Time to get ready for adventure!

The bike has now had its first service, yes 600 miles have already gone, it’s not been much fun as February in Suffolk is cold and icy but hey, we’re there!

So this afternoon I rolled my CRF250 Rally into my workshop and set to.

First thing to fit a crash bar and skid plate combo from GP Kompozit in Istanbul, Turkey. Really well priced and the only bars and skid plate combo available in Europe.

They arrived extremely well packed in a larger box than I was expecting but I was really pleased to see they’d been packed to survive anything the couriers could throw at them.

The bars are really well put together and are much more substantial than I imagined. Welds are nicely tidied and the paint is good but chips if not careful.

Fitting the bars was fun, I had to remove the front plastics to be able to get in to tighten the clamps at the front and also remove the rear bottom engine mount bolt as a longer one is supplied so that the rear of the bars mount at the same point.

Getting the front plastics back on actually took longer than the fitting the crash bars, getting it all lined up, plastic pegs in their slots and the screws back into their threads needed 3 arms and four hands!

Now that I’ve got a solid aluminium plate under the engine sump I can finally use my bike lift to support the bike without breaking the plastic underbelly.

The bars are really well secured to the bike and very solid. It’s also given me some great grab handles for dragging the bike out of the mud and sand and a place for me to fit my crash bar bags. Of course, primary function is to protect the engine which they do nicely!

What’s also nice is that you don’t have to remove any of the original plastics, the crash bars and skid plate fit around everything, overall a nice design.

I’m now just waiting for the upper crash bar kit to arrive and the bars will be complete.

Next thing is to fit the Tusk pannier rack …