Dirt bikes for noobs questions

[Creekside]

Ok, total dirt noob here just bought a used Husky FE350S. I think its kind of plated 'dirt'y dual sport which is a better fit for my trips and for OTV parks.

I really like that 13/47 sprocket set. Its hoot even on the street. I have only ridden like 10 miles so far. It feels like a toy really. I see people whining about no kick starts but my smart-a response is maybe just put pedals on it?

anyways...

1) Rim locks and tire pressures - In the dirt your suppose to run like 14/22 psi, but is that anywhere everywhere? What about on the street for an hour to get somewhere? Same? Or 36/35? [wow those non-dot tires are spooky on pavement]

2) Anyone use those rear hitch haulers (the sideways ones) for a 250# bike on a full size truck? Sure looks alot easier to put the bike on for quick haul after work to Perry than messing the trailer. Or are they destructive to the hitch and your sanity?

[xr-nut]

Run whatever pressures you want, just know that too low will cause heat....which causes tube failures. In rocky terrain your 14/20 psi is probably about right. I'll bump my front up to 20 to help prevent pinch flats. Honestly, I run whatever it has in it and dont even check it regularly. Trails, racing, highway, whatever. Only add air when it looks flat. ymmv.

as for the hitch hauler on the rear of your truck, yes. use one. they work great. paint it pink for that buddy who needs a lift (safiri)

[Creekside]

Great. I was worried about street pressures & rim locks maybe ripping the tubes. Since I am just using to ride pavement around locally and they were 0 I just put in 35 each without thinking.

I don't know about painting it pink but it does seem easier just to throw into the back of the truck.

[safiri]

as for the hitch hauler on the rear of your truck, yes. use one. they work great. paint it pink for that buddy who needs a lift (safiri)

Knew where this was going when I got to the word "pink" ...

Hitch haulers work well if the hitch is up to the task. You have 250# hanging ~1-1.5' behind where the ball would go (which is ~6" from where hitch mounts to frame), so the leverage is 3x-4x greater than the same weight trailer tongue on the hitch ball. My experience in terms of fuel economy is the hitch hauler and a light moto trailer cause about the same drop in economy, so nothing gained there.

Rim locks will cause some vibration on the highway as the wheel will be way out of balance, but not too bad in my experience.

[Savage]

Awesome! Got a pic? If it has a tag and you're going to do some riding down a road I would balance the tires. I just static balance them at home. Youtube a couple video's. I just buy stick on lead weights from Autozone.
For dual sporting I run about 19 psi. If I did more asphalt on my KLR I was around 29 psi. For trail riding I run about 9 psi.
If you have a truck I wouldn't mess with a hitch carrier. I have one but I seldom use it.

[xr-nut]

as for the hitch hauler on the rear of your truck, yes. use one. they work great. paint it pink for that buddy who needs a lift (safiri)

Knew where this was going when I got to the word "pink" ...

Oh nice, you'll respond to me on here but not to a texticle message......Happy birthday old man!!! I need to get down there sometime and see about borrowing an xr50 from you?! LOL

[xr-nut]

If you have a truck I wouldn't mess with a hitch carrier. I have one but I seldom use it.

I doubt he has a "truck". I envision a 5.5' bed with a tri-fold cover, or worse yet a fiberglass full cover. Fits nicely in the sub-division garage. If that is the case, then the hitch carrier is a good option!
( i looked forever in the smilies for the "flip-off'' emoji, then realized I wasn't on pirate4x4 so it isn't in there! so imagine a lot of sarcasm and friendly flip off at the end of that )

[allkidd]

In the dirt your suppose to run like 14/22

I've never heard of running 22 off road. Depends on your tires and conditions. Currently, I'm running 5 lbs. with a trials and tubliss. That is probably the extreme on the low end. On the high end, I've never run more than 13 lbs. in dirt with any type tire.

What about on the street for an hour to get somewhere?

Why are you running a KTM dirt bike for an hour on the street to get somewhere? Especially when you have a 990?

Anyone use those rear hitch haulers (the sideways ones) for a 250# bike on a full size truck?

Why would you want to mess with a hitch hauler when you have a truck where it takes maybe 5 minutes to load a dirt bike. I would put hitch hauler money towards accessories for your 350. Do you have a steering stablizer? Rekluse? Guards? Aftermarket seat?

[ajayhawkfan]

I have the extremely heavy duty hitch carrier that I use on my Expedition. It is rated heavy enough to carry my 1200GSA but the largest bike I have carries is a 650GS. I would put my GSA on it only if I had to.

[troy]

Lower pressure off-road, of course, provides a traction advantage. The sissies I ride with tend to run 15 or less. I like to keep it closer to 20 in an effort to level the playing field somewhat. I'm that good.

If I was heading out with the 350 for a dualsport that included significant 60MPH pavement bits, I'd put about 22 lbs in. Like xr-nut, +/- 5 lbs in either direction--I don't care. I just ride it. I'm not saying 5 lbs doesn't make a difference--I'm saying I don't care. If you weigh 200+ lbs and are loading 50 lbs of camping gear on the bike, well, maybe pump those tires up to 28.

As for rim-locks and tire balance, I never think about it. I just expect the thumper with knobbies to shake me I guess. Savage is probably right, though--a little effort to off-set the rim-lock with weights probably would make a nice difference--just never tried it and I've ridden a few thousand miles of pavement on dirt bikes. One trick is to ride a wheelie the entire way. This way, you only have to balance the rear tire. Work smarter--not harder.

If by "truck" you mean a pickup with an open-bed, forget the hitch hauler or trailer--that's why you bought a truck. Otherwise, yeah, those hitch-haulers work great and don't take up any subdivision drive-way space when not in use.

Another option to transport your dirt bike is to use the Bungii app to have someone else haul your dirt bike while you get yourself to the riding area in your Prius.
https://bungii.com/

[Hank Moody]

I've got a hitch hauler and I will let you borrow to see if you like. It is an aluminum version so it can hold up to 300 pounds. I used to haul my 2005 Husqvarna TE 510 with it and had no major problems.

The only issue I had was the rear end sag due to the weight of the bike, as Safiri stated it does add a lot of force to the hitch. This caused the steering to be a little lite, but you get used to it.

[Scott_B]

I've never used a hitch hauler for a bike, but did put around 200 lb on a cargo hauler on a trip to Colorado. I found that running tie downs from the back of the roof rack to the outside corners of the rack eliminated a lot of the "bounce" from being so far behind the back axle. I would think you could do something similar with a truck by running it from the lower tie down hooks inside the bed and over the tailgate, connecting to the rack outside of the tires. This would reduce a lot of the stress on the hitch, especially once you hit gravel roads.

[troy]

Really, you should sell your motorcycles. Riding motorcycles is too dangerous. #friendsdontletfriendsride

[WildBeane]

Single rail hitch haulers are awesome. I know of someone that uses one on a lifted f250 pickup....just for the ease of use. Loading into a pickup is a nuisance. If it isn't substantially harder to load a bike in the truck at the end of the day than you didn't ride hard enough.

[Creekside]

Thanks guys!

The truck has a camper shell which is requires 4 people to remove. My family has banned me from asking about taking that off again.

I don't mind the trailer its just its more hassle than pulling a hitch hauler out of the back of the truck and put it on. I don't like to think it might be doing to the hitch welds. I am talking myself out of this. It would hang off the back of the truck the entire day w/bike until I leave work early to go screw off out in KS later. Not really liking that.

The front tire is balanced.

When the small bike crowd buzzes around in Ark, I think this involves ~ an hour of road stuff max, no problems. I am thinking of when I am not following the small bike crowd, but doing more dual sport stuff - that is probably 4-5 hours pavement/gravel/fire roads & 3 hours of harder, like the 350-650 bike stuff. I guess I am thinking what I see on the 990 I won't go into, but now can. I might just be talking $%&* cause I have never had such a small bike. What got me really looking at 350/500 excs was riding tracks in SoMO with 350cc+ guys & COBDR, and wanting to do small bike stuff. So I will not run at 14/22 for that!

5psi? Seriously! I really don't know this part of the sport at all.

I would put hitch hauler money towards accessories for your 350. Do you have a steering stablizer? Rekluse? Guards? Aftermarket seat?

There is allot of stuff on that bike and I put some plastic parts on it. Its got seat concepts (this is so nice, you really don't know until you try one), real hand guards, solid skidplate, tail & fender bags, remapped&exhaust (cause learning dirt is always easier with +hp), double take mirror, montana mount, mx racing decals(?), scratches, a few broken items, other stuff, but it doesn't have a stabilizer or recluse. I was thinking stabilizer & not so sure about a larger tank. And then maybe the recluse, and left hand rear brake setup too. Its just money! You ain't taking it with you...lol, particularly if you ride.

I do need to get all that dirt stuff like helmet, armor, pads, goggles,jersey, pants, real boots (not adv boots) probably before the left hand brake setup. Riding bikes is not only dangerous is its expensive too.

[Savage]

Easy: Remove the camper and sell it.

I wouldn't waste the money on a Rekluse or left hand brake. I'd just get out and ride it. Your skills will improve a lot while trail riding with others.
Feel free to load it up and bring it over to Milford ORV.

[troy]

I agree with savage on the Rekluse and left-hand brake. I love my Rekluse, but I only have it because it came with my used bike. I wouldn't spend the money on it unless you start getting into really gnarly stuff a lot or if you have significant clutch hand & wrist pain. No doubt a Rekluse is amazing---cheating really, but I would gladly ride my bike without it!

[Creekside]

I thought about getting rid of the camper shell but sometimes my desk jockey "software" job requires tool boxes, conduit, cables and hard hat installs. If you know me you'd be scared. Engineers doing installs, what could go wrong???

I am seriously thinking about the stabilizer after my last spill in sandy rocky stuff in Oct. I second that recluse stuff as an extra and I was kidding about the left hand brake , sounds cool tho. I do have wrist and elbow pains from using a computer, but on the big bike it never really bothers me and I love standing on fire roads more than sitting, its the darn day job. Have to see this harder dirt riding aggravates it or not.

I agree I need some trail time first. Allot of trail time!

Tuttle videos look pretty cool. I suspect I was watching your family (Savage?) on youtube? Looked like your kids. But who can tell with all that stuff on. Carbondale looks fun as well, and that might have been you as well? I am stoked! Have to see how muddy it might be tomorrow for Perry to putz around the non-woods areas after work.

I'll take some opinions on:

Stabilizer?

Chest/back armor? Suits or parts? (I have adv jackets with hard armor I'll use somewhat if its cold but...)

[Hank Moody]

I have had a stabilizer on several motorcycles and have one now on my BMW. They do help taking the twitchy feeling out of the handling and add confidence.

One mod I would strongly recommend doing first is correct suspension set-up. I would have laughed at someone who told me this a few years ago, but after having the suspension professionally upgraded on my BMW all I can say is Wow. The improvements in handling, traction, and ride comfort were remarkable. The F800 has relatively basic suspension as compared to your Husky or other modern dirt bikes. I would start off with making sure you have the correct springs in both your forks and shock for your riding weight. Then set your sag and you should be good to go. Then when your off road skills improve you can go to a professional suspension tuner.

Preferences on riding gear vary as much as which tire to use. I don't like the body suits as they are too hot for me, but others seem to really like them. I like the chest protector with elbow pads, again personal preference.

I read an article once that said the best money you can spend on a motorcycle when you are new to motorcycling is gasoline. As Savage said just get out there and ride it. Good luck

[xr-nut]

Here is my bike carrier. Remember this Safiri?! LOL It has hauled numerous dirtbikes and a 600# street bike. It does not need the fore mentioned straps to stabilize it, it is built heavy enough. The only thing I would add to it would be some lights with a simple 4 pin plug. A bike almost completely blocks the tail lights on my truck.



I'm with the others on the rekluse. I feel like a rider needs to learn how to run the clutch and handle the bike without that first. You will ultimately become a better ride. ( i think). Although we havent ridden much lately due to kids getting older, we used to ride a lot. None of our 3 bikes have one, and none will either. Wear as much or as little gear as you feel like you need. My boys and I usually wear chest protectors, always wear quality off road boots and of course helmet and googles. If you dont crash, you wont need any of the elbow/knee/etc pads! We're not very fast and never take any difficult lines though.

And lastly to address Hanks suspension mods comment, I would ask how big you are first? Who knows, you could be the right size for the suspenders on your bike. I believe ktm has them set-up just about right for a 165# rider. If youre a little fellow and weigh over 250#!, then by all means necessary, get some fork and shock work done!