Wanted to give an update on my bike. I have a little over 100 hours now in the 4 months since my season started. My bikes get abused, ridden hard, and I crash / bail several times a ride. My trails are on steep mountains, very tight, technical, and I slip the clutch hard. Not an easy life for a bike, and usually a very good test of durability / reliability.
So.... I'll break it down into 3 sections. The good, the bad, and home-brew fixes I have either come up with, or borrowed from posts on sites like this one.
The Good
-I absolutely LOVE this engine. Even on the stock needle, I am always impressed with how smooth and friendly this motor is. Clearly has more super low rpm torque and smooth transition to mid than any of the KTM300's I ride with / try. To top it off, it absolutely screams in the high rpm.
-Stock suspension / handling is spot on for my use. Soft, smooth, tracks great, and likes to go slow. Strange how a bike can have such a horrible turning radius pushing it around in the garage, but be so crisp and responsive on the trail.
-Appearance. Usually by this point my bikes are starting to look pretty scuffed and dirty. Because GG uses a full wrap decal kit everything stays shiny much longer than the average bike with exposed plastic.
-The GG pipe design. I love how high up they tucked the pipe! It's well out of harms way in most situations. Drastic difference from my other bikes in this area.
-The cooling system seems to keep up better than most, I'm almost always the last one to boil over if at all.
-Side cover gasket is a tin gasket which I love because they never stick and can be re-used!
The Bad
-E-start issues started @ about 3 months from new. OEM bendix is not reliable. I have since switched to a different bendix that is working great so far.
-Snapped kick start shaft flush with the side cover. When replacing it, I found the silver spacer between the kick lever and the side cover was installed backwards from new. This could have been the cause.
-Switches. Dirt gets into the headlight switch assembly and messed with almost every function. I cleaned the factory grease out and left it dry inside. So far so good. Good news is, the buttons pop right out so it's reasonably serviceable.
-Airbox. Filter gets dirty very fast, duckbill drain is useless, battery wires can depress and rub the filter if you don't carefully put the seat on. I removed the duckbill completely and now she drains water at least.
-Hose clamps. I haven't had a problem with the larger ones, but the clamps on the smaller rad hoses up top were loose and leaking slightly right out of the box.
Mods
-I modified removed the inner fender for fear of snapping it and the outer fender in crashes / bails. After this, the outer fender becomes almost indestructible! Ive folded it straight up several times with no damage.
-Rad shrouds. The upper plastic pin setup is weak. I cut the pin off and used a bolt and nut setup to secure this point. They were always popping out before.
-Upper rad crossover hoses interfere with the cable / wiring. The spot on either side of the frame where the cables, and wiring is zip tied to the little frame hoops was right up against the small hoses at the top of the rads. Several times when I layed the bike down, the pressure was enough to cut the hose on the end of the rad barb. I cut the zip ties and re-positioned everything so there was clearance.
-I moved the ign map switch up to the bars... I switch it back and forth regularly, and it's very effective to be in "rain cloud" mode for slippery / tough sections.
-I'm now running a 5009 bendix which required some light modding, but is working great so far, and now I can pop in a new one for $20 - $40 depending on supplier.
Overall, I'm extremely happy with my purchase! My next bike will surely be another GG if they are producing at that point. I sure hope the factory gets back to doing what they do soon.
