Gas Gas Rekluse Core EXP Install (Part 1)

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I am prepping my Gas Gas EC250 for a trip to ride the Hatfield-McCoy trails in WV in a week. Part of that prep work is getting a Rekluse Core EXP clutch kit installed. It's turned into such an epic struggle (OK, maybe I'm exaggerating just a bit here) that I decided I'd post up the story here.

I just laid the bike on it's side so that I wouldn't have to drain the oil.



Stock clutch exposed:



The Core EXP kit ready to go in. Look close...notice anything? I didn't either.



I soaked the EXP disc in oil while I was getting everything else removed and reinstalled.



Rekluse steels and the EXP disc installed.



New pressure plate and springs going on:



Notice my first issue yet?

Look closer.



For some reason my kit didn't ship with the set screws for the adjuster pre-installed like they were supposed to be. I called Rekluse and their customer service was very helpful. They mailed out the missing parts right away.

Now lets flash forward two or three days. I now have the set screws. I wish they had come installed as they were a real pain to get threaded in. They are just too small for my big fingers. Eventually I got them started and everything set back to where it should be. Last thing to do was bolt on the clutch cover and go break it in.

Now we come to my second issue of the install. The clutch cover bolts are bottoming out. I thought maybe I should be using a thicker gasket or something, so I call Rekluse tech support. The guys I talked to on the phone were very helpful but I had them stumped. I did some rough measuring and it looks like the Rekluse cover is thinner than the stock cover, which Rekluse says should NOT be the case. I should be able to reuse the stock gasket and bolts. So here is where part 1 ends. I need to go round up a mic so that I can get the exact measurements back to an engineer at Rekluse so we can figure this thing out. I have a sneaking suspicion that the fault lies with Gas Gas and not Rekluse on this one. We shall see...

Continue to Part 2

920 Miles of West Virginia

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A couple of buddies and myself decided to do a dual sport ride for the Memorial Day weekend. Our original plan was to ride out to Ocean City, but when that fell through I suggested we do my Trans West Virginia Trail loop again. I wanted to run it in the opposite direction than how I did it last year so I could hit some sections that I had missed. We ended up modifying the route a good bit so it was an interesting ride with some new scenery as well as some of my favorite sections from last year.

Laurel Highlands 5/5/2012

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I joined a group of ADV and RCR members for another great Laurel Highlands ride led by JeffB. We met for breakfast at Randall's and then hit the road.

The first stop was at the falls in Ohiopyle.

We then hit more great dirt roads. I have to go back through the GPS track file and see which ones we were on, I'd like to ride them again.

Update: Here is a link to the gps file

I didn't get a lot of video, once we got close to Meyersdale we got hit by a small but nasty thunderstorm. My GoPro got soaked, so I left it off for the rest of the ride.




We stopped at Morguen Toole for lunch and hung out for a bit to see if the storm would pass. By the time it let up we decided to call it a day and split up. Some of the guys stayed in Meyersdale to continue thier ride today, and the rest of us headed home. The weather cleared up after leaving town and JT and I had a good ride back to Pittsburgh.

Even though our day was cut short by weather, it was a full day on the DRZ.

The Pace Podcast

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I've recently started listening to The Pace Podcast. I've listened to about five episodes so far and found it to be both informative and entertaining. It is definitely worth a listen.

Know of any other good motorcycle podcasts? Let me know in the comments.