My New WR450F

[johnnysneds]

Hi All,

Just thought I would post up some photos of my new WR450F I picked up on Tuesday. It should be arriving at my home in Chiang Mai today in the post. Got lots of mods to do with her and will take most of my time up for the next month or so. I cant believe how light and well balanced it is compared to a KLX, not a huge difference but it certainly is the first thing you notice.
The fuel range is a bit disappointing. The stock tank is 2.1 gallons and the average im hearing from TT is between 25-35 mpg. Thats 85-117 km on a tank :thumbdown: depending how your riding of-course. The Clarke tank should improve that :thumbup:

A quick query regarding fuel. The manual states it will accept Gasohol 95 (it does have "for Canada" in brackets when mentioning this), as long as it doesn't exceed E10 Ethanol, which I think is what we have here in Thailand. Anyone have any issues using Gasohol 95 (E10) in a relatively new Carb'd bike? or is it safer to go with Benzene 95, if so is there many places supplying B95?

Initail mods will be:

Scott Steering Damper
Clarke 3.6 gallon tank
Hand Guards
Skid Plate
Trailtech Vapor with Temp Sensor
Modify RHS Radiator with 4" Spal Fan and mounting frame.
Carry out stator mod.

All other free mods ie exhaust baffle removal, grey wire cut, snorkel cut, Jetting, AIS removal etc will be put on hold until I get use to it stock. Its heavily restricted stock. The first ride on it I certainly didnt get this impression (not that its not restricted) its just ive been use to a KLX :wink:

Plenty of respect required on this off-road me thinks :crazy:

 

[johnnysneds]

So eventually after alot of hassle with customs in Bangkok the WR arrives at my home in Chiang Mai.
Now I have no idea who builds these after they come out the container from wherever but I never take the chance of everything being the way it should be. Anything imported I would suggest giving it a really good going over, even from the likes of some big bike import companies in Bangkok. I couldn't believe the build issues I had with a brand new K8 GSXR-1000, that took ages to sort out.
So here I am again stripping down the WR and going over everything. So far, fuel hoses not on properly, rear subframe just about to fall off, filter not oiled, no grease on bearing/pivots, pinched wires/hoses, wheel axle's swing arm torqued to about 5,000 lbs/ft!!!, upper triple clamp lhs not even tightened, exhaust joint loose, loom routing incorrect, clutch no where near adjusted properly, the lists goes on and on.
This is going to be a great project.
Anyway here she is........

Before:

And a few hours after

 

[johnnysneds]

Keihin FCR 39 Carb. When I collected the bike yesterday it was a pig to start, possibly due to sitting with Gasohol in it for 1 month. Will strip down and thoroughly clean all chambers, needles and jets.

450cc lump. Will check valve clearances, all torques and give the cylinder head/bore/piston a quick inspection while its out

Swing arm pivot bearing. No lubrication whatsoever!!!

Incredible how light these swing arms are.

Some light lubrication on the upper and lower steering head bearings. Not enough for my liking.

The frame, a work of art.

I may rebuild and re-valve the forks at some point. Allot of WR riders, more so of the pro riders complaining the front end is sloppy. As im only an average rider, it more than likely will suffice for now, we'll see.

There was some minor damage on the frame where it looked like a screwdriver or similar was used to lever/wedge the engine into place at install, These areas have been carefully blended out. Apart from that and the usual loose fastener or over-torqued bolt here and there not too much else to report in a negative way.

Im also considering an SMT slipper clutch, at $1200 new I may try an source an nearly new item first. This will be awesome on the road with 17" rims and some decent tires.

That me for the day..... :yawn:

 

[johnnysneds]

Top and bottom steering head bearing/housings well lubricated.

Before top triple goes on Scott Frame Bracket installed

Stock triple clamp installed with Scott sub mount. This raises the bars by approx 3/4".

Installation of Scott Dampener complete.

Front view.

With bar fitted.

Trailtech Vapor replaces the stock display. The stocker only gives you speed indication and various time settings. The Vapor will have water temp sensor, ambient temp, speed, engine speed (rpm), and all the enduro type time settings available. Will be 12V supplied but also operated off it own battery. Stock speed sensor cable was snipped and removed. Replacement routes up the same side as the brake line.

Front wiring has been re-installed with correct routing. Before hand was just a mess and cables would have been damaged over time. Alot tidier and organised now.

The pair of blue on/off toggle switches you see will be used to operate the headlight and rhs radiator pull fan. They installed very nicely into the old display mounting points. This way I will not have to carry out the stator mod to accommodate more power for the extra fan. The fan will obviously be manually operated and used in conjunction with the temp sensor output on the Vapor. I don't see any reason to have the fan and light on at the same time. The light switch is also handy for Cambodia.

 

[johnnysneds]

Hey Tony,
Yes the bike was new and yes it should have been greased at the factory. However who knows what kind of journey these grey imports take on, and also remember it has been disassembled and rebuilt, to what extent I don't know. I would only be guessing the length of time it was sitting in a crate, bearings etc open to the elements. I wouldn't like to point fingers at a manufacturer or anyone else, its just something ive become accustomed to over the years, I actually enjoy taking bikes apart, finding problems and rectifying them, sad I know, but hey thats the way I am.
Using a camera has a few good uses when your stripping stuff down and carrying out maintenance. It serves as a running log of what you've done (no need for steps/entries in a notebook), you can quickly revert to a stage of disassembly for reference eg routing, its good for posting on forums like these (i hope it makes some interesting reading), it actually jogs my memory rather well when I flick through the photos before I start off on another day = fewer mistakes, and your always going to have these photos for years to come.

So what ive been getting up to over the past few days. I spent a good few hours rewiring the oem loom/harness to accommodate the addition of a fan with manual toggle switch, toggle switch for headlight, Vapor power/temp/tacho signals, Garmin harness. Its all been integrated into the existing harness properly ie wires not running directly off the battery, which is not wrong as long as you have the fuses in line etc, it just makes life easier for in the future when you have to remove it all again and it looks cleaner also.

This is the signal wire coming off the coil connector which in turn is converted in to your RPM (tachometer) reading on your Vapor.

Original speed sensor cable is now redundant as the vapor uses its own sensor. Snipped and blanked off with heat-shrink. I might be teaching some to suck eggs but always remember to leave enough tail incase you need to return the bike to stock for whatever reason.

After the electrics were all completed and ready for installation I had a wee break from the spanners and done some research for getting it green booked. After chasing my tail for a while and reading lots of posts on forums, and there is lots of information, some good some misleading, in-fact a lot of misleading information. I eventually narrowed my options down to three companies in Bangkok. And with help from my wife (my Jock accent and poor attempt at Thai doesn't come across very well!!!:huh I have a company that will sort everything out for a fixed price. I hopefully will receive the excise proof of payment shortly after the 15th of April, this is included in the fee. Some time later I will have to send the bike to Bangkok for a week or so for them to put it through the emissions test. Ive used Logispost and you can send a 400cc bike or larger to Bangkok for 1,790 Baht. Contrary to what people are saying about the new legislation regarding the emissions test and Carburated bikes it can be done and has been done quite easily using the right people. Hopefully, fingers crossed (and toes) they tell me I should be legal in approx. 3 months after the emissions test. I'd like to also add if you go this route apparently its far easier for the company to get cracking with the process if all the import papers are in a Thais name.

So with that good news I picked up the spanners again.

Time to work on the engine a little. Cylinder head cover was removed to give the valve clearances a quick check. The WR comes with a couple of handy aides to assist bringing the engine to tdc. Remove both covers on the crank case, rotating the crankshaft, align the notch above up with the line on the rotor.

Theres also a secondary indication on the camshafts shown by aligning the two punch marks up horizontally.

There's a total of 5 valves to check, 2 intake and 3 exhaust. All were within the specified limits, however the one shown below was at the upper end of the tolerances for some reason, usually out the factory they are adjusted to the lower tolerance to allow for wear. Ill need to keep an eye on this one.

Now a word of caution. The feeler gauges that I purchased a wee while ago, some of the values are incorrect, the ones below for instance. You can see the floppy one which is obviously the thinner of the two, the metric reading is larger than the thicker one!!! aaaah I here you say thats what you get for buying gear made in China, nope it clearly has made in the USA stamped on it. What's the world coming to when you have to get calipers to check feeler gauges!!! It took me a while to figure it out, but I got there in the end.

I would have liked to remove the cylinder head but unfortunately the gasket kit hasn't arrived yet, so its on the jobs to do list. All external bolts were loosened re-seated and torqued, all good.

So that was yesterday. Today I spent a bit of time going over what I had done up till now before installing the engine. All good (I think).
So in she went. I took my time removing it and making a mental note of the angles required to get it out smoothly. So the reverse was carried out and it slipped in very easily.

So after this I spent a bit of time routing all cables, which took longer than expected as it wasn't done properly previously on rebuild. The routing diagrams from the manufacturers aren't the best but its all you have to get on with. What I did notice with the Scott Dampener mount bracket which is shown in a previous post. When you rotate the steering one of the throttle cables and the throttle position sensor catches on the pinch bolt/gap of the Scott clamp. Its only slightly but enough to cause problems over time. Something to keep in mind if you fit one of these.
All connectors were checked for continuity and resistance between each other (within bundles) and earth. The battery was also slaved in and operation of the Vapor and GPS was checked good. Fan and Headlight toggle switches operating correctly. The electric/ignition system was also fully checked and all results within spec. The spark plug gap of all things was to too big by 0.1mm

The colorful plastic fish you see above on the floor are part of a game my two young daughters are into at the minute. It comes with two whipping fishing rods with magnets on the end which is quite sore when it cracks you across the heed. This adds to the challenge of an already challenging project. :crazy:

I mentioned a few days ago how high the torques were on some of the bolts when I dismantled the bike, as if two or three mechanics had been bouncing on a 12ft long bar with a socket on the end. Well have a look at the picture below. I religiously use a torque wrench and refer to bike specific tables for correct values when re-building. Now as you can see these bolts aren't the best of quality (shame on you Yamaha) and is all the more reason to ensure you correctly stick to the correct torques. The torque for this bolt, and this is the lower engine mounting bracket bolt by the way!, is 38ft/lbs. Now thats not much but it managed to shear it quite easily, the reason because it had been well over torqued previously and just about passed it point of elasticity. You can actually feel this when torquing up. There were a few others that felt the same but managed to hold on until the required torque. I will be replacing these as a matter of course.

So that's me for the night, the front end is nearly complete, its sort of looking like a motorcycle again. Tomorrow ill try and get round to stripping down the Carb and giving it a good clean. And maybe get that fitted and give the engine a test before the rear end goes on.

Good night :yawn:

 

[KTMphil]

i was agonizing over buying Brian's 2008 WR450 in Khon Kean and getting some SM wheels, looking at yours is stirring those emotions again.

What camera are you using great definition?

Beautiful

 

[johnnysneds]

Replaced the main engine mounting bolts as promised. These bolts tensile properties are far superior to the stock items they are heavier but its a sacrifice im more than willing to accept. Its all about weight from the manufacturers these days, pressure is on them to produce lighter bikes than their opposition

Today I mostly sat at my workbench listening to music and stripping down the Carburetor. I was hoping to see some major indications of Gasohol residue, there was some but nothing to be concerned about. All chambers and moving parts were nice and clean and free to move. There was some flaking of coating from the throttle valve plate. Scraped the remaining flakes of carefully.

Throttle Valve. Looks like something out of Robot Wars! You can see the coating flaking off at the left hand corners.

A better view of the flaking.

Throttle valve being carefully removed.

Float chamber which contains most of the jets. Main Jet, Pilot Jet, Needle Jet, Starter Jet, Pilot Air Jet and Leak Jet.

Throttle shaft assembly being removed from its housing. Remove these carefully noting how them came out and position of springs as its easy to refit them again incorrectly.

When refitting jets as there is no torque values extra care is needed when tightening. They do not require excessive pressure a wee nip is sufficient. A note on the pilot screw (this may be the same for most makes), these are set at factory for each individual bike. It must be screwed fully in and a note of the turns recorded for reference.

All jets, needles, components and chambers cleaned thoroughly with a petroleum based solvent. All looks good for a rebuild.

And here it is re-built and installed on the bike.

Here's a photo of the foam blanks I used on the Carb. The orangey brown residue you can see is the product of Gasohol. This is very minor, I have seen some older carb'd bikes with this gunk everywhere. Too much of this and your bike just wont run properly and it will attack older plastics/rubbers that are not suitable for use with Gasohol. I have some photos of an R1 that had been severely attacked by Gasohol, ill try and find them and post them up for you to see what this stuff is capable of.

I had a quick go of the clutch before I knocked off for the day. I knew previously that something wasn't right with it. When I collected the bike I noticed a bigger clunk than normal when selecting from neutral into 1st. When riding the bike and stopping at lights it just wouldn't go into neutral no matter how gentle you tried. After the bike is stopped its rather easy to select neutral! Now when the bike is not running and you select 1st the bike obviously wont roll forward. If you pull in the clutch lever the bike still wont roll forward but it will if you push with a bit of effort. Ive taken a video of whats happening for an easier explanation. I believe the clutch is dragging for some reason. You'll notice the push lever being operated. It appears to be rotating at an angle of between 15-20 degrees. Whether this is enough or the lever has been incorrectly fitted ill find out tomorrow.

Thats me for the night again..night night... :yawn:

 

[johnnysneds]

One of those frustrating days with the clutch today, but it has a good ending. The drag that I was experiencing is normal although maybe a bit excessive. The clutch is definitely disengaging, proof was I could physically see the rotors/stators loosening when the clutch cover was removed, also when the clutch is disengaged its slightly easier to rotate the crank now, release the clutch and its all engine. So purely down to proper adjustment and setting the correct free play at the clutch perch.

Clutch cover removed. Notice the score marks on the pressure plate, this looks like a poor attempt at removing the cast marks from the surface in the factory. The edges were quite sharp and required de-burring, preventing cuts on yer fingers and cracks appearing. Your suppose to replace the gasket after removing the cover, I haven't got one so careful when removing so it can be reused. The clutch system shares the same oil as the engine.

Pressure plate being removed exposing the clutch rotor pack.

I initially thought the problems were down to the push rod ball bearing missing, it obviously wasn't.

Clutch pack removed

This your Clutch Boss in the center surrounded by the primary driven gear or Clutch Basket. The centre nut has to be removed and a special Yamaha tool is required to prevent the assembly from turning while you loosen the nut. Well I don't have one so....

So here's my first method. DO NOT do it like this!!

Or you'll have to do this...
The fabricator put too much weld around the post and it took me ages to file it down and finnish it off with a Dremel. Shi_t I thought. Its fine though, probably stronger than the others. A new one will be here in about a weeks time anyway. Now if you havent got the correct tool for the job I suggest getting one :-?
Ive done it this way on other bikes in the past and this is the first one that has done this, been lucky I guess and I have learnt my lesson.

Now I sussed out a far better way if you haven't the correct tool.
Select highest gear possible, in my case 5th. The reason for this is there will be less of a ratio on the front sprocket reducing the torque. Lever the tommy bar against the foot-peg and remove the boss nut from the clutch assembly, easy/ Use tywraps to keep the socket on their good as it will come off easily under load from the other side.

Clutch assembly removed. All looks good.

A quick video of it being operated after re-installing (and filing for ages:crazy

Now I previously mentionted about fitting a slipper clutch. I have decided against this for various reasons. After lots of research and reading reviews I have decided to go for a Rekluse Core Clutch with EXP Technology. It basically controls the pressure plate by means of centrifugal forces. The engine cannot be stalled. What I understand it would be similar to the semi-auto scooters. Its does have some negative points but the positives far outweigh them. Most riders who have them fitted state its one of the best upgrades they have applied. Rather than me rabbit on about it here's a link to their product.
http://www.bustersdirtshop.com/product.php?productid=8835

So a bit of a frustrating day, but were all good now. Its the weekend, time to forget about fixing bikes for a few days, lets ride the KLX :thumbup:

 

[johnnysneds]

Hi again,

Thanks for all the comments and feedback it all welcome.
Franz-ive found Nana screw very useful during this project, thats the place on Charoen Mueng Road, over the Narawat Bridge, right? A lot of mods/upgrades come with larger/smaller dimensions which require longer/shorter fasteners, this place is a one-stop for all of that and also has an excellent choice of tools.
2wheels-your more than welcome to bring your bike round for anything I can assist with if I can. As time and money are not factors I tend to take my time and make sure I don't make mistakes (although not infallible), most people usually want their bikes back asap and I don't seem to work as good or as confident with that thought hanging over me, takes the enjoyment out of it.
Changnoi1-Blueprinting, well as mentioned previously I don't have the gasket kit to do that yet or some other bits and bobs. You are correct though and I will do this at some stage. As you probably noticed from an earlier post some of the engine components were not exactly bang on tight tolerances. Your comment on Grey Imports/Local assemblers is the main reason i am going through all this, many thanks to them for the endless hours of enjoyment. :thumbup:
Just a wee word on batteries. I have ordered x2 of these. They produce the same output as the stock battery, the two of them combined are still lighter than the stocker and will fit in the battery compartment. One for in-use and one for backup. although the WR comes with a kick start. The more start options is always a bonus when your out and about. Because of the Rekluse clutch that will be getting fitted shortly there is no option to bump start. There is an bypass to use the conventional clutch but until it arrives im not sure how easy it is to bypass.

To be honest I wouldn't say you need loads of tools to do what ive done up til now, in-fact you would be amazed at how much you actually do need. A half decent socket set, allen keys, screw driver set, torque wrench and away you go. There is times when "special tools" are required, but my experiences are you can always get around it by having a good think and using what you've got around you, but then again you may have to have a good thing a couple of times to accomplish the task as previously happened with the clutch boss :think:

So after a nice weekend I went out this morning and stared at the bike with a cup of 3in1 coffee for half an hour, trying to figure out where to begin. Well all the engine was plumbed in so I thought i'd make a start on the cooling fan. I would have to mount the new 3.6 gallon Clarke tank as opposed to the 2.1 gallon stock tank. This should give me a bit more ferry on the road. Here's the differences in size:

It doesn't half get the 2011 award for ugliest motorcycle part

The stock tank mounted.

and the Clarke tank...

I went for the a black one as it looks as if it belongs there. Ive seen colour coded tanks, clear ones etc and my personal opinion is they look out of place, however the clear ones are handy to see your fuel level if you've no other means of telling. I have a Zumo which monitors your fuel level and also the reserve on the tank as back up when that goes wrong. Just a matter of getting use to and monitoring your range. Here's the tank mounted with the right hand shroud. All bolted straight up no problem, nice fit.

Well the Clarke tank left me hardly any room to work with regards to fitting the pull fan. The tank and shroud was on and off approx. 1,001 times!! Eventually with the use of a Dremmel (great little things, Homepro 2,000 Baht, I got the last one, display model, sorry), some much needed patience and a wee bit of jiggery pokery it squeezed in quite nicely. There's a slight gap between tank and fan and its very close, Ill put some PTFE tape onto the tank at that point incase there is any sort of fouling and inspect it on future maintenance schedules. For those who don't know, a pull fan works by drawing the air through from the leading face of the radiator. You actually get more airflow than the normal blow fan and off-course if you were blowing from this side it would probably be hot air from the engine/exhaust, maybe sounds negligible but it all helps in this climate! Also by having it mounted on the rear of the radiator prevents or drastically reduces damage and it doesn't block normal riding air flow if it were mounted on the front. Forgive me if this sounds simple but Ive been asked this a few times in the past. A quick note on the fan, its a 4" Spal unit from the states ($40ish eBay), waterproof and robust. Some folk use PC fans! not recommended for off-road use. If they fail quite regularly in an air-conditioned office with the fresh smell of Chanel#5 flowing through them, what chance have they up Doi Suthep or the Cardamoms?

My daughter was drawing pictures of teddy bears on the back of the radiator :shifty:

You can buy fancy brackets to mount these fans and usually they are a pain in the butt to fit, extra weight and they also cost extra. You also can take the radiator to a local fabricator and get them to weld some lugs that will match up to the mounting points, all the best to you with that, I wouldn't, these radiators are really fragile. Here's the best way that I have found to do it and its dead easy, will cost you next to nothing and its easy to remove. The fins on the radiator (the bits that are easy to damage in between the water path tubes), a correctly selected tywrap will pass through from one side to the other. Open the mounting holes up on the fan if necessary (I had to by a couple of mm) pass the tywrap through the hole and through the radiator. Don't finnish the tywrap off in the conventional way just use another end of another tywrap and slide it down the other side which will secure the fan. I only did three as this was more than enough. Here's some photos . It looks really tidy when you do it this way and you can just about mount the fan anywhere you want on the radiator. You also get the fan flush to the surface of the radiator which makes it operate more efficiently.

After the fan/radiators were fitted I moved on to fitting the temp sensor for the Vapor, straight forward, cut the required section out of the hose and slip it in. The display will show engine temperature and if your not paying attention to this there is LED warning lights, amber for initial high temp then red for critical temp, will post the results of a test of this later. Hopefully the plan will be to flick the switch for the fan on when I see the amber LED and the water temp should stabilise. The WR does come with a catch/expansion tank for receiving excess expanded hot water. You'll more than likely have heard that riders like to remove these as they are not required and save weight. The folk that don't need them are riding on deserted roads in the antarctic, and for saving weight!! its only like half a kilo, better to take a dump before you go out on your ride rather than risk your coolant spewing out all over the ground. Ill be using Motul's Motocool for coolant, its pre-mixed and you don't have to worry about getting the mix ratio correct or using the right water. It's readily available at the Kawasaki garage in the old town for around 400ish Baht. So I think all this will go a long way to keeping her cool.

Rest of the day consisted of wiring the loom to accommodate the position of the fan. Also its important to test all your connections before you start soldering/heat-shrinking or wrapping it all in electrical tape, nothing more annoying than when you press the button and nothing happens and you have to remove all the insulation again, ugh. Some double ended test crocodile clips, chocolate blocks (terminal blocks) and your battery and it only takes a minute to check it out.

I decided to relocate the Vapor to where the original display was. Once I put the front headlight panel on it looked vulnerable, so down it went, and if you've ever seen any of my off-road videos posted on this forum you'll understand why as im a wee bit partial to going head first over the handlebars when getting too excited!!
It will also be out of the sun and ill probably be able to see it more clearly. This left me with a problem of where to relocate the fan and headlight switches to. I wasnt too happy where they were anyway. Ill need to have a think about that one, maybe some sort of universal handlebar control, something like this. I also want to have some sort of LED/visual indication that either the headlight or fan is on.

If you close your left eye and raise your left hand up to cover where the rear section of the bike would normally be you can just about make out a motorcycle :wtf:

good night..... :yawn:

 

[johnnysneds]

Todays objective was to try and get the bike into a state where the engine could be tested.
Fuel **** transfered to Clarke Tank. Have you ever wondered how your reserve fuel works, here's your answer.

All moving parts on the swing arm thoroughly greased. After fitment excess grease removed to avoid attracting dirt.

Spot the obvious mistake

Subframe just about finished. A bit of time spent routing the loom correctly and all electrical/electronic components.

Rear fender fitted. Alot of cables, hoses, expansion tank and the CDI unit are crammed into a small space behind the LH side panel.

Beginning to take shape. Test fit seat, panels etc for fitment, no real issues.

Exhaust fitted. This will eventually get replaced but for now everything will be stock on the engine until its past its emission test.

I really like how easy the access is to all the components from the LHS. In-fact the whole bike is relatively easy to work on with the exception of the Carburetor. To work on it properly you really need to remove the subframe and top bolt from the rear shock. I reckon the Carb could be completely removed from the bike in half an hour going at it steady.

All fluids replaced iaw Yamaha specs. Benzine95 sourced from the Shell Garage on Hangdong Road just south from Tesco Lotus. Before pressing the button I spent half an hour going over everything looking for any last minute errors.

 

[KTMphil]

Fantastic reading thanks John.

 

[johnnysneds]

Here's a short video of the bike being started for the first time after the rebuild.
The bike was run for a good 15 minutes at least. Operated the fan when the temp showed 114C. However the temp continued to increase albeit at a lower pace. The fans definitely making a difference as you can feel the hot blast of air being drawn from the rear of the radiator. You'll also notice the expansion/catch tank doing its job, the radiator cap should be relieving at 16psi, still to check this. If the cap relieves too early you obviously loose pressure and too much coolant to the catch tank. The engine was stopped when it reached 130C, the specs of the motocool indicate its good up to 133C, however you want to keep the engine temp lower than this. So I have between 10-15 minutes at idle before the temp gets critical which is pretty good considering the air temperature. I'll set the warning temp LED's at 110C (operate fan), 119C (stop bike and have a break time). At the end of the video you can see the Vapor displaying the ambient air temp, 42C. Ive also found out that WR's come out the factory very lean, probably for emissions regulations in certain countries. A lean or rich running bike will cause unnecessary heat build up in your engine. So once I get it back from the emissions test in Bangkok it will get re-jetted and a better flowing exhaust fitted which will give more power but more importantly it will run cooler.
The Vapor Tacho requires calibrating as when the engine is at the upper rev range the pulses from the coil are different, which in turns gives wonky readouts.
Overall very pleased, the bike started alot more crisper than it did a few weeks ago when i picked it up and ticked over very nice.
Has anyone any idea where a good shop that stocks auto electrical switches and that kind of stuff, tried Omoron and thats not got what I need. Or a bike shop that might stock some second hand handlebar controls that I can modify?

 

[johnnysneds]

This morning got the cooling system purged properly and found small pockets of air here and there. Catch tank hose took some time to bleed. Filled the expansion tank more than indicated on the bottle to give it a better header to prevent air getting in, a little bit extra doesn't do any harm anyway, if the expansion tank gets too full it will just vent to atmosphere (motocool is environmentally friendly :shh.

The lower dotted line is where the expansion tank level is when cold. And the upper dotted line is when the engine temp is 119C and the engine shut off. So there's approx. just over 10mm of expansion travel on the bottle from cold to the max warning temp, pretty good and shouldn't loose any coolant.

Expansion tank feed hose no signs of air

Other end good too...

After bleeding/purging I completed another idle test. The below table shows the results. A lot better than yesterdays.
You can see the fan was operated when the temp reached 110C and the amber LED illuminated (its pretty bright too). Previous to the fan operation the temp was climbing at an average of 8 degC/min from start up, probably around 6degC/min at operating temperature. When the fan was operating the temp increase averaged out at 1.8degC/min until I switched the engine off at 119C. Happy with that. Note that the ambient temp went up by 6C during the test due to the hot air from the engine spiraling around the Vapor onboard sensor. When out and about the air temp will not react like this and I should get better cooling to the radiator. A good test and gives me some confidence now when up in the hills doing the slow technical trails.

Also the expansion tank started flowing at around 77C. This should relate to the radiator cap venting at 16psi. I want to clarify this but im sure its good.

 

[johnnysneds]

Went out for a gentle spin naked (the bike!) this late afternoon. Its always a very nervous time going out on the road for the first time after such major maintenance. Every noise from the bike does not go unnoticed, is that normal? did I hear that before? just ignore it, it'll go away! it's meant to do that, I think!. For me this state of paranoia lasts for ten minutes when I usually stop give it a good going over, kick the tires, realise everything fine and try and enjoy the positive aspects.
Firstly the Stabiliser from Scott is so smooth and the feel through the steering is confidence expiring, cant wait to try it off-road. At speed steering head shake is almost entirely eliminated. There was a couple of occasions where you felt the head beginning to shake followed by the stabiliser slapping it back into line, awesome. At slower speeds when filtering past slow or stationary traffic on the outside lane you can feel it working, its difficult to explain. The road I noticed it on was in poor condition with tarmac ruts, bumps and the odd small pot hole. You'll understand this feeling if you've ever experienced your bikes front wheel going into these tarmac tracks/ruts (usually before a junction with traffic lights) and the wheel just tracks in the rut direction without any input from you. Well the stabiliser just reacted to these like they were not there and tracked on the direction intended. Now this is going to be fun off-road.

Next the engine temperature. Throughout the road test the Vapor indicated between 72-75C, with the odd jump up to 90C at traffic lights. Soon as I began moving the temp dropped linearly back to its operating temp in approx. 20 seconds, cool (literally). Didn't even get to use the fan!

The clutch was also good. Gear changes were crisp with little effort from the clutch lever. I also got it into neutral a good few times, which is a good few times more than previously. However it is finicky, maybe it just needs running in a bit more. There's just the normal engaging clunk now from neutral into gear, before it felt like someone had skelpped the crank case with a 50lb sledge hammer.

Even with knobblies on, the bike felt planted in bends. This in motard trim must be fantastic fun, I can see the attraction with these big thumpers on the road. Unfortunately its mostly been sports-bikes on the road for me, but I cant wait to try it at some point. Primarily I got the bike for trail riding which is where my heart lies and thats what ill be enjoying first and foremost.
Now the engine feels strong but it isn't as scary as I had imagined. Stock from the factory is around the 38bhp mark. Uncork the engine, carry out a few free de-resrtiction mods, re-jet the carburetor, fit an aftermarket exhaust and you'll see 50bhp!. Not to mention the stock throttle stop limits the range by 75%. Insert a YZ throttle stop and you then have 100%. For now its more than enough for me to get on with.

Here's a 5 minute boring video from my helmet camera this afternoon.

 

[johnnysneds]

Today I found one of those excellent sticky posts on GT-R. The one about handy motorcycle shops in Chiang Mai. While scrolling through the photos I notice a shop listed as Ing-On (hope I got that right). Now to the untrained eye this is chaos, nope I noticed just what I needed. 600 Baht later I was on my way to more progress ($50-80 on eBay).

Its a wee tad on the getting bigger than wee side but it has all the functions I need and more. Low and behold the Kawa...Suz...oh who cares the switching unit I need for the WR. Ideally I would have loved to have this on the right hand side of the handlebars, but the front brake master cylinder said bugger off! So to the other side it was. Cant explain why I wanted it that side as im full of Vodka just now but im sure I had good reasons.

The mirror adapter had to come off as it interfered with the hot start lever. An hour or so later with a hacksaw and the Dremmel it was history. The hot start lever was a tad too low so a couple of 10mm nuts uplift and it was good to go. It also had about five hundred wires coming out of it bowing for attention, snip, snip, snip and we were down to what we needed.

You'll notice the engine kill switch is still present . I was going to integrate it into the yellow start switch you see. However I decided that it was maybe to easy to inadvertently hit this so decided against it. It is there for for future reference and im sure ill find a purpose for it, machine gun or something!

The massive RED switch is for the fan and the horizontal switch for the headlight, job done.

So here we have it , the office.....

Im so looking forward to thrashing this. At the moment its heavily restricted. She's refusing to wheelie off the power in second without clutch interference but believe me once the the Thai emissions test is over and done with its going to be fully uncorked and a different bike completely. A JD jet kit is winging its way to Thailand in anticipation as we speak. The bike is frustratingly lean with its pops and hiccups at the moment, I need to administer first aid but for now it will have to suffer in the shadow of Thai bureaucracy.

Now I still have loads of thing to do on this project, but for sure I will post progress as I go along. Just before I go tonight I would just like to add a very, very, very special thanks to my 2 year old darling daughter Sunisa (3 in a week or so). She has helped me every step of the way with the bike and this is no word of a lie. She understands all the technical tooling words. spanner, screwdriver, socket, ratchet etc etc. I honestly couldn't have done it with as much fun as I have done with her, she has my heart completely, bless her.

I am however tired of her complaining of the stabilisers being to low on her green machine!!!

 

[johnnysneds]

Removed spark arrestor and the pea-shooter noise restrictor. A couple of 3.2mm rivets holding it in place. Drill the head off with a 3.5mm bit, punch out and lever the insert out. The gases flow better now and the bike idles smoother when cold (choke can be switched off sooner), still requires re-jetting though. The noise is better now, sounds more like a thumper, before you'd have mistaken it for a lawn mower.

Before:

After:

Spark Arrestor:

My daughters birthday and a thanks for her help. Already showing signs of good throttle control, unlike her dad! Had to make a throttle stop as these wee ATV's don't half rip around the garden, even with me on it!

 

[johnnysneds]

Well the seat on these bikes is like sitting on a razor blade. One hour of this the other day and i could hardly walk or sit down for a wee while. Enter "The Seat Magician"

This picture is from the sticky thread http://www.gt-rider.com/thailand-motorcycle-forum/threads/25935-Chiang-Mai-Handy-Motorcycle-Related-Shops

I needed the bike lowering and didn't want to mess with the sag as I got it set up pretty good without the need for a stronger rated spring. So the seat is where I could make cheap adjustments to the bike without altering the geometry and pad my butt out at the same time, bonus.

I can now get both my feet 75% on the ground instead of just my tip-toes and it feels soo much more comfortable, brilliant job. And it only cost 300 Baht, cant fault that service 10/10 :clap:

 

[johnnysneds]

Some encouraging news regarding progress legalising the bike. Received a copy of the excise paid certificate by email today, right on time as promised by the company. Also was informed that the bike is ready for its emissions test, great, so off she goes tomorrow morning to Bangkok by Logispost. So with 2-3 days mailing either side of the seven days they require the bike for the test, they promised the bike should be back with me 2/3rd May. I asked what if it fails (it being a carb bike and all that) and was told they have never had a bike fail, don't worry! Im not getting my hopes up and remaining optimistic, however I do feel it's going positively in that department, fingers crossed.

As the bike is ready for off-road use and I was waiting on the excise tax being finalised I spent some time sourcing parts to convert to Motard if required so I can join in some road trips.
After a lot of research I settled on a gearing ratio of 2.8. This is the combination of a 15 tooth front sprocket and a 42 rear. This should give me a nice cruising speed of around 130km/h @ 7,000 rpm. Peak power stock on the WR is around 8,250 which relates to 152 km/h. I believe the engine limit is 10,500. So im hoping this will give a nice smooth ride, accelerating and cruising. If not I have a selection of sprockets that came with the bike - 47/50 rear and 13/14 front, so plenty to juggle around until a nice compromise is found. This website is great if your thinking about changing sprockets on your bike, it tells you all sorts of relevant information. It even tells you how many links of chain is required for your particular bike/gearing combination.
http://www.gearingcommander.com/

I found a set of 17" Supermoto spoked wheels on ebay. Black Rims and blue hubs should go nice with the bike. I tried for alloys for the added benefit of the Cush Drive, these are better for reducing wear throughout your drive train when changing gear/throttling etc, spoked wheels do not have these. The rear wheel was offered in two different sizes, width wise. 4.25" or 5.00". Now 5.00" wheels will fit and I think this goes for most dirt bikes but you have to factor in consideration for the chain rubbing on the side wall. There are chain blocks/guides you can buy to deflect the interference, you can also dish the wheel which is a process of loosening off one side of the spokes a certain amount and equally tightening the opposite side to off-set the wheel and hub. Also different tyre manufacturers have different profiles for the same sizes depending on the tread/carcass etc. I all seems too much of a hassle so I went with the 4.25", quarter of an inch wont be missed (thats what she said anyway!).

Here's a handy link to rims sizes and tyre applications:- http://www.dropbears.com/u/utilities/tyrerim.htm

I settled for Pirelli Supercorsa SC2's. 120/70-17 front and 150/60-17 rear to compliment the rims. Never tried these before but have heard great things about them. These are more track/fast road orientated so should provide good grip (in dry conditions off-course). I really wanted to give the new Angel ST's a go but unfortunately they don't have the required sizes in stock, but they were kind enough to order some for me which will take a while. I hear the Angels are a great touring tyre that will give good grip in all road conditions with a good life.

Finally and most importantly I made an effort to upgrade the brakes as there will be a lot more forces being applied than off-road. The stock front rotor is 250mm diameter and ive increased this to a 320mm EBC rotor. I read that the diameter doesn't make a difference to stopping power, only heat dissipation and feel, I agree with the last two benefits but the first one thats just nonsense. If you apply mathematics, force x distance(radius) = Torque, which simply put the same force (braking pressure from the pads to the disc) applied at 160mm from the centre point (fulcrum) will be greater than that of 125mm. And as mentioned earlier because of the greater surface area there will be better heat dissipation reducing brake fade. I also got a fresh set of brake pads to swap over with the front rotors. I don't think its a good idea to use the same pads with different rotors.

I went for a spin off-road on some simple trails the other day just to get a feel for the new suspension settings. I had to add a fair bit of pre-load to the rear (ok i like Thai food and beer). I thought i might have had to order a stronger spring but it all worked out fine. The front forks were good when I received the bike but the rear was far too soft. The bike sank almost immediately when you sat on it, even for a small local fella I think this would have been way out. It would have been more like a Viking rowing boat than a dirt bike off-road, sea sickness tablets required.
So it felt pretty good. Still a long way from it being just right (is there such a thing with suspension!). I enjoy messing with suspension, there is definitely some satisfaction in feeling the difference you've just made from a few clicks here and there. I will say though, and forgive me again if im teaching some to suck eggs, its of the utmost importance to set your sag correctly before messing with rebound/compression. There is an excellent book which i have from Racetech "Motorcycle Suspension Bible". It covers everything you need to know and their methods are precise and clear. Suspension is an area where many bikers neglect and is an area which can make the biggest impact on your ride. I use to ride a gixxer thou a Bira for fun, after the track if I didn't ease of the front rebound/compression it use to rattle my teeth out on the way home and were only talking 2-3 three clicks difference!
Below is the Racetech book. If anyone would like to borrow it or needs a hand setting their sag I'd be glad to lend it out or help set your suspension, no worries.
The mess below it is the sheet of paper I used to set the sag, aye i doesn't make much sense to me now either!
There was an area when setting up my sag that I wasn't aware of, or rather I thought didn't make much of a difference but it does and it can also indicate problems with your suspension. If you compress your front forks and slowly release, take the measurement and compare it with raising the forks and slowly releasing, you will get two different dimensions. This is called the "stiction zone". On a dirt bike this can be anywhere between 10-25mm depending on your model. The WR came out at 10mm. Now you can see by only measuring one way you could be out by 25mm when setting up your sag which is quite a lot. The average of the two gives you a more accurate reading when calculating it all out.

 

[johnnysneds]

Got most of the parts to assemble the Supermoto wheels. Just waiting on the front EBC brake rotor and the front sprocket.

Didn't want to risk damaging with tyre irons so took them to ****pit on Hangdong Road. Its located going northbound on the left midway between Big C and the Airport Plaza. You cant miss it, its just before the big time/temperature sign that lights up. They do a really professional job. No metal contact whatsoever with the tyre installation machine and rim. They also payed a lot of attention to balancing both wheels which did require some weighting. 500 Baht for the lot, maybe a wee bit expensive but I think its worth it for the piece of mind of them doing it correctly and not dinging the rims.

They even asked what side the sprocket/rotors were on to get the rotation correct, great job. The gentleman in the second picture speaks better English than me and is a top bloke all round, very helpful indeed.

Here they are ready to get fitted. Hopefully front brake rotor will arrive shortly. The rear sprocket is 42T and is from Supersprox. http://www.supersproxusa.com/

 

[johnnysneds]

Few bits and bobs arrived for the bike over the last few days:

Front EBC brake rotor fitted this morning. Also comes with a very nice looking gold anodised caliper adapter.

Jetting kit from James Deans. One of the steps to uncorking the bike.

ZipTy Fuel Mixture screw which will make adjustment easier as the location of the stock one is a pain to access.

This is what im most excited about to install and try out. The Rekluse Z-Start Pro Auto Clutch.

Looks like im going to be busy when the bike arrives back tomorrow.

 

[johnnysneds]

Ok so the bike is back right on time as expected. Been walking around lost for the past few days with only one thing on my mind. Right lets go..
Lets Supermoto this bad boy...

Oh and here's the emission passed sticker they slap on it...woooooot. A simple wee piece of paper with some bullshit on it is like 10 Christmases all rolled into one for me!!!

Rear wheel was a doddle, slipped right on their with the provided spacers.

More room than I thought, maybe I could have got the 5" on there. auch well..

Dont knock that wee pink chair. its held my weight longer than any of the rest!

This is a great wee tool for splitting chains.

On goes the Renthal O-Ring. Been with Renthal all my days and haven't had a problem, so why change now eh! 118L chain, removed about 6 links I think. Try and adjust your chain short as it will stretch and hopefully ends up in the middle of the indicator.

Loads of room between chain and tyre.

Remember to change your pads to bed in with the new rear rotor. Courtesy of Craig in Pattaya (EBC), top bloke, thanks mate.

This will be my off-road pads...

On to the front end. This was a lot more fiddly and required some patience. The front wheel was supplied with x3 spacers which confused the f*** out of me. I don't know the permutations but it was enough to get through 12 bottles of beer Chang! Got there in the end and the wheel was as central as I could get it. The rhs gap is a tad wee'er than the lhs, but its negligible. The tyre in there is a real tight fit. The fork protectors had to be bent out the way as I re-tightened the fasteners and gave me the required clearance I was looking for.
The caliper adapter from EBC was not an accurate fit and interfered with the rotor on rotation of the wheel without the pads fitted. A couple of shim washers and it was all good.

Im going to have to have a think about the Vapor magnet for the speedo tomorrow when Im sober!!!

Ive had all sorts of bikes but for some reason this bike has me buzzing big time. My K8 Gixxer thou was special but im more pumped about this. I think its because within an hour you can have an awesome dirt bike or, I don't know what you all think but it look likes it going to carve the roads around Chiang Mai up. I have never tried Supermoto before but im so excited about this. I reckon ive got a lot to do to bring the suspension into line for the road which may involve some re-srpinging/valving, but we'll take that as it comes.
Im going to try and go to sleep now...

 

[johnnysneds]

Yes you are quite right and I mentioned this in my previous post. I intentionally went long as I have other larger sprockets I want to try and if I go short with the chain wont fit without adding links. There's still three notches left on the adjuster and its easier to remove a link as im using the clip to secure the master link and not the rivets. But as you rightly mentioned if the chain is on for its life span your better to fit it short for stretch.
Yeah Phil I think his name was, what a lovely bike that Harley was, 1600cc wow, looked like you could fall asleep on it! I was going to pop round to your place with him but I felt like crap when I got there. Motion sickness aided with all the beers last night and I had to stop on the way back to throw up, nasty.
Up until this point I was having a great time. The handling is superb, on rails as to speak. The tires are awesome not one slip/slide. Front brakes are strong. Too much nose diving when hard on them due to the suspension being set up for off-road. Had to use plenty of rear brake to keep it level under braking. Ill add some compression damping and see if it helps any, but I really think it needs stiffer springs in the forks. Gearing was good too. Never managed to fit the 15T front sprocket as it only arrived this afternoon so went with the 14T that was already on. On the way home up the canal road it managed a GPS top speed of 150Km/h @ 8,500 rpm, not comfortable though. 130km/h was ok.

Here's a video and some photos. Yes I know chicken strips, but I was giving it some lean angle around some corners, these bikes and tires must be capable of some incredible lean angles, which is reassuring.

 

[johnnysneds]

Real or Model?

 

[johnnysneds]

Over the past couple of weeks ive had the pleasure to test the WR On and Off-road. I joined some of the SSR guys in Nan and travelled onto Chiang Rai and eventually arrived back in CM after a few days. OMG this bike is best fun I have EVER had on two wheels. I never fitted the Rekluse clutch for this trip as I wasn't sure how it would perform on fast road so I put it on hold. Never got a chance to jet it or de-restrict it either as time wasn't on my side so off I went with it pretty much stock. After hammering around the twisties for a few days I came to the conclusion that it is severely restricted, good fun none the less. The handling is sublime and amazing the speeds you can carry into the corners and how early you can get on the gas on exits.

The fuel range also is incredible. 220Km was the furthest distance between fuel stops and I hadn't even reached the reserve yet. Add the fuel that is normally trapped in the right hand side of these aftermarket tanks and I reckon I could reach 300Km !!!!
I had a problem with excess oil being vented into the air-box. This was due to overfilling. Previously I had drained the oil and replaced the oil filter. I assumed that the oil would have been fully drained at this point so added the 1litre that the specs indicated. I have learned since that oil approx. 400ml gets trapped in the oil pump which also has to be removed during service. Had to stop several times during the trip to drain the excess oil from the air-box.
Managed a GPS top speed of 153Km/h

Here's a couple of videos from the tour:

After the road tour was over it was time to put her back to dirt mode.
The rear end of the bike was dismantled again to get at the Carb. James Dean Jetting kit was fitted. This includes an o-ring which is fitted to the accelerator pump to give instantaneous throttle response off idle. I also removed the grey wire from the ECU to give a more aggressive ignition mapping. Now the changes were noticeable straight away after the engine was started. No choke is required to start her now and the engine response at the slightest blip is awesome, wow what a difference. Also removed the rest of the end baffle assembly to give more flow and the sound a bit of a boost, I think ive got it just right and no need for an aftermarket exhaust, not really into loud exhausts anyway. Took her for a spin around the Samoeng Loop and it was like getting on a completely different bike. I also removed two links from the chain due to stretch over the previous hard days riding. Now the slightly shorter wheel base coupled with the derestrictions and this bike becomes a handful on the road and takes some time to get use to it. The ride got ruined by rain so couldn't explore the performance to it full.

Next came the Rekluse clutch. Now myself and a friend thought it would be a good idea to have a go at this with the use of a bottle of Jack Daniels!!! All went well with the installation. There's different conditions you can set it up for. I went for the low RPM engagement to stop it free wheeling near idle and 24 balls instead of 27 to give it a smooth engagement. Now the bottle of JD was well on its way at this point and all seemed to be well so we called it a night. Next morning I went for a test ride. Started the engine, all seems good. Into gear without the clutch, no problems. Now accelerating away it took around 4K rpm before the thing started to move. I thought thats too smooth an engagement! On I went anyway. Gear changing is sweet up and down, similar to a quick shifter only a bit rougher and you have to roll off the throttle slightly. I arrived at the place where I had to make a u-turn at a fair speed, banging down the gears. Once into second the bike started free wheeling and I over shot the u-turn. Got back to the house and wasn't at all impressed with the clutch. Scratching my head I couldn't understand what all the fuss was over it. Eventually I had a read of the manual, the previous evening my friend was in charge of the manual and I did the donkey work, seemed to work good :crazy: Alas the last page, how to adjust the clutch lever free play!!!. Now the lever feel when fitted with a Rekluse is non existent, it should be sloppy. My mate adjusted the clutch as if it were a normal clutch, this meant there was clutch disengagement without doing anything!!! The way to do it is get it in neutral and rev the engine to 4,500 rpm. There now will be clutch feel and you now can adjust the free play to 10mm. Oh it would have been so much clearer without the bottle of Jack Daniels!!! The bike pulls away firmly now, in ANY gear. No free wheeling when decelerating and the only word I can describe it with is FANTASTIC.

Ive been doing some hard trail riding for the past week or so and the Rekluse Clutch makes riding soooo easy as does the steering damper. There is NO comparison between this and my KLX. Where the KLX will just do whatever is required of it the WR does it the same only a lot faster and with far less effort. What a machine!!

The last day was the hardest ive ever done off-road. Every corner we went round there were trees lying across the track blocking the way. The tracks were very slippy and throttle control had to be precise or you were off. That hard packed or loose red clay stuff is a nightmare. Man handling the bikes over obstacles for what seemed like an eternity really took it out of us and we were glad to see tarmac at the end of it.
Im uploading some video at the moment and will post it as soon as it finishes.

 

[johnnysneds]

i was agonizing over buying Brian's 2008 WR450 in Khon Kean and getting some SM wheels, looking at yours is stirring those emotions again.

What camera are you using great definition?

Beautiful

Contour HD. Its the old one, only 720P. Franks you seen the other day if full 1080P and has built in GPS. After you download the video onto your computer you can watch the video alongside google maps/earth while it tracks your progress, elevation and speed, awesome piece of kit.

 

[Midnitemapper]

How much do you love your bike?
I think you forgot this shot in your last post.

I am a devout race tech fan, don't get on the bike if race tech is not inside.

How do you keep the zumo powered in the bumps? I only use it around town, too heavy and power problems in the rough going.
I will have to play with that "minature effect", on the canon.
Thanks for all those great photos!

 

[johnnysneds]

How much do you love your bike?
I think you forgot this shot in your last post.

I am a devout race tech fan, don't get on the bike if race tech is not inside.

How do you keep the zumo powered in the bumps? I only use it around town, too heavy and power problems in the rough going.
I will have to play with that "minature effect", on the canon.
Thanks for all those great photos!

Unconditional, however this guy seems to have taken it to another level. Don't know what my missus would have to say if she caught me in bed with my bike, worth probing the thought though.....

The Zumo is mounted on it's stock adapter/mount and I have never had any power issues. Only once has it came off after a crash. I've had some problems with the mount multi-pins which resulted in no headphone output and no power supply to the unit. A good clean with contact cleaner and a copper brush and all was fine again.

http://www.tiltshiftphotography.net/pho ... torial.php
This link shows you how to tilt shift using photoshop. You'll have hours of fun with this. You can buy software/iPhone apps that do it all for you but I've found the results are much better using photoshop and you have much more options as well.

Have a look at this tilshift video, amazing....

http://scene-media.com/blog/?p=5006&ref=nf

 

[BangTaoBoy]

Hello johhny,

Do you never get any grief up north riding around on an unplated bike? Will you ever be able to get a legit green book for it?
I've been following your progress with huge interest, (and a huge amount of jelousy) I've wanted to bring the same bike to LOS for a long time, I hope to get around to it one day, but I only want a completely legal bike.

Anyway, your bike looks awsome. Enjoy.

 

[johnnysneds]

Hey BTB,

Thanks for your kind comments and it truly is an awesome machine on and off road, hopefully I can do it justice one day.
So far never had any issues with the authorities, not concerned with that anyways, most they can do is issue a fine. I'm pushing for the greennbook so I can take it over the borders.
The bike has had import and excise tax paid on it. It also has passed it's emissions test! Just waiting for the paperwork to be finalised and should have the green book in approx 6-8 weeks time.

It's a case of paying the right people the right money, it is Thailand after all!

 

[BangTaoBoy]

Thanks for the reply. It surprises me that riding it unplated isn't an issue. In Phuket, I'm fairly sure it would be confiscated within days, the first police road block you went through. But that's Phuket for you I guess.

Fingers crossed for the green book. I would be interested to know if it all comes through OK.

Cheers,

BTB.

 

[KTMphil]

BTB-

I don't know how much history you know about the imported invoiced bikes and grey registration book bikes in Thailand.

Because of the chaos that had been created in Thailand in the past as Thailand had no legal registration system for the majority of big bikes, there were 1,000's of bikes that had been legally allowed to enter Thailand as parts and import tax had been paid to Thai Customs, so the parts were legally in Thailand.

3 years ago, the Thai Government came up with an amnesty idea, that if you produced the invoices for a re-assembled bike, where the import tax had been paid on the parts that the bike had been assembled from, a 3% excise tax could be paid on a valuation they had on that model of bike ( they have a huge list) and then the bike could no longer be confiscated.

This meant if you were stopped at a police checkpoint all the police had the power to do was to fine you for no registration plate and road tax. I'm told in Pattaya the fine is 500 bht, in Chiang Mai i think it's cheaper.

When they announced this amnesty, it was to be for a specific period of time and then shut, but it seems now to be open ended.

Some bikes were caught 6 months ago in Chiang Mai, in a mechanics shop by Thai Customs that did not have the 3% excise tax paid and were confiscated. Apparently for the owners to get the bikes back they had to pay 3X the amnesty tax penalty to get the bike back (ie 9 %).

If you want to buy a bike in Thailand that does not have the 3% excise tax paid, a good idea when you purchase the bike is to leave it at the premises of an agent that is licensed to process the excise tax. While he is processing the excise tax payment for you (it can take several weeks), the bike is safe and cannot be confiscated.

Hello johhny,

Do you never get any grief up north riding around on an unplated bike? Will you ever be able to get a legit green book for it?
I've been following your progress with huge interest, (and a huge amount of jelousy) I've wanted to bring the same bike to LOS for a long time, I hope to get around to it one day, but I only want a completely legal bike.

Anyway, your bike looks awsome. Enjoy.

 

[AlexUSA]

Good info, Phil.

This meant if you were stopped at a police checkpoint all the police had the power to do was to fine you for no registration plate and road tax. I'm told in Pattaya the fine is 500 bht, in Chiang Mai i think it's cheaper.

Watch out here: I've never had problems but I know of 3 instances here in the city in the last few months when other people's invoice/taxed big bikes were taken and they were asked for 10,000 baht before negotiating down to 2,000-4,000 to get the bike back.

 

[KTMphil]

If they were taxed and invoiced, any idea what the legal grounds were for the confiscation?

Good info, Phil.

This meant if you were stopped at a police checkpoint all the police had the power to do was to fine you for no registration plate and road tax. I'm told in Pattaya the fine is 500 bht, in Chiang Mai i think it's cheaper.

Watch out here: I've never had problems but I know of 3 instances here in the city in the last few months when other people's invoice/taxed big bikes were taken and they were asked for 10,000 baht before negotiating down to 2,000-4,000 to get the bike back.

 

[BangTaoBoy]

Thanks Phil. No I don't know a huge amount about it. The amnesty rings a bell. I still think you need to be careful, especially in places like Phuket. Just because the law says they can't take it, doesn't mean they won't. They are the law after all!

You say it's open ended. Does that include bikes still being imported now, or just ones that were already in the country when the amnesty started?

 

[KTMphil]

You can still do it now on bikes currently being imported. There's a huge business in Thailand involving bidding on bikes in japan, if you win the auction the bike is dis-assembled in japan, put in a container with other bikes that have been bought by Thai's and the container is shipped to Thailand.

Rumor has it that for around 200,000 bht payment to Thai customs, the container gets it import papers for all the bike parts in the container, then they are in Thailand legally as parts.

The Thai bike shops and agents that have bought the bikes (which now are "parts" in a container), then start the process to get the 3% excise tax paid so the parts are then legal as an assembled bike.

Thanks Phil. No I don't know a huge amount about it. The amnesty rings a bell. I still think you need to be careful, especially in places like Phuket. Just because the law says they can't take it, doesn't mean they won't. They are the law after all!

You say it's open ended. Does that include bikes still being imported now, or just ones that were already in the country when the amnesty started?

 

[BangTaoBoy]

^ Very interesting Phil, thanks mate. How much does the cost of import tax work out to each individual, whos parts are in the container? As a complete bike, imported individually it's around 200% is it not?

Your bike came in in parts didn't it Johhny? Any chance you can share with us how much the process cost. If it's not something for the open forum, then no probs.

 

[johnnysneds]

30% import duty on the parts, 3% excise tax to build the bike.

78K baht to a company which includes: 3% excise tax, emissions test and all administration to acquire the green book.

These guys who import the bikes from Japan bring multiple bikes (in parts) into the country in containers. I have paperwork showing multiple bike manufacturer parts in the same shipment and the tax they pay on them, 30%.

I would love to know how they go about the import process from first ordering the required bike to dealing with the customs at the docks when it arrives.

 

[KTMphil]

Jonny - Nair in the MX shop has been doing this for years, he's shown me the japan auction bidding internet sites before, i'll try and get the step by step process from him.

30% import duty on the parts, 3% excise tax to build the bike.

78K baht to a company which includes: 3% excise tax, emissions test and all administration to acquire the green book.

These guys who import the bikes from Japan bring multiple bikes (in parts) into the country in containers. I have paperwork showing multiple bike manufacturer parts in the same shipment and the tax they pay on them, 30%.

I would love to know how they go about the import process from first ordering the required bike to dealing with the customs at the docks when it arrives.

 

[BangTaoBoy]

30% import duty on the parts, 3% excise tax to build the bike.

78K baht to a company which includes: 3% excise tax, emissions test and all administration to acquire the green book.

These guys who import the bikes from Japan bring multiple bikes (in parts) into the country in containers. I have paperwork showing multiple bike manufacturer parts in the same shipment and the tax they pay on them, 30%.

I would love to know how they go about the import process from first ordering the required bike to dealing with the customs at the docks when it arrives.

Cheers mate, apprecited.

 

[KTMphil]

Back to Jonny's WR450F

We were talking about Jonny's new Yamaha WR450F the other night.

This is up there as one of the best production bike's you could have for SE Asia. Put super motard wheels on and its power to weight ratio makes it the fastest bike in the twistie's. Put dirt wheels on and you've got an immensely powerful light dirt bike.

What we were talking about was the maintenance schedules.

Being basically a race engined bike, a lot of people would not consider buying this bike here for extended trip use because of the high maintenance that is perceived is needed (regular valve and piston changes etc..... some say every 50-70 hours), being a race tuned engine.


Jonny has being doing multi-day high speed trips on this bike, with no issues. It seems like the teething problems with the earlier models have been overcome.