Rapid Dog
Husqvarna
AA Class
One riders take on the TR650 so far...
Love the design and the concept of the bike, the hieght and the ergos are acceptable, the engineering is no worse than some Ducati's I've owned. It's a bike one can live with.
Fun to ride, but only to a point...
My Terra bike is a second owner with 7K, had crappy tires on it. A new Shinko front, but a half worn Karoo on the back.
New Avon trailriders help immensely with the nasty shake. Before over 70mph it was not fun to ride.
Now the threshold is more like 80-95mph, but still disconcerting.
Since TR650 owners are not the all same, there is a sh*tload of variables here. Slower touring riders, off-roaders, those who load up their bikes to the gills, and some who just ride 90% street.
All this farkleing and pack muling will affect to stabilty of a bike, but my feeling is this particular bike is not as forgiving as others.
I like to ride aggressively in the SoCal mountain roads, the occasional dirt road, ('aggressive' being just riding the bike to it's potential).
So far I find the Terra adequate and capable, but I have not been real happy with the bikes 'attitude'...
In the few weeks I've owned it I've gone through it stem to stern, all fluids (sans fork oil), all bearings checked and grease, new tires, new chain and sprockets etc.
I think there are several factors that attribute to this instability (I've read every thread on this issue here and at ADV).
For example, one thing I noticed is the shaking of the headlight/turnsignal/clocks assembly at speed. This probably doesn't help with the overall oscillation.
I cured that by running a self tapping screw thru the fender into the lower headlight fairing on either side. Now it's secured to the fender as one unit.
Last night I made a measuring tool out of a piece of brazing rod and found the axle to be out of align by a full notch, about 3/16".
That might be part of it. One more hot lap to see how that susses out.
I'm pretty sure, even at 185 lbs sans gear, there's not enough sag in the rear.
I have the preload turned all the way down and if my measurements are right I'm getting maybe an inch.
Outside of the obvious, the suspension is getting a big fat finger point.
On the street, my KTM 450 EXC with full knobbies is more stable at 80mph than the Terra, and handles the turns better as well...
That said, the KTM has a quality suspension build AND has a GPR stabilizer.
Before I even sat o the Terra I could tell a damper was in order. (After bleeding money on this bike I am reticent to drop another $500 on a GPR kit.)
So maybe I'm just documenting and venting here.
Whatever is happening I'm considering just turning over the bike at a loss, even though it's a great moto all in all.
Thanks for listening...
RD
Love the design and the concept of the bike, the hieght and the ergos are acceptable, the engineering is no worse than some Ducati's I've owned. It's a bike one can live with.
Fun to ride, but only to a point...
My Terra bike is a second owner with 7K, had crappy tires on it. A new Shinko front, but a half worn Karoo on the back.
New Avon trailriders help immensely with the nasty shake. Before over 70mph it was not fun to ride.
Now the threshold is more like 80-95mph, but still disconcerting.
Since TR650 owners are not the all same, there is a sh*tload of variables here. Slower touring riders, off-roaders, those who load up their bikes to the gills, and some who just ride 90% street.
All this farkleing and pack muling will affect to stabilty of a bike, but my feeling is this particular bike is not as forgiving as others.
I like to ride aggressively in the SoCal mountain roads, the occasional dirt road, ('aggressive' being just riding the bike to it's potential).
So far I find the Terra adequate and capable, but I have not been real happy with the bikes 'attitude'...
In the few weeks I've owned it I've gone through it stem to stern, all fluids (sans fork oil), all bearings checked and grease, new tires, new chain and sprockets etc.
I think there are several factors that attribute to this instability (I've read every thread on this issue here and at ADV).
For example, one thing I noticed is the shaking of the headlight/turnsignal/clocks assembly at speed. This probably doesn't help with the overall oscillation.
I cured that by running a self tapping screw thru the fender into the lower headlight fairing on either side. Now it's secured to the fender as one unit.
Last night I made a measuring tool out of a piece of brazing rod and found the axle to be out of align by a full notch, about 3/16".
That might be part of it. One more hot lap to see how that susses out.
I'm pretty sure, even at 185 lbs sans gear, there's not enough sag in the rear.
I have the preload turned all the way down and if my measurements are right I'm getting maybe an inch.
Outside of the obvious, the suspension is getting a big fat finger point.
On the street, my KTM 450 EXC with full knobbies is more stable at 80mph than the Terra, and handles the turns better as well...
That said, the KTM has a quality suspension build AND has a GPR stabilizer.
Before I even sat o the Terra I could tell a damper was in order. (After bleeding money on this bike I am reticent to drop another $500 on a GPR kit.)
So maybe I'm just documenting and venting here.
Whatever is happening I'm considering just turning over the bike at a loss, even though it's a great moto all in all.
Thanks for listening...
RD
