SwampNut

Perfection has a place, and clean but showing age does too. Hard to pick one as "better."

I never had the 390 out there, but expect it would be fantastic for a non-aggressive, long ride.

Fuck. My Sunday night/Monday is going to be an all-nighter server migration, 1am-7am Monday.

LOL, right? My jets are 150 and 17.5 with the idle screw 3.5 out. One guy fighting starting issues has 140 and 30 at 1 turn out, as delivered. WTF bike is that for? XRs only did ship mine with the pump adjusted to the absolute minimum level, but it ran. They say the bike is perky enough to not need the "common" setting of 1/8" clearance to the pump rod. They shipped it with like half an inch or whatever is maximum. About half the throttle stroke with no pump. Maybe I should go back and try it their way. This is a clear win for advanced FI or electric bikes. It would be nice to push a button on the bars and have a different acceleration curve. I've gotten pretty spoiled by that. Dunno, it's the high side versus low side I think about. Remember my post about CR500 airlines? Oh yeah, it's amazing that so far this bike is less friendly than the CR500. I agree with your overview of the changes with throttle. Towards the end of my ride time I was trying throttle hits with mild roosting, and the bike seems to prefer it over having actual traction. And you think you're lugging it, and the fucker just spins the tire no matter what. Below idle in second gear? Max torque, here you go, good luck.

LOL. I've talked to a few people who have "stock" Mikuni pumpers, whatever they ship from the factory I guess. It cost me $50 extra to get one from XRs only with the adapter ring preinstalled, and jetted for this bike. Clearly, this was well worth it, the other people are fighting with jets and leaks using some shitty Chinese adapter.

The answer on the XR650R subreddit is kinda what I was thinking. The bike has two speeds; parked, and full send. I did realize I have not actually measured sag, and did a minimum of damping change. I should measure, though it feels "normal." Most thorough answers: level 1 psychoOC · 2 hr. ago Yes thats kinda normal. But heres the catch of this bike and the xr650L, faster you go, better and more planted the bike gets. I mean it gets very drastically impressive once you absolutely commit to it. I took the xr650L with 20% offroad 80% on road tires on pure south florida sugar sand track and it was terrible until you just stayed heavy on the throttle. Railed burms, hits all the jumps, bike becomes an absolute monster once you ride really aggressive with it. Do NOT man handle the bike, it will go terrible for you. This is the type of bike you want to make “suggestions” to it and stay heavy on the throttle on any “sketchy” parts. I have had countless near death experience’s with xr650L and recently the R, they ride identical offroad and the 2 bikes rewards me heavily by staying on that throttle. Once you allow her to do her thing and just hang tight, its just an entirely different beast. Please do not give up on her. This is a guy coming from past motocross experience and double A rider skill. These are the best bikes to ride with. Also, tires dont matter to much on these. Dont go under 17lbs (she’s heavy) but thats all you need. Also favor the rear of the bike, ride old school. Shes an old school girl. 5 Reply Share level 2 AKSkidood · 38 min. ago This exactly. I have virtually no dirt experience, and this thing is downright scary to putt around on the trails and gravels roads. I should not have started my offroad experience on this bike. However, psycho is right: let her eat, and she'll take care of you. I've done some unbelievably stupid noob rider stuff, and the best, most reliable solution is to pin it and point your body where you want to go. She'll find her way through, singing that 650 thumper Siren song the whole way. It's definitely skittish on the highway, just shakes its head at you the whole time, like what are we doing? Get it on a dirt road, set it to WOT, and it's like riding a galloping horse: not butter smooth, but rock steady for sure.

I almost forgot, LOL and fuck you, you fuckin' fuck. Changed perspective with telephoto. Which is better?

There's no comparison. The KTM was perfectly mannered at all times. It's heavier, with less suspension travel, and on 80% tires (these are 50% at most) so it probably can't do things this can do. But so far, I "can't" push the XR into anything since it feels unstable. Next time I get out, I will take it to a different area with different challenges, and where I've specifically found problems with the KTM that this shouldn't have.

So the skittish ride gets extra interesting at 75 on concrete freeways with lateral grooves. The "about to crash" feeling makes it scary to push it on dirt because it's exactly the same as the signal I'd expect to warn me that I'm about to crash due to an actual traction problem. But after 45 minutes I did start to pick up some speed and let the bike do its thing. Single track is pretty fucked on this huge thing. Some of these are trails I ride on my MTB at 20 MPH. Oddly enough it doesn't give a damn about sand and is stable on it. WTF. Third gear high speed on flats is just fine; it's what the bike was made for. By the time I got home I was riding much more sport-aggressive and dealing with the squirreliness well.

I didn't die.

And that's how I snapped the adjuster off, which the retard previous owner had tightened to 27 ugga-duggas just like everything else.

It's like that off road too. And these are DOT tires that get excellent reviews all around. One is three years old (about) and the other is new. The front felt squirrely with the original 10+ year old tire, and the same with the new one I put on (Tractionator Desert H/T). So I do think it's the bike. Edit: Also been adjusting pressures, which changes the turn-in and push, but not the instability. Edit 2: Instability isn't it, the bike is perfectly stable, but tells your brain that it's going to fall over, and follows most pavement imperfections. But the BIKE itself stays stable and pointed.

This thing is definitely unusually squirrelly. I have no idea if there's a problem I can't see, or it's the design, or what. Oh, yeah, I guess I need to come out of the closet, I went full retard. I had the mount anyway. This makes it a perfectly fine commuter and grocery getter.

Yeah, I guess Mike hasn't tried the man's size version.

I don't think the 650 will go over TDC without the lever. I've put a full effort into multiple times, and almost went over the bars instead. Maybe I should gain some weight.

Bastards! The zip ties seem most successful on smaller tires. Or maybe that's just coincidence that I've seen that most often.

You ever done the zip tie installation method? As with anything else, there are the ultra fanbois who say it's the only way, and the people who assure you that it's the worst thing ever and you're retarded for even asking about it.

Actually that one's warmer.

I've learned how to do it right. Not only to not injure yourself in stupid footwear, but right all around. Think more body and foot positioning than the whole decompression thing. It requires some faith that it won't fall over to the right side no matter how hard you kick. Oh yeah, after the valve adjustment it no longer clicks when it's coming up on compression. But it's better to just feel it, and much faster. I'm no longer doing what all the videos say. Also with a proper kick, if it fails to start, you'll be right before compression. One little push, decomp lever and tiny push, kick. It smelled rich at idle, so I tried a turn in on the idle screw. This was followed by 30-some kicks, lots of backfire on decel, dying at idle, many more kicks. I put it right the fuck back and all good, starts on the first kick again. Shit, I just realized, I was wearing this at the time.

So I've learned how to start it in Five Fingers. Alcohol may have been involved.

The throttle is super snappy and linear now. I rode out of my neighborhood for the first time today, rolled on in third gear, and took the front tire right off the ground. I then proceeded to go ahead and give it the first crash, why not? Opened the throttle in second on a slow turn on dirt, and it stepped out way more than it should for being lugged. Good shit. Not a great highway bike, LOL. It's skittery even just on the streets, like it's on ice sometimes. Little imperfections in the road move the tire around. It's weird though; the tire moves as if you're about to die, but the bike doesn't. Meaning that the actual feeling through the bars is like the tire is sliding, but the bike stays pointed where it should. Going to take some adjustment, but I think eventually I'll just tune it out. It was way less shitty at 90 than expected. Oh also it feels slower than it is; so at what my gut says is 30, I'm doing 35, and gut 50 is closing on 60. I can usually get to a speed really closely. I don't have the speedo hooked up so I did some passes on a speed sign. One kick starts, hot or cold, but not when flooded. So when I dumped it, it flooded, and took quite some effort. This is the downside of the pumper carb; I need to figure out how to best un-flood it. If loud pipes save lives, I'm invincible. I need a better bag for grocery-getting. Or do I say fuck it and put one of my existing Givi mounts on there? Seems so wrong.

No, not at all. Are you making decisions based on such basic misunderstandings of chemistry? I don't get your point. Aromatic hydrocarbons are cyclic, planar compounds that resemble benzene in electronic configuration and chemical behavior. Benzene has the molecular formula C6H6 and is the simplest aromatic hydrocarbon. The carbon atoms in benzene are linked by six equivalent σ bonds and six π bonds.

I'd go +1 and -0.5, still a bike. I mean, at least it's not...electric...