Took my new RALLY out for an extended ride this past Sunday. Rather than hauling it in the back of my Tundra to one of the off-road riding areas around me, I decided to ride it there to the closest one, which is about 25 miles way. Filled the tank up with gas before entering the maze of trails at the Capital State Forest, just west of Olympia, WA. It is over 91,000 acres of land, over 100 miles of trails, for riding, hiking, horseback, ATVs, etc.
Total ride that day was 130 miles, from home to home, of which 80 miles were on the trails, single track, dual track, some well groomed gravel roads, and lots of skinny forest trails.
Almost finished with all my mods to this bike, but I can tell you that the Race Tech front suspension kit sold here on CRF'sOnly was a HUGE addition to this RALLY bike. Adding the front fork spring and spacer (and Rebound Spring) to the LEFT fork, equalizes the suspension up front, and makes for a MUCH better trail bike. For those of you that are not aware...the CRF250-L...and RALLY bikes only have a spring and rebound spring in the RIGHT fork leg, from the factory. I upgraded my bike, thanks to parts from CRFsOnly, and am as happy as a clam at high tide.
The Seat Concepts (complete) seat also makes a world of difference. 5 total hours out riding, 130 miles from home to home, but 80 of those miles ON the trails, and my butt did not hurt.
I also have added mods like....a ScottOiler to keep the drive chain lubed/clean.....a rear rack....despite having improved my front suspension a lot, I have also lowered the front end by 1", slid the fork tubes up into the triple clamps, and while I have also added the KoubaLink to the rear, in hopes of lowering the rear of the bike 1.75".......Norm at KoubaLink is currently re-designing the KoubaLink for the RALLY...specific to the RALLY.....as we found the link needs to be 6mm longer to accommodate the added height of the RALLY.
I have removed the OEM side stand (way too long, and an error by Honda), and installed a side stand from a 2017 CRF250-L....and OEM part from Honda for the '17 CRF250-L. This new side stand is exactly 1.5" shorter than the one on the RALLY. I found the one on the RALLY to be way too log, and caused the bike to "pogo". My change of the side stand had NOTHING to do with me lowering the bike...not at all. I discovered this error by Honda when I first looked at the Rally (actually ordered the bike first) and when it came in...all of us at the dealership agreed that the side stand was too long. I have contacted Mother Honda about that.
Once the new, shorter, side stand was installed, I then removed it again and had a local shop weld a 3/16" plate onto the bottom of the side stand foot. I shaped it to be right, painted it, and NOW I have a nice side stand foot enlarger, that will work well in dirt or sand or gravel...if this bike ever rests on the side stand and not being ridden.
I did add the PowerMadd 2" risers, so that I could keep the OEM bars, and tilt the bars slightly back toward me, while also raising the bars at the same time. LOVE this new setup.
And, I bought the rear fender splash guard...that is in front of the rear tire....that black plastic guard that is held on with two screws, to keep dirt/water/etc away from the rear shock area......so I carefully measured, and thought about it...and bought a second one of those from Honda. It turns out that this part makes an EXCELLENT front fender extension. I added it to the inside rear of the front fender, held in place by two screws, and it matches the contour lines of the front lower cowling of the bike. It is a front fender extension, and keeps all the road debris off the front lower cowling. Works perfect.
More to come. (oh, and if the day ever comes that this OLD man can figure out how to add pics to this post...you can SEE what I have done)
