ADV350 - Ask me any questions

[ADV]

The Ohlins HO 208 rear shocks have lost the plot after covering 39,000km. Oil leaking and ineffective damping. I'm waiting on a rebuild quote together with timeframe to repair.

It will either mean downtime, refitting the original shocks or buying Profender Series X. I'll probably go for the Profender and have the Ohlins rebuilt if the cost is not ridiculous high. Not into weeks of downtime.

 

[Ian986]

Have you had any problems with screen bracket rattling( I think it is that ) it is driving me crazy local Honda dealer changed screen mount and clock surround and still does it, their answer was don’t have the screen up. The dealer is going to send the bike to Honda HQ in Bangkok, in the new year to see if they can sort it out. I wondered if anyone else had similar issues. It is not the screen because still rattles without screen on ! any advice would be amazing Thanks

 

[DavidFL]

The Ohlins HO 208 rear shocks have lost the plot after covering 39,000km. Oil leaking and ineffective damping. I'm waiting on a rebuild quote together with timeframe to repair.

It will either mean downtime, refitting the original shocks or buying Profender Series X. I'll probably go for the Profender and have the Ohlins rebuilt if the cost is not ridiculous high. Not into weeks of downtime.

View attachment 162705

39,000 kms is not bad.
Over the years I have had Nitron, YSS & Ohlins and they all recommended with my riding I should probably be rebuilding every 25,000 kms maximum.
I once had a Nitron on the Versys rebuilt under warranty @ 15,000 kms and they said it was the dirtiest oil they had ever seen come out of one of their shocks.
The sad truth here is we don't ride on smooth billiard table surfaces in the North.
Our shocks are working hard in the heat on all those bumpy twisting mountain roads.

 

[ADV]

Have you had any problems with screen bracket rattling( I think it is that ) it is driving me crazy local Honda dealer changed screen mount and clock surround and still does it, their answer was don’t have the screen up. The dealer is going to send the bike to Honda HQ in Bangkok, in the new year to see if they can sort it out. I wondered if anyone else had similar issues. It is not the screen because still rattles without screen on ! any advice would be amazing Thanks

Hi Ian

No rattles from the screen bracket at all.

I'm adjusting the screen height several times on every ride. For example, lowest height on mountain twisties with poor road surfaces, hairpins and steep gradients. This enables me to have max forward visibility over the large Givi screen.

On straight A-B highway screen is higher unless its raining or I need to work hard scanning ahead for surface water and debris.

So despites many height changes the screen mechanism hasn't worn out or rattled.

Rest of the plastic components are tight and secure with no plastic dust to be seen that could indicate a vibration point.

I hope you can get the problem sorted. Interested to hear the outcome.

 

[ADV]

39,000 kms is not bad.
Over the years I have had Nitron, YSS & Ohlins and they all recommended with my riding I should probably be rebuilding every 25,000 kms maximum.
I once had a Nitron on the Versys rebuilt under warranty @ 15,000 kms and they said it was the dirtiest oil they had ever seen come out of one of their shocks.
The sad truth here is we don't ride on smooth billiard table surfaces in the North.
Our shocks are working hard in the heat on all those bumpy twisting mountain roads.

An old habit of mine through all the bikes I've owned, at rest and water stops, is to splash water and use a tissue to wipe dust, insects and mud from the fork tubes and rear shocks.

I do get a bid lazy cleaning off the rear shocks because of the extra filth thrown in that area. I been meaning to get some soft material to floss after splashing but its only ever stayed an idea.

After replacing my rear shocks this time I'm definately going to make a flossing kit. Makes sense to me.

 

[ADV]

I've ridden over 50k on ADV350 in Thailand, welcome to ask any questions.

Now over 70k on ADV350 mainly in Northern Thailand.

 

[Heineken]

Now over 70k on ADV350 mainly in Northern Thailand.

Thats certainly quite a few KM, after returning from my recent ride from CR through Laos and then Northern Vietnam and return my ADV is just short of 14 000km, bike has been faultless, except I did get the clutch cleaned as it was making a noise sometimes on take off, good now and I did upgrade the front suspension to YSS (Ohlins do not make a fork kit) before that trip and it performed very well, no bottoming out anymore, and my stock tyres still look OK which is good.

 

[ADV]

Thats certainly quite a few KM, after returning from my recent ride from CR through Laos and then Northern Vietnam and return my ADV is just short of 14 000km, bike has been faultless, except I did get the clutch cleaned as it was making a noise sometimes on take off, good now and I did upgrade the front suspension to YSS (Ohlins do not make a fork kit) before that trip and it performed very well, no bottoming out anymore, and my stock tyres still look OK which is good.

Great to hear from you again, I was wondering how you were traveling. 14k full of adventures, fantastic.

Blowing that clutch, roller and belt dust out is really important. There's no effective exit point for dust other than to drop the cover off and blast away with high pressure air. Its an unpleasant job, clouds of dust and I can see why workshops don't like doing it / miss that part completely.

I do mine at the local self service carwash, timing the blow out when no one is in the other washbays. I end up black as a chimney sweep. Mask mandatory.

Those Karoo tyres are terrific. I'm using my second set CST bought under 3000thb pair. I've not seen them that cheap again. So, I'll be very content to return to the Metzler Street Karoo.

Great that the YSS springs is working for you! Certainly makes the front end more confident. What ever were Honda thinking when they cut the budget on fork internals?

After my YSS first service you'll probably remember I went from YSS 5W fork oil to Ohlins 10W fork oil? The front end is now taught and firm...I'm prefering the heavier oil and I've only manage 3 bottom outs on crazy rough unsealed roads. I was actually pleased/relieved for bottom out soon after the fork service, to confirm my increased fork oil capacity decision don't blow the seals. Everything is without issue with the extra capacity (ummm, apart from the fork service guys being an issue, but I won't write about that here because last time I wrote an objective report on a mechanic my post removed by David, under the guisee of defamation law). Happy to talk more about these objective experiences away from this forum.

10W and YSS is enough to keep me from upgrading to Adreani forks. Money saved into tyres and fuel.

Obviously, I'm not saying I can now ride fully into potholes, but choosing the same roads where the 5W struggled towards the end of the oil service life, the 10W works for me...and I use my body core muscles and a loosed grip to compensate for the firmer ride when hammering bumps on the unsealed roads. Its no big deal. I wouldn't go back to 5W. (Hey, I'm no expert off road rider).

In 70 km+ ADV350 I've only ever done routine maintenance... or more frequent rountine maintenance such as filters and highest quality lubricants.

I'm looking forward to Profender again, seeing how long they will last. I was at 30k on my previous Profender ADV350 written off due to Maesai flood damage.

 

[Heineken]

Blowing that clutch, roller and belt dust out is really important. There's no effective exit point for dust other than to drop the cover off and blast away with high pressure air. Its an unpleasant job, clouds of dust and I can see why workshops don't like doing it / miss that part completely.

I think part of the problem is the dust cannot escape the clutch drum, I notice the aftermarket replacements have alot more open areas to allow the dust to escape, I hear good reports on the Morza Shark Bite aftermarket kit @ 6200 baht..................................half the price of the Malossi

 

[ADV]

Thank

I think part of the problem is the dust cannot escape the clutch drum, I notice the aftermarket replacements have alot more open areas to allow the dust to escape, I hear good reports on the Morza Shark Bite aftermarket kit @ 6200 baht..................................half the price of the Malossi

Thanks for the Morza prompt, I'll revisit that again.

Yes, I think dust build up is an inherent problem due to clutch bell and sidecover design.

I'd like to see a sidecover with a large grommit window that could be easily removed so that dust could escape during dry riding conditions....but that wouldn't help Euro emissions test.

 

[Heineken]

Thank

Thanks for the Morza prompt, I'll revisit that again.

Yes, I think dust build up is an inherent problem due to clutch bell and sidecover design.

I'd like to see a sidecover with a large grommit window that could be easily removed so that dust could escape during dry riding conditions....but that wouldn't help Euro emissions test.

Interesting that my Yamaha X-Max 300 has never had any clutch issues, only gets cleaned @ 20 000km intervals when the drive belt is replaced ?