Family – Moto – Etc
Getting back into the drumming zone of my life, the youtube algorithm bestowed upon me starpowerdrummer. I saw his warmup video and wanted to incorporate it into my playing. He has a nice playthrough video, but I needed the music in sheet form to help me out. Copied\pasted from his video. Not sure where he sourced it from, but thought this could be useful.
Picked the bike up from an member from ADV and did some rehabbing of it over the winter. Brings back a ton of memories from my 1st G650X I owned. Runs and rides great. That said, its still a 13 year old bike that from what I’m told by the PO, has been to Alaska at least once. While replacing the fuel pump, the wiring to the fuel level sensor was rotted away, so there is no low fuel level warning light anymore. I removed the stock cat from exhaust.
I’ve had 2 “get the truck” situations, first was the original spark plugs in the bike both failed. I replaced with new and all good to go (verified valves at same time). Second was a couple months ago when one of the wires at the fuel pump assembly failed. I hadn’t seen this when I replaced the pump. I fixed the troublesome wire and have been running like new since.
I’m using as my daily commuter, but since I’ve got my plated KTM, I’m focusing my riding on that.
Price – $3500
Location – Burlington, WI
Pics:
Any questions\Comments\Whatever, let me know.
-Andrew
So I’ve begun digging into the box stock 350. My initial plan was to ride it as is. No touching emissions\smog stuffs, no screwing with lights, no nothing. Seeing the bike sit there though so fresh and clean, knowing that the base EXC model is a bit choked up, I just couldn’t help myself.
Some things may or may not have been removed:
So from what I had seen, this meant one unfortunate thing. If I ran it as is, the stock mapping, in order to get by without a catalytic converter, KTM runs uber leans. JD Jetting posted AFR ratios of a similar situation with the KTM 450. AFR was sitting around 16:1. That’s just not sustainable, so I had to decide what to do. Options were JD Tuner ~200$, or GET\Vortex ECU’s around 700-900$. My cheaper side of me, combined with actual Dyno’s from JD Jetting pushed me to going for JD Tuner. Before having the bike run for more than 20 seconds, I had the JD Tuner installed.
In the pic above, you likely see that I had pulled the stock mirrors. While I like how much I can see behind me, I know from experience they don’t last in trail use. I remember seeing one catching some side brush out in Moab and it exploding into 1000 pieces. It was quite comical. I opted to install one of the Double Take Trail Mirrors on the bike. Small, discreet, and with a slight shift of my body (with street jacket on), I can see behind me good enough.
Beyond this, the bike is 100% box stock. I still have the TKC80’s on, and haven’t even bothered with rim locks. I’ll install those when I do end up with some knobbies….which will likely be sooner than later. Mostly debating on getting a 2nd set of wheels and swapping. Big decisions here.
Full first ride report to follow….
-Andrew
I’ve spent a lot of time hitting the starter button on my xMoto hoping (praying) it’d just fire up. I pulled off all extra electrical crap, as I’d been managing to pop some fuses. After some digging, it was quickly apparent was my problem was.
Ones Fuel Pump should NOT look like this. No worries, a quick 50$ order on Amazon and we had a replacement installed. In the process, I managed to break the wiring on the fuel level sender. I opted to remove it, and subsequently used the plug in the harness as a secondary ground wire for the fuel pump. Apparently this could be a problem area on some G650X’s, so I figured why not tackle it quickly right off the bat?
Sure enough, soon as that new fuel pump was in….the bike fired right up.
I was much excited, and was promptly riding to starbucks for a photo op in the middle of the night. My excitement however was short lived, as after 2 days of commuting, the 3rd turned out a bit hotter than I’d hope…..
I was able to pull all my essentials off the bike, and had tools out quick enough to pull the just so slightly hot muffler off the bike. My wife picked me up, and I grabbed my car with hitch hauler and off to work. I’d had a similar thing happen in the past with my first 650X where the catalytic converter had failed, and clogged the exhaust. Or maybe it was the internal baffles? I don’t know. Either way, I figured I’d investigate and hack things open.
Alas all things were clear…..
So I welded her back up…..and called it a day
It was suggested to me to cehck the spark plugs. I thought this was doubtful, as its got 2, and how do 2 spark plugs fail. Well, I listened to the internet advice, and wouldn’t you know it….it fired right up.
And thus we have it. It’s all buttoned back up, and I’ve now got ~900 miles on it in the time I’ve been able to ride. Darn midwest has been funky weather, which has limited ride time.
Winter time is hitting, so the bike is getting some new tires and sprockets. Prior owner had it geared for CRUISING, so its much too tall for round town fun.
More to come.
-Andrew