New Commuter: Poor Man's Supermoto

[Charlie G]

Bay Bridge and a flat tire. That is a night mare! El Sobrante, San Jose, Hayward, SF...you get around. Was that San Pablo Damn Res? The hills aren't that green is August. I had an XT 350 for a couple of years and here in my rural town it was great to ride. The 600 would be better for freeway and splitting traffic. Nice ride.

cg

[UncleMike]

That Treasure Island exit is a bear even when you have air in your tires! Good job keeping the rubber on the road.

[Toasty]

Bay Bridge and a flat tire. That is a night mare! El Sobrante, San Jose, Hayward, SF...you get around. Was that San Pablo Damn Res? The hills aren't that green is August. I had an XT 350 for a couple of years and here in my rural town it was great to ride. The 600 would be better for freeway and splitting traffic. Nice ride.

cg

It's a pic of the reservoir I pulled off a state park site (Tilden park IIRC). I really like living in El Sobrante but I'll be moving again to Pleasant Hill at the end of the month.

The XT is definitely a great commuting bike, I wish it had a sixth gear though .

This is the first time I've gotten a flat on a bike, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. Although next time hopefully I'm not surrounded by cars and buses haha.

[Dave8338]

GREAT looking project !

Been thinking of doing that to a Honda I picked up earlier this year.
What did the Excel combo set you back ?

[Toasty]

Thanks

I got all my wheel stuff from Buchanan Spokes, the 17" front rim was about $218 which includes punching the holes to spec. They made up a stainless spoke set for my XT hub which was $99 and it cost $70 to have the old rim disassembled, then laced and trued locally. So about $400 with tax and shipping, plus tires.

[Toasty]

Quick update on the bike:

I changed and balanced my new rear tire myself for the first time, it was much easier then I thought. With the tools I feel pretty confident that I could do it on the side of the road if needed. The only other thing I've done so far is replace the busted clutch perch and lever. I picked this one up from eBay for $25, it's got a little bearing inside the lever so it's pretty smooth .



I'm going camping on saturday but I hope I have time to do a quick oil/filter change on sunday. The bike has been running like a champ so far. The new lever and adjusting the cable helped with the clutch but the springs still slip a little if I really get on it. I'll probably get those done in the next week or so, along with a new fender.

Sitting happy at work