2022 Templar X 6sp Review

[tknj99]

Wanted to get my initial thoughts down for the benefit of those considering this bike:

Ordering: I ordered the bike from PowerSports Max and the process was seamless online.

Delivery Time: Amazing.. I ordered on a Saturday and received the bike 5 days later

Price: $2150 including $350 shipping

Delivery: I've bought 3 Chinabikes online prior to this purchase and every one of them arrived in a beaten up cardboard metal bent-up crate. My last delivery of the Titan DLX came with the bike shipped upside down, oil all over the bike including seat as well as scratches on the fork caps and exhaust. Well i was expecting the worst but got the best. The box was shrink-wrapped without even a tear at all, perfect condition. Inside, everything was padded and zip-tied and again in perfect condition. I was amazed! I think the vendors are demanding better and getting it from the shippers (R&L Carriers in my case)

Assembly: There are some extra steps you will need to take which are not the norm; the triple-tree and fork tubes are not installed and need to be carefully assembled with the steering parts in the correct order. Luckily the parts are attached in the tree in correct order so you just need to remove them and place down in the order of assembly. This is a good time to actually see the inside of the steering assembly and of course slather it with grease all over the bearings and parts. Note: the bearings are slightly greased from factory and the triple-tree and fork tubes have L and R arrows to align during assembly.. easy peasy. Note: i had my wife slide the jack under the bike while i lifted the bars.. this was probably the hardest part of the build.
I connected the triple-tree to the frame and then afterwards connected the handlebars. Having the bars hooked up allowed me to be able to lift the bike off the metal crate later on to be able to slide a jack underneath in order to connect the fork tubes and front wheel.
The electrical connections were pretty easy to figure out as they only connect to the right receptacle. The L-shaped connector goes to the black box under the triple-tree and the 2 loose wires connect to the horn. You will need to disconnect each turn signal to run the wires thru the top-hole on either side bracket. The headlight assembly connected to the lower hole on each side bracket and then you need to remove the bottom rubber pieces attached to the headlight in order to connect it to the frame mounts.
Once you jack the bike up, you can connect the front wheel using the provided axle and spacers and then connect the brake assembly afterwards along with the speedo sensor. Slather grease on the sides of the wheel hub prior to assembly.
Rear electrical is exposed. I used one of the vinyl cover pieces that came in the delivery and sliced length-wise to wrap the electrical connections and then wrapped in electrical tape and tied it up to the frame

Issues found: only one issue found and that was the throttle side mirror glass was broken. Sent a note to PSM for replacement

Initial maintenance performed before start-up: popped the tank off (2 bolts), removed the valve caps, spun the crank to TDC and set the valves to .04mm (tightened on a .05 adjuster blade which lets .04mm blade thru) I read that others have set tighter than this but i figure this is what i've set the Brozz and Titan to and they perform great plus the valves can only tighten up with time.

Start-Up: Added gas and cranked her up a few times and she started but then stalled a few times. The battery was drained very fast so i hooked up a jump-start to get her running. Fired right up with the jump and idled nicely. I set the idle down to a hair under 2k. Let her run a few minutes, then shutdown and repeated one more time.

First Ride: Well she feels nice and hefty, tall yet nimble. Nice power and acceleration. Throaty exhaust. Smooth on the road with the counterbalanced engine. I got her up to around 60mph and backed off. She will definitely benefit well with a smaller rear sprocket. The 6th gear is great!

Maintenance/Tech Plan: I plan to keep her under 7k until the 500 mile mark for break-in and plan to change the oil at around the 100 mile mark to Rotella 15W40. I still need to fiddle with the suspension settings as well.

Add-Ons: Installed bark busters

Planned Upgrades/Add-Ons: 42T rear sprocket. Fiddle with the carb to shim the needle and maybe increase the main one size up

More to come..