The official XT225 thread!

[GlennR]

Originally Posted by Crazy Canadian

My better half doesn't like you! She gets pissed (unless something is actually broken) every time I order new parts and I just ordered both of these!

My better half doesn't like me either.

I try to remind her of all the things that I'm not wasting money on. Heck, it's not a boat or a sports car.

[LisaS]

Originally Posted by Crazy Canadian

My better half doesn't like you! She gets pissed (unless something is actually broken) every time I order new parts and I just ordered both of these!

The problem at our house is there is no better half. Absolutely no filter on either one of our parts on either bikes or bike parts.... speaking of which, new parts for my new bike are rolling in daily- I picked out whant I wanted and shoein found the best deals and ordered Hope to start tearing it down this weekend

[kewlbyme]

Originally Posted by LisaS

The problem at our house is there is no better half. Absolutely no filter on either one of our parts on either bikes or bike parts.... speaking of which, new parts for my new bike are rolling in daily- I picked out whant I wanted and shoein found the best deals and ordered Hope to start tearing it down this weekend

How did the tear down go?

[Dirt2Street]

Originally Posted by Crazy Canadian

Yes unless you want to run crazy lean and risk serious damage.

So what if I were to give my fuel screw an extra turn out to even out the air to fuel mixture..A Louder bike is a safety precaution for me as most drivers around here are young and stupid. I'm only 17 but sense owning my bike, 1000 miles (in 5 months) I've become a much better driver in my car. The xt's are too quiet to be heard in a car and nobody, and i do mean NOBODY, looks out for bikers around here. The noise would help a little. especially next spring when everyone has their windows down.

[JerryH]

Originally Posted by Dirt2Street

So what if I were to give my fuel screw an extra turn out to even out the air flow.. Louder bike is a safety precaution for me as most drivers around here are young and stupid. I'm only 17 but sense owning my bike, 1000 miles (in 5 months) I've become a much better driver but the xt's are too quiet to be heard and nobody and i do mean NOBODY looks ouit for bikers around here. The noise would help a little. especially next spring when everyone has their windows down.

Noisier bike is not any safer. 99% of drivers don't see or hear motorcycles, so you have to see them. Your best defense, besides being as VISIBLE as possible (I wear a white helmet and an orange vest) is to assume you are invisible, and everyone in a car/truck is out to get you, and ride accordingly. I'm 54, been riding on the street since I was 16, have owned 46 bikes, counting the seven I have now (2 are XT225s) have ridden over half a million miles, have never had anything but the stock pipes on any of the bikes, and have never been in an accident. Yes, part of that is just plain luck, but most of it is skill, experience, and the right attitude. Have you taken the MSF riders course?

[Crazy Canadian]

Originally Posted by Dirt2Street

So what if I were to give my fuel screw an extra turn out to even out the air to fuel mixture..A Louder bike is a safety precaution for me as most drivers around here are young and stupid. I'm only 17 but sense owning my bike, 1000 miles (in 5 months) I've become a much better driver in my car. The xt's are too quiet to be heard in a car and nobody, and i do mean NOBODY, looks out for bikers around here. The noise would help a little. especially next spring when everyone has their windows down.

Personally I found the bike to be running so lean at stock that I re-jetted it even before I add any of the discussed mods. I would not for a second attempt to add performance mods and not re-jet. Re-jetting is easy and the jets are cheap. Hell if I can figure it out then, you could probably train a monkey to do it. And besides that I doubt any of the performance mods are worth a damn if you do not re-jet to take advantage of them. If your desire to not re-jet comes from fear of messing with a carb, I am sure you could find someone on here who can help you with it. If you were closer to me I would have you pop over and we could have it done in a couple hours max.

[Crazy Canadian]

Originally Posted by JerryH

Noisier bike is not any safer. 99% of drivers don't see or hear motorcycles, so you have to see them. Your best defense, besides being as VISIBLE as possible (I wear a white helmet and an orange vest) is to assume you are invisible, and everyone in a car/truck is out to get you, and ride accordingly. I'm 54, been riding on the street since I was 16, have owned 46 bikes, counting the seven I have now (2 are XT225s) have ridden over half a million miles, have never had anything but the stock pipes on any of the bikes, and have never been in an accident. Yes, part of that is just plain luck, but most of it is skill, experience, and the right attitude. Have you taken the MSF riders course?

+1, I have a few less years riding and although I have had just about as many bikes, I trick most bikes out and add aftermarket pipes. I would say that a few times my loud pipes have made a difference but not to moving cars. Loud pipes are great lane splitting traffic at the Mexican boarder lines to get people out of the way, otherwise they are just for the rider to enjoy.

[tuna101]

Anybody know if someone has crash bars for the XT225

[KamperBob]

Originally Posted by JerryH

Noisier bike is not any safer. 99% of drivers don't see or hear motorcycles, so you have to see them. Your best defense, besides being as VISIBLE as possible (I wear a white helmet and an orange vest) is to assume you are invisible, and everyone in a car/truck is out to get you, and ride accordingly. I'm 54, been riding on the street since I was 16, have owned 46 bikes, counting the seven I have now (2 are XT225s) have ridden over half a million miles, have never had anything but the stock pipes on any of the bikes, and have never been in an accident. Yes, part of that is just plain luck, but most of it is skill, experience, and the right attitude. Have you taken the MSF riders course?

x10 on MSF!!!

My assumption is EVERY OTHER VEHICLE on the road is trying to kill me. Not on purpose don't impress your widow. Be visible out there!

[LisaS]

Originally Posted by kewlbyme

How did the tear down go?

Still in progress- so far so good I'll post a full report when it is all done.

Originally Posted by Crazy Canadian

Personally I found the bike to be running so lean at stock that I re-jetted it even before I add any of the discussed mods. I would not for a second attempt to add performance mods and not re-jet. Re-jetting is easy and the jets are cheap. Hell if I can figure it out then, you could probably train a monkey to do it. And besides that I doubt any of the performance mods are worth a damn if you do not re-jet to take advantage of them. If your desire to not re-jet comes from fear of messing with a carb, I am sure you could find someone on here who can help you with it. If you were closer to me I would have you pop over and we could have it done in a couple hours max.

We rejetted mine this weekend- it's really not that difficult- the worst part was figuring out how to get the carb of the bike- it's all back together now and the bike starts like a charm

Hey, does anybody know if #6 was important?

[gbacque]

Originally Posted by tuna101

Anybody know if someone has crash bars for the XT225

No, but why would you need them? It's not a shiny chromed out cruiser or a sport bike with plastic that will break in an off.

On a related noted. The xt crashes very well as long as you are moving forward. Got kicked off trail and almost hit a small tree. Did the right thing and looked where I wanted to go so I missed the tree. The bike on the other hand did not completely miss the tree catching the bar and stopping me dead (tight trees, couldn't have been going over 10mph when I left the trail). Then the bike fell over and cracked the 1/2 moon bracket that holds the clutch/mirror assembly. If it's moving forward the mirrors break away and don't damage anything. That's why the right side mirror is a CCW thread.

From now on I'm folding the mirrors in when I'm off road. Thinking reusable zip ties. Any better suggestions?

[nuggets]

Originally Posted by gbacque

No, but why would you need them? It's not a shiny chromed out cruiser or a sport bike with plastic that will break in an off.

On a related noted. The xt crashes very well as long as you are moving forward. Got kicked off trail and almost hit a small tree. Did the right thing and looked where I wanted to go so I missed the tree. The bike on the other hand did not completely miss the tree catching the bar and stopping me dead (tight trees, couldn't have been going over 10mph when I left the trail). Then the bike fell over and cracked the 1/2 moon bracket that holds the clutch/mirror assembly. If it's moving forward the mirrors break away and don't damage anything. That's why the right side mirror is a CCW thread.

From now on I'm folding the mirrors in when I'm off road. Thinking reusable zip ties. Any better suggestions?

I generally take the mirrors off for off road riding. They are easy to remove and install without tools.

Also, one of the first things I did when I got my bike is to make sure that the controls are a little loose on the bars. You want them snug enough so that they will not move during normal use, but will move in a crash. You should be able to move the controls if you grip them firmly with your hand. That will save your levers and perches from some crashes.

I also do not understand the need for crash bars. The bike crashes very well. Biggest issue in crashes is the forks getting twisted in the triple clamps.

[Crazy Canadian]

Originally Posted by LisaS

Hey, does anybody know if #6 was important?

#6 was a beer break... You missed out!

[LisaS]

Originally Posted by Crazy Canadian

#6 was a beer break... You missed out!

Dang...... is it too late to go back and take care of that?

[Crazy Canadian]

Originally Posted by LisaS

Dang...... is it too late to go back and take care of that?

Never too late... But since you missed it the first time... You gotta drink two now! Call it a penalty!