2018 EC250 1st Ride Report
 

So almost 5 months after buying a new bike, I finally made the time to ride it. A beautiful muddy, overcast day! Prime conditions.

The silencer is too big.. It makes the bike too quiet. I feel like a ninja. I have some spooge but nothing that I would call excessive given the conditions and the lack of throttle. It felt like every tree in the forest decided to fall across the track. Pretty much became a free ride.

4 hours on the clock now. The bike looks far from new. Even after being washed. The bars almost touched the ground. Mud over the brush guard but not the end of the bar.. doesn't count!

Have they changed the internal gearing?? At 13-50 using the chain and sprocket off my old rig it feels a bit taller I think. The engine is nice. Less vibes for sure. Soft(er) off the bottom but really pulls smoothly into the mid and then revs very strong up top. I liked it very much!

Fuel economy was great, as expected.

Starter worked as it should.

She seemed to deal with water well too. Deep crossings no issues to report.

Chassis wise it was very familiar to my 13 I thought. Similar weight bias and handling characteristics (as 13 had reduced offset with KYB front end too).

Carried over the same old bars, so cockpit felt same same.

The seat I could sit on! And I don't think it was just the seat.. The SHOCK works and works bloody well. It highlighted how much harder that Ohlins 888 had me working.

Big thanks to Bits for Bikes for the deal on her, Dave at TSP for the head work, and GG Chris for the bolt on bits I needed. By far the best one yet.. I can't think of anything I need to do to this bike..

The fit and finish still needs refinement; but given this is my 3rd GG now, I can live with that!

Ohh.. And it's very tall. Or my legs are very short. I had a few moments where I struggled to find the ground..

About bloody time matey! Been hanging for this report for a while now! Glad you like it! The seat is really nice, I could almost go up a spring rate but I just love how comfortable it is to ride. When I find the time to!

The seat fitment leaves a bit to be desired on mine. It's like the middle mounting tab is too big and keeps the seat from sliding up where it needs to be by about 5mm. I may make some modifications to that. Will help with the retaining screw being easier to fit too.

I'd normally bump the rates up one too, but given the height of the bike already and the way she handles I'm not going to worry about it.

I felt like it still sat up in the stroke well and didn't note any wallowing.

Front clickers were something like C15 R12, and the shock might be something like C12 R10. Whatever I set them to the afternoon before is where they stayed.

The only changes I made on the trail was a slight bump in idle speed and a couple tweaks of the pilot jet to get best response. The 42 pilot could possibly be bumped up a size, but works alright. At 1 turn she's a tad rich and the idle suffers a bit; but shes very punchy. At 1.25 out she's bang on!! At 1.5 turns out it's clean running but lacks snap off idle and gets a bit of a lean buzz just before 1/4 throttle.

5 months Jake? I forgot you bought a new bike, Glad your liking it so far. Have ya named her yet??

Very nice. 👍 Does it feel lighter than your 2013?

That sounded very encouraging. . . . Except the being tall bit.

Weight wise, I don't know. It's not like I rode my old one last week and then jumped on the new one. I'm working off faded memories! I never felt the old one was heavy except when man handling it.. And today on a couple occasions I got hung up on sets of roots in ruts where I needed a second set of hands to help lift the bike out, thus it's still not light enough to offer any real world advantage to me in those situations.

Height wise the 13 wasn't really short either, but perhaps the seat made it easier to slide across and reach the ground. The 13 might squat a bit more as the suspension beds in.. in which case I'll be able to ride no worries. Comparatively it doesn't feel as tall as another mates Husaberg TE300.

I need to go through the paperwork and see if they've done anything with the final drive though. The gearing felt taller to me for sure. Mind you my old bikes pipe was half folded in and I could feel it sapping some of the top end out of it in the open.

Hopefully I don't wait another 5 months to ride again! Been so long that the glue on my boots broke down. Lost a sole on the return trip.. into the unknown. Now need to go order some more. Sidis again, Formas, or Gaernes?

You do have short legs.Lol So are mine.
Deal with it.
Glad you like it after building up the anticipation for so long.That shock sounds like the biz!!

If you keep your feet on the pegs you don't need to touch the ground :D

I think I could probably slow the rebound on the shock a touch.. but it didn't feel too busy and wasn't unloading violently off sharp edges. Just worked well. Hard to ask for more than that.

Hopefully I'll be just as happy once shes broken in fully. The engine didn't get an easy break in either..

Silencer too long & too quiet?! Quiet is good for the sport & my sanity!
Seat is comfy. I'll have to take mine off again(hasn't been off since new 50 hours ago) & check that bolt/seat mount point 'cause yeah as you know it's same as yours & like you say may very well help with seat bolt(which I temember was a bit of a prick to refit).
Tall?! Coming off Italian Huskies these things are like 85s! :D
Keep any eye on disc bolts as my fronts all came well loose after first ride or 2!
I honestly thought fit & finish aside from seat/tank junction & seat bolt is pretty good. Some odd sized fasteners still though.