Not a lot of news since my last post except I now have a
hard cast on my arm from the surgery and it is driving me crazy. Another week
and a half and I get it off and start rehab to get my hand back into full operation
without the pain; or at least that’s what the doctor promised. It will be worth
it if he’s right.
Weather started getting cooler and wetter right after my
surgery so the rest of the riders haven’t ridden much. I keep pressuring them
to go out before real winter gets here. I’ve always been a year round rider and
have commuted the 12 miles to work down to freezing on many occasions. Of
course that was on large cruiser bikes with wind shields and heated gloves and
clothing. Not sure I would do that on the CRF; maybe to the low 40’s. We’ll
see.
I wanted to document some updates to my bike while I’m out
of commission.
I recently installed new mirrors from Doubletake. The stock
mirrors give good rear view but continually get knocked loose with every fall.
The Double take mirrors use RAM Mount hardware and can easily be stowed in a
protected position or completely removed in rough terrain. In addition, they
look bulletproof. I look at a lot of YouTube video of dual-sport ridding and I
see these on a lot of serious off-road bikes. I also like the fact that they
provide two more RAM Mount balls that can be used for my GoPro camera or SPOT.
Pictures of my bike with stock and new mirrors below.
I have also ordered and expect to receive today a new seat
from SeatConcepts. I’ve seen several of their seats on different bikes and they
are sweet and much, much more comfortable than stock seat. The stock CRF seat
works for day rides but would be a torture machine on a 10 day long endurance
ride. I broke down and decided to add this comfort item to my upgrades to save
my tired old body. Pictures of stock and new seats below.
I found out after a couple of rides that I had no way to
lift the bike to oil the chain or even take a wheel off to fix a flat. I bought
a motorcycle lift from Sears and it has worked out perfectly. I can lift the
bike even with one hand in a cast and it feels stable while on the lift.
Picture of jack below.
The one item I’ve been researching for a long time is my
luggage configuration for the CRF. Since I can’t go riding for a while, I’ve
been googling pictures of other people riding their dual-sports in some
beautiful wilderness areas. I always take note of how they load their bikes to
get ideas. As a result of my AK1 and AK2 rides, I have a fair amount of
experience on what works and what doesn’t. Some basic facts (my opinions only)
that helped me decide on what I want on the CRF:
1
Hard-shell paniers (saddle-bags) work great on
large touring and adventure bikes. They are waterproof, carry lots of stuff and
are easy to get things in/out when needed. They are also heavy and will get
damaged when a 500+ lb bike falls over. I know from experience. They also make
the bike wider and can get caught on trees or rocks on narrow trails. Most
importantly is that when you fall (not if) they can be a source of injury if
your legs or feet get caught under them. I
quickly decided I would not install hard-shell anything on my CRF.
2
Stacking bags high on the back is a common theme
on the dual-sport bikes I’ve googled. I understand the logic and did the same
thing on AK1 and AK2 on my large touring/adventure bikes. The problem is that
weight up high makes the bike hard to handle and very unstable during critical maneuvering.
I know I will be carrying at least 1 gallon of fuel on my back rack in a
RotorPax system. I will also be taking some items in a bag made by Watershed on
top of the RotoPax. These are fantastic bags that are totally waterproof as
proven by me flipping a fully loaded raft on an Idaho wilderness river and
having all our clothes and sleeping bags set in the water over an hour until we
got the raft back upright. Everything was dry in camp that night. I have
several different sizes of these bags and will take either my small or medium
Watershed to hold my electronic or other stuff. I’ll decided which one as I
start doing trial loading in the future. Watershed picture below.
Putting another large bag on the back on top of my Watershed and Fuel
container was not an option. After looking at a lot of dual-sport pictures I
noticed there was a bag made by Grand Loop (GL) that may answer the mail. GL
makes two sizes of a horseshoe shaped bag that sets on the rear of the seat and
then runs down both sides to attach to the passenger foot pegs. The CRF does
have a seat capable of carrying a passenger (not that I would want to) and does
have foot pegs for the passenger. This approach also keeps the bag away from
the rear wheel so mud won’t get between bag and wheel (hard-shell paniers).
The two GL bags are Coyote (dual-sport bikes) and Great Basin
(touring/adventure bikes). They recommend the Coyote for the CRF250L but I
noticed on some of the pictures I had Googled that the larger Great Basin was
being used on several 250cc bikes and appeared to work ok. I had made up my
mind that I would use one or the other so just had to decide which to buy.
These are not cheap bags; $360 for Coyote and $450 for Great Basin. My
experience on AK2 on buying luggage is pick carefully what you buy and price
doesn’t guarantee quality. I bought Yamaha Paniers for the XT1200Z Super Tenere
and they were extremely expensive but were not nearly as good of quality as
some aftermarket paniers. GL bags have a good reputation but I was still
struggling on which bag to get. I sent an email to GL asking if the Great Basin
would work on the CRF and within a couple of hours got a reply with everything
I needed to make the decision. They said it would work fine and would only be a
problem if I was in a steep descent. I may feel like I’m setting on the bag
rather than standing on the pegs and only if I had the bag stuffed full. I
ordered the Great Basin and would rather have additional storage even if I
don’t use it than have to add on more small bags because the Coyote bag was
full. Once I get the Great Basin I will post pictures of it installed on the
CRF.
Finally
I decided to make up a tool bag specifically for the CRF. Not sure yet what I
will carry on the bike during TAT ride (weight being the limiting factor) but
these will be the bare essentials I need to work on the bike from my truck on
day trips. I spent last Saturday in the garage sorting all my Metric tools and
then trying every nut, bolt and Allen head I could find on the CRF and putting
the wrench/socket in my CRF tool bag. I actually found that the required tools
aren’t that much and since we have two CRFs on the ride plus two other Metric
bikes (KLRs) I can split up the tools among all of the riders. I already have a
spare clutch handle and gear change lever in the bag but I still need to add
spare tire tube(s). Since I have a 21” up front and an 18” in back I would
normally carry a tube for each. Some blogs I’ve read say you can use a 21” tube
in a smaller tire for emergency so may go that route. Still need to add spare
fuses.
Future
work – I still need to add hand guards but have yet to find the ones I want. In
addition, I plan on cutting down my rear fender. These dual-sport bikes have to
meet certain laws to be street legal so that must be the reason they stick the large
extension on the rear to hold the license plate. Totally useless and just in
the way. I’ve found a YouTube video of a guy cutting his extension off and
mounting the license plate just below the rear tail light. It requires
modifying the tail light so as to provide light for the license but nothing
serious. Hard to do with only one hand so this may have to wait until I get the
cast off.
That’s
all for now.
