WR longer distance touring

This past weekend, I finally got to test my WR250R on a longer ride. Up till then, I mostly took the bike off-road and did not cover much distance. This time around, we went from NH to VT on an overnight camping trip. The majority of the ride consisted of unpaved roads, although on the way back we did hot about 20 miles of pavement (I screwed up a turn somewhere). Anyway, the trip was a rather interesting mix of roads, from trails to class VI unmaintained roads to maintained unpaved roads. The WR excelled on all of them, especially when running over sweeping hills.

With the bike fully loaded with tools, camping gear, and some extra clothes, I noticed how differently it behaved. The extra 30 or so pounds on the tail end changed the handling completely. Bike wanted to stand up more often then not, and the ride was more plush. But it still behaved rather well and carried all the extra weight without any issues.

For luggage, I mounted Oxford Sports Humpback side bags. I bought these almost 11 years ago for a Bandit 1200 I owned back then, and the bags are so well made that I'm still using them today. I did turn them around the 'wrong' way, so the hump was towards the front, which helped bring the weight down closer toward the center. On the left side, the bag rested nicely against my new too tube (which carries a 0.8L fuel bottle), and on the right it rested against the stock heat shield. This made me somewhat uncomfortable, so I quickly manufactured a bar from some old tubing (pics and writeup in a separate post soon) that moved the bag about 1/2" above the heat shield. No melting issues whatsoever and the bag didn't even get hot.

Even with my new gearing 14F and 52R, the bike did great on long, open roads. One downfall from the gearing change (I guess) was increased fuel consumption. The fuel light came on at about 70 miles each time.
Nevertheless, the gearing change made the bike much more fun off-road, where it would climb and descend anything (short of a bridge at a swamp).

 

Tool Tube WR250R

I finally got around to mounting a tool tube on the WR250R. Just like on my other bike, I went with the AgriSupply tube, as the other ones I have proved to be rugged enough for serious DS rides.

At first, I thought finding a location would be difficult. This bike is really a dirt bike and not having racks on it like I have on my BMW, there aren't many suitable mounting options. Personally, I don't like mounting tool tubes with hose clamps. Nevertheless, once I removed the useless factory installed helmet lock, it all became clear.

First step was to remove the helmet lock and the useless tiny tool kit that came with the bike. Once removed, the helmet lock has a 6mm nut welded from behind, and the little tab where the factory tool kit rests has two small holes.

Next, I made a small, simple bracket from some 1/4" angle aluminum I had in the junk pile. I drilled three holes in it: two to mount it to the tab on the subframe, and one to attach the tool tube. The only challenge here was that the holes are so close apart that there is no way to get two 6mm nuts next to one another. To rectify this, I filed one side of the two 6mm bolts so these would actually fit in the limited space, then used a straight nut on one bolt, and a small spacer over the other bolt, which allowed the nut on the second bolt to stop above the nut of the first bolt. Sounds complicated? No, it's really simple. Trying to fit two bolts side by side would have been impossible.

Next, I cut a piece of flat 3/16" aluminum stock to reinforce the plastic tab on the tool tube itself. Again, there are two bolts. One simply mounts the plate to the tube, the second attaches the tube to the subframe at the helmet lock location. This way, the weight is spread over a larger area, and it also limits flexing of the plastic tab. Remember, it's a bike for the rough terrain. The bottom tab only got a fender washer.

And here it is, all mounted.

  

This setup is not going to be used for heavy tools, but a tube repair kit, tire irons, and some screwdrivers/wrenches will fit in just fine.