Dual-sporting a 2010 TE 450, with cheap tricks

One of the benefits of riding the same trails over and over....you get to find stuff you lost before...it was just laying beside one of the rougher trails we ride.

I got to thinking about how the bike will definitely die when hitting deep water crossings at speed, on past rides, I learned to just idle the bike thru the deeper water, knowing it would die if I went too fast. I got to thinking, if I could find a way to cover the air filter element with something really absorbent, it would act as a water trap, absorbing the water before it got to the slippery air filter element. Found a 100% cotton toboggan, washed it up good, and it fit right over the element, bike runs fine, I think I'm good for any water crossings now.

20,000 mile report
19,000 mile report was Oct 2014

Wow, I had my doubts about ever making it here, to 20,000 miles. From the first oil change where a big piece of broken metal came out, to the radiators running dry and me not knowing it, to the blown head gasket and all the other troubles, I nearly gave up on the bike many times. Glad I stuck with it. Damn thing runs as good as ever, even with a toboggan hat on the air filter! No problems at all on a 60 mile, 3 hour ride. Same old trails, but always fun on the TE450. Took a guy who had never been on our urban DS trails, he was impressed and rode great on his Katoom.

Went out for a ride with a buddy this past Saturday, reaffirmed the old adage, "its the rider, not the bike" when he left me in his dust on a drum brake XR500....I see a DR650 in my future.....

During the ride, I got the old symptom of the bike dying at idle, not a slow descent in RPMs, just a sudden shut-down while idling normally at 1900-2000 RPMs. In the recent past, I thought I had addressed this with a valve adjust and an injector cleaning, and I will probably check those again, but I did think about the 10,000 mile spark plug, and sure enough, its gap had grown to .032", got it set back down to .027" and will test it today. One of the symptoms of a too-large gap is missing and on a car, yeah, it can keep running, but a single cylinder, high compression MC, a miss is a die-off. And my stator is real old and may not be producing enough oomph to clear a wider gap.
Since the gap size has a direct affect on the spark plug's tip temperature
and on the voltage necessary to ionize (light) the air/fuel mixture, careful attention is required. Those with modified engines must remember that a modified engine with higher compression or forced induction will typically require a smaller gap settings (to ensure ignitability in these denser air/fuel mixtures). As a rule, the more power you are making, the smaller the gap you will need.

A spark plug's voltage requirement is directly proportionate to the gap size. The larger the gap, the more voltage is needed to bridge the gap. Most experienced tuners know that opening gaps up to present a larger spark to the air/fuel mixture maximizes burn efficiency. It is for this reason that most racers add high power ignition systems. The added power allows them to open the gap yet still provide a strong spark.

I didnt realize that I had been running the Geomax 31F on the front for 1 year, 2000 miles, so I got that swapped out for a Geomax MX52F.

I re-gapped the spark plug and then failed to test that single change, I went ahead and checked the fuel filter, completely open and flowing, checked the valves, spot-on, right in the middle of the spec. When I pulled the fuel injector, I got a big surprise, still haven't explained the green, rubber piece I found, took a pic of what it looked like right after I pulled the injector from its mount bracket. Found a little scuffing on the left, intake cam lobe, nothing too bad, everything else looked great. The oil filter was run for 2000 miles and contained almost nothing. Took the bike out and let it idle until the water temp reached 200F and it never died, after having died at least 5 times on my Saturday ride previously..

Really love this thread!

I just picked up a 09 TE450 and I'm wondering when you I stalled the lynx fairing with HIDs did you have to change your stator and convert the AC light circuit?

Keep up the good work!

Thanks man, getting near the end on this bike.
I didnt change anything on the bike for the HID lights, and I got power for the HID ballasts straight from the battery, the bike's relays and the ballasts control the flow to the lights.

I didnt like the HIDs, for the weight and the hassle, they weren't really worth it. LEDs are my choice now.

So you just rerouted the lighting circuit to draw from the battery? And everything was controled by the stock switchgear on the handlebars?

Yes, the instructions call for the HID ballasts to draw directly from the battery, and the stock switches and relays keep the lights working as normal: the low beam does not come on until the bike starts, etc. One problem I had was that the surge from the high beam ballast, going to the high beam indicator, would reset my dashboard every time I went to high beam. I had to eventually disengage the signal to the dashboard high beam indicator.

Understood. The new Lynx kits have HID Projector Low Beam with LED High Beam. Hopefully the lower draw of the LED high beam will eliminate the start-up draw problem you experienced with the HID High Beam.
Thanks for the info.

In southern New Mexico, getting ready for 2 days, 220 miles of some top-notch dual sporting, moteling it at 4000 feet elevation, today, we'll do the Rio Grande crossing, go up thru Palomas Gap, and climb Timber Mtn, 7000 feet, then do some high speed desert roads.

The TE450 ran flawlessly for the 85 mile day! With 20,000 miles on it. Didn't get any pics of the rough stuff, just trying to make it through, lotsa wash riding, crossing deep ruts on the fly, cased it a couple of times. Found some news routes, some mining sites, Luke lost his skid plate, we spent an hour at the end of the day making a new one out of a $7 trash can.

I forgot to check the home made skid plate at the end of the day, but it was looking OK early on, with all the loose rocks on this ride, Luke just didnt want to take a chance on the engine cases on his Six Days. And for the first time ever on the TE450, I was able to ride The Box, with the 50 water crossings, just like everyone else, flyin' thru the water, throwin' up sheets of water, gettin' soaking wet, and the bike never even hiccupped. That cotton toboggan on the air filter really did the trick. Near the end of the day, I knew I was gonna run out of gas before getting back to the trucks, I rode the last 30-40 miles on a flat front tire, just didnt want to fix it if the bike wasnt gonna make it back. Got to the last intersection, looked to the right, 1000 feet to the trucks, ran out of gas,,,pushed it in. Wow,,,125 mile day and I was beat up pretty good.

Here's the Geomax with 30-40 miles run flat, bead is not broken anywhere, either side, amazing. Ignore my home made spacer, I brought the Versys and had never loaded 2 bikes in the truck, the handlebars were gonna interfere, so I needed the Husky to set back in the bed farther, I looked around and saw my granddaughter's little wheelbarrow and it was the cheap trick of the trip

If anyone can remember seeing a guy posting about how he used strap metal to repair his broken fan support arms, let me know, I want to give him credit for inspiring me to repair my fan, 4 of 6 arms broken, I used wire instead of strap metal, easier for me to work with and it seems sturdy.
Last pic, I was riding to a day ride, 1 mile from the house, went to take off from a stoplight and the front wheel kinda locked up, I blipped the throttle and the front wheel started turning, but making a gawdawful clicking noise, pulled over fast and made a quick repair, 3 zip ties lasted for the 4 hour ride, stupid me for not checking the bike better.....

Wow! What an adventure and story. Up to page 9 so far, looking forward to reading it all. Well done.

That may have been me...couldn't find the post though. After a couple tries I discovered a dampening agent was needed so I have strategically placed shoo goo between the fan and straps. Glad your's is working out for you.

Hey man, thanks for all your support during these 4.5 years, I've been reluctant to post that I have given the TE450 to a friend, and I thought I was OK with it but I sure do miss it. Even working on it all the time was somewhat therapeutic for me, I always seemed to be able to get it fixed. I have been waiting on some updates from my friend, but none thus far. I've toyed with the idea of getting a used, not running, low mileage 2010 TXC or TE, but I just dont think I can recreate what I had with my original. I'll be popping in to see if anyone needs some help on the 2010's. Keep the faith, big block Husky faith.

And thanks to all for 50k views, really kept me going over 20,000 miles!

Really bummed out to hear the saga is over. This and Kelly's ongoing goofy thread are the best posts on the cafe! Thanks for the great coverage of your journey.

You've been as helpful as anyone OHR. Thanks for the detailed posts you've made over the years. You've been more than helpful to me. Sooooo what are ya' ridin' now???