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Optimizing Your Ride: Dirt Bike Woods Setup Guide

Len Groom: Welcome to Tech Tips. Today, we're talking about setting your bike up for the woods.

Setting your dirt bike up to ride in the woods can be a daunting task, so let's hear from dirt bike enthusiast and AMSOIL Mechanical Lab Technician Ben Grembowski to see exactly what he does.

Ben Grembowski: Riding off-road on public or private land comes with some responsibility to the rider. Check your local DNR for any rules and regulations regarding the use of your trails. Most states are going to require you to get a trail sticker that looks similar to this that you put on your bike to use their trail system. Today, I'm going to be giving you some tips on setting up your dirt bike for riding in the woods.

The most important thing when riding in the woods is having good protective gear. It goes without saying, but a good helmet and eye protection is a must. Next, we want to have our boots. A high-quality boot that protects your feet, your ankles, and gives you a place to grip the bike with is also very important.

The next piece of equipment I use is a chest protector. I choose to run TekVest because it has great protection for your vitals and it protects against puncture wounds. The next thing that's self-explanatory is these shin guards or knee braces. And then to cover all that up, you want a nice ventilated jersey and pant with gloves.

The next piece of equipment I'll talk to you about is a hydration pack backpack. In here, I carry a 100-ounce hydration bladder for those hot days when you're going to want some water. I also carry a trail map of wherever I'm riding that day, a simple small medical kit, paper towels and some glass cleaners, and lastly a toolkit. You never know when you're going to need to fix something on the trail. You just carry your simple basic tools that are going to cover most of the bolts on your bike. And that's it for my gear. Now, onto the bike.

One of the most important things for setting your bike up for the woods is having good, solid full-wrap hand guards. So, the reason I choose full-wrap hand guards is that they provide great protection to your hands and levers in case of a crash. They also provide a good spot to lean your bike up against a tree when you're taking a break on the trail.

Another good protective guard to have is a radiator guard. There are many different styles out there. I chose this particular style because it protects against side impacts and front impacts. I also choose to run a higher pressure radiator cap to protect from boiling over on those really hot days. Some guys, even to help with cooling, put an optional radiator cooling fan on.

Arguably the most important thing you can do to your dirt bike for off-road riding is have your suspension set up for your skill level, weight, and riding condition. This is commonly achieved by a revalve or a respring, which can be done by any reputable suspension company.

In this particular bike, I have the suspension revalved, resprung. I have SKF fork seals. They're heavy-duty for off-road riding. And the same applies to the rear. On this particular shock here, I've had it revalved, resprung. I've got a spring bearing in it, a larger bladder cap, and a different adjustment ring for setting your spring tension.

Most dirt bikes don't come with sealed chains. It's a good practice to change out that nonsealed chain with a sealed one. Sealed chains come with an X-ring or an O-ring for their seal. Another tip with riding in the mud is to run the maximum slack you can to avoid prematurely wearing your sprockets and chain out.

Depending on your riding level, your riding terrain, and your bike, you may want to change your gear ratio with a combination of front and rear sprocket size. On this particular bike, I went up two teeth in the rear from a 48-tooth to a 50-tooth so that I could make second and third gear more rideable.

As important as your suspension is to have good quality tires. Especially important is to have this nice square edge. You only have your tires between you and the ground, so it is especially important to have good traction.

On almost all dirt bikes sold today, they come with a standard duty tube, mainly for weight reasons, not normally for heavy-duty reasons. They sell these tubes, heavy-duty tubes, which I choose to run on my tires which help protect against flats and especially pinch flats. Some guys off-road choose to run an 18-inch rear wheel.

On this bike here, I have a 19-inch rear wheel. On this one here is an 18. An 18-inch wheel provides two benefits over a 19-inch wheel. One, it has a larger sidewall that provides more comfort for the rider. And, two, it protects against pinch flats a little bit better than the 19-inch wheel. When riding tight single track in the woods, stalling is a real problem. One way to combat stalling is to turn your idle up. On most four-strokes, an idle about 1800 to 2000 RPMs works best.

If that still isn't helping you and you're having issues stalling, another thing you can do to combat that is by adding weight to your flywheel which increases the inertia of that, which helps keep the engine running, and it also controls the power delivery.

On the subject of power delivery, another thing you can do is change your throttle tube. What you're going to change in a throttle tube is the degrees it takes to turn to wide-open throttle. On this kit right here, it gives me five different options to change that degree of throttle turn. And really, what this allows you to do is cater the throttle delivery to your riding abilities and to the conditions you're riding in.

And on that same subject of power delivery, moving on to the clutch, on bikes that have cable-operated clutches, there's a little modification you can do on the clutch actuator arm. This is the clutch actuator arm located right here. I have one here for an example. And what we do is grind off the high ridge on that little area there, which gives us a more linear clutch pull that is more similar to a hydraulic clutch, which is offered on some other bike brands.

There's nothing worse than running out of gas when you're way away from the truck, you're by yourself, or you're in a race that's two hours long and you can't make it to the finish line. If I'm going to have any of those rides, I'm going to put on my bigger fuel tank. A stock fuel tank has a capacity of 1.7 gallons. This fuel tank has a capacity of 2.8 gallons, giving me a little over a gallon more of fuel range.

One thing before I forget. When you're riding on public or private land, you want to make sure you're a good steward. Part of being a good steward is having a spark arrestor in your muffler. Spark arrestors help prevent forest fires, and in some states, they're required. They can be purchased for either an OEM or aftermarket exhaust.

On your dirt bike, there are some areas that are very prone to damage. One of those areas is the back rear brake rotor. This is an example of an OEM guard that's quite flimsy. You can get much heavier-duty aftermarket guards that help protect from bending your rotor or, even worse, damaging your hub. Another area that's prone to damage is the underside of frame rails here and the bottom of the engine cases.

One way to protect that is getting a nice heavy-duty guard like I have here. Not only does this guard protect the bottom of the frame rails but it protects the engine cases, and with these wings out here, it protects the outer side of the engine covers from any damage that might occur from a rock or debris that may be kicked up from your front tire or from the person that you're following that could potentially put a hole in your case and ruin your day.

Last but not least, another part that could really help you in off-road riding is a steering damper. Now, this particular bike, a 2009 CRF 450R, comes stock with a steering damper. However, we do have to have this revalved, similar to your suspension, for off-road. A steering damper not only aids in straight-line stability but it helps in turning as well. If your bike doesn't come stock with one of these, you can either buy this type of steering damper and get a mounting kit to put it on your bike, or if it won't allow that, you can get another aftermarket one that mounts to the top of the bars.

I hope these tips have been helpful. One last thing. Remember to bring your fully charged cell phone and an extra battery pack with you when you're out on the trails, just in case of an emergency. Now we'll see you out on the trail.

Len Groom: I hope that answered any of the questions you may have for setting your bike up for the woods. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Optimizing Your Ride: Dirt Bike Woods Setup Guide