This was once a dirt-worthy dual-purpose bike.
Now, it's an overweight and over wide "adventure bike".
Yes, folks, there are riders who make a habit of riding a motorcycle off-road with all of this shit strapped to it.
Yeah, it's pet peeve time, people.
If you log onto message boards like ADVRider, WR250R Forum, the dual-purpose or adventure sections of the ThumperTalk forums, and who knows how many others, you'll find lots of riders who think the bike pictured above is a really great thing.
I think it's a sad joke and is simply not my idea of riding a motorcycle.
If you wanted to drive in your minivan or $50,000 SUV, why didn't you just do that, Lenny?
No, to me, riding in the dirt is about light weight, maneuverability, and riding a bike that lends the rider a good feel.
To be able to actually ride the bike in some kind of performance-minded manner, not use it as a pack mule 24/7.
I'd hate to think about riding even the easiest sections of the ol' Pachaug enduro loop on a bike with all of that crap attached to it - way too cumbersome and awkward.
You may be thinking, "Well, ease-up there, son. Maybe the guy with the bike in the picture is gonna' ride out to some camp site with all of that stuff on his bike and remove it once he gets there."
No, sonny, you misunderstand the typical adventure rider.
He will insist on keeping all of his worldly possessions strapped to the bike all of the time, as if he's doing his penance for some sin in one of his past lives.
Yes, it's how they do it.
On top of the stuff strapped to the bike, he's installed a different fuel tank that allows him to ride for 5 days without refueling, as if he really needs to carry 10 gallons of gas with him.
Let me guess - he's going into a death-defying region where even the in-training NASA Apollo astronauts would have feared to tread, right?
To go where mere mortals would not even want to consider going, right?
Well, enough of that time-wasting topic.
Here's another one I read about from time-to-time.
That is, some guy who is new to doing basic maintenance to his motorcycle writes a tale of woe on a message board, and he's looking for some advice on how to get out of the jam his klutzy hands have gotten him into.
Here's an example, condensed down to a shorter and more to-the-point version, as these guys will write pages on how to change your grips or check your drive chain slack, something that takes mere minutes or even seconds: :)
HELP!!!
I used an 18-inch-long torque wrench to install the 6mm-diameter bolts that hold my oil filter cover on.
Now, I've stripped one of the bolts!
How did this happen?
And why?
It's a brand-new torque wrench that I just bought from Harbor Freight and I had it set way down to the torque setting my Service Manual says those bolts should be torqued to.
How should I fix this?
Should I bring it to the dealer so he can laugh at me and then charge me too much to repair?
That's actually a good rendition of the typical post on a message board looking for help on a botched job that should have gone off without a hitch.
See, the guy make a huge mistake by being a Star Trek-type geek-and-a-half by using a torque wrench for a job that absolutely did not require one.
He only greatly complicated things by choosing to use one for these small-diameter fasteners.
Of course, he uses a torque wrench that's well over a foot-and-a-half long, one you expect to see tightening down nuts and bolts that are 4 times larger in some ship building yard.
In fact, using the type of torque wrench that the typical guy will buy is asking for stripped bolt threads because he will want to buy just one wrench for the rest of his life, and he buys one that supposedly can handle small torque values like 7 ft/lbs all the way up to 75 ft/lbs.
Well, the guy finds out the hard way that not only was his wrench not able to do a small 7 ft/lbs job like that (because he's expecting to be able to swat flies with a sledge hammer), but he will then get reply after reply insisting that once he gets the bike repaired, he should continue to use a torque wrench on small fasteners, fasteners that are so small that tightening the bolt by hand is simply the most reliable way to do it.
So, yes, Lenny, bring your adventurous bike to your dealer and let them chuckle at your inability to do an oil change, one of the easiest and most common and, unfortunately for these geeks with the wrenches, one of the most important things you can do to your bike.
Lest you think I know everything and have never been a klutz, I sure have done things like this.
As a matter of fact, this is why I know from experience that using the average econo torque wrench for small nuts and bolts is simply looking for botching a simple thing like this.
You see, I learned that doing that is simply dumb because the average torque wrench will not work correctly when set that low, especially when a steel bolt is threaded into an aluminum crankcase, and the bolt is only 6mm in diameter, and there is more than likely oil on the threads.
Period.
I do believe there are ones that will, but most geeks won't buy one because they think they should be able to get by with just one wrench, and it's one that will work better at settings like 30 ft/lbs.
On top of all that, breaking-out the torque wrench for simply bolting the oil filter cover back on is being way too anal.
Period.
There is simply no need to have to use a torque wrench for something you can safely do with just your wrist.
Even Spock would agree with that logic. ;)
Beam me up, Scotty.
Another quirky thing on these funny message boards is something I know I've mentioned more than once.
That is, these guys (at least the ones that don't know any better) believe that they can take a dual-purpose bike like the one in the above pic off-road regularly (even if they do ride the bike like a grandma most of the time) and should absolutely be able to go 3,000 miles between oil changes and six months between air filter servicings.
Wrrroooooooooooooooooooooong.
If you are riding your motorcycle off-road a lot of the time, you need to up the maintenence schedule compared to that of a street bike, Bucky, no matter what your Owner's Manual says or what your Internet forum cohorts think.
You see, the Owner's manual of a WR-250R, like the one in the above funny pic, has a maintenence schedule printed in that book that makes sense for a street bike.
Period.
How do I know this and what makes me so sure?
It's because I've bought, paid-for, ridden, and owned and eventually sold over 50 bikes, most of them Yamahas, many being dirt bikes, many being street bikes, and many being dual-purpose bikes.
These WR-250R riders like to point to the chart in their Owner's Manual where it shows the first valve clearance check is not recommended uptil the 26,000 mile mark, and this is something they take pride in.
Really, I'm quite serious about that.
Too bad this is misleading for these guys with the taped-together glasses and the WD-40 pocket protector full of pens.
Any rider with a brain in his head knows your bike will not even make it to that first valve clearance check at 26,000 miles of off-road usage if you change the engine oil only once in 3,000 miles, or service the air filter once every six months.
A street bike will last for 26,000 miles under that schedule, but not a dirt bike.
End of story.
And yet, guys post their tales of woe and surprise when their dual-purpose WR-250R that gets ridden off-road much of the time won't even make it past 13,000 miles before the engine needs to be taken apart for a top end overhaul when given a maintenance schedule of a street bike.
Hmmmmmm.
And these guys on the forums insist that this shouldn't ever happen because the Owner's Manaul says you should change the oil at 3,000 miles.
Yup.
Pretty studdorn lot who don't really know as much about riding a motorcycle off-road as they probably thought.
I know a teen-aged girl that rides motocross who knows how to show more experience and common sense on maintaining a dirt bike than these adventure guys do. ;)
For real.
Yes, folks, if you're riding in the dirt, the dirt will wear the bike out faster.
Bottom line.
It's up to the rider to know this and take steps accordingly.
Or, maybe he should just bitch, piss, and moan and point to his Owner's Manaul.
On a more pleasing note, I went on yet another Pachaug rock n' roll pile ride yesterday (Saturday).
I felt good, weather and vision conditions were good, and the bike felt just fine.
There was some water out there in the usual spots were it puddles-up after a decent rain, but that was to be expected since it rained at least a little bit every day for the last week, and, it basically did not cause a problem for me.
All-in-all, it was an enjoyable ride because I made some good maneuvers on the bike that felt good to me, I rode in a decent manner, and I didn't get unusually tired or fatigued.
Good stuff.
As a side note, I used a Bridgestone M22 rear tire for the last two rides, and it gave me a chance to compare how it works versus the Bridgestome M604.
Basically, it's as I have always felt:
The M604 is about $5 less to buy.
The M604 is a little bit better on any kind of surface where you can sink a tire knob into (softer terrain).
The M22 is noticably better everywhere else, and there's plenty of everywhere else out on the Pachaug enduro loop.
In fact, I could easily feel how good the M22 still feels to me - after 20 years of using this tire on all manner of dirt bikes I've owned - because it simply grips harder dirt and rocks like no other tire I've used, and the feel is very confidence-inspiring.
So, while I'm sure I'll continue to use the M604 in the future because it is a close 2nd place to the M22, the M22 is still my all-time favorite.
-John
