I'll argue a little around tyre pressures. Here in OZ with a lot of soft sand/gravel and corrugations on our twin tracks running with that much pressure on the front doesn't work at all. I would run more like 15/20 psi as the base setting and fiddle slightly from there, especially the front tyre. You need the tyre to get up on top of the sand/gravel, not cut through it. I use "baggy" fronts a lot as well, another good way to help out with the steering.

Setting your (or any) bike up is vital. I see people throwing heaps of money on ”upgrades” before even getting to know their bikes! Setting your bike up is much more effective (and economical) than goingnout and spending 1000 £/€/$ on after market suspension! Thanks for being on the team. People usually don’t have the patience to listen to me. 😂 /former test rider and bike journo

FINALLY someone goes to THE POINT that matters! Waiting for more. Congrats.

Love most of your points here. Just want to add: Risers aren't just for tall riders. Short riders such as myself find them incredibly valuable to bring the bars back to us while sitting, and provide better leverage while standing. It's counter-intuitive to your set-up, but as a 5' 4" (162.5cm) woman, that extra leverage makes up for my weaker upper body strength.

My last suspension check is to ride at slow speed and “jump up and down” (compress and decompress the suspension). I want the spring rate and damping to be such that there’s non fore and aft pitch at any time during the fork and shock stroke. It really makes a difference….

I love the humility in the writing on this channel. Really well done.

the spike that comes out the bottom of verner calipers is for measuring depth and is useful for measuring the amount of fork tube sticking out of the clamps

Just wanna say that I absolutely love Mini Tip Mondays. You are great at explaining the problem, and how to solve it. Absolute legend

Great vid :) I'm a bit lazy with this stuff these days. I still haven't got around to talking to the dealer about the issues I had with their Desert X. I was kind of working on the premise that if they wanted to sell the bike, they'd make sure it was right before I wheeled it out the door. I like your discussion about making the bike 'work-for-you'. Everyone has different bodies, different needs, ride for different purposes, or with varying amounts of off-road/on-road preferences. My levers aren't in the optimal position, but I'm very limited on choice with my Africa Twin - a tiny bit in any one direction quickly has me fowling cables, fairing, or other components. Thanks for the tip on risers - generally I'm not a fan - but I never realised you could get 5mm and 10mm ones. At the shops here they tend to come in either 25mm or 30mm. It is interesting what you said about certain bikes being finicky with their 'set-up'. I think I'm very sensitive about bikes that have this narrow window and tend to write them off immediately. I'm kind of the opinion that a finicky bike is evidence of poor design. Having had a bike that handled badly, (GSXR1000K2) I'm not really keen to do it again. I tried all the tricks I knew with that bike and it remained an ill-handling death-trap (literally unfortunately). For you, it is a little different. You can organise a long-term demo and have a play to see if you can 'dial it in'. There's no way I'll ever be able to gamble $30K on a bike with the possibility that I can't set it up how I want. This is also the reason I'll never buy a bike with ride-modes - It'd take 3mnths of riding every day to find a setting that I might like. - No dealer is going to give me a bike for that long. Wow, that degenerated into an almost rant... Apologies... LOL. Anyway, great vid. CHEERS, Your fan from NZ - CAM:)

A lot of people may not know how the suspension changes affect things. Setting the front into the middle may not be initially helpful to learn. It may be useful to go full up, ride it for feel, change it to full down (or halfway down, you get the idea), and ride it again for feel. Then set it in the middle after that and adjust up or down a little bit as needed.

Superb, thanks. Just adjusted my front suspension for on and off-road a few weeks back. It was easier than I thought!

Way too much sensible sound advice in this vid. Top notch 👌🏼. And agree with you on Riemann's silicone tyre tubes tip- that is gold. Looking forward to your DX review

Thanks for providing so much useful information.

great job Llel!

1:14 hilarious and totally true Adam is a legend

Brilliant video as always!

Love the way you explain stuff 👌

Thanks for that: good explanations and really useful

Superb video. Thank you.

Awesome vid and advice. 👍🏻

Great advice. My suggestion- the very 1st thing to do before touching your suspension. Watch a few Dave Moss tuning videos and understand how forks and the oil work together, how quickly it degrades and then you’ll want to change your fork oil! Just doing this massively changes the feel and handling performance of your bike and will mean less clicks and increase the duration between having to readjust than with old fork oil.

Brilliant once again. Enjoy Spain we have some great roads on and off.

Great vid as always

This really is a great channel. Thanks, I just subscribed!

short and spot on thanks for sharing 👍

Once again, great tips. Many thanks.

It helps to know how you want to ride. Everyone wants a bigger engine and more power and reviews are all about CC and HP. I know that I ride the speed limit on asphalt roads and I like comfort, enjoying the ride and seeing the sites. I don’t want to go 100 MPH or scrape my knee on the turns.

Riders really should spend more time, over a longer period, adjusting things like suspension clickers and lever angles. Eventually you have a bike that fits like a glove and the effort definitely pays off. Btw very knowledgeable video, without sounding arrogant 👍.

Interesting point of KTM vs Tenere sensitivity to set-up. I think that must be because of how top-heavy that motorcycle is. Great video, on point everywhere!

Got to say, the Desert X is by far the best looking new adventure bike available, pity it is well beyond my financial capabilities! Need something to tide me over while i restore my XRV750 :D Will never replace my Honda, definitely my forever bike!

10:20 knobbies can have relatively high pressure like you said 2.2bar. but my very road bias 90/10 tires behave great both on and off road with 1.6front an 2.0 rear ; so i think thats the main factor

if i adjust the sag, do i also change the preload of my forks to keep the bike leveled?

Rubber grease works great in inner tubes too 😉 great vid!

lube tubes ( red rubber grease is even beter than silicon) but do yourself a favor : put two rim locks on front. end of flat pitches. Tire rotates a bit on hard hit, and pick the tube, before going back on position..

When I took delivery of my AT, I nearly crashed it in the first corner. The front tire pressure was 12 psi.

Such good advice ! If I ask around… no one bothers setting sag. Get the tools and listen to Lel ❤

Love this video - great work! Working on setting up my new T7 - I must ask, is there any downside to spraying the tubes with silicone spray for a "normal" intermediate rider? You and Riemann are another level. I ride hard offroad, but Im not pro-level. Ive always been a powder kid too. Thanks!

i have a KLR 650 but am looking for an upgrade i find myself torn between Suzuki 800DE, T7, or KTM 890 and possibly a Honda transalp i just cant choose i want to do harder offroad stuff but i also commute 30mins to and from work on the freeway and like long road trips 🤔

The simple answer to have a perfect bike, is..... money and lots of it.👍

There is also setting sag in forks really, not just rear suspension

I sent that silicone tube lube video to EVERYONE!! 😂😂

Great video. What if your bike doesn't have suspension clickers (1250GS)? What off road pressures would you suggest on a GS using Anakee Wilds? Thanks

Some bikes are sensitive to changes, and some aren't, but.... Some riders are sensitive to changes and some aren't. I'm not. Hand me a bike with a great set up, and I'll go, "that's nice". Hand me a bike with a terrible setup, and I'll say "that's nice". I fool with the clickers and wind things up and down, and I can't tell. Seriously, I had a flat tyre last week and I only realised from the sound.

T7 : MICRO PP sweet spot 890 ADV: MASSIVE SUN SIZED sweet spot

Working with measuring tools on a daily basis but I've never seen a caliper being used as at 2:19. What reading was taken there?

New rider here. Do motorcycles come with their suspensions "set" for a certain rider weight/weight range? If so (I only weigh 135 pounds), wouldn't that mean that the suspension isn't compressing enough when I need it to? Thank you.

Any concerns about trying to repair a tube lubed in silicone?

Just bought my first bike in many years, a CRF250L, and fiddling with this when I got no idea how to do it properly scares me not gonna lie.

I test rode the DesertX the past saturday and i compared it to the T7 which i have a lot of seat time in. The Ducati is literally better in everyway. But then again, it should be considering it costs the equivalent of ~6000 us dollars more 😅

Rieman’s tube/silicone spray revelation has melted my mind….. Now I don’t who to trust…. I thought I had my way, but now???

Show me how you check the air filter 🥸

1:17 ohhhhh, TUBES. Sorry, I misheard.

Mein Gras Versteck war ein Mini einweck Glas in meinem PC der hat ein metall gehäuse und das würde nie gefunden geht aber halt nicht bei Glas gehäusen😂

👍👍

Adam Rieman is one of the best adventure bike KZfaqrs going around. He knows his stuff, because he’s done it all.

didnt get how to set the front fork on the desertx😂 a bit disappointed

How to make your bike perfect *starts with almost perfect bike*

KLR650 will always be lacking something......

wait weait wait wait.. at 2:18 you nemtion how setting up a bike is so important for forks and rear shocks etc.. but no advice is given as to what is good or bad for a weight or height. ERGO, I have learned to ride my bike as it came to me. This is based on bikes me and my friends "acquired" when we were young. As in you address your ability based on your style rather thanthe bike set up

Hey mate, I really love watching your videos, but after a few decades of riding without earplugs my hearing isn't what it was, and that random background "music", let's say from 0:55 to 2:15 as a good (bad) example, makes it hard to hear what you're saying clearly. Maybe it's just me, but I found it super annoying trying to focus on you. Other than that, the video's great! Thanks!! 😁👍🤩

Guys he said TKC80 was shit. Don't come for him.

bike blar blar blar ,

Way too heavy a bike for the type of riding in some of the pics... I'd switch to Enduro for a nimbler and safer ride. Stick it on a trailer 'cos roads are boring

Bolt less shit on and learn to twiddle the twiddles to make you bike work…. No you don’t need bar risers….

The problem I have with almost every reviewer of a motorcycle like this is that they measure how a bike is with low mileage. Realistically dude, 80% of people who buy bikes are buying used bikes with well over 5-10k miles on them, Reliability and ease of maintenance are the biggest things I think overall effect the enjoyment one has a bike. It's not about the bike being 'perfect', in that sense, it's about the bike being a bike instead of a broken down allotment of metal and plastic. I'll gladly take a bike that'll last me 60 laps around a track without batting an eye at it, compared to a 'race machine' that has a 2 second faster lap time that needs adjustment and a top-end every 15 laps/track day. Pick your poison I guess.

Omg too much talk and not much said.