Category Archives: Project Bikes

What I’ve ridden and what I’m riding

Honda CRF300L 9000km review

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CRF300L Index Page
CRF300 Rally quick ride

In a Line
Light enough to tackle any trail I dare, but too tall and uncomfortable as a do-it-all travel bike for most.

  • Rally Raid suspension
  • Great range with Acerbis tank
  • 19-inch front wheel conversion
  • Screen with MRA lip
  • You know it will start and run like clockwork
  • Inexpensive and easy fit NiceCNC lowering link
  • Weighs about 162kg tanked up and with all the gear
  • Needs loads of add-ons to make it a functional traveller
  • For a trail bike, stock 894mm seat height is ridiculous
  • Negligible power increase over CRF250L
  • Seat comfort on long or rough rides
  • ‘Average Mpg’ or ‘remaining fuel level’ read-outs both out by 10%+
  • Reduced stability with big tank and other add-ons
  • 17-inch rear knocks out speedo accuracy (unless you size up the tyre)
  • Acerbis fuel cap always cross threads
  • Front brake is weak
  • Front brake switch failed ;-O
  • Negligible lowering with 17/19 wheel combo

Review
October 2023 I got my CRF shipped to southern Spain to leave in Morocco for six months. I flew down to carry on scouting new tracks for my next Morocco route guide, while also leading my one-week tours with 310GSs in between times.
I’m not quite finished with the 300L yet, but last week it turned 10,000km (6200 miles). High time to share my impressions after 8 months of riding.

Taking comfort
I bought a very well equipped 2021 300L from its second owner with just 1000 miles on the clock. It still needed a bigger tank, radiator protection and tubeless wheels (plus whatever’s shown in the graphic above). The bike came with a lowered seat (read: thinned out). At 34.5″/876mm it was 0.7″/18mm lower than Honda’s claimed OE specs of 35.2″/894mm. I tried to make the thin seat more comfortable by adding a 20mm neoprene pad under a Cool Cover which increased my back end’s mileage. But judged by side stand angle, the 17-inch rear wheel with a stock width AX41 tyre didn’t lower the back noticeably.
I then bought a stock black seat (full foam) and, with my added padding, probably went up to 35.7″ or a whopping 907mm. Then one day in Morocco I knew I’d need a low seat for a tough day, so removed the padding and Cool Cover. My backside was pummeled at the end of that 300-km ride, but I never refitted the Cool Cover and kept the neoprene slab held down with a bungy.

Later, I ditched the neoprene too and wore some Moto Skivvies and have settled for these plus opiates on a bare stock seat in a bid to keep it as low- and me as comfortable as possible. It’s still too high for easy mounting/dismounting, though the anterior agony got muted on some days. As we all know, once the drugs wear off, getting off/standing up for just a few minutes can offer respite.

High Atlas near Toubkal

286cc
The 300 is only 36.4cc bigger than a 250L when you’d hope that’d be nearer to 50cc. I owned a 250L in the US a decade ago and for what it was (left) enjoyed it greatly. Along with other factors (like the existence of the CBR300R and worldwide >300cc licensing regs), I guess there’s only so much metal in a 250L barrel to bore out.
I knew it before I bought it of course – a quick ride of a 300 Rally didn’t set my hair ablaze – but the increase in power on the 300 is negligible. It’s still essentially a ‘250’ with the same-ish 27hp as a WR-R, along with all the inherent benefits and limitations: light enough to tackle or turn around on anything the seat height allows, while being a slog on long uphills or a headwind, plus uncomfortable after more than an hour or two. So not much different to my previous WR250R or KLX250 then. In many ways my less powerful Himalayan 400 suits my ‘old man’s’ riding style better, but was no faster on the road.

The best things about my 300L are the easy 400-km range from the Acerbis tank (despite the maddening cap) and the Rally Raid suspension. While both ends might benefit from a bit of tweaking for my mass, it just works; very occasionally bottoming out at the back and never at the front. After a few weeks in Morocco I thought the rear shock was sagging a bit, raking out the forks and slowing the steering. So, lacking the shock tool, I dropped the clamps around the front forks 5mm to produce the same levelling-off effect, but can’t say it rode any better.

Ten inches of suspension and clearance?! Way higher than it needs to be for most users.

Something’s Off
The way I’d set it up something felt off on my bike. For a while I thought it was the tubeless AX41 tyres. No so much the tread pattern which is pretty conventional, but perhaps the added sidewall stiffness in the tubeless carcass, intended for GSs and the like, not dinky ‘250s’ weighing 100 kilos less. Airing down to as much as 20psi didn’t help.
Then I tried dropping the forks 5mm, as mentioned; no noticeable change. So was it a high CoG, especially with a full 14 litres on board and exacerbated by the tall screen, radiator bars with side bags and so on? It certainly felt less stable tanked up, but no more than you’d expect. I tried to avoid setting off for potentially tricky unknown tracks with a full tank. I even blamed the hefty Outback Mototek rad bars, but while heavy, they’re actually set pretty low down.

17/19 wheels. Was it worth it?
My main motivation was to convert the stock wheels to tubeless, not have smaller wheels. I knew the stock front 21 rim wouldn’t have the required ‘MT’ safety lips. As MT 21s are rare anyway, I thought I may as well try a 19 as an experiment; it’s a better all-round travel size and there’s more tubeless tyre choice. Then it turned out the rear 18 wasn’t MT either, so I may as well try a 17 which also offers greater do-it-all travel tyre choice and might even lower the bike. Note: fitting a 17 raises the gearing a bit – you won’t pull away in 2nd so often. But it also throws the speedo out from ~8 to 14%. You’re going a lot slower than the speedo indicates and may want a DRD or similar black box to correct it. But: fitting an oversized Mitas E07 at 10,400km put the speedo error back in the ~8% ballpark. DRD not needed.
I rushed the original job and had a manageable slow leak from the 17 and a meltdown on the 19 front arriving in hot Marrakech (fitted a tube). But the 21 I left at home has held its air fine for months. In Marrakech the mechanic re-sealed the rear in between my trips, cleaning then applying a continuous band of Puraflex. He then did the same to my 19 front and both hold air fine now. Summary: technique works if you take your time and allow a day or two of curing.
All done, the bike was barely lower and, as mentioned below, the 19’s benefits only became evident with the screen removed. Obviously, I can’t tell a 17 from an 18 on the back, but running a front 19, at the donkey speeds I ride at I can’t say I noticed any detrimental effects on the dirt over a 21. Crossing gravelly oueds, I did try riding feet-up, but the front soon tucked in and deflected, as you’d expect. Through thick bull dust same thing: go deep and the wheel folds. So much for improved flotation from the fatter front: you need to attack such crossings with momentum to push the front through (see AMH8, p205), while wrangling the bucking bike and spinning back end. We know how that can end, so I often paddle like a duck.
Bend swinging on the road the AX41’s ‘50% vacant’ contact patch held me back, but I did perceive – or persuaded myself – the 19 tracked better through bends than a 21 would. Occasionally banked over it would twitch, but the asphalt surface is rarely pristine and debris-free in Morocco. So 19: no difference over a 21 on dry, loose dirt at trail riding speeds. Deep sand, mud ruts and snow may be different. On dry asphalt it corners with more perceived confidence, depending on tyres and minimal CoG interference.

Rear at about 6000km
Front

Talking of the Bridgestone AX41s, the rear TL had had it by the time I rolled back into Marrakech, having covered only 7000km or 4400 miles. I ran it at around 25psi, though it would lose about 7-8psi overnight. I went out of my way to select a tyre of identical width to the stock 18-inch IRC, but next tyre am going fatter all round: a less knobblesome 130 80 17 Mitas E07, partly because that’s the nearest the shop in Morocco can get in TL. It span less readily on loose dirt and certainly rode the roads better, like a 310 with its massive 150 rear. The front AX41 got replaced 2000km later with a bigger 19″ E07. Initially it felt heavier but the bike rode more like a supermoto on the road and is OK on the piste.

Returning in December for a week, I got to the bottom of it. Undertaking day rides, I left my baggage in the hotel (<6kg), but also removed the screen (1.5kg?) with an MRA spoiler. The bike now felt a lot more chuckable and connected. I could even ‘feel’ the 19-inch tyre’s benefits and managed the odd side-slip on the dirt, as on other bikes.
Was it purely height + weight, or also a ‘vision’ thing? Who knows, but after a week I refitted the screen and all my clobber for the ride back to Marrakech over Jebel Saghro, including a tricky a ‘4WD only’ descent, and the bike felt OK. My parameters had been reset, though I’ll definitely remove the screen again for day rides and even tours. It’s not needed and only takes 5 minutes.

In the late 70s I remember my 900SS was mysteriously transformed once I removed the half fairing. On that bike it was definitely about being able to see the front wheel (or just the front) directly, a bit like a forward control (‘cab over’) vehicle like a a VW Kombi or my old 101.

Ditching what little overnight baggage I carry certainly helped (and no tailpack made swinging the leg over so much easier), but removing the screen turned the 300L to what I’d expect: a fun, nippy, lightweight trail bike.
And yet every bike I’ve had for the last 15 years has had a screen of some sort, including the 250L (a plain, light Slipstream windshield which I reused on several later bikes). With the 300L I think it was a cumulative amassing of stuff, not just the screen, but the bigger tank, heavy radiator bars with side bags, handguards, tankbag, GPS, breakfast. From the Mototek crashbars upwards, and with a full tank, that’s up to 18kg of added mass over a stock 300L all up on the front, or way over 10% of the bike’s stock weight. Too much.

With that sorted, it’s only really comfort that holds me back, not helped by the fact that my knees are going (or are having a bad year). I’ve always been a lazy ‘sit when you can; stand when you must’ rider, but now I’m less able to hop onto the pegs or even just weight the footrests like I ought to to spare the hit when crossing a run-off ditch. Standing up is actually a good stance (compared to a 310GS), with knees pressing into the cushy sides of the seat just like they should. There’s a bit of a stoop for me (6′ 1″) at the bars, but that’s without any risers that I usually have to fit.

I do stand up on smoother terrain at the end of a ride to revive the backside and stretch out, but find, even in my TCX dirt boots, that my insteps ache after 20 minutes. Fitting wider footrests is something I overlooked in the prep, I now realise. Africa Twin Rally footrests fit right on they say, and have a third bar to support the load, but I bet other pegs fit too. The cheapest AT pegs I found were £80 on ebay, with DRC, or similar but unbranded Chinese alloys, costing around £50. Then I realised that replacing the missing footrest rubbers for 20 quid a pair will probably have the same effect, but same soreness so must be much TCX boots.

AT pegs; more support but £££
Stock rubbers: £20
300LS – a lot lower

On the dirt I wouldn’t want any more weight nor need more power, but would love an inch less height for what I do. In the US (and maybe elsewhere one day) they now offer a 300LS, with inch less suspension and an inch less in the seat. For those without a calculator to hand, that’s two inches lower seat height.
The 300LS should have been the stock 300 back in 2021, with an ‘HS’ option for the lanky hardcore. Over ten inches of travel is excessive for a trail bike like the L; the CoG is too high making it twitchy, and it discourages ownership by less tall folk. I’ve never came close to hitting the bashplate which could easily be 2 inches lower, as on the LS. Honda could even take another inch out of the springs and put some padding back on the saddle where it’s still needed.
It’s a shame the TracTive shock from Rally Raid isn’t length-adjustable like the Wilbers on my XSR700 or YSS on the Him, though of course there’s nothing to stop me fitting a lowering Kouba Link (or similar knock off), then raising the forks in the clamps some more. In fact I have talked myself into trying just that for the next lap.

There were some long spells of oued paddling (too loose or rocky to ride) at which time the low first gear was just right, ticking over at 2mph or so, with no need to feather the clutch. But as mentioned, my speedo read-out was way out until I fitted a fatter Mitas when it went back to stock 8% error.

All in all, while the 300L was a great deal and is making my task out there easy, I’m at an age where I want a lower saddle alongside the low weight to be able to chuck it about with greater confidence, and get on and off without scuffing the saddle with a boot. I’ve matured into one of those old guys I met on my 250L in Canyonlands 10 years ago who’d ditched their KTMs for TW200s (left). Plus I’d like more day-long comfort, like a 310GS, though am not sure I’ll ever get it. All this holds back the fun of being on a planted bike like the 400 Himalayan.

On one of the tours one of the riders who owned a 450L wanted to try my adapted 300L, so I hopped on his rental 310GS. What a great bike that was, and not just the cushy, full-width saddle! Something about the steering also felt just right (this was before my de-screened epiphany). He also thought my 300 was off, and put it down to the 19-inch conversion. As John M at Rally Raid will tell you, the 310 (especially with his RR mods) is a much under-rated bike, though he rides a low-wheel 300L too.

Snatchy throttle? Can’t say I’ve noticed by found this tip on Advrider.

Of course I never expected a 27-hp 300 to be the long sought after do-it-all travel bike. That machine is more likely to be a twin or single around the 450cc mark, like the forthcoming CFMoto 450T or the Himalayan 450. I bought the more dirt-focussed CRF for the specific purpose of bagging pistes in southern Morocco while leading a few tours. I could’ve saved myself the transit costs by hiring a 310GS, but the Rally Raid sprung 300L is a better ride off road, especially if you don’t know what’s ahead. And anyway, I wanted to try the popular 300L, and can’t wait to do another couple of months riding in Morocco. The long ride back to northern Spain in late March, not so much.


Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda.
Next time I will…

  • Not rush the DIY tubeless sealing, or just cough up for CWC Airtight.
  • Get the Adv Spec radiator brace instead of the heavy Outback Mototeks and find a way of hanging the side bags off the tank to cushion the rads in a fall
  • Hardwire in the GPS, then [buy] a proper USB plug, not the unreliable cigarette-bodge
  • Leave the Cycle Pump at home and rely on the handheld USB pump
  • Try some Moto Skivvies for long runs
  • Get a Rally Raid HPA for the shock
  • Try a lowering link

CRF300L: Ready for Morocco

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CRF300L Index page

After a summer of tinkering and trail riding, my desert-ready 300L sits in the corner of a foreign carpark that is forever Malaga, washed by fluorescent lighting, blest by the suns of Andalucia.
Ahead of me, weeks of piste logging broken up by a couple of tours to help pay for it all.

For nearly a year I’ve been scouring aerial images and OSMs while building up Google My Maps to five new regions for my next Morocco guidebook. I’m amazed how many pistes there are out there if you look closely. Many lead into areas where I’ve long thought ‘I wonder if there’s anything down there?’. Usually there is, as well as a number of new asphalt backroads not yet on any maps. I won’t be able to cover it all in the next few weeks, but I’ll leave the bike in Marrakech and come back for more later in the winter.
Although I cheated and got it trucked across Spain, once in Morocco the 300L should be the ideal bike for this job. Sure, less seat height would be nice. but it’s light, economical, nimble and should be reliable. Let the winter games commence ;-)

Honda 300L fuel consumption: The Mileage Diaries

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CRF300L Index page

Updated December 2023

Average after >10,000km: 30kpl / 85mpg / 70.8US

100mpg? I don’t think so

Getting to grips with the CRF 300L’s fuel consumption I’ve learned this: while assuming GPS distances and petrol pump volumes are accurate. taking in instrument errors, it took >2000 miles to exceed a true 90mpg.
The best true mileage figure I’ve achieved is 96.5mpg or 34.2 kpl riding slowly with a group.

  • The digital speedo is the usual 8% over, like all vehicles, but with the AX41 17-er on the back the error is now 14%. So I’m only doing 100kph when the speedo shows 114. That’s quite a lot and, although it won’t make my bike any faster, I’ve ordered one of those speedo correction black boxes for 80 quid.
  • The trip odometer on stock 14/40 gearing with a stock IRC tyre read 2.5% over against a GPS over 200 miles. Around 3000 miles, in Morocco I re-verified with the smaller AX41s tyres and in kilometres and the error is currently 4%. So when the bike shows 104km on the trip, it’s actually done 100 (according to GPS). This affects true mpg figures.
  • The ‘average mpg’ readout is always optimistic up to 15%. Typically it shows upper 90s or just over 100mpg, but which can work out at 88mpg true once odo error is corrected.
  • When you optionally switch the mpg read-out to show ‘fuel used since last fill up‘, this figure is also inaccurate and not a reliable indicator of what’s left in the tank. When I tried it in the UK it showed 2.6 gal used (so 0.4 gal left in the 3-gallon tank). But at the pump, calculations proved there was only 0.16gal (0.73L) left. That’s a pint and a half in old money. Switched to metric, I tried it again in Morocco and both times on a ~12-litre fill up there was litre less left in the tank than indicated. In other words read-out suggested it had used 11 litres but the tank took 12 to fill, so there is less left than indicated.

And trying 99 octane E5 fuel didn’t seem to improve mpg or anything else. Mpg was the same as greener E10, but E5 costs 10% more in the UK. I’ll try another tank then revert to regular E10 or whatever I get in Morocco which is E5.
I’ve been told CRFs ‘loosen up’ once over 2000 miles and, following a fast ride from Dorset via London to Sussex, this seemed to be true. Or should I say, the E5 fuel I picked up in Poole seemed to improve the bike and the mpg suddenly jumped, though it had a new chain and tyres at this point too. It belted along comfortably at and indicated 70 much of the way, but perhaps it was just the unnoticed southwesterly at my back.

Nearly as good as it gets – a true 94mpg.

I’ve tried and tried to squeeze a true 100mpg in Morocco. After all, some 310GSs have managed that (usually with light riders) and I got close on my 250L once too. But I don’t think I’ll manage it riding relatively normally. One day I tried an unrushed 5-hour ride over the Atlas to Marrakech. The average kpl went up and up, topping out at ‘36.3’ or about 103 mpg (the highest reading I ever saw was ‘38.4’ or nearly 109mpg). I knew it wouldn’t be anywhere near that and sure enough the corrected figure was a merely 94mpg. But I did get over 400km to the 13.9 litre tank with 1.2 litres left, so that’s a max potential range of about 440km indicated (about 420 true).

It took me over six months to work out how to convert the speedo read-out to kilometres. Turns out all I had to do was R T fekin M carefully and implement the instructions therein (left).

Online fuel converter

Trip reading Tru trip Fill Lit ‘Readout’ True mpg/kpl Notes
109 107 5.6 ’90’ 86.7 / 30.7 Mitas, 45T rear, E10
226 221 11.8 ‘102’ 85.1 / 30.1 IRC, 14/40, E10
222 217 11 ’91’ 89.5 / 31.7 Near accurate avg mpg read out, E10
232 227 11.7 ‘97.3’ 88.1 / 31.2 E10
262 255 13.1 ‘100.4’ 89.2 / 31.6 E5, Dorset trails
222 216 10.3 ‘95‘ 95.6 / 33.8 E5, Accurate average mpg read out
138 7.7 – 81.6 / 28.9New chain, tyres, loaded. Fast M3, slow costa, windy Morocco
167 10.8 ’76’ 68 / 24.1 Windy motorway, Moroccan E5
191 12.7 ’77’ 68.5 / 24.2 Windy motorway
238 11.9 ‘97.2’ 91 / 32.2Pistes, roads to 2500m. Fuel light at 238 ml
216 216 7.16 ‘32.6’ 81.5 / 28.9 Southern Atlas pistes and road
384 368 12.7 ‘31.5’ 82 / 29 Over J Timouka, slow oued to Tata
277 266 9.2 ‘32.9’ 81.5 / 28.9 ABY, Mansoor, Wside
404 388 11.7 ‘36.3’ 94 / 33.2 Slow over Atlas, > 90kph
326 312 9.9 ’32’ 89 / 31.6Tali. Over Atlas, group
272 261 9.4 ‘30.5’ 78.5 / 27.8 Slow piste Timouka
320 307 11 ‘31.3’ 79 / 27.9 Skoura. Fast road, Saro piste
2722618.3‘35.7’88.3 / 31.4RAK over Atlas
3463329.738.196.5 / 34.2Tali, slow mtn roads
3213089.8‘33.9’88.3 / 31.4FZ, piste/road with group
2612518.6‘32.3’82.2 / 29.1Nekob, trans Atlas road, slow mtn piste
37436012.8’33’79.5 / 28.1Slow mountain pistes

CRF300L: Midsummer ride: saddle, screen & mpg

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Project 300L Index Page

You probably know that feeling at the end of a long day’s ride in the UK. You’re tired and butt-sore but the bike is warmed right through and after hours in the saddle you’re in the zone and fully at one with the machine, darting through roundabouts with a flick of the hips and tuned in to the hazards around you.

I left Dorset for the 130-mile ride to the ABR bike show armed for discomfort and a low average speed. The two-lane A350 covers half the ride and there was less than ten miles of dual carriageway on the whole run. Instead it was old-time motoring with frequent roundabouts, occasional traffic lights and small town bypasses, plus the odd individual who thought it best to keep under 40 just in case. Fine by me on a slow bike. With the 300L’s limited ability for decisive overtakes, I sat back and watched the mid-summer verdure inch by and the mpg creep up to over 100.

In just a few years the ABR Festival has deservedly become a hugely popular event. And as a regular speaker there, it’s also one of the best organised of its kind with loads of things to actually do and a switched on admin crew inviting some serious people, not the usual Adv-UK suspects like me.

Nearly four hours later I rolled into Ragley Hall much less crippled than I thought I’d be considering my diverse musculoskeletal ailments – aka: getting old. These were the benefits of an enforced slow place. Narrow saddled ‘two fifty’ trail bikes are notoriously uncomfortable over long distances but my one-hour presentation and subsequent chatting proved much more draining, not being used to that either.
I spent the night in a garden in nearby Upton and next day headed off towards mid-Wales to rediscover some of the backroads I’d walked and cycled on the Glyndwr’s Way last summer. At some point I’d need to head back for another ABR talk at 4pm. After yesterday’s ~200 miles, this time the thinned-down seat soon gave rise to that familiar discomfort, a feeling as old as all my biking years. But also one that’s fixable.

Lovely mid-Wales

Rhayader – Wales’ trail-biking Mecca, such as it is – proved to be that turn-around point, but rolling through the town, no cafe jumped out at me invitingly. So I followed a single track road out towards Abbeycwmhir on the GW and where a back way wound its way on to Llanbadarn Fynydd (GW) which I knew had a cafe.
Walled in by lush summer hedgerows, a narrow country lane turned to gravel which led into a forest. Is this a rideable trail I wondered? Why no prohibition signs or locked gates?

My Garmin is loaded with OS mapping which showed this was not* a green lane (‘BOAT’, etc). But it led less than two miles to Bwlch y Sarnau on the Glyn’ Way, a deserted hamlet at over 1000 feet whose name evoked pre-Christian Wales and where there was a self-service ‘porch cafe’. It also saved a long diversion, so unexpectedly I found myself outlaw off-roading in mid-Wales. How thrilling! There were a few MTB tyre imprints in the earth but nothing from a moto. Doing this is bad form and not something I’d knowingly do again, but in just a few minutes I reached Bwlch via a couple of gates. There was no one around, same as last year walking and pushbiking in this area.
* Turns out it was a green lane after all – a UCR or ORPA. Explained here.

Let’s off road!

At Bwlch cafe I chatted with some bikepackers having a brew during a three-day tour. This is such a great region for that as I found last year. But for legit trail biking, a quick glance at the OS map on my Garmin didn’t reveal many permitted green lanes much longer than what I’d just illegally ridden, In search of uninterrupted off-road adventures, that’s why I went to the Sahara in the first place way back in 1982.

Byways around Rhayader but read this first. Then again, there is always the Welsh section of the TET which will probably be quiet backroads with occasional off-asphalt excursions and doubtless a very nice ride across rural Wales.

By the time I’d selfied myself and finished my cuppa, the Garmin’s ETA back to the ABR show was cutting it a bit fine. Sod the mpg – I’d have to crack on!

Mamils & Saddle Sores
In getting lowered, my seat has lost some padding, and the slippery Cool Cover saw me slide forward on a downslope; a common annoyance with some bike saddles.
As a back up I’d packed my padded lycra cycling shorts which they say can improve moto saddle comfort, but first I pulled out one of two slabs of 20mm rubber foam (neoprene) last used on my Himalayan, and sat on it for the two-hour ride back to Ragley Hall. The anterior agony slowly subsided but the bare rubber was too grippy so I slid around inside my loose trousers which wasn’t so comfy either. Plus I couldn’t up stand to aire mon derriere as the pad would’ve blown away.

I rolled up to the Bridgestone tent with 10 minutes to spare and did my chat with Simon & Lisa (left), but apart from the fact that it was another lovely mid-summer’s evening, I wasn’t looking forward to the four-hour ride back home. So I decided to do something about it and set about shoving the foam pad underneath the Cool Cover. If it worked well I’d trim it all properly later.
It made me wonder do you want a grippy seat surface or not? I do notice grippy seat covers for trail bikes on ebay. It must be related to riding – active off-roading or low-energy road touring plus what you’re wearing too; how close a fit and the fabric’s own grippiness. With my baggy cotton cargo pants, the Cool Cover is slippery which can cause friction, but sat directly on the neoprene pad back from Wales, the grip was massive and I slide around inside my trousers which was as bad. I do seem to recall leather trousers which I wore for years helped prolong comfort, whether down to good grip on seat vinyl or the close fit.
Heading home with the neoprene underneath the Cover, the saddle was levelled off and I slid about less on deceleration. It was all round a big improved on the sore morning’s ride and a few days after I got home I trimmed the two pieces of foam to fit the 300L’s seat, glued them together and fitted them under the Cool Cover. The seat is now about 35″ (890mm), 14mm more than before (half being the airy Cool Cover mesh) but a whole lot more comfortable. See more bottom of the page.

Other comfort matters
Leaving Morocco in March, I retired my old X-Lite X551 after ten years. The vent never worked well (wrong angles for upright trail bikes), the sun-visor lever fell off years ago and after multiple removal and washing, the lining was coming adrift.
But I’m a longtime big fan of this type of lid so got myself an HJC i30 for about £110. Grey comes shiney not matt as implied online but so far so good. It fits snugly with quick-clip chinstrap, the sun visor lever is much easier to operate and the top air vent is more effective. It remains to be seen how long the lining fittings will last after regular washing. But the HJC not quiet or, to be precise, I’m a bit too tall for the 300L’s unadjustable screen and the buffeting makes a racket, even with earplugs. Crouching down puts me out of the turbulence but is unsustainable.

Back home I remembered I bought myself an MRA XCreen adjustable draught deflector (left) for the Him but ended up not needing it.
I dug it out, made sense of the instructions and decided to clamp it to the screen with a view to drilling and bolting it on if it proved effective or necessary (you get both options in the mounting kit). Articulated arms on adjustable splines lock it in position so you can set the optimal angle at a standstill. It looks like it ought to work funneling air up and over my head and looks better than the simple spoiler Touratech still sell and which I tried on my XT660Z 15 years ago. You can view my meticulously annoted Mileage Diaries here.

Other than that the ride back with just a refuel break was great. The pad under the Cool Cover soothed the posterior on what ended up being 500 miles of two-lane blacktop over two days. On a bigger bike I don’t think I’d have been that much quicker on these types of roads without lots of speeding and other risks.
I never rode my 300L stock but the Rally Raid suspension definitely keeps the bike in shape darting around roundabouts. I got in about 9pm, visor and screen thick with bug splatter but still with energy to pre-wash the bike with Muck-Off and lube the chain while it was warm. It all bodes well for the long ride to Morocco later in the year.

True mpg
The 300L has one of those handy average fuel consumption displays and my ride up to ABR saw it settle at 102mpg as I rode through the gate. Pretty good but this is an estimate. For the true mpg I evaluated the bike’s odometer error off the GPS over 200 miles. Result: the bike indicated 205.6 miles over a GPS recorded distance of 200 miles. Not bad but 2.5% over.

Somewhere on the ride up I topped up with 11.8 litres over a corrected (true) 221 miles. That’s 355km which divided by 11.8 = 30.1 kpl or only 85.5mpg (see table on the left) – over 15% out. On the bright side the two litres left in the 13.8-L Acerbis tank meant another potential 60km which gives a possible range of well over 400km. That will do nicely, whatever the mpg is. It sure is great not having to think about fuel twice a day.
The next fill up on the way home included the rushed ride back from Wales with the display now indicating ’91mpg’. I put in 11 litres over a true 217 miles, which is 350km. That was 31.8kpl or 90mpg. A lot more accurate and oddly, a big improvement on the slow ride up, despite the faster pace. I suppose a full tank’s worth at steady pace may have helped, or could the bike’s computer be ‘learning’, as I’ve read they can do? We shall see but I am still hoping to get a true 100mpg one day.

Update:
I set off to the Isle of Wight a few days later with the seat padded to full length and the MRA fitted. I soon noticed I was not dropping my helmet visor as soon as possible. With a guesstimated angle set at my eye level the MRA was working just right, shoving the windrush over my head, not into my face. Now all I heard was muted tyre and engine noise instead of wind and a steady 60 was much more tolerable.

Join not good

But fix one thing and another flaw becomes more apparent. My glued up join between the two bits of old neoprene was noticeable. Can’t be having that. I have time so may as well spend it trying to get it right.
I replaced it with a single piece of 20mm neoprene: a 250mm x 500 slab was 20 quid. Note, even with a sharp knife or scalpel it’s hard to get a smooth cut. Scissors are better, but anyway the grubby edges are hidden under the Cool Cover.

CRF 300L: Acerbis tank, crash bars, USB

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Project 300L Index Page

My Acerbis ’14-litre’ tank finally arrived from Italy, not as fast as some crash bars from Guang Zhou in just 12 days. So high time for a day of spannering and probable gnashing of teeth. Rally Raid are also sending me their trail wheel wrench with a 24mm ring for the rear and 14mm hex for the front.
Rally Raid suggest that from new you may want a full-size socket and tool to undo the axle first time so the hex is another tool to buy – an afternoon wasted locally before I submitted to amazon ‘next day’. But the idea of a recessed hex fastener in the front axle is actually quite clever – I’m sure the AT had one too and car gearboxes have similar drain plugs so there’s no protruding bolt head getting rounded off by rocks and kerbs.

The other day after swapping the front tyre back to OEM IRC, I wore myself out trying to refit that front wheel axle with the bike perched over on a log. A lip on the axle shaft makes shoving it over to reach the thread on the other fork leg confounding.
I like to think an upright, stable bike sat on a bike lift will make life easier. Luckily there was one an hour up the road for just 99p. Years ago I’d have scoffed at such decadence and just used a milk crate. But when’s the last time you saw one of those?

Acerbis 37 litre

Acerbis tank
In the old carb days, Acerbis plastic tanks had a reputation for not always fitting well – like so much aftermarket gear, tbh. And now in the efi era you have to swap a huge fuel pump assembly with associated hoses and wiring.
But it seems Acerbis have upped their game in the 20 years since I fitted a gigantic 37 litre whale to the back of my XR650L (left). With none in the UK, my black-only tank cost me £320 imported from Italy. The finish looked a lot better than I recall, and the complex shape suggests a nod to the precision potential of CAD. Here, J-Mo describes the Acerbis tank job in meticulous detail, including tips and possible traps. Time to follow her lead.

New tank adds 6 litres to the 7.8 stock without looking massive.
After years I [re]learned syphoning. Use a thin long hose; shove it all into the tank to flood the hose; then pinch the end and pull it out and down way below the tank to the container, then release the pinch. It will flow at more than a litre a minute. A good skill to know in the post-fuel tap era.
Subframe not suited to falling on big panniers
‘Gigantic’ reverse-Tardis toolbox. Irksome.
Once unbolted, to release the tank pull off a vent hose coming up from the emissions canister (it pipes up through the tank to the fuel cap so fuel will not pour out). Then unclip white electric plug and unclip thick fuel line (can be a bit stiff). All explained on J-Mo link.
All mounts line up, well I never!
Join loose canister hose with supplied filter-connector to purple hose and feed under tank and up onto the fuel cap. Or remove canister assembly and save 550g (instructions on J-Mo)
Acerbis tankside protuberance may protect radiator on RHS a bit?
In black you’d hardly notice the difference. Nice job Acerbis!
I also fitted a Cool Cover. Will improve comfort and easy to add padding underneath, if needed.

A calibrated refill revealed the tank holds 13.85 litres or A tad over 3 UK gallons which is a figure I’ve seen elsewhere. That will do me – at a dependable 85mpg or 30kpl = 415km or 260 miles range.

Protection

A slim bike like a 300L doesn’t need engine crash bars – a well spec’d bash plate like the Ad-Tek the seller fitted to mine does the job.
But CRF-Ls have a vulnerable rad (like Africa Twin 1000Ls, as I found shortly before D-Day). The 300’s rad sticks way out into the RHS breeze so when you fall it takes the impact via some plastic. I think they’re all like this these days but what a crumby design for a small trail bike! Adventure Spec make a radiator brace (left) which bolts a sturdy frame round the rad and looking again, it’s actually seems OK for £66 and 240g.

Chinese 22mm upper crashbars
Outback Motortek rad bars

What I really wanted were currently unavailable Outback Motortek bars (above right) which protect the rad, not so much the lower engine which a good bashplate does. Plus I could mount my Lomo sidebags on them; not be possible with the ASpecs. Looks like the OMs may be back sooner than I thought, but in the meantime I bought some Chinese no-name crash bars (above left; 4.2kg). Tellingly there was no fitted image but they looked similar to the Outbacks, or maybe I just saw what I wanted to see. They’re well made but turns out they fit low and the bashplate would have to go. Bash is non-negotiable so I sold them on.

Wrong bars. Or are they? Bags would fit nice and low. May have a re-think and revise bashplate.

As it is, unlike an AT etc, a 150-kilo 300L has much less self-destructive mass when it tumbles, So I think 22mm ø tubes at 2mm thick as used by China bars and Outback Moto are a bit OTT. I bet 18mm would do fine, as on the Himalayan’s tank racks (left). But 22 is what we get – possibly because of a shortage of well-braced/spaced mounting points to securely support a thinner structure. That’s how it seems on the China bars. My weldy chum who made my Him’s rear ‘ear racks’ was insufficiently motivated to tackle a complex pipe-bending task for anywhere near direct-from-China- let alone Outback’s prices.

Fishform loading
It’s the new black (Nick Sanders T7)

Another reason for wanting tank/rad bars is to carry luggage up front where you can see it and get to it from the seat. That way you dispense with a rear pannier rack so the weight penalty can balance out) and just use a tailpack. ‘Fishform‘ they call this in kayak hull design – ie: more width up front. This way the engine/radiator bars double up as pannier racks.
I tried this idea with the AT (above left), and when I got back noticed serial RTW-er Nick Sanders had done the same on his T7 RTW bike (above right). A side benefit with soft bags on tank-side racks is the bags absorb impacts before the rack, leaving the rads asleep in their beds. I do wonder if these low Chinese bars with a wide frame are to mount a pannier may work well after all.

Later I lined the bars up under the engine and it was clear for small panniers the mounting would be way too low and probably drag on corners. Back on ebay they do go.

The Outback Motortek radiator crashbars arrived a few weeks later. They’re hefty at around 4kg with long, carefully shaped 5mm plates clamping to the engine mounting bolts on the downtube. As mentioned above, it all feels OTT for a light bike that doesn’t have the mass to destroy itself, as if they’re just transposing ideas from heftier bikes which do need heft. The design has the entire top part unsupported apart from cross braces and so depends on the strength in the plates to resist the deforming leverage. Were there a single mount somewhere on the headstock the whole set up could be half the weight, like a 400 Himalayan, above.

USB power plug
I took the chance to fit a USB power plug. You can buy them on ebay pre-wired with a fitting matching a spare switched socket somewhere behind the headlamp. ‘Switched’ means it only powers up with the ignition on. Annoyingly mine turned out to be just a USB adaptor fitted into in a cigarette lighter which means another layer of electrical connection to play up, but I suppose the USB plug can be easily inspected changed. Not all work or for long I found in March.

First I had to remove my GP Kompozit screen which weighs just under a kilo, fyi. Next, undo a pair of allen-head rubber mounts either side of the headlamp assembly and remove the whole thing. The auxiliary socket is soon located among the black spaghetti and the over-long USB plug lead clicked in.

Annoyance. Or is it just getting the knack?

But to quote the late Haynes ‘assembly is not a reversal of dismantling’. Is it ever? The lower mounts wouldn’t line back up. I assumed the new wiring was in the way and pulled it through but still no luck. Rubber grommet spacer-washers get pulled off as you try and shove the headlamp onto the mounts. Then I enjoyed a bolt dropping down onto the mudguard top. I managed to flick it out and resumed alignment; it did seem like the mudguard top was fouling the cowling – as John Cooper Clarke might have said. I removed the mudguard (loosening might have been adequate) and loosened the top headlamp mounts: that did the trick. It all went together like it should.

Next: will the Garmin charge off the bike once the ignition is on or go into mass storage mode. It did the later when the USB gets in a muddle. Go to Garmin Menu > System and change from Serial to Spanner mode. The Garmin will switch on as normal and a sign that it’s working is a flashing charging battery icon, as below.