It seems to me that dirt bike manufacturers just provide us with a " blank canvas ", a place to start building our own ideal bike, similar to what Harley Davidson do with their cruisers, only they supply you with an accessories book 3" thick to work through. I thought I might start a thread to outline the changes we make & why, depending on the type of terrain, our skill level & personal preferences.
My history is 43 years of riding & racing dirt bikes. My current bike & the 90th that I have owned, is an 11' EC300SD. The terrain that I prefer is fairly snotty single track, but also fast and flowing. The changes that I have made are as follows.....
* forks, standard Sachs 48mm...changed to 2.5w oil with an air gap of 140mm which has given me more stroke of travel and quickened the steering as well.
* brake snake... to stop brush getting caught between the pedal and frame.
* muffler...standard Stealth but modified by cutting out the restriction & 4" of length resulting in a length of 14". This has improved the response right thru-out the rev range & has actually helped cornering by getting on the pipe sooner.
* G2 quick throttle...still waiting for it to arrive, but have used this type on other bikes with great results. Will give even better response and I believe it will help to fine tune the jetting as it will not stay on a particular jet cycle as long.
* T3...still waiting for this as well but I expect that the extra length will allow me to route the cable better reducing the snag factor.
* squish...have set the port timing with piston level at bdc and machined 1mm from the head to end up with 1.3mm of squish. This was based on info from this site and the difference from the standard 2.3mm is noticeable.
( I guess all the little changes combined make for a big gain )
* carby 38mm...set float level slightly lower using a vacuum hose rather than a measurement. 40p 180m N3EJ #2 is working well for me at the moment, easy starting, will idle & pulls all the way thru the rev range.
* tyres...have just changed to Pirelli MX extra 120/100 rear & XC 80/100 front. I spent a bit of time with pressures & 16psi for both works really well in the current conditions ( winter ).
* gearing...standard, as it is always the last thing I change after eveything else is sorted & only then if required.
* other...as it is a six days model, it already has the essentials like hand guards, bash plate, rear resevoir extension & descent size brakes.
You can see that my changes have mostly been performance based as I have grown up with narrow power bands and hard to ride bikes, but also find the current generation of dirt bikes to be too easy to ride fast which takes the fun away for me. I am really happy with the handling of this bike and dont see any need to change anything other than clicker adjustments to suit.
My history is 43 years of riding & racing dirt bikes. My current bike & the 90th that I have owned, is an 11' EC300SD. The terrain that I prefer is fairly snotty single track, but also fast and flowing. The changes that I have made are as follows.....
* forks, standard Sachs 48mm...changed to 2.5w oil with an air gap of 140mm which has given me more stroke of travel and quickened the steering as well.
* brake snake... to stop brush getting caught between the pedal and frame.
* muffler...standard Stealth but modified by cutting out the restriction & 4" of length resulting in a length of 14". This has improved the response right thru-out the rev range & has actually helped cornering by getting on the pipe sooner.
* G2 quick throttle...still waiting for it to arrive, but have used this type on other bikes with great results. Will give even better response and I believe it will help to fine tune the jetting as it will not stay on a particular jet cycle as long.
* T3...still waiting for this as well but I expect that the extra length will allow me to route the cable better reducing the snag factor.
* squish...have set the port timing with piston level at bdc and machined 1mm from the head to end up with 1.3mm of squish. This was based on info from this site and the difference from the standard 2.3mm is noticeable.
( I guess all the little changes combined make for a big gain )
* carby 38mm...set float level slightly lower using a vacuum hose rather than a measurement. 40p 180m N3EJ #2 is working well for me at the moment, easy starting, will idle & pulls all the way thru the rev range.
* tyres...have just changed to Pirelli MX extra 120/100 rear & XC 80/100 front. I spent a bit of time with pressures & 16psi for both works really well in the current conditions ( winter ).
* gearing...standard, as it is always the last thing I change after eveything else is sorted & only then if required.
* other...as it is a six days model, it already has the essentials like hand guards, bash plate, rear resevoir extension & descent size brakes.
You can see that my changes have mostly been performance based as I have grown up with narrow power bands and hard to ride bikes, but also find the current generation of dirt bikes to be too easy to ride fast which takes the fun away for me. I am really happy with the handling of this bike and dont see any need to change anything other than clicker adjustments to suit.