A year of owning an Ibex 450 and 4k on the odometer (sort of)
It’s the best ADV bike for me… FOR ME.
I was asked what do I think of the bike more times than I wanted to count this one last weekend at an ADV Bike centered rally and for me it is the best ADV bike on the market in the US. The qualifier I always point out is that I’m 5 foot 7 with a 29 inch inseam.
I bought the bike to be able to charge up dirt roads and trails carrying Moto camping gear for a few days and spend a few hours getting home on the highways in this bike completely meets those expectations.
I’ve ridden on road most of the BMW rainbow in the last 20 years and I’m just too short for me to feel comfortable off-road. I tried a lowered T7 someone modified but that really messed with the geometry. I’ve owned a plated 250 WR F and a 450 WR, the main gripe was on road comfort on the highway, and… they were tall.
After a year of owning it and putting just over 4000 miles on it, if my math adds up, I can legitimately say I think it’s a pretty bike.
I won’t make you read through the entire review for the qualifier of about 4000 miles. My odometer kept resetting to zero so my numbers are based on maintenance records and track logs for the longer rides. Once I took the bike into the dealership in May they performed an update and the odometer has been stead since but they weren’t able to manually enter the true odometer reading.
I’m planning to do a few specific posts about specific upgrades and modifications, but I’ll briefly list the them below and my thoughts.
CF Moto aluminum skid plate - a skid plate is a must for this bike and this one has worked great but I think I will likely replace it for an AXP HDPE version. While the bike isn’t extremely low, I’ve had to slide it over a rocks and the aluminum is sticky. I have an HDPE plate on one of my other bikes and I love how easily it glides over obstacles.
CF Moto upper and lower crash bars - yeah I’ve dropped the bike more than a few times, mainly in a class I took and trying to get up to fire lookout towers. The bars do their job and other than scratches are anatomically unscathed. More importantly, the plastics, motor, and radiators have never had any damage. I’m not 100% sure I will keep the lower bars on, they make dropping the skid plate a PIA and from what I’ve seen with other bikes, a good skid plate and the upper bars will do the job.
Tusk 2-track front and rear, 90/90-21 (54T) and rear 140/80B-18 (70R) - disclaimer, other than the stock tires, I haven’t used many current DOT knobbies. They are a heroic improvement over the stock tires in the loose dirt and mud. The 2-Track off-road perform great in square edge rock fields, mud, loose dirt, and gravel. They’re fine on road, I’ve had them up to 90 on the interstate grooved cement and ran paved mountain canyon roads and never experienced anything unexpected.
The front tire is noisy at speed with a little vibration at specific speeds that seemed to vary, but a little more or less throttle always makes the vibration go away.
When the rear tire was fresh, the pegs measured 3/4 of an inch further off the ground.
I replaced the full exhaust with an AliExpress titanium kit from the headers to the pipe. This alone was an 11 pound weight reduction.
I also did the DNA air filter and MSC tune. This was mainly trying to clean up the low RPM surges in the throttle. I’m happy with how it turned out although I definitely I’m riding the bike a lot faster and at higher RPMs than I was, I did try to notice it last weekend and I think that issue is solved.
The stuff I’m still trying to solve is primarily the suspension. I’ve been able to get the front fork acceptable but the rear shock I haven’t been able to get to a point where the rebound on washboards and rough roads can keep up when climbing.
For luggage, I’ve used the Mosko Moto Reckless 80L and Gnome tank bag. I can’t imagine being happier with the reckless setup. I could put one of the 4L Aux Pox on the left side, but the exhaust is too close for the right. Seriously this set up has so much room, the stinger bag most of the time only has a few clothes and some flip-flops in it.
I’ve stopped using the gnome tank bag, I can’t get it far enough forward to allow me to get over the tank for climbs without it interfering with the handlebars. I miss the storage, but the Gnat handlebar bag can handle all of the convenience items like sunglasses, wallet, multitool, and charging cables.
I’ve done a bunch of other small stuff, but this is getting kind of long.
Hit me up with any questions.
Cheers