Took the WRR off road for the first time

... for any length of time and wow, what a skittery bike with those stock tires!

I was riding on hard packed sand and through some drying mud. It was pretty scary. That back tire hooks up about as good as a slick going up hills I got stuck at one point and had to turn it around, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be considering the weight of the bike. The suspension wasn't too bad, it soaked up just about everything. The stock gearing is too tall for any woods riding, that's for sure.

I think with a better set of tires, this would be a fun casual trail bike!

Yeah, I noticed that on my first ride. I got the Dunlop D606's about 3 days after I got the bike. They got some decent knobbies and are still legal for road use.

Those were probably the worst conditions for the stock tires, they work best in dry rocky conditions and pavement. Did you air down at all? Fun is fun however, glad you got out some finally!

With The stock tires - the front end sucks.
I wonder why there are so many lightly used WR selling for so cheap in the us these days. I suspect alot are still set a high suspension/seat setting and stock tires. One good off road outing with that set up will turn alot of people off the bike. Plus if you don't ride them bike in the upper rpms - she can be a little under powered for sure.

skierd wrote:

Those were probably the worst conditions for the stock tires, they work best in dry rocky conditions and pavement. Did you air down at all? Fun is fun however, glad you got out some finally!

Yeah, I should have dropped the pressure to around 12 to 15 psi, but the front and rear were around 20. It was really shakey going down this muddy slope, I thought the front was going to let go, but I just got my weight back and rode it pretty loose .... it did ok. I did hit some harder rocky and dirt surfaces and it really is fun having that 4 stroke torque (after years of riding two strokes).

my first time trail riding this bike I had the same feelings (it was my first time ever offroad riding as well). it was a monday in the fall and it had been raining lightly all weekend. a guy on a 4 wheeler caught up to me when I had stopped for a breather and he said after looking at my tracks going down some of the muddier hills he was surprised I hadn't fallen yet. but a couple years later with better tires and much more experience that's a different story now.

Yeah...taking those stock TW's in anything loose is asking for trouble.