Bike Set-up with John Hudson

This entry is part 12 of 320 in the series Adventure Rider Issue #1

Let’s get personal

APC Rally owner and organiser John Hudson knows a thing or two about how an adventure bike should work. Not only does he organise Australia’s premier adventure event, but he’s completed a few Australian Safaris. So when Homer wants to offer a few tips, we’re keen to listen. This issue he shares a few thoughts on basic setting up for adventure riding.

Most bikes are pretty good these days, but even the best and most expensive bike will benefit from some personalisation.

Because we love our bikes, there’s a tendency to buy the brightest, most expensive, most heavily marketed items and bolt them on, convinced they’ll make us better riders. No accessory will do that. Good quality accessories can allow a rider to be comfortable and to ride with less fatigue, and that’s a huge gain in itself. Before searching for the biggest boost in horsepower or the most expensive suspension mods available, a rider needs to set up his stock bike to work at its best. Once he’s achieved that he can start assessing where improvements might be made.

Here are a few things to think about when you grab your bike and start tuning it for your next big ride. We’ll start from the ground and work our way up.

Tyres

Good tyres are probably the single most effective performance enhancer available to any bike. Choosing the right tyre for a specific surface is a science these days, but tyre manufacturers offer plenty of advice on the recommended use for each of their models, and you can start there. Experimenting will show which tyres work well for you and the way you ride, and which don’t. I ride big KTMs – 990s and 1190s – and I’ve found Motoz to be the best for me. Whatever brands, compounds and tread patterns you decide to try, one thing you can be certain of is the bike manufacturer’s recommendation for the size of tyre you should be running. Have a look at your owner’s manual and try and stick with the figures there. When you have everything settled and know what you’re looking for, a different width or profile tyre might be an option, but until then, you’ll be best served with the tyre size the bike was designed to use.

Suspension

Suspension is one of those areas where everyone has an opinion and all kinds of advice circulates about various mods. The first thing to do is find out how your stock suspension performs. Set the correct ride height and static sag as outlined in the workshop manual. If you can’t get those two figures within the parameters shown in the manual by adjusting the spring preload, it means you have the wrong spring for your weight. If that’s the case, no amount of fiddling with clickers or paying for expensive valving is going to help. Once you have the components performing as they should, what are you going to try and achieve? More comfort? The bike to perform better at speed? Maybe landing off supercross triple jumps is a little tricky? Don’t laugh. If you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve, the suspension tuners won’t have any hope of getting it for you.

Another tip specific to adventure riders: you’re never going to get the suspension perfect. Your luggage loads are likely to vary a great deal, road surfaces will range from highway to choppy rocks and mud, and on the big bikes the difference between a full fuel load and an almost empty tank can be 25kg.No matter how much you spend, you’re going to have to compromise in some situations. Aim for the best all-round result with the luggage and fuel load you have most often.

Pipes

A lot of riders think because their bike’s louder, it has more power. Plenty of aftermarket pipes don’t actually increase a bike’s horsepower. Some do, but a lot, especially the less-expensive offerings, just make it louder. bought the wrong bike, but if that’s what you want to achieve, ask the salesman for facts and figures.

And don’t forget a pipe is at the end of a carefully controlled fuel system. If you make a big change at one end, you may need to make big changes elsewhere in that system to gain a benefit. Fuelinjected bikes mostly deal with that, but with carburettors there can be a lot of tuning to get benefit from a change of exhaust.

Comfort

I can’t think of a better title for this one, so comfort will have to do, and it’s an important issue.

A comfortable rider will suffer far less from fatigue than an uncomfortable rider, and less fatigue means more endurance and better concentration, so it’s a big safety factor as well. Things like wider ’pegs, heated grips, screens and even seat shapes and covers can all play a big part in rider comfort. Good apparel can make a huge difference, keeping a rider warm and dry. And don’t forget boots. Motocross boots give good protection, but they’re not waterproof, and they’re not too pleasant for walking around sightseeing or to and from the bar. There are some really good adventure boots around offering good comfort and good protection. Have a look at your local dealer and see what’s there. The same with helmets. A motocross helmet is hell in the rain at 100kph, and it’s noisy even when the weather’s good.

Under this same heading go things like handlebar and footpeg position, luggage placement, and even lighting. Riding along at night, squinting like a horny baboon behind a mango tree will wear you out really fast. Good lighting makes a huge difference to comfort, and therefore safety.

See you next issue!

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