I do prefer to keep my rotors strait and my calipers intact. Once is enough so point me there and I am all for it!
Wilson's Customer Appreciation Desert Ride 2/22 - 2/24
- Thread starter CDA
- Start date
I did something similar once and I vowed not to do it again.View attachment 13169
You got this, no problem
Opsie, duplicated
On the Easter trip, what day you guys thinking about doing this mis-adventure, uh, er, I mean trail ride?
We just get up, start our scooters, point them in a certain direction, let out the clutch (or in Rack's world, twist the throttle a little) and head out.
Well, this has been helpful 
But that's lunch time, then nap time. So, how's 3:00 sound. Get in about 20 minutes of riding (10 out and 10 back) in time to come back for happy hour.
You mean the one Joe was trying to play Jesus with has another story?
Do tell!!!
Well the REZ used to be the Johnson Valley Catholic Mission, it had a big white cross out front standing about 5 feet high planted in the ground. Payloan and his 2 sons rode up and parked out front by the cross and paid a visit... upon leaving the youngest son (15y/o) was the last to get going so in his haste (and possibly to impress my then 14 y/o daughter) he rev'd his Kawi a couple times and dumped the clutch "LAUNCHING him straight at the cross, the frontwheel hit the rocks below throwing the bike to the right while he did the best Superman glide I've ever seen straight into the cross. He was so shaken he jumped up pciked up his bike immediately tried starting it while itwas potining at the REZ wall when I told him to hold on and redirected his front end out into the open for fear he'd do itagain with a far worse outcome. THE END.. TRUE STORY
Haven't seen them since!
..... 
OK, so as I mentioned in the beginning of this thread, I had the opportunity to ride a few different scooters and I thought I would write up a short "How did CDA feel about each bike" piece.
I did not take pictures of each scooter I rode, so I downloaded a picture of each so you can see what each bike looked like.
OK, here we go:
2013 KTM 450sxf
The Main bike I got to play around on was a 2013 KTM 450sxf. this bike was straight off the show room floor and was never ridden by anyone except Gary (owner of Wilson's) from his trailer to mine which consisted of 50 yards. The only thing he did was put an FMF Q4 muffler on it to give it a spark arrester for legal purposes. I was told that since this bike has not been run, it would take about 20 miles for the FI to adapt to the muffler and my/the riding conditions. I geared up and took it for a short spin while a group was getting ready to take a loop. First I noticed when throwing a leg over this bike was how light it felt. Since there is no kick starter on this bike, I simply pressed the right thumb on the "red" button (I think they should make this button green) and she sparked to life. Throttle response was crisp and had some good snap feel. I did a short loop around the surrounding hills and came back to hook up with the group. I noticed that the bike would flame out when coming to a stop or pulling in the clutch. Since Gary was coming along on this ride, he told me let's ride for a while and if it keeps happening we will make bump up the idle a little. I made a quick adjustment of the levers to get them in the position I like and we headed out on our loop.
If some of you have watched any of my vids or other vids that have me in them, you will notice that I like to loft the front wheel up from time to time (OK, I like to do it a lot
). This bike has so much power (KTM and mags claim the most out of this years 450s), that you just crack the throttle and the front end is vert and you are smiling huge. Again the first thing I noticed is how light this bike feels while sitting and riding. It also fits my frame pretty well. I am 6'2" and the riding position was really comfortable. At the time of this ride, I was tipping the scales at 215 lbs and I was surprised at how stiff the suspension was. Since this is a supercross bike, the suspension comes a little stiff but normally for 185lb riders. It was on the stiff side and was not a great ride on slow stutter bumps. I did notice that the harder you rode this bike, the better it handled. I had the chance to get out front on the ride to lead a little bit. This gave me the chance to really crack the throttle. 
and crack the throttle I did If you are not holding on to this bike when you twist the throttle the guy riding behind you is going to be picking you up off the ground, because this bike will be gone! Point and pull the trigger is how this thing likes to be ridden. If you have been watching supercross this year and you see those guys go through the whoop sections just skipping across the top? I now know how they get it done. You either crack it on and skip across the top, loft the front up and wheelie across the top, or chop the throttle on the first one and jump the rest, this bike does it all great.
We were heading towards the "Geek Slide" (or Salmon run depending on which direction you are going), so there is this nice little single track sandwash (yes, I said sandwash) heading that way. I was out front still and let it fly down this section. There are a few spots in this trail where I really rely on the front end to stick allowing me to carry more speed. If the front does not stick it could be ugly quick and possibly a ride to the ER as there are some fun size boulders off to the side that are waiting to meet you. This bike sticks great! It came to me laced up with MX51s front and rear and I (or should I say my mechanic Rack) adjusted the air pressure to 14.5lbs on both ends. Whether you are standing or sitting this bike likes to turn. Coming into a corner hard, you can just slide up on the seat, throw your leg out, lean the bike over and twist that right wrist and this bike is digging in, front end coming up and you are tearing up real estate real quickly.
One issue I was still having was during breaking hard the bike was still flaming out. It was starting to get annoying, but the fun factor was washing this down. As the miles continued the bike was starting to adapt and throttle response was getting a little more smooth. After we dropped off the Geek Slide, Gary followed me down the canyon and watch me flame out the bike about a half dozen times. We made an adjustment to the throttle and that took care of the flaming out issues.
Climbing hills - I did not do any real hill climbs on this bike, but we did do a ride to the "Ridge Line" which requires you to make a long climb up the side of the mountain to get on top. The one thing I noticed was the gearing was not to my perfect liking. Stock gearing on this bike was set to 14/52 and was making me bounce between 3rd and 2nd on hill climbs. If you had to back out of it and drop to 2nd, it got real tight and you would need to have good throttle finesse. The front end would want to come up and you would really need to get up on the tank. I feel for desert riding, 14/50 or 49 would be a good gearing to allow you to stretch the gears out some and then 2nd gear hill climbs would be no problem.
I could go on and on about this bike, but I will say this, after the 30+ mile first loop we rode, this bike was now adapted to me and I did not want to give it back at the end of the weekend.
Here is CDA's Pros and Cons.
Pros:
Super light feel.
Great traction everywhere (MX51's are perfect out there in the dez)
Ergonomics are top notch
Push button start on a MX bike
Super smooth clutch (for you M33) feel.
Arm ripping power with plenty of snap (CDA likes MX snap feel and wants to have plenty of it on tap at all times)
Very stable (though an added Stabilizer for rocks would be a plus).
Great suspension (though it was a little stiff, I did make some adjustments and it worked really good)
Point and shot handling.
Cons:
Gearing could be better for conditions I was riding
Flame out in the early stages of riding was annoying.
Not a fan of the stock KTM grips
Front break cable needs a collar around metal to protect from scratching up the front number plate.
Gearing was not set good for desert riding (or maybe my standards).
Suspension was a little stiff( yes, I said it was great above, which is it, just needs to be broke in more and adjusted. Harsh on small studer bumps and deflects a lot in rock gardens)
In conclusion, I had way too much fun on this scooter. My 07 YZ450f is dialed and I can throw that thing up, down, over, under and through anything with confidence, but you give me a couple more days on this bike and some tools to make a few more adjustments and the YZ will be a stand queen.
Stay tuned. Next up KTM's 500 XC-W
I did not take pictures of each scooter I rode, so I downloaded a picture of each so you can see what each bike looked like.
OK, here we go:
2013 KTM 450sxf
The Main bike I got to play around on was a 2013 KTM 450sxf. this bike was straight off the show room floor and was never ridden by anyone except Gary (owner of Wilson's) from his trailer to mine which consisted of 50 yards. The only thing he did was put an FMF Q4 muffler on it to give it a spark arrester for legal purposes. I was told that since this bike has not been run, it would take about 20 miles for the FI to adapt to the muffler and my/the riding conditions. I geared up and took it for a short spin while a group was getting ready to take a loop. First I noticed when throwing a leg over this bike was how light it felt. Since there is no kick starter on this bike, I simply pressed the right thumb on the "red" button (I think they should make this button green) and she sparked to life. Throttle response was crisp and had some good snap feel. I did a short loop around the surrounding hills and came back to hook up with the group. I noticed that the bike would flame out when coming to a stop or pulling in the clutch. Since Gary was coming along on this ride, he told me let's ride for a while and if it keeps happening we will make bump up the idle a little. I made a quick adjustment of the levers to get them in the position I like and we headed out on our loop.
If some of you have watched any of my vids or other vids that have me in them, you will notice that I like to loft the front wheel up from time to time (OK, I like to do it a lot
). This bike has so much power (KTM and mags claim the most out of this years 450s), that you just crack the throttle and the front end is vert and you are smiling huge. Again the first thing I noticed is how light this bike feels while sitting and riding. It also fits my frame pretty well. I am 6'2" and the riding position was really comfortable. At the time of this ride, I was tipping the scales at 215 lbs and I was surprised at how stiff the suspension was. Since this is a supercross bike, the suspension comes a little stiff but normally for 185lb riders. It was on the stiff side and was not a great ride on slow stutter bumps. I did notice that the harder you rode this bike, the better it handled. I had the chance to get out front on the ride to lead a little bit. This gave me the chance to really crack the throttle. and crack the throttle I did If you are not holding on to this bike when you twist the throttle the guy riding behind you is going to be picking you up off the ground, because this bike will be gone! Point and pull the trigger is how this thing likes to be ridden. If you have been watching supercross this year and you see those guys go through the whoop sections just skipping across the top? I now know how they get it done. You either crack it on and skip across the top, loft the front up and wheelie across the top, or chop the throttle on the first one and jump the rest, this bike does it all great.We were heading towards the "Geek Slide" (or Salmon run depending on which direction you are going), so there is this nice little single track sandwash (yes, I said sandwash) heading that way. I was out front still and let it fly down this section. There are a few spots in this trail where I really rely on the front end to stick allowing me to carry more speed. If the front does not stick it could be ugly quick and possibly a ride to the ER as there are some fun size boulders off to the side that are waiting to meet you. This bike sticks great! It came to me laced up with MX51s front and rear and I (or should I say my mechanic Rack) adjusted the air pressure to 14.5lbs on both ends. Whether you are standing or sitting this bike likes to turn. Coming into a corner hard, you can just slide up on the seat, throw your leg out, lean the bike over and twist that right wrist and this bike is digging in, front end coming up and you are tearing up real estate real quickly.
One issue I was still having was during breaking hard the bike was still flaming out. It was starting to get annoying, but the fun factor was washing this down. As the miles continued the bike was starting to adapt and throttle response was getting a little more smooth. After we dropped off the Geek Slide, Gary followed me down the canyon and watch me flame out the bike about a half dozen times. We made an adjustment to the throttle and that took care of the flaming out issues.
Climbing hills - I did not do any real hill climbs on this bike, but we did do a ride to the "Ridge Line" which requires you to make a long climb up the side of the mountain to get on top. The one thing I noticed was the gearing was not to my perfect liking. Stock gearing on this bike was set to 14/52 and was making me bounce between 3rd and 2nd on hill climbs. If you had to back out of it and drop to 2nd, it got real tight and you would need to have good throttle finesse. The front end would want to come up and you would really need to get up on the tank. I feel for desert riding, 14/50 or 49 would be a good gearing to allow you to stretch the gears out some and then 2nd gear hill climbs would be no problem.
I could go on and on about this bike, but I will say this, after the 30+ mile first loop we rode, this bike was now adapted to me and I did not want to give it back at the end of the weekend.
Here is CDA's Pros and Cons.
Pros:
Super light feel.
Great traction everywhere (MX51's are perfect out there in the dez)
Ergonomics are top notch
Push button start on a MX bike
Super smooth clutch (for you M33) feel.
Arm ripping power with plenty of snap (CDA likes MX snap feel and wants to have plenty of it on tap at all times)
Very stable (though an added Stabilizer for rocks would be a plus).
Great suspension (though it was a little stiff, I did make some adjustments and it worked really good)
Point and shot handling.
Cons:
Gearing could be better for conditions I was riding
Flame out in the early stages of riding was annoying.
Not a fan of the stock KTM grips
Front break cable needs a collar around metal to protect from scratching up the front number plate.
Gearing was not set good for desert riding (or maybe my standards).
Suspension was a little stiff( yes, I said it was great above, which is it, just needs to be broke in more and adjusted. Harsh on small studer bumps and deflects a lot in rock gardens)
In conclusion, I had way too much fun on this scooter. My 07 YZ450f is dialed and I can throw that thing up, down, over, under and through anything with confidence, but you give me a couple more days on this bike and some tools to make a few more adjustments and the YZ will be a stand queen.
Stay tuned. Next up KTM's 500 XC-W
They are all up and ready to ride, somewhere around noon.
Timo is correct, but Rack and I (and our kids) get up and are normally out by 7 or 8 for a ride.
