B
biglou
I finally got the new bike out for the break-in run. I think my normal riding speed is about break-in level, anyway. If not, I may have pushed her a little too hard, so don't tell anyone...
It started with 3-4 of us commited to a ride today. One by one, the calls came in: "I hafta go outta town." "I gotta help my brother move." And, at 0730 this morning: "Have you looked outside yet? Looks kinda drizzly..." Me: *sigh*"Yes, I've already been out. It's 44degrees with no wind. It's awesome outside!" Last riding buddy standing: "Well, work called and they want me to come in if I can..."
Fine. I'll go alone! In the 45 minutes it took me to drive to the track, the temp went from 44-39, and the occasional sprinkle turned into a steady drizzle. Once I get to the track, I see that I am not the craziest person in Missouri. I'm the 2nd craziest on account of there was one other rider there before me. And, as I pulled in, it stopped raining. Because it changed over to SLEET. At least the wind picked up and switched around to the north. Yay...
I park facing downhill a bit, unload the bike, grab the gear bag and opt to just put on pants and boots. No Leatt, no Asterisks, and no CP. Riding pants and boots, hoodie, helmet and gloves. It was too cold to be standing half naked in a field in west-central Missouri.
I wave to the other crazy person in the giant parking area. He waved back and kinda looked at me like I was crazy.
Ok, it's been two days shy of four weeks since I kicked this red beast over. Let's see how good this FI is after nearly an hour in almost freezing temps. Pull the "choke", or whatever they call it. One kick, two kicks, a little rumble, third kick and she fired right off. Hey! This is kinda sweet!
I push the choke in, let her warm up for a minute or so, and off I go. A quick lap around this little oval to warm up the gearbox, and I hit the start straight. Temptation to hammer it was just barely restrained. 1st lap was extra slow since there were some minor changes for the last state race, so that helped me stay out of it. After that, I got on it progressively more and more. All things being relative, I was pushing what I would consider my "race pace", although only in sections. I would attack a straightaway, or a turn, then back way off. My intent was to almost constantly vary the RPM's.
All of that being said, and keeping in mind this is all relative to an old, fat, slow guy, here are my various impressions of the different aspects of this bike:
Me: 42, 6'0", 250lbs., mid-pack C rider on a very good day, coming off 3-1/2 years on a 2005 YZ250 2-stroke. Prior to that was a 2004 YZ450F and before that was a 2001 YZ426F.
The track: Midwest Extreme Park, located just outside of beautiful downtown Merwin, MO (pop. 75). The track was dry, but other than that was in great shape. Not its usual blue-groove, but not race-prepped flypaper tacky by a longshot.
Weather: As stated above, cold, overcast, spitting sleet and rain, north wind. Kinda miserable, actually.
The bike started easily for me. Nothing to it, really.
The bike feels SOLID. The seat is very firm, and the suspension seems pretty much spot-on for my riding ability. It did seem to loosen up a bit toward the end of the ride.
Power delivery is not "right now", it is "a half second ago." There's NO lag whatsoever between the engine and the throttle. Whatever you do to the throttle, happens instantaneously at the engine. Period. It took me a few laps to get used to it. If you move around and twist the throttle a bit (like you used to do on your carburetored bike) you will know it. Instantly. You can scare the poop out of yourself at times until you start getting into that instant response groove.
In stock form (I did not buy the ignition remapping software...yet) the power delivery is very linear. There's no real hit (not counting right off idle), but if you twist the throttle, the engine responds with power. It's a 1:1 ratio kinda thing. Hard to describe the feel. Not the big hit of the 06-up models, but not that anemic feel of the 02's by a longshot. I flirted with wrapping her out into the higher revs on occasion on the 3rd and 4th sessions, and it was all there. I probably never twisted the throttle past 1/2 way, but whatever I gave the throttle, the engine responded. After a fluids change, it will be time to see what she's really made of. I have a feeling I will not be disappointed.
Standing on the pegs, in the attack position, I could lift the front wheel just by thinking about it. Any kind of small roller and I could choose just how much I wanted to unweight the front end by applying a little more throttle. I was amazed at how easily the front wheel unweighted and lifted. It was awesome.
The front brake seemed a little less than spectacular the first time out. I tend to use a lot of front brake, and it seemed a little flat. On my last run, I made it a point to test the brake and really concentrate on its performance. It's fine. It's more than adequate. Maybe it needed to seat in to the rotor, but it seemed to have gotten a bit better after some laps.
Ah, that fabulous Honda turning. I found myself overturning, just like when I rode Okie's 06 CRF450 three years ago. I could pick a rut and just stay with it, or flat-track it around loose turns with confidence. As a matter of fact, the bike spoke to me several times. She said: "Turn with confidence, young man." :)
Also, the bike NEVER felt twitchy to me. It cuts turns like a razor, and in the fast straights, it tracked true for me. I did go up one click on the steering damper before this ride, so that may have helped. But honestly, the bike was always planted and solid feeling.
My final verdict: I couldn't be happier. And I wouldn't say that if it weren't true. Even after writing that monster check for this bad boy. If I didn't like it, I would say so. I was jumping farther, feeling more confident, etc, than I have in quite some time. For the first time in my riding history, I have nothing to buy for a new bike except maybe some preprinted backgrounds or something. This bike doesn't need a pipe. It doesn't need anything except for me to lose 50lbs. and get my cardio up so I can ride it like it was meant to be ridden!
That's all folks! Oh, a couple pictures to prove the craziness:
.
It started with 3-4 of us commited to a ride today. One by one, the calls came in: "I hafta go outta town." "I gotta help my brother move." And, at 0730 this morning: "Have you looked outside yet? Looks kinda drizzly..." Me: *sigh*"Yes, I've already been out. It's 44degrees with no wind. It's awesome outside!" Last riding buddy standing: "Well, work called and they want me to come in if I can..."
Fine. I'll go alone! In the 45 minutes it took me to drive to the track, the temp went from 44-39, and the occasional sprinkle turned into a steady drizzle. Once I get to the track, I see that I am not the craziest person in Missouri. I'm the 2nd craziest on account of there was one other rider there before me. And, as I pulled in, it stopped raining. Because it changed over to SLEET. At least the wind picked up and switched around to the north. Yay...
I park facing downhill a bit, unload the bike, grab the gear bag and opt to just put on pants and boots. No Leatt, no Asterisks, and no CP. Riding pants and boots, hoodie, helmet and gloves. It was too cold to be standing half naked in a field in west-central Missouri.
I wave to the other crazy person in the giant parking area. He waved back and kinda looked at me like I was crazy.
Ok, it's been two days shy of four weeks since I kicked this red beast over. Let's see how good this FI is after nearly an hour in almost freezing temps. Pull the "choke", or whatever they call it. One kick, two kicks, a little rumble, third kick and she fired right off. Hey! This is kinda sweet!
I push the choke in, let her warm up for a minute or so, and off I go. A quick lap around this little oval to warm up the gearbox, and I hit the start straight. Temptation to hammer it was just barely restrained. 1st lap was extra slow since there were some minor changes for the last state race, so that helped me stay out of it. After that, I got on it progressively more and more. All things being relative, I was pushing what I would consider my "race pace", although only in sections. I would attack a straightaway, or a turn, then back way off. My intent was to almost constantly vary the RPM's.
All of that being said, and keeping in mind this is all relative to an old, fat, slow guy, here are my various impressions of the different aspects of this bike:
Me: 42, 6'0", 250lbs., mid-pack C rider on a very good day, coming off 3-1/2 years on a 2005 YZ250 2-stroke. Prior to that was a 2004 YZ450F and before that was a 2001 YZ426F.
The track: Midwest Extreme Park, located just outside of beautiful downtown Merwin, MO (pop. 75). The track was dry, but other than that was in great shape. Not its usual blue-groove, but not race-prepped flypaper tacky by a longshot.
Weather: As stated above, cold, overcast, spitting sleet and rain, north wind. Kinda miserable, actually.
The bike started easily for me. Nothing to it, really.
The bike feels SOLID. The seat is very firm, and the suspension seems pretty much spot-on for my riding ability. It did seem to loosen up a bit toward the end of the ride.
Power delivery is not "right now", it is "a half second ago." There's NO lag whatsoever between the engine and the throttle. Whatever you do to the throttle, happens instantaneously at the engine. Period. It took me a few laps to get used to it. If you move around and twist the throttle a bit (like you used to do on your carburetored bike) you will know it. Instantly. You can scare the poop out of yourself at times until you start getting into that instant response groove.
In stock form (I did not buy the ignition remapping software...yet) the power delivery is very linear. There's no real hit (not counting right off idle), but if you twist the throttle, the engine responds with power. It's a 1:1 ratio kinda thing. Hard to describe the feel. Not the big hit of the 06-up models, but not that anemic feel of the 02's by a longshot. I flirted with wrapping her out into the higher revs on occasion on the 3rd and 4th sessions, and it was all there. I probably never twisted the throttle past 1/2 way, but whatever I gave the throttle, the engine responded. After a fluids change, it will be time to see what she's really made of. I have a feeling I will not be disappointed.
Standing on the pegs, in the attack position, I could lift the front wheel just by thinking about it. Any kind of small roller and I could choose just how much I wanted to unweight the front end by applying a little more throttle. I was amazed at how easily the front wheel unweighted and lifted. It was awesome.
The front brake seemed a little less than spectacular the first time out. I tend to use a lot of front brake, and it seemed a little flat. On my last run, I made it a point to test the brake and really concentrate on its performance. It's fine. It's more than adequate. Maybe it needed to seat in to the rotor, but it seemed to have gotten a bit better after some laps.
Ah, that fabulous Honda turning. I found myself overturning, just like when I rode Okie's 06 CRF450 three years ago. I could pick a rut and just stay with it, or flat-track it around loose turns with confidence. As a matter of fact, the bike spoke to me several times. She said: "Turn with confidence, young man." :)
Also, the bike NEVER felt twitchy to me. It cuts turns like a razor, and in the fast straights, it tracked true for me. I did go up one click on the steering damper before this ride, so that may have helped. But honestly, the bike was always planted and solid feeling.
My final verdict: I couldn't be happier. And I wouldn't say that if it weren't true. Even after writing that monster check for this bad boy. If I didn't like it, I would say so. I was jumping farther, feeling more confident, etc, than I have in quite some time. For the first time in my riding history, I have nothing to buy for a new bike except maybe some preprinted backgrounds or something. This bike doesn't need a pipe. It doesn't need anything except for me to lose 50lbs. and get my cardio up so I can ride it like it was meant to be ridden!
That's all folks! Oh, a couple pictures to prove the craziness:
.
