Finally, the Rekluse clutch was engaging too early. We exchanged as many of the tungsten balls for steel ones as possible and refined the freeplay adjustment of the cable.
That made the KX-F ready for the Soboba Indian reservation land, which stays exclusive because riding there will land you in deep hot water except for the one day when Grand Marshal Malcolm Smith leads two awesome loops. Soboba's terrain is steep and ridged with razorbacks and canyons. As with all of SoCal, it can be miserable when dusty, but in '05 we've seen more guys building arks than facing dust.
Despite record rainfall, the ride was run in conditions as perfect as possible. We headed right up a shallow river then into sublime traction with sections of mud, but fortunately it's sandy mud. There were a few boggy places to avoid and many ruts to watch for. Sometimes the organizers gave a 20-foot run at steep climbs, but more often hills immediately followed at least a 90-degree turn. Roll on the throttle, and the bike accelerates away smoothly with perfect traction as if you're somebody famous with a clutch lever. Add in the boosted bottom and mid power of the Muzzy engine, and you have big fun up hills. The Rekluse lets a bike act just like a CRF50F when you choose not to pull in the clutch. Chop the throttle and lock up the brakes? No problem; the engine doesn't stall. Rekluse disengaged the clutch when the rpm dropped low enough. The Soboba trail crew runs you down amazingly steep drops, and some rut all the way down. You don't even need to pull in the clutch; just relax that left hand.
When the clutch is fully engaged, the clutch lever works normally until about 8000 or 9000 rpm. Then the pressure on the clutch is too great to fully overcome with the lever. You soon learn just how high you can rev the bike before dropping the clutch in a sand turn. Rev too high, and the bike starts to leave before you're ready. Overall, on a technical ride such as Soboba, the auto-clutch saves an enormous amount of energy and eases arm fatigue. In fact, the KX-F was simply a riot. Its super-nimble handling and light weight let it thread easily through the tight canyons. It had all the power needed to tackle deep, soft, abrupt climbs and the control for technical drops. It couldn't have been more fun. My riding companions had a moto KX250F, a YZ250F and a Honda CRF250X, and when we swapped bikes, I was always glad to be back on the Muzzy KX-F. It was easier to ride, more comfortable and better suspended than the YZ250F and the moto KX-F. The CRF250X was more plush, but the 280 felt lighter and better in the whoops and sand and had much more power everywhere in the rpm range.
The big concern with any internal motor mod is longevity, so after Soboba we took the KX-F on many other rides, one a survival run complete with ugly waterfall step-ups fronted with sloppy boulders. After that, we got into deep, gooey clay that packed up on tires and everywhere else on the bike. It still runs strong and, aside from a worn-out chain (stock non-O-ring), it's ready for more.
When all the rides were over, we loved the D773 tires and the big-bore kit. The stock KX-F is a blast, and with more torque and power, it is simply the bomb! For 80 percent of our riding, the Rekluse is total magic. When the going is extremely sandy, the benefits don't show as much. However, changing back to the normal clutch takes only a few minutes. As much as I like the Rekluse, I'll reserve it for electric-start bikes in the future.