| Author | Message | ||
     Seanp |
 Oh, and when a sign says "Road Closed", you might want to pay attention. The sad thing is that 30 minutes earlier I was at a dealership looking at a KLR250 thinking how much I'd like to have a dedicated toy for riding off road, rather than trying to use the Uly. | ||
| Orangeulius |
I love my new PR2's but that picture is just brutal. I bet they were like running slicks on ice. I share your yearning for a light toss around off road to compliment the Uly. Need more money! | ||
| Slowride |
Seriously, That's not Mud~ That is a sink hole with sand and clay over it.... No way i would have tried that. | ||
| Hughlysses |
I don't know that the Scorpion Syncs would have been much better in that muck. | ||
| Spacecapsule1 |
nope, the syncs would be worthless in that. already tried. | ||
| Lost_in_ohio |
I love how deep the foot prints are. | ||
| Uly1080 |
At least it looks like it was a nice, cushy landing...softer than my driveway where I dropped mine when it was still brand new.  | ||
| Danger_dave |
Lucky you had the pontoons on or you might not have seen it again. | ||
| Seanp |
Yeah, now I know what it's like to ride on ice. I got about halfway down the road and thought, maybe I should turn back. But no, I had to charge ahead... I felt the front wheel dig itself in, then the back wheel. I stepped off the bike, and it stayed upright for a bit. I realized the kick stand wasn't going to work with the bike 5 inches shorter than normal, so I laid it down gently. About the only time the expression "I had to lay 'er down" is valid, I think. And what are you saying about the depth of the footprints!?!?! I know I need to lose a few pounds, but man, to call me out in public like that...  Luckily I had two friends that didn't have anything else to do on a Thursday afternoon. It's now sitting in my garage, mostly cleaned up, sulking that I've abused it so. Tomorrow I ride 300+ miles. I hope nothing broke! | ||
| Johnboy777 |
How are the Pilot Road II's working for you on the asphalt? I was thinking that those might be my next choice. I heard they are good in the rain, as well. . | ||
| Seanp |
On the asphalt they're great. I ride rain or shine, and in the rain they're awesome. Just not so much in the mud... Some folks complain that they can feel the place in the tire where it goes from the hard to soft compound, but they must have much more sensitive butts than me. I don't feel it. | ||
| Etennuly |
I'm real happy with those tires too, however I think I would have avoided that mud pit!  How the heck did you guys get it out of that? Even with two guys helping a crane comes to mind. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Bah, the PR2's are fine off road just not "muddin'". The ARE my tire of choice. Wear as well or better than anything else I have tried and stick wet or dry. | ||
| Adrian_8 |
To take a ULY in that situation you must have had a severe case of Advrider Syndrome......The ULY was never intended to go there with its sport bike tires. Buy the KLX or even better a KTM.. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Wet sloppy mud = BAD Dry with no giant baby heads = GOOD TO GO! | ||
| Hooper |
(I would have gone for it too) This leads me to a big question that Mr. bstrd may have answered: What IS the ideal tire for the Uly? The ideal mix of 90% road, 10% off-road? I'm enjoying my 2nd rear D616, but am eager to try a new front. What should a Uly rider use for the go-to tires? | ||
| Cityxslicker |
with a proper set of Mt-60s, I would have hit it, turned around and hit again. If I failed, I would have taken the wreck pic and keep hitting it until the sun went down. Yeeee'ha. Get some mud on dem tires. Gonna have to come and visit down FLA way sometime | ||
| Ulyssesguy |
that looks lie the orange version of the gray wet floppy sticky stuff we have up here in Washington... I don't think even the mt-60s would have saved ya there... | ||
| Reepicheep |
A KLR-250, down a tooth on the front sprocket, with Kenda Trackmaster II's, and a little inertia, would have been a LOT of fun through there. Until later, when you were trying to get all the mud out of your gear  Wind it out in second, get your weight back, stand on the pegs, and let -er rip! My KLR-250 is *almost* running again. Not a great bike, but a great cheap bike. For $3500, you could probably do better with something else, but I am seeing a lot of runners going for $1000 or less. They have weak top ends, so watch your oil levels carefully, but overall they are reasonably solid and easy to repair, and will go *anywhere* (just not as fast as edgier bikes). Great picture! Thanks for posting it. I know all too well that "Now What?" moment when you are sitting on a bike in deep mud... | ||
| Seanp |
Well, I walked back to my house, (about a mile away from the mud) and got my truck, ramp, and some tools and drove back. I dug some trenches under the tires so I could lift the bike - and let me tell you, that left saddlebag had some SUCTION. I got the bike up and propped it up with a shove on each side. I was going to try to use ratchet straps to winch it up into the truck, but that would never work, so I called two friends. We basically manhandled the bike up into the truck. | ||
| Reepicheep |
At least you didn't stand it back up, try and kick start the stupid flooded thing while wearing full gear in 95 degree heat, only to slip and flop *right* back over. Twice. DAMHIK. | ||
| Tm74 |
Hey Reepicheep. I was thinking about picking up a KLR250 I ran across the other day to compliment my DR650. I did some quick research after reading about the problems you have had. From what I read with the weak top end they suggested under 3K between valve adjustments. Is that true? How often do you do yours? The thing was like new and at a good price. The top end kinda scared me off though. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Lots of KLR-250's running around with 30k miles. There are still some things that are "unexplained", but when you get right down to it, my failure was to a large degree self induced. As was my overheating problem. Had I been fairly obsessive about watching oil levels (every 150 miles) I would probably have not had a problem. And my bike, bought for $560 from eBay, was about as ratty a bike as you can buy and pretend it's a "runner". Don't let me scare you off, they are a *great* playbike. There are much better bikes in the $2000 to $3000 range, but I can't imagine doing much better if you are in the $500 to $1200 range. Its way more fun than anything $1200 or less has any business being. The 85 I have was the first year, and I think from 86 on had a different cam and cam cap setup. The newer ones are probably better. The new top end was shared on the Mojave quad also. Solid used top ends seem to sell for anything between $250 and $400, so that and a $20 head gasket and you are good to go again. So even if it does croak, its not an end of the world thing. Had I reacted better to my initial event (still not clear what it was), I would not have trashed my head. Had I used a correct head gasket (laminated silicone and steel) instead of the copper one I found on ebay, I would not have had the overheating problems. My oil pump was missing a chunk from a tooth, and fixing this helped the oil pressure, but it was running fine this way for probably many thousands of miles. My coolant pump was missing a shim, and replacing it helped coolant flow, but even without the shim the bike was not overheating, even in fairly challenging slow through the mud conditions. I followed the torque specs, but the previous owner apparently didn't (or maybe they did, who knows), so there are a half dozen or so heli-coils in various orifices throughout the bike (figure $100 in kits, unless you previously drank the metric cool aide and already have the taps). So lots wrong with the bike, and I am happy to be sorting it all out, but most of it owner induced, or mostly harmles, and nothing that was that bad to fix. It is a far better bike then a $600 23 year old motorcycle has *any* business being... Sorry for the thread drift... Great shot of the Muddy Uly! Next time, ride with a partner, so we can see you flopped over next to it (even if you have to stage it ). | ||
| Reepicheep |
Oh, and valve adjustments are REALLY easy. I haven't put 3k miles on the bike since I got it (the Buell is the street bike, the KLR is the barely street legal woods playbike), but have adjusted the valves twice. It's locknuts, so its a sub 30 minute job with no parts required. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
sounds like when the rain comes, its time to go MUD huntin | ||
| Odie |
I like my Pilot Road II on the rear of my 12Scg. I run a Pilot Power up front. I do, however, feel the switch from hard to soft. More so when riding hard like up in Suches during March Badness. I feel it here once in a while too. I sort of have come to expect it now so it's not quite so discomforting. I don't particularly like it but I can't go buying a new Pilot Power every 3000 miles. Overall I'm happy with the tire. (Message edited by odie on August 15, 2008) | ||
| Tipsymcstagger |
After dropping my Uly in the mud, I decide I wanted a proper bike to play with in the dirt. Got a great deal on an '03 DR-Z 400S last week and took it up to the Hancock (NY) Rally for my first outing. It was a blast! VERY muddy and the DR-Z handled it like a champ! I'd been eying the CL and ADV ads for a few months and finally came across a deal I couldn't pass up. Tipsy (Message edited by tipsymcstagger on August 18, 2008) | ||
| Tm74 |
Thanks for the info Reepicheep and sorry for the hi-jack. | ||
| Seanp |
Tipsy - that's what I'm looking for is a DRZ-400. I've got my eye on one in SW Florida on the ADV Flea Market that will hopefully still be available when I have some more money next month. It would go through that stuff with ease! |
