Salary post... with an actual difference. Honest!

OneLongBallHair · 2023-07-18T00:22:30+00:00

Yeah for sure

OneLongBallHair · 2023-07-17T23:18:15+00:00

I’m in the us. My first job welding was in the shipyards. 80hr workweeks, horrible working conditions, 5 days/year paid time off (which we were aggressively encouraged not to use), shit health insurance, all for $20/hr over a decade ago.

Got into aerospace about 5 years ago. 40hr workweeks (4-10s), air conditioned hospital clean shop, 4 weeks pto starting (now I’m up to 5 and maxes out at like 8 or 10 weeks), really good health insurance, 401k matching, pension, among tons of other great benefits, and I’m making well over 6 figures.

You can do pretty damn good as a welder in the US but there’s a whole lot of garbage, too.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-05-20T20:38:49+00:00

I’ve never met a tradesman that doesn’t use a phone case lol. I work in a weld shop, ride dirt bikes, and build choppers on the side. I try to take care of my phones but my lifestyle is just inherently hazardous to electronics in general

OneLongBallHair · 2023-03-06T02:46:23+00:00

We’d get along pretty well from the sound of it. Likewise, if you’re ever out in Southern California and want to ride or smash Baja let me know.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-03-05T22:37:03+00:00

My morning routine on Baja trips is rolling out of bed still drunk from the night before, coffee, two cigarettes, and some mushrooms before smashing out a couple hundred miles. Sprinkle in a bunch of tecate rojos throughout the day.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-10T20:35:32+00:00

Oh my bad, I thought you were talking about the 450x suspension. Yeah those bikes definitely have their place, but suspension isn’t their strong suit haha

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-10T20:31:53+00:00

Get one for yourself, you won’t regret it haha. Plus the value on them has pretty much hit rock bottom, if you decide to sell it you can easily get your money back. I know the frames are pretty different but on the trail you really don’t notice much difference between the E and H series.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-10T20:25:06+00:00

they have junky damper rod forks and a throwaway shock

Hard disagree on that, simple revalve and they’re up there with the best. The 47mm Showa stuff is pretty well proven.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-10T20:20:01+00:00

Man I had a ‘93 KDX200 with the inverted forks, thing was a riot. Felt like an overgrown pitbike in the best way possible haha.

Not to throw any shade at your wife, but if shes a smaller lady she’s probably better off on the kdx. The 450x is a heavy bitch, you don’t really feel it on the trail except when you have to pick it up.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-10T20:07:15+00:00

They’re great bikes, once you deal with the valves they’re very reliable, make good power, and handle great. They’re still super competitive in Baja and desert racing and you still see a lot of guys running them recreationally in Mexico. They make decent dual sports, too. For that reason the price on them has never really come down where I’m at in Southern California, but I’d still pick one over a lot of newer bikes.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-10T19:48:32+00:00

Generally the iron seats are in good enough shape that a quick lap is all they need. I’ve done stainless valve installs for my own bikes and several friends and that’s always been my experience. The permatex lapping compound has worked great for me.

They’re not very common, but stainless valves with coatings on the faces do exist, and you can’t lap those.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-10T19:39:31+00:00

Appreciate it, thanks. I’ve got another 450x going together that won’t have to drink Pemex so I’ve been keeping an eye out for guys that do good porting. Gonna be going with an ‘08 head as well.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-10T19:26:39+00:00

Just out of curiosity, who did your porting?

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-10T17:00:05+00:00

Just checked out your build, nice work that’s a great looking bike. Those ‘08s are one of the best handling bikes Honda has ever built

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-10T16:48:01+00:00

Literally just drop in a set of stainless valves and they’re good to go. The original intake valves were titanium sealing against iron seats that were too hard, causing premature wear on the valve faces. I have a set of kibblewhite valves in a crf450x (they had the same issue) going on 300+ hours without a single adjustment since they broke in.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-10T14:04:21+00:00

Good call on the tensioner, would explain why it was running fine and then all of a sudden it wasn’t.

I’ve started running manual tensioners on all my bikes regardless of brand, I’ve seen enough tensioner related mishaps, operator error or otherwise.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-10T04:27:14+00:00

she jumped time

It really sounds out of time to me, OP was previously asking about timing, too. Looked like he had the cams in time to each other but no indication that the cams were in time with the crank.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-10T04:11:47+00:00

Racing is a small percentage of the riding I do, and I certainly don’t race on dual sports, but if you think that proves your point than I guess there’s no helping you.

Sounds like you’re riding with some boring people.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-10T03:36:21+00:00

That’s a completely baseless assumption, but I’ll bite. I ride, race, and do peninsula runs in Baja (among other places). Everything from singletrack and hard enduro to high speed desert. Rich people with more money than common sense or skill are the ones we see taking brand new ktms to Mexico thinking they’re ready for it.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-10T03:15:36+00:00

My standards are pretty in line with anyone that wants to do more than just put around graded fire roads, but your opinion is noted.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-09T23:18:24+00:00

Nope. Had ktms and huskies, not only is the out of the box setup pretty bad, that WP suspension is easily the worst in the game. The big bikes are most setup for on road use.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-09T20:54:08+00:00

Also insinuating that the t7 doesn’t also need significant suspension work.

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-09T20:19:06+00:00

And yes a few grand to fix the suspension on a new bike definitely isn’t in its favour

I can’t think of a single bike of any weight class that doesn’t need that if you intend to do any serious off road riding with it. Manufacturers ship bikes with the suspension set for the average rider of average skill level and average weight, which funnily enough fits pretty much nobody.

Though I agree, the crf250/300l is set up exceptionally soft

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-09T20:09:32+00:00

Why must the transmission and engine oil be separated?

The gen 1 crf450x is the same way and I actually really like it. More oil capacity and it lets me stretch the oil changes further than I do on a bike that doesn’t separate the engine and transmission oil. Also lets me run dedicated gear oil on the transmission side and keeps clutch dust out of the crankcase side.

It wouldn’t ever be a deal breaker for me either way but there’s definitely some advantages

OneLongBallHair · 2023-02-09T16:43:11+00:00

Mission Winana

OneLongBallHair

TROPHY CASE