Is it complicated to buy a motorcycle? How does it work?

[AlwaysRt]

1 hour ago, Domino22 said:

Good post great advise and totally agree. My thoughts on the perfect bike for the PI, It would be the KTM 690 but for me it would kill me because I can not touch the ground! The Yamaha Serow 250 I can flat foot and that makes me feel safe. The Honda 250L is a good bike but I tip toe on it. KTM I like but India built I am not there yet. BMW 310R maybe? The problem here for me is no bike can due the two things I want to do. Going up into the mountains I need power and a nimble bike to get the best out of the ride. But if you look at the maps of the roads in the PI 80% are jungle roads that need to be explored. So this needs a bike with power and off-road ability. I am going to need two separate bikes and a multi cab 4WD for when it rains. Palawan for 3 weeks in April then full time July 2018. I have fallen in love with the PI.

Honda XR150L, light and nimble in dirt and traffic. Replace the 17 tooth drive and 49 tooth wheel sprockets with 16 tooth and 51 tooth sprockets for better pulling up the mountains. Quick and powerful enough to jump to pull through 80kph for passing, top speed around 100kph

[robert k]

11 hours ago, Domino22 said:

Good post great advise and totally agree. My thoughts on the perfect bike for the PI, It would be the KTM 690 but for me it would kill me because I can not touch the ground! The Yamaha Serow 250 I can flat foot and that makes me feel safe. The Honda 250L is a good bike but I tip toe on it. KTM I like but India built I am not there yet. BMW 310R maybe? The problem here for me is no bike can due the two things I want to do. Going up into the mountains I need power and a nimble bike to get the best out of the ride. But if you look at the maps of the roads in the PI 80% are jungle roads that need to be explored. So this needs a bike with power and off-road ability. I am going to need two separate bikes and a multi cab 4WD for when it rains. Palawan for 3 weeks in April then full time July 2018. I have fallen in love with the PI.

Many bikes can be lowered, you lose a bit of suspension travel but if you are not doing super motocross... Sprocket change as Always RT suggested above on a 250 Serrow should provide enough power to climb up a tree. A modest 6mm stroke on most engines will yield surprising power increases. As an example it used to be a popular modification for the 200cc honda bringing it up to about 215 cc but increasing torque by about 30%. Offset crank pin, 3mm plate under the bore all else stays the same. You can get what you want off the shelf turn key, for a price but you don't have to step very far outside the box to find an equivalent out of local resources.

Edited March 19, 2017 by robert k

[Domino22]

20 hours ago, AlwaysRt said:

Honda XR150L, light and nimble in dirt and traffic. Replace the 17 tooth drive and 49 tooth wheel sprockets with 16 tooth and 51 tooth sprockets for better pulling up the mountains. Quick and powerful enough to jump to pull through 80kph for passing, top speed around 100kph

You know I rented that bike in Panglao for 5 days last November. I liked it! One thing/or issue I had was with the rise in the back of the seat with my backpack and the luggage I was using I needed put my day pack in the front of me when moving from one place to another. I did not go "off-road" with it. Ran good it was pretty new and had good tires. When I was just going around with  my day pack I loved it. Seat height was good power was ok, 150cc you can only ask so much! I could pass when needed and it handled good. Now for the gear changes that could be an option but I would need to look into that a little more but great tip and thanks for that. I liked that bike enough that I pre-paid and rented one for Palawan in well less than a month from today. They also had one with some bigger knobbies so I asked for that one. Since you folks responded to my post thank you and let me ask this - what about the Kawasaki 140/150? I understand more $$ but would it be worth it? I have the option to rent one in Palawan should I give it a shot?

[Domino22]

11 hours ago, robert k said:

Many bikes can be lowered, you lose a bit of suspension travel but if you are not doing super motocross... Sprocket change as Always RT suggested above on a 250 Serrow should provide enough power to climb up a tree. A modest 6mm stroke on most engines will yield surprising power increases. As an example it used to be a popular modification for the 200cc honda bringing it up to about 215 cc but increasing torque by about 30%. Offset crank pin, 3mm plate under the bore all else stays the same. You can get what you want off the shelf turn key, for a price but you don't have to step very far outside the box to find an equivalent out of local resources.

Understand what you are saying. But other than adding a little bling or bolt on rear cargo rack or something along those lines I hate to mess with a new bike off the "shelf". I wish you could have the same choice of bikes in the PI as the states but it is what it is. And I know that going in along with all the other issues I will face. But this bike thing is driving me crazy. Not that it should in the realm of moving to a new country but for some reason I am having an issue with this. Let's look at this way. You retire to Florida and live on a canal with a boat dock in Fort Lauderdale. You love to fish offshore and make runs to the Bahamas on the weekends. But you also like to bay fish and bone fish = very shallow water. But you can only have one boat?

[AlwaysRt]

9 hours ago, Domino22 said:

You know I rented that bike in Panglao for 5 days last November. I liked it! One thing/or issue I had was with the rise in the back of the seat with my backpack and the luggage I was using I needed put my day pack in the front of me when moving from one place to another. I did not go "off-road" with it. Ran good it was pretty new and had good tires. When I was just going around with  my day pack I loved it. Seat height was good power was ok, 150cc you can only ask so much! I could pass when needed and it handled good. Now for the gear changes that could be an option but I would need to look into that a little more but great tip and thanks for that. I liked that bike enough that I pre-paid and rented one for Palawan in well less than a month from today. They also had one with some bigger knobbies so I asked for that one. Since you folks responded to my post thank you and let me ask this - what about the Kawasaki 140/150? I understand more $$ but would it be worth it? I have the option to rent one in Palawan should I give it a shot?

I looked at the KLX150 also, for an extra p30,000 you get a disk rear brake, skinnier tires, lower rated power, and lower rated torque. That was a no thanks for me.

The gear change on the XR150 is very basic as the 16/51 tooth setup was standard for the older XR125. Honda changed to 17/49 tooth and used the extra power from the 150cc engine for higher top end instead of off road and climbing. Looking at it that way the 16/51 setup is returning to stock. I know several owners who very much prefer the 16/51 and are glad they changed them. 

[robert k]

8 hours ago, AlwaysRt said:

I looked at the KLX150 also, for an extra p30,000 you get a disk rear brake, skinnier tires, lower rated power, and lower rated torque. That was a no thanks for me.

The gear change on the XR150 is very basic as the 16/51 tooth setup was standard for the older XR125. Honda changed to 17/49 tooth and used the extra power from the 150cc engine for higher top end instead of off road and climbing. Looking at it that way the 16/51 setup is returning to stock. I know several owners who very much prefer the 16/51 and are glad they changed them. 

And it has little effect on top speed because wind resistance is more the limiting factor on a low powered motorcycle. The lower gears could actually give you a higher top speed. I think the higher gears are more for fuel mileage than higher top end. Remember that some Filipinos "take out" the head lamp bulb because the power draw hurts fuel mileage!

[jpbago]

7 hours ago, robert k said:

Remember that some Filipinos "take out" the head lamp bulb because the power draw hurts fuel mileage

And then they install loud mufflers and red line in 1st and 2nd to make the most noise.

[Gary D]

9 hours ago, jpbago said:

And then they install loud mufflers and red line in 1st and 2nd to make the most noise.

The reason they take the bulbs out is because they think it drains their battery.

[jpbago]

1 minute ago, Gary D said:

The reason they take the bulbs out is because they think it drains their battery.

Tell that to robert k, not me.

[Dave Hounddriver]

Maybe they take off the rear view mirrors to cut down on wind resistance too.  And the mufflers cause loss of horsepower so taking them off reduces gas consumption.  But I can think of no BS to cover the super fast acceleration and braking that sucks the gas.