First ride on 2006 450

[Oldcow]

Wow! That's what went thru my mind today as I rode this bike for the first time. I thought it was a bit twitchy compared to my DRZ in the rocks until I looked down and saw I was riding 100kmph. I love the power delivery and suspension.. The bike feels smaller than it is and is very quick in turns. You guys know all of this of course but after spending all winter reading about it it was nice to see for myself. I would love to try a 250 or 300 at some time.
The fan came on and stayed on longer then I thought it should and makes a whining sound. I ordered a soft seat and after the first ride I am not sure I need it. I was told to run premium fuel. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks again for the help before I bought the bike.

 

[skid jackson]

run the premium

 

[fury1]

did you cut the wire to richen up the bike and add a ton of power??if your bike is used im sure the previous owner had already done this

 

[roostafish]

I'd try running regular fuel. If it detonates, or is noticably low on power, go back to higher octane rating, but if the bike runs fine, you're wasting your money. I used to run race gas, then 50:50 race gas. Now I run 92 octane premium pump gas. No pinging, runs fantastic, it just doesn't have that really cool smell.

 

[Oldcow]

The wire was indeed cut. I am getting some pinging so I will try higher grade gas, power seems fine to me but I have never ridden another to compare.

I did find that the fan ran often. Is this common? Yesterday, it was around 10 degrees celcius. I bent the front rim a bit on some rocks running 14 lbs pressure. That surprised me a bit as I have never bent one before. I assume they can't be fixed. It also make a whining sound that I must investigate. One more question, do you guys know how many liters the larger Clark tank holds?

 

[jeffd]

Warped rims can be straightened - bent rims can't be... If the bike is new you need to break in the rims along with the rest of the bike - snug them up repeatedly as things seat in when the bike is new.

The Clarke website is at www.clarkemfg.com -> I looked up the capacity of the 2006 fse tank for you - 2.8 gallons (10.6 liters)....

jeff