2018 MXR Mods

[F451]

Been slowly modding my '18 MXR and thought I would share what I've been doing if anyone is interested. Perhaps it will help someone looking to do similar mods in the future.

 

[Redwolf]

Eek, it's headless!!

 

[Rashid510]

Red Loctite on the front fender bolts?! Tons of it. What the f? Never worked on a bike with so much Loctite. Everywhere. Driving me crazy.

Unfortunately when your initially figuring out clamp loads leads to an over usage of loctite and then you buy a quantity of 5000+ you have to use them.....

 

[F451]

Prepping my MXR for trail riding, first thing I did was add the usual guards, Cycra Probend bark busters and the SXS skid plate. I like plastic skid plates and this one is very thick and covers the linkage nicely. The SXS skidplate is available here: ALTA full plate | SXSLIDEPLATE



For charging, I purchased a second charger, a Fast Charger from a member here and then made the 110v adapter for additional charging flexibility. Good info on that here: 240v female to 110v male adapter

This pic from Elite Motorsports is what I duplicated, works great:



I also replaced my home generator, it was pretty long in the tooth and loud. Following this thread, I decided on the B&S Q6500 240v, so far so good.
Best Alta Generator

 

[F451]

KTM kickstand mod fail. I believe this is a '12 KTM kickstand, combined with the Alta peg mount. Its totally lame, do not recreate this setup. And I couldn't find a good place to mount the spring so I bodged it onto the swingarm. Works but at some point I will figure out a better solution.



I also bodged a kickstand strap sort of like the KTM rubber band design. Same thing, lame. It wouldn't stay on the kickstand, so a complete fail there.



Yesterday I came up with a better holder, inserted the KTM rubber band thing into a nice existing hole in the inner fender plastics that's positioned perfectly. The forces on it shouldn't be excessive, so that parts done.



I loosened up the inner fender and threaded the rubber band through the existing hole. Perfect. Also noticed a bunch of dirt lurking near the subframe mount. Not perfect. Maybe the dirt was entering through the pre-existing hole that I plugged with the KTM rubber band? That would be a double awesome win if that ends up stopping the dirt from getting in there.

 

[Redwolf]

Sounds like you have the stick and carrot technique pretty well prepared.

And always try to be just a little faster than a speeding glacier!

 

[F451]

Purchased a complete Alta seat from Liquid Performance (at a great price, thank you Liquid Performance!) and converted it to a tall seat. Now I have two seats, the tall one for me and the stock seat in the event that I sell the MXR, I think it will make for an easier sale with the standard seat.

I purchased the tall foam and cover from Seat Concepts and installed it myself. I would have preferred a standard type seat cover without the sew on ridges/white stripes, but they only offered 2 tall seat options and I didn't care for the other option either. The white stripes are going to be stained dirt brown on the first clay/mud ride that I do. Its nasty stuff, will stain aluminum and it doesn't come out. Oh well, its a dirt bike.

The install was a bit of a stone breaker as I had to try to keep everything perfectly aligned since the stripes and general design of the seat made anything off center very obvious. I'm used to regular black seat covers where it doesn't matter if you're 1/8" off here and there. Got it good enough, although the cover isn't as tight as I would like. So far its doing fine though.

It is taller so that is a big help fitting on the bike.





Another "tall friendly" feature that I discovered on the Alta is the handlebar position adjustment holes on the top triples. I'm sure this has been discussed here, but I somehow missed it. Nice feature for riders of any stature to be able to adjust the reach to the bars. It's amazing how much difference these seemingly small changes can make in both comfort and handling feel of the bike.

 

[Judaslefourbe]

you should also have enough cable length to add 2" risers.

 

[Motophyllic]

I use 2” rox risers and love them. I can stand comfortably without bending over. Great for trail riding.

 

[Funk]

Red Loctite on the front fender bolts?! Tons of it. What the f? Never worked on a bike with so much Loctite. Everywhere. Driving me crazy.

Those bolts are patch bolts, aka they come with loctite on them.

 

[F451]

you should also have enough cable length to add 2" risers.

Right on. I bought my MXR used and the previous owner had installed these 1 1/8” risers, I like them.

Not sure if the rest of the bar clamp parts are stock Alta or not, but the current setup is working pretty good.

 

[Trialsman]

At least the people who built the bikes cared enough to apply the Loctite. I would rather have the build quality of the Alta than any of the others I have had in the past. I usually have to go through a new bike and Loctite the bolts and grease the bearings before I ride it. Alta was a refreshing change.

 

[F451]

Using info I learned here and online (thanks everyone!) I recently installed '14 KTM 500 EXC triple clamps as I noticed my stock Alta triples were the weaker 6061 Al ones and it appeared that the triple clamp pinch gap was narrowing. Besides getting some peace of mind, it will be easier for me with parts and maintenance having everything '14 KTM compatible from the triple clamps forward. I'm also thinking it may make the bike a little easier to sell when the time comes.

The parts involved in my KTM triple clamp swap are all '14 KTM 500 EXC parts:

• KTM triple clamps (including stem). - 20 mm offset (Alta stock is 22 mm, can be set to 18 mm).
• KTM front wheel (hub is the difference).
• KTM front axle.
• KTM spacers.
• KTM front fender.
• Longer steering stop bolts (3 cm)
• KTM headlight plastics or number plate. (I'm using a leftover '16 Beta headlight shroad for the moment).

I bought the triples and axle used, bought brand new Tusk Impact wheels 21/18" from Rocky Mountain ATV. I got the 18" rear wheel as I prefer those for trail riding and rarely ride MX. I bought the Tusk Impact wheels with painted white hubs, black rims, black spokes. The wheels got good reviews online, were cheaper then the typical suppliers. Unfortunately when I received them I noticed some annoying chips and blemishes on the white painted hubs. I didn't feel like shipping them back, so contacted RMATV, they gave me a credit on my order which I thought was fair. Otherwise the wheels look good and appear to be good quality.

The wheels will likely be marked up from trail riding in no time so its no big deal. Lesson learned, stick with non-painted hubs, or buy from one of the regular wheel suppliers.

Found a brand new Shinko Fatty 216 MX front tire for sale on local CL cheap, so snapped that up. Bought a Shinko 525 Hybrid Cheater 18" rear tire, will be interesting to see how they do.

Putting the wheels together, my discs and sprockets were in decent shape so I moved those over from the Alta wheels to the Tusk ones. A bit chilly here, so had the tires in the house warming up, then put the blow dryer on them while I got everything ready to install.



The red Loctite was busting my balls again here, I had already broken these bolts loose (with some help from my MAP torch), but were still a battle to remove, so got out my battery powered impact. I love this thing. Seems like way overkill just to remove some already loosened up bolts, but it was taking forever with my hand ratchet.



Wheels all together and waiting to check the torque on the wheels. Both wheels spoke torque were way low, so it’s good that they include instructions to check the torque, and to re-check up to 5 rides after. Not sure 5 rides after will be necessary, but I will keep an eye on them.

 

[F451]

Got the rear wheel installed, was stumped why my chain was so tight, was semi-freaking out, wondering what was wrong. Axle spacers were reversed. I seem to recall doing this years ago on another bike and having the same freak out.

Don't do this, Lol.



Next up was to install the KTM triples, so removing the Alta triples and associated bits first.

 

[F451]

The KTM triples waiting for install. Before installing them, I cleaned them up a bit, checked the bearings, and re-greased them.



Alta uses a couple of o-rings in the steering stem, here is one, the other larger one goes on the steering neck itself.



Stem test fit, looking good. This was a big relief to see it actually installed and fitting properly.



Once I got the fork tubes installed I could see the Alta steering stop bolts were too short for the KTM triples, so I found some longer bolts in my misc hardware supply, 3 cm bolts on both sides did the trick nicely. I adjusted to have about 1/16" clearance.





Alta stock steering stop bolt on top, the 3 cm replacement on bottom.

 

[F451]

This gap between the fork and the wheel spacer had me a bit concerned, I hadn't read of anyone dealing with this, I was worried the wheel was not secure. Had me scratching my head for a bit.



Took the axle on and off a couple of times and after puzzling on it, was wondering if I had the wrong axle, or spacers, or what. Then realized the axle has a shoulder on it, this is normal and the spacer and wheel aren't going anywhere. Phew.

Followed the usual tightening/torquing sequence and used the KTM recommended torque specs for everything and got it buttoned up.

 

[F451]

Ready to rock. If this rain will ever stop! Lol.



That is one fat tire, Lol.





I adjusted my bars to be rolled back a bit and now I need to adjust my bark busters down a little, I like them lower. Otherwise, all set, can't wait to try everything out, maybe tomorrow if its not pouring, so far forecast isn't looking too good though.



Thanks again to everyone that posted here and online about this swap, made it very easy to do! -Eddie

 

[Motophyllic]

Sweet!! What size front tire is that?

 

[F451]

Sweet!! What size front tire is that?

Thanks, its 90/100-21.

 

[F451]

First ride on the KTM triples setup, 18” rear wheel, new Shinkos, all went well. I like the fatty front tire too. A vid of the mud ride here if interested:

New Years Day Ride