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skiphunt
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Hi, I'm wrapping up my last posts for my travel blog here: Moto-Southwest 2013
The trip was a little over 4000 miles and the ncx preformed well for the most part.
Some observations:
Off-road performance was better than I expected. Did some VERY rough washboard, mixed with erosion and large patches of soft powerdery sand. This was going the 32miles in/out of Chaco Canyon, NM. And, I did 34 miles in/out of rough dirt, gravel, mixed with large rocks getting to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon national forest camping. The rocks there thrown up to my boots, but nothing ever hit up at the engine or radiator on any of my off-road excusions at all. Just a little dirt. I did about 15 miles of the Valley of the Gods that's mostly dirt mixed with some gravel. No problem. I have no skid plate or extra guards other than the handguards on my bike. The bike also held up well for a fair amount of abuse. I lost one bolt during one of the worst washboard roads, but that was on my hand guard that I hadn't tightened enough. Nothing came loose on the ncx.
My best gas milage was going from the North Rim down to the valley in the North heading toward Las Vegas. It was going from higher altitude to lower, and mostly downhill... but I went about 65mph and still got 88mpg!!!
My worst milage was going uphill in New Mexico fighting fairly violent crosswinds the entire way, or heading directly into it. The tank only got me 52mpg. Not too bad considering how bad the conditions were. Mostly I got around 74mpg.
The bike was a bit of work on the interstate highways where the trucks were all going around 80mph. If I had headwinds, I just had to resign myself to riding in the slow land. Keeping pace at 75-80 dropped my milage to about 60mpg. I knew the ncx wouldn't be up to high speed interstate travel and avoided interstates when I could, but once I just resigned myself to being in the slow lane... it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be.
My Alaskan leather butt pad and yoga matt were not enough to combat the seat for long distance. I was good for about 3.5hrs. At 4hrs uncomfortable, and at 5hrs+ having to stop for an extended rest. I tossed the yoga matt layer and bought a cheap stadium air mattress at Walmart for $6 and slipped it under the sheepskin. Worked surprisingly well! It got me to about 5hrs of riding until pain ensued. It's got a leak now, but I definitely got my money out of it.
On the straightaways in the middle of nowhere, I wanted to see how fast I could go fully loaded and how bad it effected the gas milage. I was able to get to 100mph but that was about it. For that tank I varied from 85mph up to a max of 100mph and the gas milage was still 53mpg.
Now for a few questions:
When I first got this bike, I bought it out of state and rode it home. The very first tank, I ran out of gas. I wrote this off to lack of sleep, unfamiliar bike, not paying attention... but I could have sworn it showed 2 bars on the gauge when it ran out and left me pushing it to a gas station. Well, it happened again when I was in Las Vegas. I went to start up the bike and it seemed rough... like it was about to run out of gas, but showed 2 bars. I rode it about a mile or so still showing 2 bars when it ran completely out of gas and I had to push it at night in Las Vegas to a gas station. It was only about half a mile, but not fun in Vegas evening traffic. I'm certain there's something wrong with my gauge and will be taking that too the dealer. But, it's curious that I'd only have the problem on the first tank, then be fine for 6000 miles before doing it again. I've read other's have had the exact same problem and got it fixed at the dealer. Did they replace the digital dash or do something related to the sensors? Or, is there something that had to be reset that I could do myself?
I just spoke with Woods service department on the phone, and I really don't want to go there. Might even prefer the Georgetown shop that was the location of my KLR woes, over going to Woods. This was about 2 weeks ago in Vegas and it's been fine ever since. But, it is a new bike under warranty... so maybe I should get it to a dealer to see what's going on. The guy on the phone at Woods didn't even seem to be listening to me about the fuel gauge. He just kept asking if I bought the bike there and/or had them do the maintenance on it. The first maintenance is basically just an oil/filter change, so I did that myself. He acted like this wasn't kosher and that I should have brought it to them to inspect everything, etc. When I said, "I'm assuming this fuel gauge issue would be covered under warranty" He said, "Well, that depends. Could be your spark plugs, could be any number of things that could be causing all the problems. I replied, "What do the spark plugs have to do with the fuel gauge?? And he replied, "Oh, you're having a problem with your fuel gauge?" Like I said, not keen on going to Woods. The guy obviously wasn't even listening to me and sounded like he was stoned.
The trip was a little over 4000 miles and the ncx preformed well for the most part.
Some observations:
Off-road performance was better than I expected. Did some VERY rough washboard, mixed with erosion and large patches of soft powerdery sand. This was going the 32miles in/out of Chaco Canyon, NM. And, I did 34 miles in/out of rough dirt, gravel, mixed with large rocks getting to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon national forest camping. The rocks there thrown up to my boots, but nothing ever hit up at the engine or radiator on any of my off-road excusions at all. Just a little dirt. I did about 15 miles of the Valley of the Gods that's mostly dirt mixed with some gravel. No problem. I have no skid plate or extra guards other than the handguards on my bike. The bike also held up well for a fair amount of abuse. I lost one bolt during one of the worst washboard roads, but that was on my hand guard that I hadn't tightened enough. Nothing came loose on the ncx.
My best gas milage was going from the North Rim down to the valley in the North heading toward Las Vegas. It was going from higher altitude to lower, and mostly downhill... but I went about 65mph and still got 88mpg!!!
My worst milage was going uphill in New Mexico fighting fairly violent crosswinds the entire way, or heading directly into it. The tank only got me 52mpg. Not too bad considering how bad the conditions were. Mostly I got around 74mpg.
The bike was a bit of work on the interstate highways where the trucks were all going around 80mph. If I had headwinds, I just had to resign myself to riding in the slow land. Keeping pace at 75-80 dropped my milage to about 60mpg. I knew the ncx wouldn't be up to high speed interstate travel and avoided interstates when I could, but once I just resigned myself to being in the slow lane... it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be.
My Alaskan leather butt pad and yoga matt were not enough to combat the seat for long distance. I was good for about 3.5hrs. At 4hrs uncomfortable, and at 5hrs+ having to stop for an extended rest. I tossed the yoga matt layer and bought a cheap stadium air mattress at Walmart for $6 and slipped it under the sheepskin. Worked surprisingly well! It got me to about 5hrs of riding until pain ensued. It's got a leak now, but I definitely got my money out of it.
On the straightaways in the middle of nowhere, I wanted to see how fast I could go fully loaded and how bad it effected the gas milage. I was able to get to 100mph but that was about it. For that tank I varied from 85mph up to a max of 100mph and the gas milage was still 53mpg.
Now for a few questions:
When I first got this bike, I bought it out of state and rode it home. The very first tank, I ran out of gas. I wrote this off to lack of sleep, unfamiliar bike, not paying attention... but I could have sworn it showed 2 bars on the gauge when it ran out and left me pushing it to a gas station. Well, it happened again when I was in Las Vegas. I went to start up the bike and it seemed rough... like it was about to run out of gas, but showed 2 bars. I rode it about a mile or so still showing 2 bars when it ran completely out of gas and I had to push it at night in Las Vegas to a gas station. It was only about half a mile, but not fun in Vegas evening traffic. I'm certain there's something wrong with my gauge and will be taking that too the dealer. But, it's curious that I'd only have the problem on the first tank, then be fine for 6000 miles before doing it again. I've read other's have had the exact same problem and got it fixed at the dealer. Did they replace the digital dash or do something related to the sensors? Or, is there something that had to be reset that I could do myself?
I just spoke with Woods service department on the phone, and I really don't want to go there. Might even prefer the Georgetown shop that was the location of my KLR woes, over going to Woods. This was about 2 weeks ago in Vegas and it's been fine ever since. But, it is a new bike under warranty... so maybe I should get it to a dealer to see what's going on. The guy on the phone at Woods didn't even seem to be listening to me about the fuel gauge. He just kept asking if I bought the bike there and/or had them do the maintenance on it. The first maintenance is basically just an oil/filter change, so I did that myself. He acted like this wasn't kosher and that I should have brought it to them to inspect everything, etc. When I said, "I'm assuming this fuel gauge issue would be covered under warranty" He said, "Well, that depends. Could be your spark plugs, could be any number of things that could be causing all the problems. I replied, "What do the spark plugs have to do with the fuel gauge?? And he replied, "Oh, you're having a problem with your fuel gauge?" Like I said, not keen on going to Woods. The guy obviously wasn't even listening to me and sounded like he was stoned.
When I feel a sputter, I switch to reserve and head to a gas station! Just have to remember to switch it back to on! Simple and it works!!
