Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Tho without static sag set not sure how that would affect the rest of the settings.

Massively. At really compression bouncy bits would be rebounding much too slow on big hits.
Chain tension is fine, it's the front end head shake at high speed rebound that seems all wrong.

In other bullshit, the fucking seals on the tiger forks are leaking again.
What do people use for dust/oil seals?

Please tell me you didn’t waste money on allballs?

I believe SKF or OEM (probably SKF).

Mate they are brilliant bikes. I can't say enough good things about them. They are cheap reliable go anywhere bikes. Parts are cheap, and so easy to repair. Yeah 5-10bhp would go amiss but it's not the end of the world.
People love to hate them. Yeah they can't compare to a T7 for example but they aren't in the same price bracket.

First set was fucking All balls as per recommendation from adventure rider. All shite more like.
Second set was supposed to be OEM from WeMoto. Obviously not. Had them workshop fitted. Dust seal springs rusted in a month. Pissed out oil today; MOT day.

Forks seals are such a frigging pain, I sympathize mate. I just found a puddle of oil under my CR250. Both fork seals, oil all over the pads too. Great.

They were OEM seals too.

I guess my experience is seeing people trying to use them on “easy” green lanes and struggling, and then trying to ride them long distance and struggling.

Totally with you, they are a love-to-hate bike and I was sorely tempted to own one before realising the DR350 was a better platform for me at the time. With prices now, if you’re doing commuting and rare gravel there’s almost nothing else in class.

Fucking ballache. Just ordered some stuff from Brooks Suspension and let’s see how it goes. Need to order some seal drivers.
Am I being a dumbass for ordering an eBay jobbie?

Nah, you'll be fine. They're not exactly complex or high precision parts.

You'll probably want to try different engine types in time but I would look at a Honda twin with a low centre of gravity. V twin would be my preference or the Svartpilen 401.

Dirt, wear or play?

@Chak springs shouldn't rust in that sort time maybe speak to wemoto.

Reading up some people grease the seals when installing or replacing oil, are the oe ones single or double lip seal. A long while ago some ohlins forks a bike had used to go through ohlins seals on a regular basis but some Yamaha ones were double lipped while ohlins were single seal.

Would it be worthwhile to try cleaning the seals with a bit of old camera film.

Do you need seal drivers? As a cheap skate I just use cut up bits of plumbing plastic pipe.

I know what you mean. Standard tyres are the biggest problem when you start going off road on them and it gets even moderately muddy. They do off road well in standard trim, I ride with a big group who have them and they have all sorts of mods such as lift kits and none of the upgrades are hard or expensive to do. You don't really need to though, apart from a decent sump guard.
I got rid of mine and went for a DR200 but if I had the money I would have kept it as the Himalayan was a better all rounder and I do miss it to be fair.

Heading on a pretty hefty off road tour of Morocco tomorrow. Some days using only what looks like footpaths through steep mountains of over 3000m. Wish me luck. GPX files below if you'd like to take a look.

Day 1 - ridewithgps.com/routes/46473024
Day 2 - ridewithgps.com/routes/46473100
Day 3 - ridewithgps.com/routes/46473147
Day 4 - ridewithgps.com/routes/46473279
Day 5 - ridewithgps.com/routes/46485465
Day 6 - ridewithgps.com/routes/46485648
This day pushes it I think, depending on the surfaces through the mountains we might get stuck
Day 7 - ridewithgps.com/routes/46485666

I'm extremely envious. You'll have the best time ever. That route looks fantastic too, it's quite nearby to a lot of the riding we did but also none of the same roads exactly.

If I remember correctly the route you're planning on Day 6 is one we discussed with the hotel manager of the place we stayed in Tamtetoucht and he advised us against it as it's an absolute humdinger (keep in mind we were on Monkey bikes though so should be ok on proper bikes...)

Take lots of photos / let us know where we can see them!

Have fun, stay safe and bring us back stories of heroism, stupidity and the fun you had.

That's amazing - what an adventure! What are you riding?

VF750 and VFR800 inc most of the more recent vtec ones (?) suffer from suspension being way too soft unless you weigh 55 kg. I think its the reason so many folk are put off them, underwhelmed by a ride on one.
Gold or YSS cartridge emulator in the front + correct spring.
Correct spring and rebuild of rear stock showa with a little more compression damping. Totally transforms from soggy tourer with weird geometry (because bike is sagged too far in the front and/or rear) and crashy front end into something genuinely brilliant at doing most things for most people.

BTW anyone fancy SE Asia, very much recommend Vietnam. Covered approx 14,000 km of Hanoi, north west, central and south regions, plus a healthy loop of Cambodia into the actual arse belonging to nowhere.

Some of the best riding roads anywhere in the world, surfaces when they are good, are best of european quality good. Sure other drivers are lunatics, but your all riders, you get used to everyone around you being a problem so not too much of an adjustment TBH. Some of the good bits require hours of slogging through about the worst "roads" you've ever seen, forests, jungles, truck roads to nowhere, with nothing on them because road is so totally obliterated (new one will route around the bad bits, but then miss out the absolute gems) and then, you have 20 - 40 km worth of just unreal riding with absolutely nothing else on it. Too hot for half the year in the north, and 10/12 of the year in south central and south south.

Cambodia for me was 39-44c for 10 days straight, minimum night time temp was around 32-36 if you were lucky, big heat wave unfortunately killed and hospitalized a lot of folk out here the last month or so.

No need for big bikes TBH, tried a few and for the few times when having more than 30 hp is nice, outweighed by the rest of the time it feeling like your trying to thread a HGV through a bustling market street. And when police clock its a heavy motorcycle, the potential for fines go up as most heavy motorcycles are large % more than they are in the UK, so you must be loaded = more coffee money for them.

Ideal bikes? Get a maxi scooter and put some decent tyres and screen on it. PCX + many mods = fastest thing on most roads most of the time and all day comfort, 350-400km on 5 quid of fuel. Needs double the power to be perfect scooter IMO. Nmax, Tmax, NVX, Forza 300 are all also ideal. Suzuki were never popular here so no big burgmans to be found.
Honda Winner/Winner X 150 or 160cc, or Yamaha Exciter 155/ 155GP are the daddies here. 16 hp water cooled, 6 speed, nissin brakes, decent tyres like michelin pilot 2 or pirelli diablo rosso fit, again some suspension mods, air box mod, exhaust and remap and you've got maybe 18 hp, but way more torque. Lightweight, frame is stiff enough if you weigh under 80 kg, skinny and fits through traffic easily, handling is pretty neutral on both and because they weigh so little you can get away with so much on them.

Heavy motorcycles if your on a line, close to limit of grip or ability and you have oncoming wanker in an SUV or truck, your done. The small skinny bikes on decent tyres, always got the option of just dipping right in and hoping for the best.

Just picked up an f650 as a do it all bike. A little bit scruffy, but nothing a bit of paint won't sort out. Low mileage and everything works as it should. Going to put some a bigger screen on it, and some hand guards. Does anyone have experience re-covering vinyl seats?

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You could try to mod the Dakar model’s screen to it. That would be quite tall.

1250GS needs to either be paid off or handed back in July. Been 4 years and I'm nearly at 20k miles.

It's had a couple of recalls, an ABS sensor issue, exhaust valve problems and has corrosion where the cylinder casings join the engine block. Balloon is £9k so fuck that.

Test drove a Zero DSR/X just before I went on holiday and I really enjoyed riding it but £16k for something that support could dry up for if they go bust is worrying and PCP deals are like 11%.

Off to test drive a new 1300GS Saturday. PCP is more around 8% and warranty is top notch obvs.

Anything else to consider?

Roughly 8k miles per year commuting (inc winter). 90 miles per day, 3 days per week ish.

Triumph tiger 1200?

I would say that is an issue with a lot of Japanese (far eastern) bikes for us fat westerners.

Yes, on the recovering seats.

Are you doing any seat mods?

Yes, want to make the seat about 2 inches taller, and haven't done anything like this before. Do you have any advice on the best kind of foam to use/ techniques for stretching the vinyl?
Would appreciate any advice, thanks.