dual sport rambling

[jjn]

Well, it's been over 24 hours. Only Wade Liu has got back to me.

Thanks, weldangrind. I think I'll call Extreme Scooters tomorrow. I'll ask them about the 250 Will, and see if that price would cover getting it to me.


Culcune, that sprocket you got from England looks a bit odd. As in, the 6 mounting bolt holes and no evenly spaced? Is that right? If so, no wonder the sprocket was so hard to find!

[mjstef]

Originally Posted by jjn

Well, it's been over 24 hours. Only Wade Liu has got back to me.

Thanks, weldangrind. I think I'll call Extreme Scooters tomorrow. I'll ask them about the 250 Will, and see if that price would cover getting it to me.


Culcune, that sprocket you got from England looks a bit odd. As in, the 6 mounting bolt holes and no evenly spaced? Is that right? If so, no wonder the sprocket was so hard to find!

Did you try APSCUSA yet?

[jjn]

Originally Posted by mjstef

Did you try APSCUSA yet?

mjstef, I'll give them a call in the morning. They have the 2015 Hawk for $1399. When I entered my zip code, it still says free shipping. So, we'll see.

[jjn]

Another issue that seemingly affects my choice of a dual sport is tire size and availability. You guys that live on the mainland, or in larger cities won't have this problem. The big online motorcycle parts sellers, such as Motorcycle Super Store (and others that I have checked on) do not ship tires to Alaska or Hawaii. I did get lucky, and, with patience, got some scooter tires for our SYM HD200 and Kymco People 150 through Amazon. But, most tires, I can't get shipped to me.

That leaves 1.the Suzuki dealer in Hilo, 2.Kiser Motorcycles, that sells Kawasaki, Honda, Yamaha in Kona, 125 miles away, and 3.an independent motorcycle repair shop, which I haven't talked to to see if they will order me tires. They do not work on Chinese motorcycles, but I'm not too old to do my own tire replacements.

If I bought a Hawk, it comes with an 80/100-21 front, and a 110/100-18 in back. I found that the Kawasaki KLX250S takes the same size front, and a 100/100-18 rear. I would think I could run a 100/100-18 on it, in place of the 110/100-18 that it comes with.It would be a little bit narrower.

[mjstef]

Originally Posted by jjn

Another issue that seemingly affects my choice of a dual sport is tire size and availability. You guys that live on the mainland, or in larger cities won't have this problem. The big online motorcycle parts sellers, such as Motorcycle Super Store (and others that I have checked on) do not ship tires to Alaska or Hawaii. I did get lucky, and, with patience, got some scooter tires for our SYM HD200 and Kymco People 150 through Amazon. But, most tires, I can't get shipped to me.

That leaves 1.the Suzuki dealer in Hilo, 2.Kiser Motorcycles, that sells Kawasaki, Honda, Yamaha in Kona, 125 miles away, and 3.an independent motorcycle repair shop, which I haven't talked to to see if they will order me tires. They do not work on Chinese motorcycles, but I'm not too old to do my own tire replacements.

If I bought a Hawk, it comes with an 80/100-21 front, and a 110/100-18 in back. I found that the Kawasaki KLX250S takes the same size front, and a 100/100-18 rear. I would think I could run a 100/100-18 on it, in place of the 110/100-18 that it comes with.It would be a little bit narrower.

I have a friend on Oahu. He has relatives on the mainland where he ships things to and they forward on to him. Seems to work well. He is Samoan and Tongan and has relatives all over hell LOL!

[jjn]

Yeah, I suppose that is a possibility. I have a son living in Seattle. Maybe I could set up to order stuff and have it shipped to him. Then he could just put on another address sticker and forward it to me. I get my mail from the Post Office through my PO box, and that sometimes adds to the problem. They will take in bigger boxes and hold them for me to pick up though. I could probably order enough stuff to get free shipping to Seattle.

That's an idea...

[jjn]

Originally Posted by jjn

Well, of all the sellers I contacted yesterday, so far (at 8:30 am Hawaii time) only Wade Liu has got me a quote. His quote is $468.71, that is delivered to my house via a liftgate truck. I could save by picking it up in my 2004 Toyota Tacoma pickup, but the wife and I could not get the crated bike out of the truck I don't think, and assemblying it in the truck bed would be pretty tough, though I do have a small aluminum loading ramp. If some parts are missing that would tie up my truck for days at least.

$468.71 is not bad. I'll see if these other sellers come through with quote on the other bikes.

Finally got two more quotes. Superior Powersports wants $550.00, on a Will 20 priced at $1129.95, or a Storm 250 priced at $1299.95, or a Hawk priced at $1099.95. and Motobuys wants $523.39, this on a Vento 250 they sell for $1349.00 shipped to me. That TMEC from Wade is $1100 + $468 shipping. Many of these places (such as Motobuys.com) are showing these basic prices as including shipping, then tacking on an added fee to Hawaii (in Motobuys case another $523.39 on top of the "free shipping".). So, an inexpensive dual sport quickly gets into the $1550-$1800+ range.

[Weldangrind]

That's still pretty cheap for a new bike.