Red, on your tire shredding concerns, it can happen on the right rock under the right conditions, but it's unlikely. Are you a mountainbiker? I only ask because they can get a tire cut a whole lot easier. These motorcycle tires, however, are amazingly tough and durable. Now...you are kidding about the huge 1.5" diameter rocks...aren't you? Big or small, even sharp rocks are usually taken with little concern for dirt bike tires.

 

I WREEEKE everytime i go riding. Two bros ftl and tw. Unless you're doing a burnout on the rock you should be ok. I ook my bike to a go kart track and did some shredding to the front of the tire but its normal for crazy braking.

 

The shower thingy is just bored out a little bit using my dremmel moto tool. Just to make the hole slightly bigger to press fit it on to my stock outlet.

I'll try to put pictures up right... now.

Hope that worked. I sanded off the chrome and painted it. You can see the shower head threads on the end.... that's just CLASS man.

The dealer told me before that the 'stink' was the packing oils and CAT working itself in. It is possible that I don't stink nearly as badly as I did when I first started out. I've kept this 'dongle' on most of the time now. It doesn't come off even with lots of trail use. It also changed the sound nominally, and it 'puts' out the side now. It did not contribute to my drone issue, as I ran it without dongle, and with.

I do have a Moose (?) skid plate. It's pretty full coverage. I also put it over top of the factory plate, as it fit fine. I WONDER if maybe that is contributing to my drone resonance, or amplifying. Hum. I did use some inner tube to protect the frame where the clamps mount. I will ride with my stethoscope . . .

 

Rocks of 1.5" diameter. Nope. No joke. This is an old railway bed, turned snowmobile trail, turned ATV t-rail. I was out early in the season, and the ATV' hadn't packed down the rocks, and shifted them all around. I went out recently, and there are two ruts to stay in, and most of the nasty rocks are to the sides. Don't have any pictures, but, take a look at a train bed. Some have nice 1/2 inch bed, others have HUGE rocks averaging 1.5". And they look like teeth man. TEETH! (no substance abuse....). They make that 'sound' man, when you ride on them. That, crunchy, glass like sound!

Most of the rail bed trails have groomed, and have 1/4" granular. Some areas are just packed sand...grass. You do see railway spikes work their way up. And, in dew or rain, you see the track bed pattern in the sands...light, dark. The fun part is all the rail bridges, and the banked curves. Just waiting to strap on the AIR HORN.

 

If you decide it is your plate contributing you can try what I did when I mounted mine. I went to my local HVAC supply store and purchased a couple machinery isolation pads. Cut them into smaller blocks and placed them between the plate & the engine. I did not try the plate withou t them but I would like to belive they helped prevent resonent noise.
Cheers jim

 

Stinky? Since when did they put reverse on the KLX. Someone tell me where it is. I can't find it on mine. Seriously, I've never noticed it. I only had 100 miles on mine when I went to the Q4, so that may be the reason. Good luck with that one!

 

Here are those ROCKS I was telling ya'll about.

 

In my best Crocodile Dundee...Rocks?...those aren't rocks...these are rocks.

 

I got my bike with only 600 miles on it, never noticed a smell at all after riding. Rode over 400 miles with the stocker street and trail.

I ride rail road beds with rocks as bad or worse than that all the time. I never even drop air pressure in my tires for them, I just keep moving so it doesn't wash out too bad and accept the fact that you tend to drift a little in any kind of loose surface. FWIW dropping pressure some will help tires take a little extra abuse (and of course increase a little rim abuse if you're really pounding hard heavy edges, but you need to really smack curb like edges to hurt a rim) but you should have a rim lock to do it, otherwise you run the risk of spinning a tube and getting a flat.

I'd be a little concerned that your muffler doohicky (marvelous engineering btw) might help contribute to hard starts by restricting your exhaust a bit more than normal and make your jetting a little further off. your bike is not Fuel injected, correct? Either way, it may contribute a bit, there's a starter jet mod (that I dont know a lot about and haven't done yet) that I hear makes at least cold starting easier.

 

I was wondering about the possible ramifications of my shower head modification exhaust stainless steel tip. The hole is larger than the exhaust tip, so there is no obvious restriction there. The bend is smooth, and I was considering how car exhausts have bent tips, or straight tips, and you can buy tips to just 'tack on' for your car. I'm not an exhaust expert. I thought I may ask the muffler shop what they thought on my modification. It's not permanent, and comes off as it is just press fit on anyway. I've ridden with it on, and off . . . for comparison.

The only difference I noticed was the sound is projected out the side, and a slightly less 'farty' sound... (ha). Subjective of course...

There was no change in engine tones, to my critical ear, and I THINK I figure out the trick to the starting issue, if I stall. A little bit of gas on start, little bit touch of the throttle seems to do the trick. I stalled in traffic yesterday, and didn't panic . . .just touched the gas a bit, after 1 attempt, and it started on the second attempt.

WHICH also reminds me of another question. Does anybody notice a slight odour of gas after they ride? Park the bike, RAM that nose near the carb.... and a gas smell. My CBR600 had vacuum fed carbs, and I was told this baby is gravity fed, and of course, engine suction, but is not pressurized per se. AND, do ya'll shut the **** (leave it........) Off when you park?

Oh, sadly, my lovely paint has burned off my shower head exhaust mod. Ha. Have to use high heat BBQ paint next time, IF I keep it on there. Maybe the dealer was right, the cat exhaust smell wears away as the muffler breaks in... OR, I'm just so fat that I make a GREAT air dam. Off to the wind tunnel for smoke testing... see those vortexes.