shinko 244 tires.

New tires.. shinko 244 dual sport on the x

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I changed out my tires this week. i had pirelli mt21's on before, which were an aggressive knobby. These are more dual sport, but i think they will do fine for me in 95% of the riding i do.

They are similar in profile. The shinko's are a little smaller in width & diameter.. no more than about 1/2"

Here they are:

I went on a short ride last week.. nothing too technical, but i did get into some rocky, stepped climbs around camp verde. I rode some whoops, crossed some streams, & rode pavement, too. I can't say i noticed a lot of difference, except in some fast gravel roads.. the back was a bit more slippery. If i just touched the back brake, the rear started sliding. I mostly feathered the front going into gravel corners.

The verdict? So far so good. The more aggressive knobby might be a bit better in gravel, & perhaps mud. But for 95% of my riding, i think this tire will be fine.

I think it's easier to change the tires on the x. The bead takes some work to break, but the wider rims are easier to mount, imo. They slip on much easier than my old drz tires ever did. Another nice feature is they both used the same tube. I put a 4.60 on the front, & a 5.10 on the back. That is equivalent to the 120 & 130, i think.

These shinko's are listed as 'front/back'. The pirelli's were both rear tires.. that's how us sm'ers do dirt. We put rear knobbies on the wide front sm rim. I was amazed at how low & fast i could corner in the twisties on the pirelli's! *I* got scared before the tires did. It looks like the shinko's will perform even better. Does that mean i will get an axle slider? Will i go even faster in the twisties? ..don't think so.. The bike already outperforms me. I doubt if i ever discover it's limits.

The appeal of these tires are:
1. cheap
2. easy to get & install
3. long lasting
4. cheap
5. aggressive tread for off road
6. good road tire
7. did i mention they were cheap?

I've got several long rides planned this year, & wanted a good, cheap all around tires. I think this one will work. I can always go back to the mt21's. I know they work. I'm looking forward to testing them in more extreme conditions.. mud, steep loose rock, long high speed pavement.

These are very similar treadwise to the kenda 270's. They are korean made, & have pretty stiff sidewalls, so i will be able to run lower pressures in them. I had 15 in the front & 20 in the back.. they felt a little stiff off road, but were fine on pavement. I'll probably go to 12/14 for offroad, but i wanted to make sure they were going to hold me up.

Obviously, there is no perfect tire.. all are compromises for the various conditions we find ourselves in. But since this is the contact point of our bike with the earth, it is fairly important. Part of the fun is trying different tires & seeing how they perform for us.

fmf pipe & header

Here's the fmf pipe & header.. this made it much louder, but also gave it a little more low end pull & a noticeable power improvement, even without the fuel programmer.  To this point i have the exup & ais removed, & the air box mod & flapper screwed down.  The power seems as good as others' bikes with the fuel programmer.

pivot pegz, radiator guard, tail light housing, rotopax tank mount, tank bag

Pivot pegz from drz.

I took my old pivot pegz off the drz when i sold it, & saw they could be made to fit. Kim welded a washer to the back of the peg so it hit the stop, i added a washer to fill in the gap, & they seem to work.

Here's a radiator guard i made from some extruded metal that my good buddy Kim had laying around. It's not as sturdy as an aftermarket one, but it will keep rocks & debris from damaging the radiator, & it will improve air flow. I also removed the fan housing from the back side, since it was what the original plastic guard attached to.

I didn't like the way the tail light came down so far.. i like the japanese & euro models much better.. but i didn't want to spend more money for those or the drc replacements, so i cut it down & made a bracket to attach the license plate to.

Here's my rotopax mount, too.. not very elegant, but functional. I need to make it easier to put on & off.

I bolted a section of aluminum box (part of a patio screen door frame) from the buddy peg to a bracket i had attached to the upper rear frame. Then i bolted a small piece of aluminum 1/8" sheet to that & the upper frame. The rotopax mount attached to that. The upper part is another aluminum bracket with a plastic piece on it that slips through the handle.. maybe not necessary, but helps to hold everything on. & keep it secure.

Here is an inexpensive tank bag.. on sale at motorcycle superstore for $17.. I've used many different tank bags over the years.. this one fits the wrx very well, has clips for easy on/off, & was cheap. I can carry all my incidentals, snacks & drinks in this bag.

This is a moose racing tank bag.

exup removal, resistor mod, ais removal & plate

I got a new pipe a couple of weeks ago, took off the exup servo motor but hadn't gotten around to removing the ais. The exup comes off with the exhaust. You can take off the exup motor & cable stuff then, but it will generate a check engine light (CEL).

But i hadn't gotten around to doing the resistor mod, since i couldn't find a 7.5k resistor in my junk box. But after my ride up past flagstaff this week, i stopped by radio shack. They didn't have any 7.5's, but they had 10's, so i bought the 5 pack for .99. Either 7.5k or 10k ohm, 1/4 watt resistors will work. While i was there, i picked up the radio shack 12v siren.

The exup removal is simple.. take everything off. Pull out the cables, take the motor off & unplug everything. The only problem is the CEL comes on when you do this. As has been described in much better detail on all the forums relating to the wr, i put a resistor between the white/red & black/red wires on the exup plug. I folded the resistor wires in half so they would stick in the plug holes better.

Before i plugged in the resistor, i plugged the exup back in, & turned on the key to clear the CEL. Then after turning the key off, i plugged the resistor in, then started it up to verify it worked, taped it up & stuffed it beside the battery compartment out of the way.

Now the CEL does not come on. The resistor fools the monitoring system & it thinks the exup system is ok. 

Then i took off all the ais stuff.. I made a plate out of a piece of 3/16" aluminum i had around, drilled the holes for the bolts & put it over the ais hole by the exhaust outlet.. with the stock gasket. I unplugged all the related wires, tubing, etc, & put a rubber cap over the hole left in the air box. I used the tip from a bungee cord.  Nothing else to it. The ais removal does not generate a CEL.

With an aftermarket exhaust, neither the exup or ais are necessary, so might as well take them off. These mods are easy.. no reason not to do them.