My Txc310 Is Almost Perfect

I bought a TXC310 beginning of December 2011 and have been slowly modifying it to suit my tastes. The bike should have come from the factory with a wider ratio gear box (1st is to high and 6th is too low) and a spark arrestor but the rest of the bike is awfully good as delivered.

So far I have added hand guards, Rekluse, had a long hose built so the clutch lever operates the rear brake, Tubliss tire inserts, a Ballistic 4 cell battery, JD tuner, and a racing Akrapovic exhaust (it has a spark arrestor).

The suspension is really good stock. I weigh 192# and am a mid-pack B racer. The rear spring is right - set the sag and took 1/2 turn of high speed out for single track. The forks have 20mm too little sag according to Vinduro but work well with 1 click less compression and 1 click more rebound.

The stock Pirelli's are excellent tires. I like them at 8 1/2 psi with the Tubliss inserts which stiffen the tire walls a bit. Execllent in sand, on hard pack very forgiving, and in loam tremendous side knob grip. 17 hours on the tires in Arizona and they are starting to show serious wear but still perform well. Only a couple of little chunks on the rear.

I installed the JD tuner and the Akra at the same time (sorry - I did want to be able to report each item alone but I've got a race next Sunday) The JD is pretty cool - suggested setting enrichen the low end and lean out the top by a notch - and give a significant boost to the accelerator pump. The Akra full system looks and sounds awesome. Together they have given the bike a serious boost. Stock, the bike would pull below the power band and then rev quickly when it got in it - now the power is boosted a LOT at lower RPM and transitions smoothly into a real RIP. I can ride a gear higher than before and have good power - or ride up in the RPMs and rip. (a friend tried it and said "wow - this thing feels like a 350 now") I can see how the bike could really hang with 450's now - and be quicker in the twisties.

I'll try to get some pictures - a guy at the gas station this morning thought the bike must be 2 years old not 2 months - guess I've tipped over a few times

Well that's what it's all about. If you needed it to be clean youd''ve gotten a street bike! I think I've gotten my TE 250 very close too. Nice feeling.

OK - a couple more notes:
I'll probably have the suspension done - there's a guy all the A riders I know use and swear by. If I end up edging toward Vinduro's front set-up I'll probably lower the forks so their even with the top of the clamp. When I ran another click less compression in the front the bike got too quick for me and a little nervous in sand whoops.
I'll probably get a plate to mount my old WER damper - take a little quickness out of the front, it's never evil just sometimes a little quick for an old man (the Husky really demands proper form - stay upright and lean the bike - get forward to turn)
I could not get the stock pipe apart so it's a good thing I got a full system - had to remove the rear wheel and raise the rear subframe to wind the full pipe out.
I have a 20 mile single track loop in the Az desert that I ride fairly often. Best time on my old KTM300XC was 68 minutes, on my old CRF450R was 65 minutes, after adjusting the suspension but before adding the JD and Akra I ran under 58 minutes on the little Husky. That's all within the past 8 months - 10 minutes is a lot.
Pictures and actual weigh-in to follow.

10 mins is huge!

I Strongly agree about the wider ratio gearbox, if it were as you suggested my TE 310 would be able to be utilised at least as a mid-range adventure bike (which I think are one of the very few things missing on this thing). I think the 2010 TE's gearing may provide a slightly higer top speed than the 2012 TX, but it may be the case that extra power of the TX & X-lite motor would make up for it?

Also why did you route the clutch cable to operate the rear brake, do you have a compulsion to do little skids each time you change gear? (Lol)

So True! I had to stand everywhere to get my DRZ to do anything. There are lots of situations where my TE310 handles better if I sit down, WAY forward, elbows in the air, helmet out over the headlight. With this technique, even in flat loose fireroad corners and tight singletrack I rarely need to throw a leg out. This thing is SO fun to ride.

More on topic, I weigh 180 dry, and I had to go 2 levels stiffer on the rear spring to get the static/rider sag numbers to agree. Went up 2 clicks from stock (Sachs) on rear rebound, 1 click on compression. I may take 1 click out of hi speed comp. The fork (Kayaba) seems just right with stock springs and clicker settings.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X056fW2Wmk


11 minutes of video - 45 degrees, sunny, rained the day before - the week before I installed the JD and Akra

1st picture - the Akra header hangs lower than the stocker - makes accessing the skid plate allen head a little difficult - but worth it ...
2md picture - duct taped the small battery to the stock battery platform and then zip tied in place using stock drain holes in fender ...
3rd picture - my awful phone camera glosses over the new scratches on the Akra - note that I've managed to break the little black radiator/gas tank shrouds on both sides - they tend to hang up on trail side brush - maybe some knife edges would help trim the trail ...

And - a couple more notes ....
*The Akra/JD really adds enough power low that it's fun to ride (and pretty fast) at low rpm. Gives me the option of 2 gears - and I don't feel that I have to downshift once every time I slow and twice every time I brake. Also gives more power up top so that full power can be too much. Now the stock gearing is much better (but wide ratios would still be VERY much better).
*The sudden-ness of the throttle in on/off is still somewhat of a pain but the immediate power is much appreciated and on balance is a benefit.
*I've changed to the Rotella oil that Rekluse recommends and it has improved clutch action. I've used it for the past 4 years in a number of different bikes and never had an issue. It's cheap and I change it often.
*The stock Pirelli tires are really, really good. At over 20 hours now and with a nasty 2+ hour race in the rocks on them they are getting pretty worn but - today in very dry and slick conditions they were very, very good - very predictable sliders front and rear and a lot more traction at lean angles I should not have been able to achieve in the conditions.

Great vid.

24 hours on it...issues starting to show:
*left fork seal has started a small leak - I'm sending the suspension out so no big deal but...I've been riding for 5 years and this is the first time I've run into a leaky seal. Guess I've been lucky.
*if I let the Rekluse slip the clutch much at all it lets out a 'shuddering squeal' - ZipTy has a clutch damper fix which sounds like it might be for this condition. (I've read I'm not the only one with the issue)
*the gas tank is a 'PITA' to get off - I bought the ZipTy metal fuel pump outlet elbow just in case I break the stock plastic one
*the oil drain plug/breather tube gizmo is a 'PITA' - but I'm getting pretty good at it

You should have some rubber x-rings in your rekluse kit that will fix the clutch noise.

Great riding .... You certainly made that trail look easy ...

At 33 hours of hard riding (race pace most of the time):
- I replaced the tires with the same ones it came with - Pirelli xtra MidSoft - over 25 hard hours on the original set and they were looking worn but not tattered. I usually chunk knobs and the front side knobs start cracking and breaking away from the carcass - not so with the Pirelli's. I've been riding 5 1/2 years and have tried A LOT of different tires from Dunlop, Bridgestone, Maxxis, Michelin, IRC, & Kenda - these are the best tires I've found - and they last a long time.
- I "tip over" about every other weekend and the bike is holding up well except for the broken little black radiator/gas tank shrouds mentioned in a previous post.
- I rode today with a KTM250F that was freshly bored out to 280cc and riding them back to back found the TXC has a couple more horses all the way from bottom to top.
- A large friend of mine picked up a 2010 TC250 cheap and is just as fast on it as on his previous CRF450 or his current KTM 300 - I guess an A rider always rides at A speed - the stock 250 doesn't have much power but he loves the handling of the little Husky.
- I am a better rider after 5 months on the little Husky - it demands that I ride correctly and has forced me to do so. It rewards standing thru crud at speed - it rewards sittling forward on the tank to turn - it loves it when I weight the outside peg - it wants to be pushed down in turns while I keep my body/head close to vertical - railing ruts just takes confidence - etc, etc. The group of 6 or 8 I usually ride with sorts itself from fastest to slowest and I've gone from 3rd to 5th in line to 1st to 3rd (depending on who's there and who's having a good day).
- I love the little bike and hope my competition keep drinking the orange cool-aid .

Great write-up, hope you have continued success on the 310

The 'sudden' throttle thing...

Moose makes a throttle tamer. It has a metal throttle tube (which is nicer to wire-tie the grips to) that comes with the standard cam: #100.
You can get different cams that slow the pull on the first 25% of the twist. We went with the #400 cam and it smoothed out the delivery down low.

It works best when the rider is tired and in a lot of rocks...

Thanks, Pahusky: I'll look into it - my stock plastic throttle tube is wearing AND watching the video I can hear me trying to get on the throttle really early because traction was so good but not being able to do it smoothly.

I have a milder throttle cam on my TC250 also to smooth the power down low for tight woods. Between that and the rekluse makes a mx bike almost trials like in rough conditions.

What's it like to hit a cactus.? ha ha Don't have them here, but im sure if we did i would have hit one.

Yeah - lots of funny videos out there and horror stories about them. I walk around most of the time with cactus in me some where that's working its way out. A few weeks ago I landed on a barrel cactus (a short saguaro) - there are a half dozen cactus thorns sticking 1/2 inch thru my handguards - and my plastic elbow guards helped a great deal - they kept the puncture wounds to a minimum - maybe 20 heavy bleeders That jersey sleeve is now permanently stained.