My Lifan X-Pect Thread

[orangeisnon]

Originally Posted by JFOlivier

There was no mention anywhere of a reserve system although there are 2 places to set your fuel cock to. So I left the fuel cock facing forward as they say in the manual and then removed the fuel hose and drained the tank into a gallon container, when no more gas came out I moved the fuel cock to straight down and no fuel came out so the tank was empty. I then poured the fuel back into the tank and drained the fuel with the fuel cock in the down position, When it finished draining out I moved the fuel cock into the forward position and no more fuel came out. This logic tells me that I do not have a reserve on my tank. I would guess this should be true for all X-pects but who knows . Mine does not have a reserve but perhaps yours has.

You really got me thinking, so I went and checked. My petcock, like yours, only says "On" and "Off", and the manual agrees. This means two things: I have been riding with my petcock in the half-open position, and my previous statement was wrong. There is actually enough fuel just in the hoses/EFI to go about 9 miles. I knew this was good on fuel but not THAT good.
Thank you for bringing that up, I never would have thought about it again otherwise.

[JFOlivier]

There is a metal canister that the fuel goes through which also has the tank vent going into it with the fuel pump mounted below. I think this is part of the emissions control system which also causes problems if the fuel tank is overfilled and fuel gets into the tank overflow. I have heard that when the tank actually empties you may go for a number of miles on the fuel held in this canister however I would not call it a reserve tank.

[orangeisnon]

Nothing much new this week. My long trip ended up delayed by two days and I decided to take the car. Glad I did, traffic in Maryland is no joke.
I installed the 17T front sprocket and Tusk shifter. I wear a men's 11.5 motorcycle boot and the extra inch on the Tusk makes shifting much more comfortable. If you have a much smaller foot you'll probably be happier with the stock one. The Amazon listing for the one I bought states it is for "Honda XR400R 1996-2004".
17T is definitely worth it if you are riding streets, even if you don't care about top speed. I can comfortably ride side streets without shifting first-second-third-fourth after every stop sign. I have not checked what the top speed is now - I imagine the speedometer will be inaccurate now so I'll have to use my phone. On that topic, anybody using a phone mount or tank bag with a phone pouch? I might want one for GPS but have heard handlebar mounts can mess with camera stabilization on smartphones, and I'm not sure I trust magnetic tank bags.

[Zapkin]

Originally Posted by orangeisnon

I highly recommend that case (linked in an earlier post), it's lightweight and holds everything critical, and even the steel mounting plate by itself is convenient for use as a cargo rack. The last photo there shows how thick it is.
In other news I'm still working on engineering a rack. Left hand side will be easy - it's the exhaust side where I need to get creative. I'm thinking about actually bolting straight into the exhaust shield mounts, it seems super solid. Gonna do some temp tests tomorrow.

I cant find the link.

[orangeisnon]

Originally Posted by Zapkin

I cant find the link.

That particular case was Black Motorcycle Tail Box, Aluminum Motorbike Storage 45L Rear Top Box Case Luggage Trunk (USA Stock) https://a.co/d/0xuQVpj
However it's no longer in stock. There should be plenty of identical units in the related items on that listing. The only issue that I have with it is that the attachment points on the motorcycle are a little bit wobbly, and it does shake a little at high speeds. I don't think there's really anything that can be done about that unless I build a rack with separate attachment points elsewhere on the bike. Which I will get around to, eventually.

[Lifanatic]

the quest to drive on the highway is not mine. these bikes are not meant for that and therefore are not safe for that. that being said, to each their own.

[JFOlivier]

Hey lifanatic, I don't even want to drive on the highways in my motor vehicles, I find much more pleasure driving them on the lesser roads where you can still smell the roses and that goes for my X-pect as well.

[Jwrider]

I have same bike same color, nice choice. I chose 16T front sprocket. A little gain in top speed but no noticeable loss in down low power. My shifting improved around 500mi. I use shell 4T. Try tusk shift lever, cheap insurance for off road work.

[orangeisnon]

Been a little while since I've been around here. I had a little slide back in early January that twisted the front fork and mucked up some of the plastics. I finally got around to straightening things out this past week, and rode for about an hour with no issues. While I had the bike in the garage I also put a proper luggage rack on it. I'll probably make a separate thread about that since people will probably want to know about it.
Jwrider- I have a Tusk shifter, and yeah it makes a world of difference with my fairly large feet.