TLDR: Riding from NM to MD; is an S40 a good bike to take? Can I wait til I get home to fix the cam chain tensioner? Someday in the future, how inexpensively and easily can this bike be raised up and tilted forward a bit?
Hi All,
I just posted in the intro thread on the forum. I'm currently in NM (GF is a travel nurse assigned here) and I'm looking for an inexpensive and reliable bike to ride home to MD whenever things start to open up. (If you have an S40 for sale near Taos, please let me know!)
My budget is about $2k. I'm in Taos now, with an elevation of about 8500', and I'll be traveling down to sea level. I'd really prefer a fuel injected bike so that I don't need to worry about the carbs, but if I need to get a carbed bike, I'd prefer a thumper with an easily accessible carburetor, just in case adjustments are needed along the way.
I don't mind taking the scenic route to avoid highways whenever necessary. I've driven across the country 5 times now, so I understand how far this is, but I've never done it on a bike.
If I find a low mileage S40, can I ride it across the country without worrying about the cam chain tensioner or the petcock? It looks like those start to go bad around 15k miles? Is there anything I can do to avoid cam chain wear while traveling? You all recommend Rotella T for this right? I have some very basic tools with me, and could probably change the cam chain tensioner in NM if need be, but I would rather do that at home with all of my tools handy. I've reached out to about 6 local S40 listings, asking whether the cam chain tensioner has been changed, and more often than not, people tell me that "no, this is a
belt driven bike you don't need to worry about a chain"
Is there no recall on that part? I can't even find anyone on this forum complaining about the lack of a recall on the cam chain tensioner, which is really confusing to me.
I prefer a standard riding position to a cruiser. Are there any other bikes I should be looking out for? I love the ride, size, and feel of this little TU250X we just picked up, but I'm worried that it might be too small to ride back across the country. Also, my girlfriend also loves the TU250X, so I would have to fight her for it. On that same note, how hard is it to make this bike ride more like a standard bike? I can't afford (nor do I want to do all of the work involved on) the Ryca conversion, but I could probably install intruder shocks (or even higher if available) and clubman bars no problem. I know that I'll need to grind the belt cover and install an aftermarket muffler to clear the passenger foot pegs for the intruder shocks to work. I have a friend who is teaching me to tig weld in exchange for some kiln repairs (I'm a technician and teacher at some pottery studios). I don't intend to make any alterations to the frame, but I could probably make a triangular bracket to mount a street tracker seat to.
Any other common problems I should be looking for? Any other bikes I should be looking at? I like to ride my vehicles into the ground. I normally get 200k+ miles out of a car, I'd really like a bike that'll make it to 100k without any major issues (not sure if that even exists)
Thanks a ton for all of the info on this forum! I'm learning a ton!
Ryan