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[QUOTE="Nestrick, post: 819044, member: 45162"] Hey Mark Good to hear you got out for a ride ... bad to hear you're still having problems with your health ... sounds like Christie is now nearing completion ... speaking of which, brings me to this [long] question: I have been making a bunch of changes to my CRF-450 to try to make it more trail worthy ... especially for a novice rider which is the basis for my somewhat roundabout question ... I already have had the forks and shock professionally redone for trail use by ESP Engineering [connected with Scott's, the damper guys, who also supplied the ProTaper bars, Scott's triple clamp, and steering damper], I had the spring upgraded to 5.5 Kg to accommodate my 200 lbs heft and gear, and these suspension changes have made the bike very plush in accordance with many 'good' riders comments to me after having ridden it. After nearly three seasons though, I am still having trouble with the gearing [1st and 2nd are way too high for my skill level] and the motor is way too 'twitchy' in throttle response for my safety as well. [I know, you're probably asking yourself, [B][I]why did this idiot by that bike in the first place[/I][/B] ... but that's water under the bridge and a mistake I can't overcome easily at this point, so let's not go there for the moment ...] To continue ... after a couple of rides in the UP last month with a fellow named Dan Djokovic, he suggested that I might soften the engine hit by installing a Steahly fly wheel weight and I might improve the gearing problem by installing a smaller counter sprocket while maintaining my current larger rear sprocket [originally the bike came with 13/50 tooth sprockets front and rear, after a couple of months I changed the rear to 52T ... this was a substantial improvement and helped me with regard to stalling in sand ... but I still find it hard to maintain control under strong breaking or downhill situations and significant clutch work is required]. So, I bought and had installed a 15 oz fly wheel weight and changed the sprockets to 12/52. Another UP series of rides last weekend indicated the bike is now considerably more docile and definitely geared more toward 'tractoring' ... but 1st and 2nd are still too high for real tight stuff without constant clutching. I was talking with Woodsy on the phone last night and he gave me his advice that potentially I have gone in the wrong direction for someone of my novice skills with this particular bike ... namely, he felt that a 12T counter sprocket might be too small for a high powered bike running an O-ring chain thereby causing potential accelerated wear on both the sprocket and the chain, and potentially ... the combination of a large fly wheel weight plus the 12T counter sprocket might put too much stress on the engine thereby leading to problems. By the way, Woodsy suggested one of the 'auto clutches' as perhaps the best solution to my 'gearing' problems in tight stuff ... this would enable me to return to a 13T front sprocket and perhaps leave the 52 on the rear while still having the ability to eliminate stalling under slow conditions and thereby giving the 'impression' of having much lower gearing overall. These devices no longer permit free wheeling under normal conditions therefore engine breaking on downhills is still evident and the bike will retain that feeling of being in gear from a weight transfer perspective ... something I don't get when I have to pull in the clutch whenever using the rear break to avoid stalling the engine. Finally, the question(s) ... I believe that I read a while back you installed a fly wheel weight on Christie ... I know she's a 250 2-smoke, but which one did you install and how do you like it? Do you believe the internals on your Honda can withstand the extra stress of the fly wheel weight based on the quality/size/strength of components you observed on its installation? Did you also change the gearing via sprockets ... if so how much? I recognize that 2-smokes and 4-strokes are vastly different beasts, but your incites remain important to me and I would appreciate any thoughts you might have regarding my dilemma ... maybe FredT will see this and respond also, I think he installed a Rekluse on his ride not too long ago? Thanks for the ride report, hope you start feeling better soon! terry nestrick :cool: [/QUOTE]
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Who to Ride With, Where to Ride
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