ktm jeff

Is this place on the 108 road , just North of Hang Dong.  These bikes are fun. Good luck.

A superb service , and price. Thanks for sharing the info.

^  I believe there is a recent thread on it. KTM importer has pulled out of Thailand. Lack of sales , due to the politics and import duties.  It looks a good bike , but the price maybe more than most are prepared to pay. 

Are they the original tires ?.  If yes , there will be a date stamp on them. Will tell you when the bike was assembled. Some times , when recall work is completed , an identifying marker or paint spot will be applied to the revilent component. 

These service intervals arent too bad. Every 1K , oil change. The valve shim adjustments are going to be the regular pain , but if you are not using the bike hard / high revs , my guess is that the valve service intervals can be stretched.  As long as the valves themselves dont stretch. Even if you manage to import  the 40 BHP parts , this bike is still some power short of the 450 X. You will invalidate the warranty with these modifications , but if thats not a worry , i would learn how do do the shims yourself , or become best mates with a decent mechanic. And by mechanic , i mean a technician , not a fitter. Priced too high , with 24 or even 40 BHP , people are  put off.  Just look at the KTM saga. My fear is this may well be a sales disaster , and will put off Yamaha and Kawasaki. Otherwise , tempting as this bike is , its just a CRF 250 with adjustable suspension and less weight.

On 2/15/2019 at 11:12 AM, Justgrazing said:

As far as I'm aware only Honda built a 5 cyl 125 and that was a 4 stroke but both Yamaha and Suzuki made 125 V4 stroker's back in the 60's .. 

 

You are correct , thanks.  I love these multi-cylinder 2-strokes.

On 2/15/2019 at 1:14 AM, inThailand said:

This what they said.

How can Honda think anyone would buy a 24hp 450cc at $10k or more. I have to believe they are not that daft.

And here we have the problem  ! .  Honda know people wont buy it at this price. So it hasnt been imported.  People will buy it when , and only when , it has 40 BHP , and a sensible price.  Yes - Honda are that daft .

Ive always felt  Yamaha was ten years ahead of Honda in road and race bike development back then. Politics and money then played an ever increasing part. Suzuki werent far behind with the multi cylinder strokers.  5 cylinder 125 anyone ?.

The non road legal bikes at BIG-C are small size , with 110 and 125 "Honda cub" engines.  The GPX brand is good quality.

If you require it road legal , the Lifan X-CROSS dual sport , and X-PLORE supermotard , at less than 50K  seem the ones to go for.  A importer named M-BIKE sell a well specked 150cc road legal dual sport for about 40K , but not many dealers.

14 hours ago, canthai55 said:

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1039615-crf450l/page/14/

Update from 25 to 40HP with a change to USA ECU and remove intake baffle

Thanks for posting this again. All we need to find out now , is if this 24 BHP bike costs twice as much as the 24 BHP 250 , ie 260,000 , will Honda USA / Thailand sell anyone the required upgrades , and if so , for how much. If it costs 300 K , with 40 BHP , and no warranty , im still interested.

The import tax BS did it for the off road / enduro bikes. Super bikes. Parts supply wont be a problem , just keep in touch with a good mechanic.

2 hours ago, inThailand said:

4. It Makes a Lot More Than 24 Horsepower

It does not.  The piece you copied was from an American ADV magazine. They didnt get their facts completely correct. The CRF 450 gives 24 BHP ( Twenty-Four ) in Thailand spec. And in English spec. And other countries. The version that makes 40 BHP is only for certain countries / states. This  was the special version they were given , but they didnt mention this in the article .  If the different American parts can be bought from Honda , and at a sensible price , to bring it up to 40 BHP , then it could be a good Dual sport bike. No warranty though. 

14 hours ago, canthai55 said:

Not expensive to go SM

Did mine since new - hubs with bearings, wheel assembled with SM tires, F and R

Racing Boy rims - your choice of hub, spoke and rim colors

14,000 baht

This gives you 2 bikes in 1. The CRF , if only used on tarmac , may be a better option for some , due to its lower price. I also think it looks better than the D-tracker. I would go with a Kawasaki D-tracker , then specify heavy duty off-road billet hubs / rims  , HD spokes and tubes , with motocross tires.

Well if you really have asked for it back , every time , for the last 6 oil changes , why havent they given it back to you. Seems clear enough. 

Could a piston ring be broken , or seizing / jamming on a port. Unless its a problem with the kickstart gears not cleanly meshing . I would strip before using. Could be cheaper than breaking something.

I find it a strange decision to delete the motard version of the Honda. On the road the higher airflow kept the engine cooler , whilst the extra weight , and non-adjustable suspension didnt make the bike under perform as much as it does off road. The 2018 and 2019 Hondas are 45mm lower than the earlier models , but the wheel sizes are the same. Just not  Excel.

7 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

 

Maybe it is the 250M guys in the lowland traffic.

 

I don't have one so don't have direct experience but there are kits to both add a fan or an extra radiator.

When i looked into buying one , there were no mods out for it then. If there are now kits with fans and with extra ( second ) radiators , there must be a need . It just didnt seem "right" to me to have only one rad. If a CRF  comes riding with us  , their electric fan is on - a lot. Happy coincidence - a friend from England has just posted me some photos taken over a decade ago , of him riding a Yamaha DT 125 R i sold him years earlier. That only had one rad , but with the temperatures being low when we rode , id wasnt much of a problem.  Summer was for the road bikes . In Chiang Mai , riding in dense woodland with little air flow , i feel a hard riden bike requires two rads. Could you not fit a LCD temp gauge just to be safe.  

Thanks TG. Every day can be a skool day.

He isnt using it hard enough to  cause it to overheat , besides , its rough at all temps. Not much room behind the single rad. I looked at a second rad , plus fan with the CRF, but many other issues let this bike down.

Im going to suggest it has an ICE rather then a EM , due to the exhausts. The very heart of a bike is its ICE engine. 

Do you , and why , prefer the straight 30 over a 10/30 or 10/40 multigrade. Or is it just a wave thing.

1 hour ago, Justgrazing said:

Yes sorry that photo doesn't show it that well .. Here's another with all the exhaust valve lobes in red and inlet blue .. 

AH , thank you. I was trying to figure out the valve tract layout. So all 6 exhaust ports exit the front engine face. The rear bank of ports being directed through the front bank cylinder head. Hence , only room for one exhaust valve per cylinder. Easier "packaging" with no exhaust pipes exiting the rear of the engine. High quality bike.