shinko 244 tires.. more

I've got these tires with about 8k miles on them, now. I'll give a few reasons i like them.

1. good knobbies, good traction. They handled as well for me as my full knobby pirelli mt 21's.

2. great in the paved twisties. No trouble at all, much faster than the pirelli's. I got scared before the tires did.

3. cheap. These are definitely the best bang for the buck in a dual sport tire. I paid ~ $80 shipped for both tires, & have 8k miles & counting. These will be my next set also.

4. improved suspension. These bigger tires will improve the bike's suspension. It is part of the air pressure management, but if you vary the pressures, the tire will respond differently.

5. rides flat. Ok, i've never had a flat in these, yet. But i've run 3-4 # of pressure in them & they hold up & preform well.


Here's some tips i have for these tires.

1. drop the pressures under 10# for gnarly off road conditions. You'll think you had a suspension job. It is a major improvement in soaking up the bumps.

2. Crank it up to 30# for highway riding. Your gas mileage will improve. I run ~ 20# or so most of the time, & drop it when getting into tougher rocky offroad conditions. I increase the pressure for long pavement rides.

I was a bit worried when i went with the X that the bigger front tire would be a problem. But now i think it is an asset. When mountain bikes came on the scene, it was the 'fat tire' that made them work. This 'fat tire' is also a big help with rough off road conditions. It is also better in mud & sand.. if anything can be better.. Real sticky mud is a nightmare with any tire. But in wet sloppy mud the fat tire rolls through it fine.

3. Slide forward in the twisties. This is true for any bike. Get the weight forward & off the rear wheel. The pegs will drag but the tires will hold. Be careful with new tires in corners.. need to wear them a bit & warm them up, first.

Don't be afraid to vary the air with these tires depending on conditions. They are stiff & need lower pressures to perform off road. I think people who have complained about them in gravel have had them aired up too much. Unless you have over 300# on the bike, 10# or less will be optimal. Try it. Let almost all the air out & push on the tire. It is still plenty stiff & will hold you up. Ride it around. It is like the old teraflex tires (which i also thought were great!). Too much air ruins them. Ride around on a parking lot & try to roll the tires with very little air in them.. 4# or so. If you put 28# in them, they will be fine on the street, but they will beat you up off road. Mine have had less than 10# in them for most of their life. I check them today, & they had 3# front, & 5# in the rear for the entire Grand Canyon ride we did a couple weeks back. I aired them up to 30# for an errand i had to run on pavement. They roll better, but make the suspension feel like it is frozen. These tires have been the best suspension 'upgrade' i've done with this bike.

Well, i better order me another set.. although i can probably get another 5k on the front, but the back is probably done. I'll ride it for another 1k or so, then change them out.

Helmet cam & mount.

Here's the helmet cam mount i've been using for the last year or so. It seems to work, so i've stayed with it.

Here's the velcro strap on the mount. I zip tied a piece of silicone handlebar grip to it to hold it out the right distance.



It straps right next to the inside chin foam. The shield will still close, but not tightly.



Then the camera mounts on it. It took a lot of trial & error to get it aimed the right way.



My cat was trying to figure out what was so neat about this thing.. it didn't smell like you could eat it, so what's so interesting about it?

It's not very elegant, but it works. I had it bolted to the top at first, but didn't care for the angle of the shots, & the top mount. I think this is at eye level more, & seems to go with my sight line better. I'm sure there are better engineered ways to do it, but i've been too lazy to work on it. Besides, this is working ok, & if it ain't broke, i'm not fixing it.

New sprockets, fork seals, oil

We're getting ready to do a day ride in a couple of days, & i've been meaning to change my sprockets & chain. I got new ones several months ago, but haven't gotten around to putting them on. Then i had a leak in my front fork seals, & needed to fix that, too. So i was whining about all the work i had to do on this bike, & my riding buddy Tom invited me over to work on it. It's about 50 miles & over the Jerome mountain pass to Prescott, & we just got a big snow load dumped over the weekend. But it was warming up, so i decided to head over.

It was nearly 2pm by the time i left, & it was quite chilly going over the mountains.. snow all over. Then i made a couple of wrong turns filled up with gas, & by the time i got to Tom's it was nearly 4.

He's got a nice hydrolic moto jack, so we raised it up & i started on the back wheel, & Tom on the forks. Everything removed uneventfully, & Tom even had a nice chain breaker to pop off the old chain. I've just drilled out a pin in the past, but the chain break was easy & worked well.

Do you think i was due for a front sprocket? ..about 9k miles on this.. lots of mud, sand, rocky off road, & plenty of slab, too. 4 broken teeth! Tom was surprised i made it this far. I noticed a couple of broken teeth after my last ride at sheeps bridge, & figured it was time for a new one.



Next the new back one. I wanted to go 14/44, & got a 110 chain which fit perfectly. I could only find an alloy renthal at rocky mtn, & it was a little more than i wanted to pay, but it works. I had an alloy back sprocket on my drz with over 18k miles on it, so i figured this should be fine on the 250. A new master link & everything is set.





I knew i had some chain wear on the swingarm, but was shocked to see how much. Nearly 1/4" had worn down. I was pretty careful to keep my chain tight, but a time or 2 it got loose & the damage was done. We both complained about Yamaha.. a poor engineering job, imo, to have the chain hit the swingarm this much just because the chain is a little loose. I should have replaced the slider while i had it off, but i didn't. I'm not happy about the swingarm, but will probably just live with it.. It will probably be ok. If i have any problems, i'll get a new swingarm or have this welded up. Next time i take off the rear wheel i might get a new slider.




In the meantime, Tom was taking off the forks. He drained the oil out, cleaned all around the seals, put in fresh oil & put the forks back in.



Even with the visiting & goofing off, it only took a little over an hour for us to knock this out. I put my windscreen back on for the ride home, & Tom did the final detail cleaning.. wiping my wild looking beast off for the long, cold ride home.



Paula generously made us sandwiches, & we checked out some things on his computer. It was nearly 7 by the time i hit the road. Temps had fallen below 40, but i stayed on the highway & was home by 8. ..ready for the ride on thursday.

clutch switch problem

A couple of weeks ago, i started having starting issues with my bike. I had taken off the clutch & kickstand safety switches when i first got it. The clutch was easy, just pull the switch out of the housing & stuff the wires behind the headlight. The kickstand had to have a jumper put between the pins. I did this so i could easily reinstall them if i decided to sell someday.

Last year sometime, it started to act up. The bike would only start if put in neutral. I traced it to my jumper coming loose. I squeezed the clips, reinstalled it & taped it up. Everything back to normal.

But during our moab, kane creek death ride, it started acting up again. I assumed it was the jumper come loose again. We were pretty occupied, so i just had to shift to neutral every time to start. When i got up to my daughter's in ogden, i checked both connectors. The kickstand jumper looked fine.. but to be sure, i cut the connector & just spliced the wires together. The clutch switch seemed ok, so i just lived with it.. it still would only start in neutral.

Last night i tackled it again. I pulled the clutch switch wire all the way out.. had to lift the tank off to access the plug. When i shorted the plug, it would crank in gear, so i had discovered the culprit. Even though the clutch switch was neatly zip tied behind the headlight, somehow it got corroded inside, or mud or water had impeded the contact.. kind of strange, since the switch was not being used. I had manually pushed it several times & rechecked it, but it still was not making contact. It was an easy fix.. i snipped the plug, spliced the wires together, & plugged it back in.

If my switch went out with no use, i can imagine it going out with use, although repeated activity might have kept the contacts cleaner.. don't know. But if your bike will suddenly only start in neutral, the clutch switch & the kickstand switch are likely suspects. I understand why yamaha puts in that sort of thing, but it is unnecessary for me, so i disable it. I automatically pull the clutch before starting, or make sure it is in neutral if it is on the stand, anyway. The safety switches are just something to go wrong out on the trail, which they did! My more permanent splices should do the trick, & i don't anticipate any more issues with them.