Xpro Storm DLX 150 Review

[Dusman]

When I interacted with Maxpro about this bike, they said that they get about 80 of them in stock and that they go out of stock in about 2-3 weeks. The DLX 150 and the Templars must be some of their most popular bikes as they don’t keep them in stock very long at all.

[J4Fun]

Has anyone of you noticed an out of round condition on the chain tension? Doesn’t seem like a big deal but it’s definitely there. I picked up the bike on the rear end and spun the tire in quarter turns and it’s obvious. Still think the bike is great, just have too adjust the chain a bit on the looser side. Noticed this when adjusting the headlight and moving the bike in the garage. Then saw someone else having the same problem on you tube when searching the Orion 190….

[J4Fun]

I haven’t checked yet, but I’ll bet the holes on the sprocket are a bit big for the bolts? Not the hub being out of square…

[Mumen Rider]

Originally Posted by J4Fun

Has anyone of you noticed an out of round condition on the chain tension? Doesn’t seem like a big deal but it’s definitely there. I picked up the bike on the rear end and spun the tire in quarter turns and it’s obvious. Still think the bike is great, just have too adjust the chain a bit on the looser side. Noticed this when adjusting the headlight and moving the bike in the garage. Then saw someone else having the same problem on you tube when searching the Orion 190….

Yes, I did notice that with mine and I think it just has to do with the front sprocket wobble(which is normal) because I changed over to an RK chain and had the same "problem".

[Dusman]

I noticed this also, but when riding down the road and putting throttle to the chain and hence a load on it, it completely goes away and runs smoothly. So, in my case, my rear sprocket is not out of round (I checked), but the countersprocket wobble creates an “out of round” sensation when not under load.

[Thumper]

Originally Posted by Mumen Rider

What's the storm 150 have to do with my post regarding the two CRF links? The Storm 150 directly mounts to the swingarm.

The above is quoted from the Templar Resource Guide, your post #61. I deleted my post there. That thread is for tested Templar hardware and maintenencae posts. It is a sticky.

You said in your post in that Sticky thread with the photos of CRF 250 lowering links (post #60) that you were considering buying one. I assumed that your new Storm 150 DLX has the same link. Why else would you buy one.
Then you posted again in the Templar Resource Guide that your rear shock is connected directly to the swingarm.

Huh??

Those two lowering links do appear to be nearly the same dimensions as the OEM Templar X link. The bushing side might be 1mm wider, which could be fabbed in, maybe. The other side seems too wide, and might need to machine the link arms before it would fit on the Templar. I guess cannot test this theory on your Storm 150.

[Mumen Rider]

Originally Posted by Thumper

Why else would you buy one.

Because I own a Templar.

Originally Posted by Thumper

Then you posted again in the Templar Resource Guide that your rear shock is connected directly to the swingarm.

Huh??

I posted again because you seemed lost and confused randomly bringing up a storm 150 in the Templar X resource thread. So I informed you about how it was mounted.

[Thumper]

Originally Posted by Mumen Rider

Because I own a Templar.

I posted again because you seemed lost and confused randomly bringing up a storm 150 in the Templar X resource thread. So I informed you about how it was mounted.

You mentioned a BMS 250 Enduro (Bashan Motor Sports??) in a previous post, but all your other posts focus on the Storm 150 DLX, until...

Your post on 5/23 in the Templar main thread (not the resource thread) in post 1731 you mention "The tag "X7-CB250F" identifies our bikes..." OH! Since joining the forum earlier this month, this was the only reference to a Templar in your posts. And you have a pic of the air louvre mounting bolt spacing a couple of posts later. This slipped right past me!!! Cool. You own a Templar.

Yeah, I noticed that the engine is still getting stamped -3A but it is a counterbalanced 6 speed. That is truly odd as I mentioned in my post #1732. Somehow, it didn't register that all your other posts were about your 150.

Storm 150 and Temp X. Nice pair of toys.

I (we) would love to hear about the lowering links if you decide to go for it. The shock shortening method with a new 10mm lower mounting position DOES work great, and it is free. AND, you can restore OEM height in minutes, easier than swapping links. On the other hand, that adjustable lowering link thing is interesting.

[Mumen Rider]

I have a BMS 250, Storm 150 and the Templar X. I am still under the price of a new KLX300 which is rather amazing.

Originally Posted by Thumper

I (we) would love to hear about the lowering links if you decide to go for it.

I will update the resource thread if one of them ends up fitting.

[buzz]

Hurry up,need to know.

[Mumen Rider]

Making progress on my ZS190 swap, you'll need a different clutch cable, electrical connectors, carburetor, oil cooler and lines. The skid plate won't fit the ZS190 so you'll have to go without it. Physically the mounts are exactly the same between the two engines.

[ecwilli3]

Anybody’s exhaust tip turning green on the storm 150

[Mumen Rider]

No, are you using some kind of fuel additive? With enough Techron added to your tank you can discolor things like clear hoses.

[ecwilli3]

Nope none at all. Only run non ethanol through it

[Soup-n-sandwich]

Hi guys. I saw this topic so I thought I'd chime in and give you my experience so far on the Storm. I should tell you a little bit of my background so you know where I"m coming from. I've been riding since the earlier 80s and did some racing as well. I had my first fill size bike when I was 14 when all of my riding buddies were still on 80s...and I was by far the smallest guy out there. I was about 95lbs when I was 14 and had a new 1985 Honda XR200. Since then every bike I own needed suspension work. Re-sprung and re-valved. This has been the norm for me. I used to race motocross but in the 90s I felt like off-road was more fun and much more of a challenge. At least in New England. My last two bikes was a 1996 KDX200 and a 1998 KDX220R. Then life got int the way and I was away from riding for a long time. I purchased a 2002 KDX220R again about two years ago and are doing more than just a complete restore on it. It's a huge project that will be a tribute bike not only to the KDX model but also to Jeff Fredette. OK...now the point. I purchased the Storm to have a little fun in the mean time before the KDX is completed.


I purchased it from PowerSportsMax and purchased it for $999 plus shipping. I had no intentions on it being on the road so my approach was a bit different than what most of you are using the bike for. Since it won't see on road riding I wanted to make it as capable as possible for off road. I bought this model instead of a full size bike like the Templar because of several reasons. 1) I didn't want to take the bike seriously, just using it to get around the farm where I work and live and like I said...to have a little fun. 2) I got a smaller than full size bike because I plan on teaching some of my friends (some women) to learn how to ride and I figured that this size bike would be a good learner bike (more on this later).



First the good: So the bike showed up with zero damage from R&L Freight. I took a whole day to look over things and was surprised that everything was greased up very well. There was also locktite on most of the hardware that I felt NEEDED it. Like the rear sprocket had locking washers on the bolts which was nice. The bolts on the front and rear disc had red locktite on them! I was missing one bolt thaough on the front disc rotor. I was missing the intake spacer on the carb and the front wheel wasn't trued up and caused it to smash into the lower fork legs damaging them. X-Pro sent me the hardware for the disc rotor...and the disc rotor itself! They sent me a new left side fork leg. I replaced the drive chain without even using it because I know what I was going to be in for. I too got the RK brand. I used the stock carb for a week or two but it never idled right and because of a few reasons I chose to get an aftermarket Nibbi to replace it. The stock carb with it's non-standard jets, weird idle issue and a air mixture screw that is not only capped off but when you remove the cap it was nearly impossible to get to the screw if it was mounted on the bike. The grips are very nice, the headlight is very nice once you add a drywall anchor as a spacer to aim it...the bike has more ground clearance then my KDX at 14.5 inches. This is the advantage of having the horizontal cylinder engine.



Ok now for the "no so good": I've had the bogging/hesitation issue twice now. I fixed it both times but they were related to two different problems. The first time the problem happened was because the intake spacer going between the carb and the intake tube of the engine was cracked. The stock spacer is very brittle. The crack was letting in lots of air and this is what caused the first bogging/hesitation issue. Once I replaced it when installed the Nibbi PE26 the problem went away. I had issues with Nibbi but I'll get to that later. So when I first installed the Nibbi PE26 carb it ran much better and it idled much better but was running a tad too rich. So I messed around with the jets and tried to get it right...then the bogging/hesitation was back! I wasn't too happy. I talked to X-Pro and told them the whole story. Two or three days goes by and I discovered that when using the Nibbi carb with the spacer it comes with...if you don't installed it just right you would have a air leak at the spacer. However I didn't know this so I started messing around with jetting again. Then I went back to the jetting I had when it was running well...and that didn't work. I likely was a little hard on X-Pro because I wasn't happy and needed the bike for Friday and Saturday night here on the farm as the bike gets used for supporting the staff during the haunt stuff like the haunted hay ride and daytime Fallfest. Anyway I found a day later after realizing the issue can't be jetting...so I started looking at other possible sources. Yeah, when installed the Nibbi carb on this bike I had to hold the carb up and push the spacer down because if I just let the carb sit in it's natural position the o-ring was exposed and air was getting by the spacer and o-ring. Once I fixed that the bike still wouldn't take any kind of quick throttle openings. I was P.Oed!! I ended up giving up for a day. Then I thought to myself "hmm I did also messed with the jetting...I bet the air leak wasn't the only problem". I then removed the carb and tried something that worked before. 40 pilot and 120 main. Air mixture screw out 2 turns and the needle in the middle clip position. That was it! It was fixed.


Now the big problem for me. Take a while guess what it is? Anyone? Yup...suspension.
Holy crap when just riding around on flat terrain or the road no big deal but take it in any bumps holy crap it's bad. For the last three weeks I've been riding it more and started riding it aggressively. Super sketchy. I have videos document all of this stuff I"m talking about in this post but from lots of experience I could see right away that the dampening was too slow. Especially the rebound in the rear. I spoke with X-pro and Zuma...I was asked to send a video showing it. I showed them how slow the rebound was on the shock. Zuma told X-pro it's "normal" lol. I said "it's normal for you to manufactuer it like that but it's not normal for safe and decent acting suspension". Clearly I was on my own. For weeks I looked into any information I could get on how the shock was put together as I was going to tear it apart to fix this. Again, if you just farting around in the yard or putting around on a smooth trail not a big deal...but the truth is that if a new rider takes this bike anywhere near bumbs it's going to be a handful. I started with the fork. I removed the factory oil and used ATF at a lower oil level than stock. This did help speed up the rebound ad compression of the fork but not enough. I looked into an alternative shock. What a freakin' chore that was. First of all there are no markings on the stock shock spring so you know what the spring rate is. I do know from setting the static sag and rider sag that the spring is too stiff for me. I'm 135lbs. I contaced X-Pro to find out the spring rate. They had no clue and asked Zuma. They didn't get an answer from them either!! How can the manufacturer not know the spring rate of a shock and spring they make?! What ever. I spoke with a distributor for DNM suspension. They made a shock that was the correct length (eye to eye) of 320mm...but it came only with a 1000lbe spring! I was like "that's way too stiff of a spring"..but DNM won't give you any options for a softer spring and since I have no clue what the stock spring rate is...I was getting nowhere. Then I thought "if I measure the coil diameter and the coil length of the stock spring and asked the distributor to measure the DNM spring in the same way I might be able to figure this out. So the stock spring coil diameter is 12.2mm but is 190mm long where as the DNM spring is also 12.2mm coil diameter but is a much shorter 165mm. I took a chance and purchased the DNM shock. It turns out that the stock spring is very close if not exactly 1000lbs spring rate. I was going to make a rig to measure the spring rate of both the shock and fork and will still do that but now I know that the spring is 1000lbs and it's a bit too stiff for my weight. Since DNM doesn't offer another spring for this shock I'll be grinding it to make it a bit softer. Cutting the spring is the last thing you want to do as it actually increases the spring rate. Grinding the spring actually take off the coil material and reduces it's spring rate. That's next. The rebound adjustment on the DNM shock is a welcome change and will work out nice but the spring rate on both the shock and fork is too stiff and the fork needs to be revalved for sure. Yesterday I took the bike in a true off-road trail full of embedded rocks and roots, Prior to this I only rode it on the farm in bumpy terrain but nothing like where I rode it yesterday. Let me tell you....it was brutal. I have never rode a bike off-road that was more of a handful that this bike with these suspension settings. Holy crap it was hard to believe how difficult it was just to stay on track. The bike was deflecting off of every rock and bump. Scary stuff. I realize that few people are riding the bike in true off-road conditions but the truth is that for a beginner this might just discourage them from learning to ride a dirt bike. I was blown away at how sketchy it was. I had also found since I had the bike that the tires tend to glide across the terrian. Very weird feeling.



So I have my work cut out for me. I'm going into the fork tomorrow and doing whatever I have to do to make the valving faster and I'll check the spring rate. As far as the shock goes; it's better quality than the stock Zuma shock with adjustable rebound and a spring that can be removed from the shock body without a spring compressor. Neither shock has a Schrader valve to recharge it with nitrogen after a full service but I'm pretty sure the Allen bolt and lock nut on both shocks can be replaced with a Schrader valve. Anyway right now the biggest complaint about this bike is the suspension. I will fix it. I don't feel like I have an option. If i ride the bike hard and aggressive it's a no go. The bike is all over the place.


Nibbi is another story. Don't bother to call them because they will never get back to you and you can't leave a message as the mail box has been full for months if not longer. The company slogan is "Supporting our customers is the most important thing to us" lol yeah right! The first carb I got was used and damaged...so I sent it back. I told Nibbi what happened and that I sent it back and a week later decided to buy another one because the stock carb isn't the greatest. Nibbi said "I think I'm going to take care of you on this and send you another carb. What is the Amazon order number from the first carb and the reorder one?" I gave it to them. I didn't hear back for over a week. I then contacted them back and they said "oh well you re-order the carb again, so I didn't think we need to do anything more for you". I was besides myself! They knew I re-ordered it because I gave them both the order number from amazon for both carbs. Long story shortened...they didn't do a thing for me after telling me they would take care of me. They a day later they offered a 20 percent discount on anything I wanted. I said I needed a jet kit but their jet kit was $25 for 10 jets...but I could buy them on Amazon for $9...gee thanks Nibbi. You guys are the greatest. I told them to take a hike.



Overall I do think the bike is a great value. I do actually like the bike but if the manufacturer is going to give you non-adjustable suspension they MUST valve it correctly. They don't get it and likely don't care. Just like the Chinese manufacturers....they go 90 percent there and then blow it on the last 10 percent.



Oh one more thing guys. The shock mount on the bike frame has an alternative mounting location which lowers the bike by about 2 inches. I wouldn't recommend this because just like sliding the fork tubes in the triple clamps, it changes the geometry of the bike and alters the hanlding. Anyway I told X-Pro the stock shock won't actually fit in the alternative mount on the frame. They actually said to me "if the shock doesn't fit int the alternative mount then ignore it" lol ha!! Ignore it!?!? So they provide a mount but it doesn't work? It turns out it does work...but you have to fiip the shock upside down and swap out the spacer/bushing. The spacer/bushing from the top needs to be installed on the bottom of the shock and the bottom bushing needs to be installed on the top of the shock...then flip the shock upside down install it. I rode it like that for an hour and it actually handled mush worse then it did with the stock mounting location.


So as you can tell, the bike has driven me nuts but I'll get this mess sorted out with the suspension which is by far the biggest gripe I have. Like I said if you are just on the road you won't notice it but off-road in bumpy rocking terrain...wow. Scary.