crf250 Rally

[garyboy]

How weird!
I just read the last few posts from last year, and, where I thought things were different now .. in fact they are exactly the same. ?
I think it's my brain that's different.

I know when I bought the Rally, I had brain fog, thinking it was a completely different bike , even though it is essentially the same, but seemingly much heavier, and crucially, with an inch longer set of front forks.

It's these forks that I'm having a great deal of difficulty with.
They are an inch longer, but i have lowered them .. er .. 50mm, and then 40mm .. and now 60mm.

Which means I've only really lowered them 30ish compared to the crfL ??

I can't remember why, but I had lowered them for access to chuck-over leg, and to flat-foot. But, the rake.trail were wrong. so I had raised everything again, to try to get it all right, including the rear shock adjustment.

Yes, I am getting confused, but it's quite weird how one small thing changes everything.

[garyboy]

Anyway, atm I've put the front up 60mm, making it an inch lowr again, and lowered the rear by about an inch as well, I think, .. I only slackened the shock spring by abou7mm. Someone here said it's 1 to 3 shock length to seat height. Bob I think?.

So, atm, I can just about flat foot .. and the handling has improved a lot. The best so far, probably, but it's changed so much I'm not really sure, lol.

It seems much easier to ride on tarmac and on trails now .. but I've said that many times.

.
What has definitely improved is the power and clutch. .. Much much better with the Barnett clutch springs .. and the new 13/42 sprocket gearing.
Seems much more control on trails, and the new fork rake position means I can wrangle the front wheel around roundabouts much easier now.
Everything rides much easier now. .. I must have eventually got the rake to oem? .. even tough it's Not, lol.
The Trail is about 140mm now, not 14m.

[garyboy]

I temporarily put the old oil back in, as it was quite new .. but still using my old Halfords cheapy. I'll put fresh old oil in soonish .. this year anyway, lol

I did the same with the coolant. Why do I feel guilty?
I didn't touch the pressure radiator cap .. all the bubble-out thing can be done from the reserve/filler bottle.

[garyboy]

The clutch change was straight forward. I got plenty of experience now, lol.

The clutch actuator little spring was sitting down in the oil sump ...... and .. miraculously,.. I managed to retrieve it and refit it. This was not going to help clutch wear I guess.

Now .. the manual says to turn the clutch actuator lever Clockwise .. but it seems to need to turn Anticlockwise before final placement of the clutch casing cover. This catches the actuator groove much better. I wonder if this was the problem all along?

[garyboy]

Climate change.
When I last posted here, recently, the weather here I Wales was hot and very sunny. All the trails were nice and dry and very grippy, except where it was crumbly and powdery.

What a difference in just a few days.
We had that extremely hot day, a record I believe, then it all changed and back to constant rain and low temperatures?

I don't like it now .. but happy memories of the local continental summer. Lol.

(Despite weeks being used up by waiting for clutch deliveries.. though the Barnett clutch springs were Well worth waiting for )

[garyboy]

Is it just me .. but I don't remember it getting pitch black at 8pm in August?

.. or going from high summer to autumn in one day? .. with winter ver near?

[garyboy]

14 by gary boy, on Flickr

[garyboy]

12 by gary boy, on Flickr

[Magnusson]

Something I made for my now sold CRF250 Rally. The pipes came from the hardware shop. The red parts are 3D printed.
I miss that bike.

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[Magnusson]

Another mod. Mount for Givi tankbag.

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