By now, most of you are familiar with our project Yamaha TW200 and our attempt to bring more aftermarket support to this wonderful little machine. As part of these efforts, we have been continually working with our suppliers to test and develop new parts and bring them to market. One of these items, which we worked on with Rick's Motorsports, is a larger stator for the TW200, so that our customers can power up more electronic gizmos. Like with all freshly installed items, particularly a new product, we needed to take our rig out on a test ride.

We agree that many of today’s Dual Sport motorcycles are tall. It can be tough, even for average-height riders, to reach the ground when stopped. It can also be awkward to dab or paddle when riding on bad terrain. A common approach to remedying this problem is to lower your bike with lowering links. Let’s look at what happens when you do this.

Hello! It’s Tom from Team ProCycle. Some of you may know me from our YouTube channel and others from answering your phone call or e-mails. Either way, I’m a motorcycle rider just like you and this article is about a little trip that Sherman and I recently took to Eastern Oregon.

We get a lot of questions from customers about how best to set up their suspensions. This can be a tough question to answer, because so many riders are looking for different results. Some riders are just street riding with very little off-road, others are full off-road, and others are somewhere in between. While we have lots of choices for forks and shocks to have your bike perform better for you, you should not forget about tuning the suspension, including setting the sag. An appropriate amount of sag allows the shock enough travel to perform well on compression and rebound.

Whenever you mount new tires (front or rear), it is very important that you properly balance the new setup. Because of parts like valve stems and because of manufacturing tolerances, your wheels & tires will not have their weight perfectly distributed. Taking the time to make sure your wheels & tires are correctly balanced will greatly improve tire performance, increase vehicle stability, and promote even tire wear, extending their life.

We recently completed all the “Stage 1” modifications to our Project TW200.

We significantly improved the responsiveness and power curve with:

• DG RST Exhaust
• Uni Air Filter
• ProCycle Jet Kit

We improved the ergonomics, particularly for taller riders, with:

Your bike's handlebar is a key element for your safety and comfort while riding. OEMs generally include a simple, basic stock handlebar, but we can easily improve it to increase the level of control and reduce the amount of fatigue while on your dual-sport.

This month, we are featuring John Rice, who has been riding for 60 years! Through his travels, he has managed to ride in 49 states (all except Hawaii) and 16 foreign countries (above and below the equator and in the eastern and western hemispheres). Over his riding career, John has been an Observed Trials rider, had a brief stint in motocross, and has spent a lot of time wandering around in the woods on various old bikes.

As riding season is upon us, many of us are getting ready by prepping our bikes. Among all of the basic items to attend to – new oil, fresh gas, and other details – we want to highlight four services that get overlooked.

Switching to Summer Air

The easiest things to correct are often the most overlooked. Switching to summer air in your tires provides you with quicker warm-up and improve tire life. Plus, it’s easy to do! Just let out the old winter air and pump in new summer air. Always check and monitor your tire pressure with a quality digital tire gauge.

This month's Featured Rider is John Fairrington, who is based in Southern Oregon. John runs a company called I Ride Rogue, which organizes backcountry excursion (BXR) events for dual sport riders.