What prep do you do before off-roading?

I took ol girl off road yesterday. I was expecting horrible grip with the SM tires, but that actually wasn't too bad. Gravel is a nightmare, but grass and dirt were good. The problem I had was with getting beat to death. Same areas I ride on my KX, where the only thing that limits my speed is my stopping distance. On the WR the big limiter was the suspension. 40mph was scary over a relatively good surface I would have my KX doing 60+ over. Also, that throttle snatch... I can't imagine yamaha thought this was acceptable off road lol. Didn't they test this? On the road its tolerable, off road... I can't imagine trying to ride single track. I would probably get off and walk the bike rather than hitting a tree or burning up the clutch.

http://fastbikeindustries.com/ one call !
https://www.youtube.com/user/915racer?feature=mhee#p/u/18/oZcF9vrY7gE just dont hurry

First of all, you're comparing a dedicated dirt bike to a dual sport/SM. That's the first mistake.

Second, 17's make a big difference handling off road. There's a reason off road bikes have a 21" front. Not to mention you're really not going to get a lot of grip with street tires. Even though you thought you were.

Third, The suspension has been widely talked about on this bike. Specifically the shock. Have it revalved and you'll notice a huge difference.

Lastly, I ride ST enduro trails every weekend. I wouldn't do it on my SM wheels. But with proper suspension set up and 18/21's....it does very well and I can hold me own with other dedicated dirt bikes.

If I could fix the throttle jerkiness I would be happy just going slow. That is an acceptable trade off for not having to haul my KX out for trail riding. My issue was my options were to A: go slow and lock the throttle position with a death grip in just the right place to avoid a jerk but not be accelerating Or B: get going fast enough to use third and then get beat to death.

I think you just need to get used the FI which is consistent with the 'snatchy' throttle you are talking about.

supposedly a programmer will help fix the snatchiness ... haven't tried it myself, but i have the same issues.

What is your sag and what are your suspension setting? Have you done any of the mods to smooth out the throttle? Your running stock x tires at what pressure? 30-32 psi? Need some facts here to see what the problem is!

trav72 wrote:

First of all, you're comparing a dedicated dirt bike to a dual sport/SM. That's the first mistake.

Second, 17's make a big difference handling off road. There's a reason off road bikes have a 21" front. Not to mention you're really not going to get a lot of grip with street tires. Even though you thought you were.

Third, The suspension has been widely talked about on this bike. Specifically the shock. Have it revalved and you'll notice a huge difference.

Lastly, I ride ST enduro trails every weekend. I wouldn't do it on my SM wheels. But with proper suspension set up and 18/21's....it does very well and I can hold me own with other dedicated dirt bikes.

mordicai wrote:

What is your sag and what are your suspension setting? Have you done any of the mods to smooth out the throttle? Your running stock x tires at what pressure? 30-32 psi? Need some facts here to see what the problem is!

I concur with these gents.

Not knowing any other details..my guess would be the street tires slipping an then grabbing..slipping and then grabbing...as you get off the throttle...was the "jerkiness" you were feeling.

And if you have never adjusted any of the suspension settings, before going off road, its gonna handle like crap..IMHO. The settings on the bike, out of the box, are for a rider than does little more than tame dirt roads and pavement.

I suspect he knows the difference between tires spinning and throttle snatch. I don't have a problem at all with mine. It sounds like something isn't quite right.

Tire pressures do make a big difference. I drop the air in mine and can go anywhere. That should be a t shirt!
Scotty

As it sits it has no airbox door, a PC4 pipe, and an FMF programmer at optimal settings. The jerk is when I get back on the throttle after letting off. Its almost like every throttle position bellow 20% or so is missing. It honestly feels like I should be using the clutch to go from closed throttle back to acceleration at low speeds. On my carbed bikes you smoothly roll in to it and they smoothly gain power. On the road it's tolerable since you aren't on and off the throttle at low speeds very much and when parking I just go ahead and slip the heck out of the clutch.

It is tolerable, it just feels like I am beating the transmission. I think I will try those CO settings people recommend.

What are the "optimal" settings you have with the FMF??? Sounds like those are messed up.

easy to diagnose. Disconnect the FMF for a quick ride and connect stock harness back to injector. If the jerkiness goes away, tells you one of the two things..either the FMF settings are messed up, or the programmer itself is.

I know of five guys in my immediate area with the WRR and the FMF stuff, and as far as I know, none have any of this issue you are experiencing.

Good luck with it.

DougZ wrote:

What are the "optimal" settings you have with the FMF??? Sounds like those are messed up.

easy to diagnose. Disconnect the FMF for a quick ride and connect stock harness back to injector. If the jerkiness goes away, tells you one of the two things..either the FMF settings are messed up, or the programmer itself is.

I know of five guys in my immediate area with the WRR and the FMF stuff, and as far as I know, none have any of this issue you are experiencing.

Good luck with it.

On the low setting, the one that would affect off idle, I have tried 2, 3, 4, 5. Not much difference between em except at the higher settings it does better when cold. I left it at 3 since thats what the people with dynos and AFRs said is about right for open airbox and pipe.

Also worth noting, it misses at idle until its warm.

Not sure if it will work for you..but here are my settings...FMF pipe, Notoil air filter, Flapper mod.

Green: 2.5
yellow: 2.5
red: 0.5
green blue: 8
yellow blue: 4
red blue: 4.5

These were finalized from talking to the guy/company that actually makes these units for FMF. Not sure if they work for everyone, but they work for me.

DougZ wrote:

Not sure if it will work for you..but here are my settings...FMF pipe, Notoil air filter, Flapper mod.

Green: 2.5
yellow: 2.5
red: 0.5
green blue: 8
yellow blue: 4
red blue: 4.5

These were finalized from talking to the guy/company that actually makes these units for FMF. Not sure if they work for everyone, but they work for me.

Thats right,they come from Dobek ind. programed that way.If your programer quitts the lights stop working,but the bike runs stock map. I have had two quitt and replaced. Dobeks service is great. I dont recall the guys name.

Check the drive chain,they tend to stretch a long way new. Could be that lash your getting.Take the slack out fo your throttle cable.better feel.

I feel bad, I had never checked the tire pressure because I figured the dealer set it at the standard OEM suggested and it handled pretty darn good. Checked it... about 18psi front and rear. Ramped it up to about 29 front 32 rear. I'm a big guy, about ~270 in gear. Checked the rims, no dings even though I hopped a curb a few times. Lil bitty scratch on the edge of one but I did ride it around in a large rock field being set up for a oil platform. Was like a slip and slide with tire grabbing ruts for a two wheeled vehicle lol.

I took her off road again, I dont know what changed but it seemed like a different animal. Put puttering around at almost a stall happily. Only differences are I set the last three numbers to 0.5 and I took out the spark arrestor. Also went to a 14 tooth sprocket and the temperatures have dropped.
One odd thing though, when I lowered those last three numbers, the idle increased a good bit. Whatever did it, I am much much happier with it off road.