Ally
Well-known member
2nd day on the CRF I rode 270 km taking in the 108 to Hot, Doi Tao & then 106 back to Ban Hong, a cut through to the familiar bamboo bridge shenanigans and then back over to 108 via the southern Chiang Mai bypass.
As a result of yesterdays discovery that my feet naturally kicked out at 5 minutes to 1 (if you get my meaning), today I made a conscious effort to ride with my feet straight infront and noticed I was rarely inconvenienced when it came to gear changes, the left foot was in the correct position !
The engine & exhaust note were a big feature today. Yesterday was a journey of many stops & starts. Today was mainly riding & very few stops. I was therefore able to get used to the tones of the engine & exhaust and was very happy with the apparent low hum burble of the engine and a purring sound from the exhaust.
Today I found another habit that anyone changing from kawasaki to honda will need to overcome & that is how you overcome cancelling your indicator when in fact you intended to honk your horn. The positions of the buttons is swapped top & bottom. There was a lot of cancelling going on today & a couple of them were really angry meaningful ones too !
At the start of my journey in Hang Dong, I filled the tank up with fuel again. I had already done so yesterday before that ride. I was able to calculate that yesterdays stop start and a couple of short blasts gave me 32km/litre. However today, I filled the tank up a further twice & got a consistent reading of 34km/litre as I rode at steady 85km/hr for the majority of the ride.
The seat yesterday was a worry for me as I believed having my legs bent was a concern, After +100km today I had settled into the seat & found the position quite ok & just a matter of me getting my head around the change. Occasionally on long stretches, I slide my bum over the seat strap, and a little bit further back and sat in a position that I would imagine a CBR rider would assume & I found it relieving in a sense that my back could take on a different position and allowed me to change my leg position for a while.
Today was another blistering hot day. Typically the Dtracker would complain on starting and would occasionally take several attempts to start if stopped in the head for even a short time. The CRF however, showed no problem with that. Of the 4 - 5 stops I made, including a lengthy one for lunch, it started first time straight away.
Yesterday I made a stupid comment to someone about the fan not coming on throughout my ride. Stupid because that simply cannot be true. I think what I should of said is that I was not aware of the fan coming on as it is so quiet. The Dtracker fan when it kicks in is a little startling, especially if you are sat at traffic lights when the scooter riders look at you as if you 2 heads! I am actually wondering if the CRF fan actually runs all the time, constantly like a car but I just didn't hear it.
This bike is brilliant for an ex Dtracker rider, it is a good replacement for it and I would be happy to own a CRF.
Thanks again to Phil for the loan of the bike.
You can see a few more pics here ...
Ally
As a result of yesterdays discovery that my feet naturally kicked out at 5 minutes to 1 (if you get my meaning), today I made a conscious effort to ride with my feet straight infront and noticed I was rarely inconvenienced when it came to gear changes, the left foot was in the correct position !
The engine & exhaust note were a big feature today. Yesterday was a journey of many stops & starts. Today was mainly riding & very few stops. I was therefore able to get used to the tones of the engine & exhaust and was very happy with the apparent low hum burble of the engine and a purring sound from the exhaust.
Today I found another habit that anyone changing from kawasaki to honda will need to overcome & that is how you overcome cancelling your indicator when in fact you intended to honk your horn. The positions of the buttons is swapped top & bottom. There was a lot of cancelling going on today & a couple of them were really angry meaningful ones too !
At the start of my journey in Hang Dong, I filled the tank up with fuel again. I had already done so yesterday before that ride. I was able to calculate that yesterdays stop start and a couple of short blasts gave me 32km/litre. However today, I filled the tank up a further twice & got a consistent reading of 34km/litre as I rode at steady 85km/hr for the majority of the ride.
The seat yesterday was a worry for me as I believed having my legs bent was a concern, After +100km today I had settled into the seat & found the position quite ok & just a matter of me getting my head around the change. Occasionally on long stretches, I slide my bum over the seat strap, and a little bit further back and sat in a position that I would imagine a CBR rider would assume & I found it relieving in a sense that my back could take on a different position and allowed me to change my leg position for a while.
Today was another blistering hot day. Typically the Dtracker would complain on starting and would occasionally take several attempts to start if stopped in the head for even a short time. The CRF however, showed no problem with that. Of the 4 - 5 stops I made, including a lengthy one for lunch, it started first time straight away.
Yesterday I made a stupid comment to someone about the fan not coming on throughout my ride. Stupid because that simply cannot be true. I think what I should of said is that I was not aware of the fan coming on as it is so quiet. The Dtracker fan when it kicks in is a little startling, especially if you are sat at traffic lights when the scooter riders look at you as if you 2 heads! I am actually wondering if the CRF fan actually runs all the time, constantly like a car but I just didn't hear it.
This bike is brilliant for an ex Dtracker rider, it is a good replacement for it and I would be happy to own a CRF.
Thanks again to Phil for the loan of the bike.
You can see a few more pics here ...
Ally
