Who are the supermoto's out there?

[jentzschman]

I am a fair way away from getting to this point with this current bike, but it is defiantly on the to-do list and I was curious if there are other supermoto guys on the forum?

I have no desire to race, purely for recreational and enjoyment btw.

 

[Caleb]

I did on my CRF450x. Super fun, and if I was ever looking to burn $1K+, I would do it again in a second.

 

[jentzschman]

Ya, been looking around for the best deal on wheels and tires. Seems that best deal I can find so far is on ebay for some laced wheels for 700. I get a bonus come October and I just might have to get me a set for my WR450

 

[Caleb]

Do some research on the wheels. I heard many nightmare stories about guys using the Chinese wheels and having problems keeping them true. In fact a buddy of mine had a set of 21"/18" Chinese wheels and used them only a couple times and each time, he would have spokes bust, he didn't trust them.

Check out supermotojunkies.com for deals. If you're patient, you can find them. I picked up a really nice set of Excel wheels with a new set of tires on them (they actually ended up being local) for $700ish. There's actually a pretty large supermoto following in the area, they go out to the LHM Raceway and ride quite a bit.

 

[Tonkaman]

Supermoto is in my Hondas future once I buy a new trail bike in a year or so.

I wouldn't recommend doing it to a bike you ride off road regularly. Every time you decide to head out you have to swap wheels, caliper brackets, and front sprocket.

 

[B2-Bomber]

Supermoto is in my Hondas future once I buy a new trail bike in a year or so.

I wouldn't recommend doing it to a bike you ride off road regularly. Every time you decide to head out you have to swap wheels, caliper brackets, and front sprocket.

Swapping a caliper bracket is a cake-walk. If it take you longer than 2 minutes, you are doing something wrong.
Why would you swap a front sprocket? most guys do it all with the rear sprocket (attached to the wheel) anyway. Even if you wanted to make a huge Jump in gearing, a second chain is all you would need.

I have sold thousands of supermoto wheels to customers (that is no exaggeration). I can get you (or anyone) a killer deal on some if you want. Just PM me. I also happen to know a ton about it. So I can answer most questions.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

...I have sold thousands of supermoto wheels to customers (that is no exaggeration). I can get you (or anyone) a killer deal on some if you want. Just PM me. I also happen to know a ton about it. So I can answer most questions.

I'd love to chat with you more about that.

I've got a KTM 450 XCW. If you were to take a total stab at the time to convert from current form to supermoto, are we talking 1 hour all in or 3 hours? My biggest issue is many of my bike trips are spur of the moment so I have a few hours or less to prep. Am I going to shoot myself in the foot by having a single bike playing two rolls? I'm actually working on some bike changes in my future and this direction is one that had me wondering.

 

[Caleb]

Swapping a caliper bracket is a cake-walk. If it take you longer than 2 minutes, you are doing something wrong.
Why would you swap a front sprocket? most guys do it all with the rear sprocket (attached to the wheel) anyway. Even if you wanted to make a huge Jump in gearing, a second chain is all you would need.

I have sold thousands of supermoto wheels to customers (that is no exaggeration). I can get you (or anyone) a killer deal on some if you want. Just PM me. I also happen to know a ton about it. So I can answer most questions.

Yeah, I never swapped front sprockets for my SM setup and never felt it was needed. As mentioned, it was all done with the rear sprocket. I could swap from my dirt setup to my SM setup in about 10 minutes.

 

[Greg]

I found a used supermoto set up for cheap, locally ($500 with a ton of extras) that fit my old WR 450. My plans were to just buy the parts and flip them to make a profit, but it was just too tempting to put them all on my bike and run them. The parts that I bought came with racing slicks and it was stupid fun, I was not far from getting myself into serious trouble and probably would have gotten a few tickets if it had not been winter time when I put the parts on. Eventually I sold the parts for about $1,000 to some guy in Canada.

It was pretty crazy how quickly you could drop the bike into a turn and almost drag pegs in a corner, on a tall dirt bike. It would take me less than an hour to swap my bike from supermoto to dirt riding.

 

[B2-Bomber]

I'd love to chat with you more about that.

I've got a KTM 450 XCW. If you were to take a total stab at the time to convert from current form to supermoto, are we talking 1 hour all in or 3 hours? My biggest issue is many of my bike trips are spur of the moment so I have a few hours or less to prep. Am I going to shoot myself in the foot by having a single bike playing two rolls? I'm actually working on some bike changes in my future and this direction is one that had me wondering.

after your first initial swap, which will involve fork-guard trimming, and brake-hose re-routing. I would venture to say it'd take the average guy 30minutes if he was taking his time. After years, I can do it in 10 minutes on almost every bike.

KTM, and Honda use a different caliper relocation bracket. That takes 5 minutes, instead of 30 seconds. I have a how-to here to let you know what is involved http://www.warp9racing.com/how_to_install_bracket.html

all of the others are just a "Z" bracket that goes between the caliper, and the fork leg. These take 30 seconds.

And no, you are not shooting yourself in the foot by having your bike play (2) roles. It's not hard to swap, and transforms the bike into something so much more streetable.

If you wanted to avoid the oversize rotor entirely, and put a stock size rotor on the front. That is easily done too. But the SM front tire is roughly 22% smaller diameter than your 21" tire. So at the same speeds the rotor is spinning 22% faster. And so heat builds much, much faster with the stock size rotor. That is the reason you want a 320mm rotor, so it won't build heat 22% faster than it normally would. Your stock front rotor is a 260mm. and if you multiply 260 X 1.22 = 317.2mm

 

[Corban_White]

I know very little about supermoto. But I do know that for a given rpm the surface speed at the edge of a larger rotor is faster than a smaller rotor.

 

[B2-Bomber]

I know very little about supermoto. But I do know that for a given rpm the surface speed at the edge of a larger rotor is faster than a smaller rotor.

RPM, not surface speed. I mean accumulated heat. spread across the entire rotor. I know it sounds totally counter-intuitive. but Stock size rotors on SM wheels heat up FAST

you have 20% more surface area, so the same section of rotor, will not contact the pads as often. as the same section of rotor would on a smaller rotor.

 

[anderson750]

I love my Warp9 wheels. If I was doing a SM setup, I would not hesitate to buy a pair of Warp9. I drool every time I am at the Warp9 office picking up something.

 

[B2-Bomber]

I drool every time I am at the Warp9 office picking up something.

And it's always nice to see you Paul!

 

[benjy]

This thread needs more pictures

 

[jentzschman]

Wow, great info bomber, thank you. I will be pm'ing you some questions soon.

From the research I have done, it seems a lot of guys run a 15T front sprocket as well as a 42-40T rear. That set up is more toward good freeway speeds so if doing short spurts on the freeway were not an issue, I can see keeping the 13 or even going to 14T front and playing with the rear to find what works best.

 

[Tonkaman]

I guess I should have worded my sentence differently. I know some guys that bought SM gear and never ended up using because it was a hassle to them. I definitely don't view it that way, but I am very comfortable wrenching on a bike. The front sprocket needs changed on my set up because I gear WAY low offroad, but I suppose not everyone does.

Warp9 makes awesome products and I highly recommend their parts to anyone. I have had several of their wheel sets and not one has failed

 

[Corban_White]

I was in no way disagreeing with the fact that bigger rotors are better in many ways (heat dissipation, stopping torque, etc.), just clarifying the explanation.

RPM, not surface speed. I mean accumulated heat. spread across the entire rotor. I know it sounds totally counter-intuitive. but Stock size rotors on SM wheels heat up FAST

you have 20% more surface area, so the same section of rotor, will not contact the pads as often. as the same section of rotor would on a smaller rotor.

 

[jentzschman]

I guess I should have worded my sentence differently. I know some guys that bought SM gear and never ended up using because it was a hassle to them. I definitely don't view it that way, but I am very comfortable wrenching on a bike. The front sprocket needs changed on my set up because I gear WAY low offroad, but I suppose not everyone does.

Warp9 makes awesome products and I highly recommend their parts to anyone. I have had several of their wheel sets and not one has failed

I also like to gear down for off road, but the WR already comes with 13/50 gearing and a low first gear, that is pretty low already

I too have heard nothing but great things about Warp9 products. I hope to move forward with a SM set up in October

 

[jentzschman]

For those who have ran supermotos, what gearing did you run? I know there is great variation based on personal preferences, but just looking for some overall options.