Thats certainly quite a few KM, after returning from my recent ride from CR through Laos and then Northern Vietnam and return my ADV is just short of 14 000km, bike has been faultless, except I did get the clutch cleaned as it was making a noise sometimes on take off, good now and I did upgrade the front suspension to YSS (Ohlins do not make a fork kit) before that trip and it performed very well, no bottoming out anymore, and my stock tyres still look OK which is good.
Great to hear from you again, I was wondering how you were traveling. 14k full of adventures, fantastic.
Blowing that clutch, roller and belt dust out is really important. There's no effective exit point for dust other than to drop the cover off and blast away with high pressure air. Its an unpleasant job, clouds of dust and I can see why workshops don't like doing it / miss that part completely.
I do mine at the local self service carwash, timing the blow out when no one is in the other washbays. I end up black as a chimney sweep. Mask mandatory.
Those Karoo tyres are terrific. I'm using my second set CST bought under 3000thb pair. I've not seen them that cheap again. So, I'll be very content to return to the Metzler Street Karoo.
Great that the YSS springs is working for you! Certainly makes the front end more confident. What ever were Honda thinking when they cut the budget on fork internals?
After my YSS first service you'll probably remember I went from YSS 5W fork oil to Ohlins 10W fork oil? The front end is now taught and firm...I'm prefering the heavier oil and I've only manage 3 bottom outs on crazy rough unsealed roads. I was actually pleased/relieved for bottom out soon after the fork service, to confirm my increased fork oil capacity decision don't blow the seals. Everything is without issue with the extra capacity (ummm, apart from the fork service guys being an issue, but I won't write about that here because last time I wrote an objective report on a mechanic my post removed by David, under the guisee of defamation law). Happy to talk more about these objective experiences away from this forum.
10W and YSS is enough to keep me from upgrading to Adreani forks. Money saved into tyres and fuel.
Obviously, I'm not saying I can now ride fully into potholes, but choosing the same roads where the 5W struggled towards the end of the oil service life, the 10W works for me...and I use my body core muscles and a loosed grip to compensate for the firmer ride when hammering bumps on the unsealed roads. Its no big deal. I wouldn't go back to 5W. (Hey, I'm no expert off road rider).
In 70 km+ ADV350 I've only ever done routine maintenance... or more frequent rountine maintenance such as filters and highest quality lubricants.
I'm looking forward to Profender again, seeing how long they will last. I was at 10k on my previous Profender ADV350 written off due to Maesai flood damage.
*Edited '10k'
