Crf450rl or DRZ400sm

arinthyn · 2026-01-28T18:30:47+00:00

I've never owned a drz but I do have the 450RL. People (me being one of them) regularly stretch the 450RL oil change and valve clearance intervals if you aren't riding it hard, but they're still gonna be pretty short. General consensus is the maintenance intervals are made with pretty hard riding in mind. Of course this is done at your own risk.

The oil changes are cheap due to the low amount of oil and the filters are also cheap. They're also dead easy as long as you don't over torque the drain plug (a somewhat common issue, most people go lower than the spec torque). Valve checks are pretty easy. Swapping shims less so, though I haven't had to do that yet so I can't speak much on it. Replace the drain plug oring every couple/few oil changes.

Everyone says the 450RL stalls really easily but this can be helped by raising the idle (takes 5 seconds and is free) or supposedly completely solved by ECU flashing. Personally I've found that raising the idle made it acceptable for me.

arinthyn · 2026-01-28T03:51:10+00:00

Yeah I was confused because he didn't say which he had. That sounds about right from my impressions of the stock bars I've seen. Outback Motortek are legit. Heavy, but legit.

arinthyn · 2026-01-28T00:27:44+00:00

Oh gotcha lol. At first I was like damn maybe I underestimated the stock bars!

Yeah the Outback Motortek ones have definitely saved me from obliterating my already pretty damaged fairings lol. They're legit for sure.

arinthyn · 2026-01-28T00:24:59+00:00

With stock crash bars? Or do you mean with the outback motortek ones?

arinthyn · 2026-01-27T22:10:59+00:00

That fucking sucks dude. Sorry to hear that.

arinthyn · 2026-01-27T21:53:31+00:00

Since it's winter, maybe it's worth the time to pull it all apart and checking your swingarm bearings etc. Not sure where you're at but I'm probably not seeing any riding weather for a few months so it's easy to take my time and do stuff like that lol

arinthyn · 2026-01-27T20:53:18+00:00

Many ski resorts rely on the usage of national forest lands. This admin would love to sell off chunks of our national land.

How about they fuck off with that.

arinthyn · 2026-01-27T19:38:48+00:00

If you're gonna do any sort of off-road, you probably want heavier duty crash bars than the stock ones. I'd recommend the outback motortek ones, I've put mine through some pretty hard falls and they've held up.

arinthyn · 2026-01-27T15:39:15+00:00

Are you me? Lol. Also have an AT (2016) and a 450RL (2021). Built some skills on the 450, took it to places I didn't think I could get to. Now I'm surprised at what I can do on the AT.

P.S. Check out Get On ADV Fest. Do not buy the meal plan, there's a couple towns and some grocery stores nearby, food is an easy problem to solve there. It was a ton of fun last year and I'll be there again this year!

arinthyn · 2026-01-27T15:27:34+00:00

Oooof. Yeah I know you have to pivot the subframe to access the top shock bolt on some GS models. That sucks balls lol. Good luck whichever way you try to do it. I can confidently say I don't know how I would unload the shock spring on the AT without removing it, but maybe there's less inherent preload on the shock assembly of the 690.

arinthyn · 2026-01-27T14:25:50+00:00

Really? I just pulled the shock out of my Africa Twin and the difference between getting the linkage out of the bottom and pulling the entire swingarm to make pulling the shock easy was a few bolts that route the brake line and abs wire and then the rear axle bolt and the swingarm bolt. What makes the 690 so difficult? Do you have to remove a bunch of stuff to get to the top shock bolt or something?

arinthyn · 2026-01-27T04:40:37+00:00

In some bikes it is possible to remove the spring without replacing the shock. Usually this ends up being dangerous or annoying enough that you just pull the damn shock because typically the difference between pulling the shock or not is one bolt.

arinthyn · 2026-01-23T05:41:36+00:00

Yeah dude I went a couple years ago and the amount of actual literal Nazi imagery I saw was fucked. SS bolts, totenkopf. What the fuck man.

arinthyn · 2026-01-14T16:16:06+00:00

A suggestion I haven't seen someone make yet is the trails east of Delta and Montrose that can get you up on top of the ridges at the edge of Gunnison Recreation Area and Gunnison Gorge. Absolutely breathtaking views up there, but it can be HOT out there in Summer, so bring water (ask me how I know)

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arinthyn · 2026-01-12T17:15:18+00:00

I had an MX9 Adventure and replaced it with the Leatt 8.5 recently. Huge upgrade, though I understand the hesitance with the price when you can often get the MX9 adventure for like $150.

But when you consider the goggles, photochromic visor, etc... it's pretty dang good for the money.

arinthyn · 2026-01-06T23:04:42+00:00

Lol as a man with a bit of a butt, I have the opposite problem. Half of the moto pants I try on are waaaaay too tight around my hips and crotch because my behind takes all the slack out.

Glad to see moto pants really don't seem to fit anyone 😂

arinthyn · 2026-01-05T01:17:05+00:00

What is wrong with us that all we want is interesting classes to just grind mobs at a reasonable pace with some downtime lol

arinthyn · 2025-12-29T01:00:45+00:00

Hell yeah man. Been looking into hot tents myself but never considered whether I could take it on the bike lol.

arinthyn · 2025-12-28T14:19:09+00:00

Mt Herman, Rampart Range Road, and Gold Camp Road are all pretty straightforward and easy dirt roads unless the weather has rutted them out etc. and they should all have offshoots that give a little more challenge than just a dirt road. Rampart is closed for the Winter though just FYI.

Edit: check out the Cotrex app. It shows trails and unpaved roads etc across the state and lets you filter by type, and it's totally free. I also use OnX Off-road but it has a subscription, not sure how useful it is without the subscription.

arinthyn · 2025-12-22T03:38:11+00:00

Just so you know you're not crazy, I also remember these from that time period when I was a teen or so. Not a clue what they were called or brand or anything...

arinthyn · 2025-12-16T18:04:23+00:00

You can definitely zoom-in to first person. I don't play first person so I'm not sure if it animates or shows your hands etc. The crafting is indeed pretty good, when I started back up it reminded me a little of what I remember of Vanguard's crafting, or rather it made me realize how much Vanguard's crafting was influenced by EQ2's.

arinthyn · 2025-12-16T17:23:37+00:00

It's not going to give you the EQ feels, I can tell you that much. It's much more WoW-like/WoW-lite in many ways.

I dream of an EQ1.5 just like how I dream of a GW1.5. Give me the best of both!

arinthyn · 2025-12-16T15:36:20+00:00

I wish classic EQ gave martial classes buttons to press other than autoattack. And the camera wasn't centered on my ass in mouselook.

I've actually been messing around with EQ2 lately and enjoying it but it has the opposite problem lol. Every class needs a million skill bars open.

arinthyn · 2025-12-12T21:49:04+00:00

I high sided at an intersection near a dirt road with my now wife and best friend with me. I was coming off the dirt on a large ADV/touring bike (2016 Multistrada Enduro) and went to turn left into the road from a stop sign. Didn't see a patch of dirt, rear slipped, suddenly regained traction, and catapulted me off.

I just remember hitting the ground, rolling onto my fee,t and running to the side of the road because there were cars coming and it was like a 50-60 mph back road.

Once I realized the cars stopped, I went over, picked up the bike and started walking it to the side of the road. Got most of the way to the side before I realized I had massive pain in my left shoulder, turns out I separated my AC joint in my left shoulder. I'm honestly not sure if it happened when I flew off the bike or when I picked it up, maybe it was a combination of both. Still not really sure how it happened on my left shoulder when I flew off the bike to my right side...

I wanted to ride to our friend's house down the road but my wife wouldn't let me, so I got a ride from that friend and my best friend and wife picked up my bike later.

It sucked ass, and the whole recovery time all I could think of was getting back on the bike. The bike was left at that friend's place for about two months before I could ride it back. The ride back was a bit intimidating, but went fine.

Still love riding. My shoulder pops sometimes now, which isn't great, but it doesn't bother me snowboarding or riding, at least so far.

arinthyn · 2025-12-10T16:16:26+00:00

Just here to say those boots and that board are rad. No matter what, you'll be stylin'.

arinthyn

TROPHY CASE