First State WRR

Hi all. I'm new here and wanted to introduce my bike and myself, hailing from the pits of the mid-atlantic in the northern bump of the First State. A few months back I picked up a new to me '08 wrr. I ultimately chose it because it was equipped with the full getup of Go Race suspension goodies and was tuned for my weight + gear weight. PERFECT.

Here she is when I brought her home.


Didn't take long before I stripped her down. Not much time for foreplay in my garage:


I first started by wiring in grip warmers, USB charger/voltmeter, and a light controller (more on that later). But first, I had to make some room for a fused panel to do things the right way, so I got rid of a bunch of useless junk under the seat:




Then it was time for new grips, levers and a faster throttle tube:



Then I found out that the cheap hand guards that the bike came equipped with were not actually secured into the handlebar ends as the expanding nut inside the bars were stripped. I couldn't get the left nut out, so I had to get creative. I kicked the thing right over and out came the nut :). I replaced the guards with some Cycra parts but failed to snag a photo.


Finally warm enough to get my first ride in:


I ended up riding home in the dark that night and I knew my next priority. Headlight upgrade! The stock one... how is that even street legal? Maybe it's safe enough for below 25mph speeds.. Anyway, I started messing around with some ideas. I was going to use my spare Husky headlamp and retrofit with a HID projector. But ultimately I decided against it because of past reliability issues I've had with HIDs and the lack of space for the necessary components.


So I decided to try something else:




I rigged it up using a Skene light controller. It's wired to the factory hi/lo switch and operates at 50%/100% brightness, and also allows for a very conspicuous series of flashes if I flip the switch twice in one second. Works brilliantly. Much brighter and only 16w of power being used instead of 55w.


Finally it was time to do some real riding. I threw on some new wolfmans (love them), loaded her up and set out on a 350mi weekend, 100mi dirt and 250mi back roads. I camped in Michaux State Forest in PA for a couple nights.






Crossed over the Appalachian trail:


I got back home with some new priorities again. Needs more fuel! Decided on the IMS 3 gallon tank for the standard reasons people choose it. I'll also be bringing some Primus bottles on the longer, more remote rides when needed.


Now with all these fundamentals taken care of, I'm shifting over to caring a bit about how she looks. I'm converting over to black and blue when I see decent deals pop up, ditching the white stuff, and giving some TLC wherever I can:




And that's where things currently stand. I plan to continually update this thread as I do more work or go on more adventures with the wrr. So far I have to say I'm thrilled with the machine. I rode a newer wrr in some tight single track and some difficult terrain and what really stood out to me was the lackluster suspension behavior. The Go Race parts make it feel like a completely different bike.

Thanks for looking!

Sounds like you're getting it dialed in, ride on

I've noticed a lot of people complain about their bash plates on the wrr reverberating a lot of noise and sending it directly up to the rider's ears. Some say it's tolerable, others say it's not. I fall into the intolerable group. To me it sounded like someone threw a handful of pennies into a tin coffee can and put it inside a paint shaker. I haven't seen it described that way, but whatever.

Anyway, I pulled off the bash plate to install some foam to isolate it from the frame. Hmm, what is this??? Not pennies but...




I wonder if this is the case of the PO dropping a box of washers over his bike or a prank by one of his friends.. Either way, I've got an idea the next time I'm feeling particularly malicious and want to mess with someone.

I used some contact cement and added in this foam to the plate. The foam came out of a pelican case that I purchased from a military surplus. Not sure what the foam is made of, but I blasted it with my heat gun from an inch away for a minute or so and the foam held up just fine. No worries about it melting.

I can see the marks on the skid plate where those washers were installed between the plate and the bike's frame, probably in an attempt to keep the plate from vibrating against the frame.  

FWIW I've got a few Pelican cases around and have found that the foam breaks down after a while, even in the case.  Not sure if it's the the foam itself or the top secret stuff I carry in it, LOL.

For my skidplate here in the 43rd state I bought some inexpensive high density weatherstripping from the local home improvement store, the kind with adhesive on only one side, and stuck it to the frame before mounting the skid plate.  I'm still on the original tape after 3 years and have plenty left over to reapply when necessary.  Works great.  Also makes it easy to hose dirt and gravel out of the skid plate because it's only under the frame rails.

I don't believe the foam I used is Pelican foam, just foam from something else used in a Pelican.

Anyway, the weather stripping idea is nice. If mine falls apart (or soaks up too much water) I'll consider that as an alternative.

BeeAlk wrote:

I used some contact cement and added in this foam to the plate.

This is open cell foam; it will absorb water and mud. It will also degrade with time in the presence of heat, so not a good choice for this application.

Get some silicone-based (not foam) weather stripping and install between frame and plate.

johnkol wrote:

BeeAlk wrote:

I used some contact cement and added in this foam to the plate.

This is open cell foam; it will absorb water and mud. It will also degrade with time in the presence of heat, so not a good choice for this application.

Get some silicone-based (not foam) weather stripping and install between frame and plate.

I'll run it as is until it's no longer effective or until I'm unhappy with it. Then I'll replace it with a more carefully considered choice of material.

Afaik, tusk, ktm, moose, etc all use open cell foam. It isn't that bad of a choice and it was what I had on hand.

Makeover complete. I think the black and blue looks great. Here's a few glamour shots I took yesterday.











While I was replacing some plastics I realized that the reason my left side air scoop wasn't lining up properly wasn't because the plastics were so beat but because the metal bracket behind the air scoop was bent. Bummer. Luckily I got a pretty good deal on a used-but-brand-new one off ebay and it showed up in just a few days. The bracket holds the overflow tank, horn, wire harnesses and the air scoop fairing. Easy to swap out.



Next weekend I will be camping in Centralia, PA and exploring the area with the wrr. Looking forward to it!