1st trip out

So I bought a v.clean 2008 model in late January and while it's summer in Queensland it's the wet season too. And it's been really wet...

Having finally got the right tyres, bash plate, rad. guard fitted I went for a quick squirt yesterday round some local trails. It wasn't raining but the sand and red clay was wet and slippery and churned up by all the 4x4s ... although I only take photos where I stop to pee so these photos don't show that

Glory be, what an improvement on my old KLR, handled the big bumps, splashes and tricky stuff easy. In fact the only slippy stuff was on the timber bridge on my driveway





Think me and this bike are gonna get along

G'day there mate - nice shots of your bike with the Glass House Mountains as the back-drop. Also definately your bike does look super clean for a 2008 model. Great pick up there.

In regards to your very wet QLD summer, that's because you guy's got all our monsoon rain from up here in the N.T. Then that recent Cyclone in northern W.A took away what little monsoon rain we had left....This wet season up here has been the "driest" on record - ever ! I think at this stage it's less than a 1/4 of our average total rainfall, which is 2000mm for the 6 month period - with only 2 months until the start of the dry season.

Anyway i really have nothing to complain about, as the real concern is when we see many of our QLD neighbours with their towns & homes under that horrible muddy flood waters..... But i know how well that tough QLD spirit bounces back as well.


Cheers for now & no doupt will talk on here again,


Regards, Gavin.

G'day Gav - had no idea it had been so dry up there (obviously they don't tell us about anything north of Rocky )

Good to hear there's some more Aussie's around will probably ask some questions about the mods which make sense for our bikes at some point.

Cheers

Graham

No worries Graham.... And yeah i know what you mean about "north of Rocky", as unless we get a direct hit by a big "blow" then Darwin / N.T never gets a second mention, lol.



So with your 2008 bike it looks pretty stock standard. How many K's showing ? Things like just a good rear muffer alone will give a fair improvement in the overall rev range. I've got the GYTR rear pipe on my 2012. It's a bit pricey, but fits perfect and also has the provision for the O2 sensor & rear heat sheild as well. Would be interested to see what your CO & TPS settings are at - as looking at the rest of the bike, they are proberly at the factory spec's as well. Really only need to tweek these as a fine tune when doing mods to help richen up for low speed smoothness. ( And really it's only as a very base line tweek, as our O2 sensor does the rest at this lower rev range )..... Both the readings for the CO & TPS are accessed via the instrument cluster, & on our "Euro" spec bikes there is no need to ground any wires - all done by just pushing certain trip meter buttons in tandam with the ignition.....


See below link for a pretty good youtube video from Japan that shows how to access & adjust base idle CO for the Euro / OZ spec bikes. ( This is also the TACH display function in diag mode ).



https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lGBLPdIt9xQ




Anyway mate, all good if you need any answers in regards to above or any further tips / info on other mods.


Also what are the brand & size tyres that you've now got ?


Cheers,


Gavin.

Cool. Well I already checked CO and it was at 0... I may have tweaked it but I don't think i have done yet.

There's definitely a 'bogging' at low revs, but I think that's partly as it's a revvy 250. Once it's wound up it screams (turned a few heads in the mountains on Sunday).

Haven't looked into TPS settings yet or gearing. I'm commuting a few times a week too, so I need to get some dirt time in to see if the gearing suits.

I've ridden a 13/49 with GYTR pipe as comparison, and i'll be riding alongside that bike for comparison.

Just about 14,000 km coming up and I put some Pirelli MT21s on as i've never tried them. Rimlocks too. Handled the slippy clay at about 16psi no concerns.

Loved the Mitas E-08s on the KLR but they're expensive.

Yeah my CO was factory set a zero as well - and i suspect that this may be the default setting for the 02 sensor models.

I put mine up to +2 a few months ago - but just recently i am trying a few different settings to see if any slight improvements can be found. ( Trying to reduce that slight "flatspot" from down low ). I'm not really overly focused on these very slight ajustments, it's more so just a case of fiddeling around a little until i get the coin to pull the trigger on the FMF programmer & Mega Bomb header pipe....then the real "dial in" fun will begin.


So what did you think of the sound levels of the other WRR with the GYTR rear muffler ? Pretty loud hey ? I know when i first put mine on i was like ..... I actually thought wow this thing must have no packing inside ! But....well it does, and you then just sort of get used to the noise level after a week or 2, lol. ( Not sure about others around me, but it's really not too bad with a helmut on, lol ).


Also i will be due for new tyres soon - my stock "death-wings" are approx 70% worn at 3,500k's from new - so ok for wear rate, but not for offroad confidence. I too was going to go for the MT21's, as i have previously had a pretty good run with them over a few sets on my old XR600. Anyway after a fair bit of research, both on the internet & from a few guy's who are running them, i will now choose to go for some Michelins. ( T63 rear & HP4 front ). I don't think the HP4 is available in the USA ?, as i haven't read anything about them here on this site - but it has awesome reviews here in OZ. ( Grip & wear rates are reported as way above anything else in a full knobby ). I've also seen a local WR450 with the same above Michelin combo and the tyres still look new after approx 1500~2000k's..... Anyway i guess i'll just give 'em a go & find out 1st hand if they best suit my needs.


Also apart from all the obvious exhaust, gearing & tyre improvemnets on these bikes - one of the best things i have done so far is to fit the G2 Quick turn throttle tube. Top quality unit that greatly improves both throttle control & response, + super smooth action.


Anyway my list of planned mods & up-grades always seems to get bigger rather than smaller,


Cheers.

Great - now you've added to my list of mods!!!

TBH i wasn't alarmed by the noise of the GYTR exhaust as I still had my 650 with stainless and it was pretty raw. Stock WRR sounds pretty sad at idle though doesn't it?

I'm trying to keep a cap on mods for this bike though... new house and young family means I realistically only get about 6 good off-road opportunities a year. As and when $ are burning holes in my pockets I'll invest.

I used to get around 5,000 out of a rear 606 I think, with a fair bit of road use. The MItas looked like they were going to be much better, will be interesting to see what I get on the MT21. Shit, it probably makes bugger all difference really, but at $200 for a pair fitted I figured I may as well try these.

So I better look into the TPS adjustments as well

Yeah mate the stock exhaust note is pretty pissy - and obviously as we all know, this is a by-product of how restrictive it is too.

In comparison the GYTR has a nice idle note, absolutely rips as the rev's rise, and gives a nice overall performance boost.....but down side is the 500 bills to purchase ! ( LOL = I too also know the feeling of mortgage, wife & young son.... but all good ).


The MT21's are a pretty good all round DOT approved tyre, and proberly on the little WRR will wear all ok. My only concern with them on the big XR630 was that the rear would wear down pretty quick on the black top. As i said previously, i was very close to just going for them on the WRR - but then instead thought that i'd just try the Michelins to see how they hold up. ( Was also seriously considering the 606's - but at this stage my use is more so road commuting as well - so i think that the T63 rear will better suit ).


Also in regards to the TPS settings - from factory mine were at 16~96. I have now set it to 19~99. Again to be totally honest, i didn't really notice any stand out improvements - but in saying this the increased lower number "should" give a slightly richer idle mixture..... Anyway maybe a little bit of placebo effect - but it did also seem to slightly improve the bottem end cold stumble. ( In conjunction with the increase of the base CO as well ).

I know that in reality our bikes with the o2 sensors by design are constantly self adjusting the idle to low throttle fuel / air mix, so this proberly means these slight tweak's we make will have a much smaller effect than that of the non o2s models. I'm hoping to get access to an exhaust gas C0 annailiser in the future. This way i can actually see in real time what effect any adjustments such as base CO & TPS will have.

I have read some debate about weather or not our Euro spec bikes have a wide band or narrow band o2 sensor. I'd suspect that it's just the "povo pack" narrow band sensor due to being only a 3 wire unit - and also by the colour of the wires. ( As usually the wire colour for most o2 sensors are universal depending on what type of sensor it is - so this can therefore help with id of sensor function ).

Anyway the most important issue with the o2 sensor is if fitting the FMF fuel programmer. This is the main reason why i'll be further looking into the full operation of the sensor before spending the coin on the FMF F/P. ( As i don't want to just disconnect the o2 sensor as some have done ).


Mostly alot of the real reason for all the fiddeling, tweaking, modding & up-grading is due to being a Auto Mech i can't help myself ! Lol.


Cheers.