to get it done at a bike friendly registry, but that doesn't make it legal and it could come back to bite you down the road. I was going to buy an XR-R until I saw that. Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2
So here's a question related to dirt bike registration in Alberta: Would I be able to transfer my street registered 2001 CR250R from New Brunswick to Alberta or should I sell it here? Whatever I end up doing my goal is to continue to have a street legal dirt bike for trail riding and I would rather keep the one I have now. I lived in Jasper from '88 to '02 and have been thinking of looking for work in the Calgary area.
No way for you to pass an Alberta Out of Province inspection on an RUM bike. That is an item in the inspection manual for the mechanic to use for an OPI.
Yup, Sell it and buy a 07?+ EXE, Husaberg 2011+ 570 here. There are a few other options, but that's about it. Or if you want to be a rebel, buy another 250R and insure / register it for street use. Insurance companies blame you, registration companies are too stupid to know better. I know rules are rules, but I do not have a street legal bike, headlight, signals, tailight, tires, and exhaust. I've yet to have an issue because I don't draw unneccessy attetion. My exhaust is loud which I hope to fix this year. Damn FMF. The beauty is with these bikes (dual sports) is you're probably the best liked "motorcyclists" on the road.
I must have missed this. That really sucks, especially as I have met almost all of the owners of that bike. At least 4 of them.
I bet you get more if you sell the Honda in Alberta...there is no requirement for inspection if it is registered as an OHV
Not sure what is different about my XRR, but it's fully registered as a street bike in AB and has been for the past 3 owners. The original owner put a Baja kit on it, so it has signals and a battery, and neither me nor the previous owner had any trouble with the Registry office or insurance, and they went over the paperwork in detail. Never been pulled over on it though. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> <o></o> Btw great debate on the merits of the KTM Adventure versus the XRR - I have both bikes and will certainly have an opinion after I ride the KTM some more!<o></o>
I read somewhere that the 2000 and 2001 XRR's can get through a less than thorough inspection because they don't explicitly say RMU on the title. The later bikes do. YMMV. Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2
Here is a photo of us last weekend in Mclean. Me on the GS, Kevin2Wheels on the Versys and two friends. Staying in the quad trails was OK...until you got off track. The center bead on the K60 rear does not like snow. On the other hand I am not that good.... I'm a skier so I say bring on the snow - but getting back out on the bike sure was good.
