The Macgyvering thread

Do you want this thread renamed and a new Mcgyvering thread created

  • yes

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  • no

    Votes: 1 100.0%

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My honda had pretty good fit and finish and was fairly easy to work on, which is good considering....

Feeling comfortable on the bike is number one, then comes all the other things Honda fails at, most notably reliability, which gives a person more opportunity a to mcgyver shit out in the boondocks, (I had to at least try to get this thread back on the rails)
 
So yeah, I still haven't started a thread primarily because I don't have a lot of pics, but I recently spent 4 days in Moab with a group of friends out of Texas. There were more bikes than there were 4x4's which is fine by me, but anyway, Blake has a 09 KTM 450XC-F that sits more than it gets ridden, he gets to my house to spend the evening before everyone caravans the last 250 miles up into Moab, well, bike won't start, ok dirty carb, we put it in the shop, thinking since its steel framed and we can see the carb it will be easy, well you have to pull the subframe off to get to it anyway, and we get that done, pull the carb, I removed the float to clean more thoroughly, after cleaning is done I leave to use the restroom and the rest of the fellas went ahead and put the bowl back on, so we slap the rest of the bike back together, and it now runs, but it dumps fuel out the overflows like crazy, we'll deal with it in Moab, so we drive up there, and all while we were driving and most of the night I was trying to figure out what could be wrong, eventually float issue clicked and I went to sleep, I woke up the following morning, unloaded it off his bike carrier and had it torn apart by our camper before everyone was up, the float had been put in backwards and one of the ends had broken off and jammed in the bowl. Phone calls were made, some dude had a carb off an 08 CRF450R off and offered to sell us the float if we thought it could work, I figured they were both FCR's so it would probably work, float was bought, it worked, KTM got ridden in Moab, good times were had.
 
So yeah, I still haven't started a thread primarily because I don't have a lot of pics, but I recently spent 4 days in Moab with a group of friends out of Texas. There were more bikes than there were 4x4's which is fine by me, but anyway, Blake has a 09 KTM 450XC-F that sits more than it gets ridden, he gets to my house to spend the evening before everyone caravans the last 250 miles up into Moab, well, bike won't start, ok dirty carb, we put it in the shop, thinking since its steel framed and we can see the carb it will be easy, well you have to pull the subframe off to get to it anyway, and we get that done, pull the carb, I removed the float to clean more thoroughly, after cleaning is done I leave to use the restroom and the rest of the fellas went ahead and put the bowl back on, so we slap the rest of the bike back together, and it now runs, but it dumps fuel out the overflows like crazy, we'll deal with it in Moab, so we drive up there, and all while we were driving and most of the night I was trying to figure out what could be wrong, eventually float issue clicked and I went to sleep, I woke up the following morning, unloaded it off his bike carrier and had it torn apart by our camper before everyone was up, the float had been put in backwards and one of the ends had broken off and jammed in the bowl. Phone calls were made, some dude had a carb off an 08 CRF450R off and offered to sell us the float if we thought it could work, I figured they were both FCR's so it would probably work, float was bought, it worked, KTM got ridden in Moab, good times were had.

You cant even leave them unsupervised long enough to take piss without somthing being forked up huh?....been there before, but I never get any beer outa the deal.
 
Feeling comfortable on the bike is number one, then comes all the other things Honda fails at, most notably reliability, which gives a person more opportunity a to mcgyver shit out in the boondocks, (I had to at least try to get this thread back on the rails)

LOLOLOLOL, As I recall you are comparing the reliability of a Suzuki two stroke with a Honda two stroke, or should be.
 
So yeah, I still haven't started a thread primarily because I don't have a lot of pics, but I recently spent 4 days in Moab with a group of friends out of Texas. There were more bikes than there were 4x4's which is fine by me, but anyway, Blake has a 09 KTM 450XC-F that sits more than it gets ridden, he gets to my house to spend the evening before everyone caravans the last 250 miles up into Moab, well, bike won't start, ok dirty carb, we put it in the shop, thinking since its steel framed and we can see the carb it will be easy, well you have to pull the subframe off to get to it anyway, and we get that done, pull the carb, I removed the float to clean more thoroughly, after cleaning is done I leave to use the restroom and the rest of the fellas went ahead and put the bowl back on, so we slap the rest of the bike back together, and it now runs, but it dumps fuel out the overflows like crazy, we'll deal with it in Moab, so we drive up there, and all while we were driving and most of the night I was trying to figure out what could be wrong, eventually float issue clicked and I went to sleep, I woke up the following morning, unloaded it off his bike carrier and had it torn apart by our camper before everyone was up, the float had been put in backwards and one of the ends had broken off and jammed in the bowl. Phone calls were made, some dude had a carb off an 08 CRF450R off and offered to sell us the float if we thought it could work, I figured they were both FCR's so it would probably work, float was bought, it worked, KTM got ridden in Moab, good times were had.

There are so many things you can work around, a bad float just needs another one when it gets to the point you are talking about. Reminds me of thinking "all night" in ridgecrest ca after day one of a Greenhorn 500. (no I wasnt riding as it happened in 72 and I still considered myself a racer. one of my sponsors who was over the hill was riding it, and I was crewing.)
 
And if you bought a new suzuki each year you got to learn a different power valve design, so at least they werent boring from that standpoint, unlike their clutches whose "reliability" you could count on and stock parts for. :smirk::smirk:

Seriously they knew what they were doing when they built the flywheels light enough to quit breaking gears, and since you were going to need to split the cases lots anyway, why not put the water pump in the center?

Gosh, why didnt I like their designs? Want the rest of the list on foot shots? Let me think a bit. I can say that Arctic Recreational was wonderful for me to work with.
 
And if you bought a new suzuki each year you got to learn a different power valve design, so at least they werent boring from that standpoint, unlike their clutches whose "reliability" you could count on and stock parts for. :smirk::smirk:

Seriously they knew what they were doing when they built the flywheels light enough to quit breaking gears, and since you were going to need to split the cases lots anyway, why not put the water pump in the center?

Gosh, why didnt I like their designs? Want the rest of the list on foot shots? Let me think a bit. I can say that Arctic Recreational was wonderful for me to work with.

Hey....the clutch on my Zook is way reliable, it reliably grabs, lurches, shudders, never a surprise there.....look I know Honda makes a good bike, I was jerking Flake around a bit, for whatever reason I've never liked Honda. I owned one once but the kick start was on the wrong side, I had to sit on the bike backwards to start it.
 
Hey....the clutch on my Zook is way reliable, it reliably grabs, lurches, shudders, never a surprise there.....look I know Honda makes a good bike, I was jerking Flake around a bit, for whatever reason I've never liked Honda. I owned one once but the kick start was on the wrong side, I had to sit on the bike backwards to start it.

Oh I have the softest spot for suzukis, but cussed them from about 86 on for taking the best rear suspension in the game to the worst. Google it if you dont know what I mean. what a difference a year meant. then they lost everyone in the developement dept like kawasaki and just started changing things in at attempt to keep up and made the bikes slower the whole time. I ride whatever feels good and is easiest to "personalize". Yamaha figured out O/R and the need to make it easier to mix gear ratios. So since 2000 I have leaned that way.

Honda got out of advancement with the death of Bruce Ogilvie. Few people understand how much he and his boss Chuck Miller were involved in what rolled off the assembly line. When Ogilvie got sick he was not replaced, and when Honda began pulling out of racing to the extent they did, Miller moved departments and was not replaced by the same "caliber". Yamaha benefitted by picking up a couple of really good people that took their product on the street and dirt higher yet.
 
Left kick is a European thing. I have a HRC 250 engine that came from the factory with a right hand shift, and a plug where the kickstart would be on the right.

My ktm's came starting in the left. Ditto my cz's. It must have been easier to learn to deal with that, back when it was the builders choice which side the brake was on and which side the shifter was on.
 
Feeling comfortable on the bike is number one, then comes all the other things Honda fails at, most notably reliability, which gives a person more opportunity a to mcgyver shit out in the boondocks, (I had to at least try to get this thread back on the rails)
well if this moab dba meet ever happens I'll be a nice guy and bring the BRO250R along for you to ride.
 
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