Doug's 2018 KTM 350EXCF

      When I first bought this bike in February 2019 I didn’t do my usual new project for 21J for a couple of reasons. I wasn’t able to ride at that time and I didn’t think of it as a project. I bought it as a replacement to my 2012 KTM 500EXCF which I had sold. I wanted something a little lighter and smaller motor displacement. The motor makes it feel lighter than it actually is, the ole motor inertia thing.

I was looking for a deal on a 2018, at that time there were no deals on 19’s and I couldn’t find any 18’s around either, I finally found a very good deal on new one at a Scottsdale AZ dealership that made it worth the drive. 

My first rides around my area told me the stock gearing was to low it had no real top end cruising speed so I changed to a 48 tooth rear sprocket. I installed a skid plate a Rekluse and small rear blinkers etc. My first real ride was a 100 mile dual sport ride above Nevada City. I found out a couple of more things, the stock seat was too hard for my ass the stock front tire did not work well on gravel roads the rear brake was to sensitive and it vibrated through the handle bars on long road sections. The 2018’s have solid mounted handle bars. I also felt it was a little under powered because I was used to the 500 power, especially on the roads. Other than those things the bike worked very well.

Before my second dual sport ride I installed a tall Seat Concepts seat and changed the front tire, installed a different set of rear brake pads and a set of Flex Bars I borrowed from a friend. I did a couple of short rides and found I was not comfortable at all with the Seat Concepts seat. It was wide in spots that made it difficult for me to get comfortable when riding especially in single track; it wreaked havoc with my balance. I think it would be would be fine say riding in Baja. So I bought a KTM soft seat.

So after all that on my second dual sport ride a 145 miler I found the Flex Bars took care of the vibration plus absorbed some of the hits, the new front tire worked better and the brake pads weren’t as touchy and the new soft seat worked great. And I changed the rear tire after this ride I found it didn’t work so well after all.

Now the only real problem was the Rekluse, I like engine braking and the set up I was using created very little engine braking. So before the next ride I tried a different set up. The next dual sport ride a 155 mile ride it worked better but still didn’t have enough engine braking for me. On a long downhill say fourth gear just sort of coasting it wanted to free wheel. But other than that this was a great ride I’m now getting use to the 350 motor and beginning to really like it. 

Before the next ride (92 miles) I tried some different spring combos in the Rekluse and it worked great except that in order to satisfy the higher idle required for the 350’s fuel ignition (2000 RPM) the bike creeps while in gear and the clutch is out was significant, brakes will hold it but it’s a pain, so I’m still working on that.  

I’m still playing with the clickers but the stock suspension works pretty well for me. I drilled the out the end cap on the muffler to let it breathy a little better and have taken out the reed cage in the air box for better air flow. It does create a little more power and it’s still quiet. Actually I’m not sure removing the reed cage makes it run better off idle, so I’m still playing with that. I’m not planning on doing anything else to the engine, the bike has really all the power I need for the type of riding I’m doing. Actually I’ve been riding this bike more on the single track trails lately than my 300 so it works well for that kind of riding. No it’s not better than my 300.

I have just under 1000 miles on the bike now and everything is pretty much dialed in don’t feel like I need to do much of anything else except continue to enjoy riding it.  

So in the end it did turn into a bit of a project bike. This is a great all round bike and if I only had one bike to do everything I do, this would be the one. Yes it is heavier than a KTM 350SXF or 350XCF it doesn’t make as much power either, but it handles well and only feels real heavy when you need to pick it up.

Doug 21J

PS  I’ve taken the he reed cage in and out several times, but I’m still not sure if it’s that much better with it out. I changed the TPS setting from a stock .54 to .68 which fools the ECU and richens the fuel mixture; this also helps eliminate pop lean backfiring. The last thing I did was remove the solid (Domed shaped) end on the end of the spark arrestor screen on the stock muffler and replaced it with the end of a Dr. D spark arrestor screen. This increased the motors ability to rev out more freely, but it did increase the exhaust noise.

I’ve put my Wolfman saddle bags on the bike now and have filled them with tire changing tools, a tube and a tire pump. I’ve also put a tool bag, spare nuts and bolts etc in the other side.

I just installed a heat shield on the head pipe; unfortunately after riding with new pants I burned several holes on the inside on the leg.

Now I’m just waiting for the next ride. 

Doug's Bucket List Trip!

In little over a week more than five hundred riders from twenty-six nations will compete in the 2019 FIM International Six Days of Enduro (ISDE) to be held in Portimao, Portugal from 11-16 November and 21J will be there. Watching not riding!

New Bike Time!!!

2020 Husky TE300TPi Part 2

So I forgot to mention in my first article that I had installed the Rekluse and Air Cells that were on my KTM 250XCW. Although the 300 motor chugs down to the last stroke I’ve gotten lazier with the clutch in my advanced years. The Air Cells always help the initial few inches in the stroke especially in the slow tight stuff with rocks and roots.

The one of the latest additions was a left hand operated rear brake. I’ve had a cobbled together unit I’ve been transferring from KTM to KTM over the years, but this unit won’t work with a Magura master cylinder so I had to look for another solution. Rekluse is in the process of changing the unit they’ve been selling for years so it’s not available right now.

I ended up with a fairly new on the market product called the OX-Hydra Brake. OX has made a cable operated unit for some time, but this is an entirely new approach. The unit starts at the handle bars with a Hayes Bicycle hydraulic master cylinder, a line that runs down to the rear brake master cylinder area and on the end of the line is a little slave cylinder that replaces the heim joint at the bottom of the master cylinder. It’s a completely separate self contained unit pre bled so all you do is install it which makes it completely separate from the rear master cylinder. You can adjust the pull needed near the lever on the bars. From what I’ve heard it’s at least a hundred dollars cheaper than the soon to be released Rekluse. And I can tell you it works flawlessly you can adjust the pull for the type of terrain your riding. I’m sold on this thing.

So far the Flex Bars I installed to help with the vibration has taken care of that problem plus I’ve come to really appreciate the feeling the Flex Bars provide.

Since I had borrowed the Flex Bars I decided to buy a set, I bought the Enduro version which is 31 inches wide and with a 12 degree sweep and set up for my top mount steering damper. I set them up for soft compression and rebound, they worked great.

I also installed a Tusk fan kit, the price was right and they say the TPi bikes run hotter, so I decided to be pro active about this, don’t think I’ve needed it so far though. Well I was surprised during my Chalk Bluff ride on a moderate heat wise day the fan came on a lot and stayed on for a while. It’s set to come on at 190 degrees which is where most if not all the fans are set to come on. Based on it staying on and for other reasons I’m going to buy a better battery, don’t want the battery running down and having to adjust the Rekluse so I can bump start it.

During our ride at Chalk Bluff for those who don’t know it has very tight trails lots of switch backs, not side of the hill switch backs. This time of the year finding traction is tough, a lot of riders refer to this as like riding in dry mud. At the end of our ride my riding buddy tells me he was having trouble finding traction and I realized it was a non factor for me. The 300’s torque coupled with the Rekluse allowed me to ride most of the time in third gear so spinning the rear tire wasn’t a problem.

I’ve got 9 hrs on the bike now and have ridden it just about everywhere I typically ride, including a return to the scene of my racing accident Prairie City’s Hang Town track. I was very timid for most of the time I spent there, I did become more comfortable on the 300 but it in its self is different than riding my FC450 on a MX track. The AT-81 tires work ok, I noticed the wear on the rear is certainly greater than the same tire that initially came on my 250XCW, power difference no doubt.

I’m going to put more time on it and will report back later.

Doug 21J

60th Reunion but Still Riding Strong!

A very short story

Last weekend I went to my 60^th high school class reunion. I went to school in the Antelope Valley which translated means Lancaster and Palmdale CA, which today would translate into your basic shit hole.

When I grew up there it was a magic little area, lots of green alfalfa fields, lot’s of trees as well. Both towns had about six thousands residents each. And sixty years ago which was the fifties it was a magical era. I lived the American Graffiti movie kind of life. Worked so I could have a car and could date girls, always had a couple of older friends who could take care of my Friday night alcohol needs?

I’ve attended all of my class reunions and of course the class gets smaller each time. There were about ninety people total at this year’s event and that’s counting couples about the same as the fifty fifth. I always look forward to seeing who’s still here and reacquainting with everyone. There’s still about eight of us who went to grammar school together.

The invitations use to say 5PM until, then 5PM until 12PM and now they say 5PM until 8:30PM, no just kidding it’s still 5PM until 11PM and I was among the hand full still sitting around talking near eleven, but even I was gone by 11PM.

For those who could remember we had the chance to stand up tell everybody who we were, where we’re living how many children, grand children and great grand children we had.

It’s been interesting reflecting back over the reunions the 10^th was in many ways the most interesting. Ten years out of high school most had completed their educations and were definitely into impressing their fellow classmates just how successful they had become. I’m going to guess even those who didn’t own a big fancy car rented one. The 20^th everyone was a little more settled in and found the need to impress wasn’t as great as the 10^th. By the 30^th people were just eh and certainly by the sixty they only thing you bragged about was you were still here and just maybe you looked a little better than so and so.

The old adage if the class gets any smaller we will be able to meet in a phone booth doesn’t apply, I don’t remember the last time I saw a phone booth.

Doug 21J

Tinkering Might Be An Obsession!

Doug's New Project

When you have a racing accident or any time you find yourself incapacitated for any length of time and find yourself with too much time on your hands as I recently did, that can be a very dangerous thing. And in my case that proved to be all to true.

I started thinking, a very scary prospect in my case and came up with the bright idea to sell a couple of my bikes so I could buy a brand new one.

So that’s what I did while recovering from my Hangtown crash and hospital stay. I cleaned up my 2017 Husky FC450 that I used for motocross and sold it within a couple of weeks advertising it. Then I cleaned up my 2017 KTM 250XCW and sold it within an hour of advertising it. Which tells me I probably sold it to cheap and it is a very desirable bike.

 

So what did I buy, a 2020 Husky TE300 TPi? Why, I wanted a 300 when I bought the 250, I had thought about converting it to a 300 but never did. I spent a lot of time working with a Smart Carb that I had installed on the 250. Even did a bunch of videos on it, had about a three page article already written about the Smart Carb, then one day it started bogging in 5^th and 6^th gear if I hammered it through those gears. I spent several months working with the people at Smart Carb trying to figure out why it all of a sudden it started doing that. Even went back to the Mukuni just to see if it was the bike, the Mukuni ran fine. I finally gave up, so that was part of my thinking or rationalizing for buying a new bike. The Smart Carb people could not been better to work with and the Carb did everything it was advertised to do, I was very happy with it until I wasn’t. I wouldn’t hesitate recommending them though. 

So now I have one bike to ride off road with and the same bike to ride motocross with. I’ve only had two short trail rides on it. It’s only been 57 days since my racing accident so I’m trying to take it easy.

What I can tell so far is WOW the fuel injected motor is amazing, it runs just as clean and crisp as a four stroke no matter what gear you’re in, it just pulls. The 300 definitely suits my style of riding, I’ve always liked to torque it around and this motor certainly does that. Husky made lots of changes to the two stroke line up this year. I’m not sure KTM made the same kinds of changes. Husky has been slowly making changes to their lineup and are becoming very different from their brother KTM’s.

 

Husky changed the Carbon fiber sub frame it’s lower than before and the seat is also lower I think it’s an overall of about 20mm. You can definitely feel the difference when you swing a leg over it and while riding. They are using the same linkage ratios as the MX models this year. They moved the motor forward 1% which doesn’t sound like much but it supposedly puts more weight on the frontend to improve turning, which it does. I believe they made some frame geometry changes as well. The pipe and muffler off the 2017-2019’s will not fit on the 2020’s. I think the motor up dates, fuel injection, pipe, muffler and   mounting changes are the same on both brands.

I couldn’t have imagined that the 2020 Husky TE300TPi could have improved this much over a 2017 KTM 250XCW. Now I know the KTM has a PDS rear shock and the Husky has linkage. One is a 250 and the other a 300 and the 250 has a wide ratio and the 300 feels like a close ratio and for me works much better. They both have the Explor Forks. But the husky feels a little lower, corners better and just feels more together. But both bikes suspension felt/feel very good and I found no need to revalve the 250. However if I use the 300 for motocross I may not be able to stiffen up the suspension enough, we will see.

The only negative I’ve found so far is the TE300 comes with solid mount handle bars the TX comes with rubber mounted handle bars. So I noticed vibration, on the roads, my hands started to buzz a little. So I put Flex bars on it for the second ride and that helped.

I’ll up date you as I put more time on it.

Doug 21J