Well done DazzaXT, that photo makes me want to but my bike on a boat & have a ride around NZ :blob1:

Cheers Desert Racer. The feeling is mutal. Hopefully once I finish the house, I would like to ship the bike to Aussie and have a bit of a ride round the place... not sure about all of it... it's pretty big, compared to NZ

Great to be enjoying the bike after all the hard work. ...nice place to ride! Steve

Australia sure is big, one of the the main reasons for buying the Tenere is that 500k ( managed 540 with a bit left on 98 octane! ) tank range because it can be a long way til' the next fuel station.

The weather forecast for the week was atrocious, but we had booked our accommodation and weekend passes were approved, so we went riding anyway. As it turned out it really only rained twice in the 900km we did in 2 days.
Our goal was to find some road tunnels in the Taranaki district. There are about 15 of them so we had a few to choose from. But of course, first we had to get there...
We rode as many gravel back roads as we could find and along the way we picked up 8 tunnels... which means an excuse to go back and get the rest...

[IMG] https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4276/...aae19006_k.jpg On the coast south of raglan by DARREN MORRIS, on Flickr[/IMG]

and

[IMG] https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4245/...29593241_k.jpg Kiwi road tunnel by DARREN MORRIS, on Flickr[/IMG]

Great stuff Dazza....what a place to ride! ....Steve

https://photos.app.goo.gl/G8r8hTJincDNxB1a2
It has been a while since I last posted, but I have been enjoying the Tenere heaps. I mounted a Touratech gear tray on the back. This made life easier for tying stuff on board.

I am in the process of converting the front end to YZ250 USD forks. Just waiting on a 320mm brake disc and parts to arrive.

Summer is here and the old disused roads are calling....

Over the last year or so, I have been quietly putting aside bits and bobs to upgrade the front forks of the Tenere. When I rebuilt it, I took the easy route to get the bike going and repaired the front end as standard.

Riding the bike has shown me that the standard forks are ok on road but lack response off road, and I haven't enjoyed them. Especially after having converted the Bemaha to USD fork. So....

I finally started putting all the bits together. I replaced the oil seals and bushes to start with as they were leaking oil.

I measured the springs to calculate the spring rate as they don't have any markings on them. They come out at 0.47. This may be a bit light for the Tenere but I will run with them and find out how they feel.

New 5wt oil. New fork gaurds. I copied the mounting braket that I made to hold the brake line and speedo sensor on the Bemaha. A mate had copied the axel spacers for the hub. New bottom bearing in the steering head.

I removed the old forks and put in the new 46mm YZ250 USD forks. On installing the axel, things didn't seem to fit. After much cursing and sweating, I finally got the ruler and verniers out to find that the spacers were way to long for the hub and the hub was wider than the one used on the Bemaha. Some calculations and hacksawing soon had the wheel centered in the brake caliper and my blood pressure back to normal.

I have converted the brake disc to 320mm and am using the YZ slave cylinder and brake line connected to the Tenere master cylinder. Again I will see how it feels, at this stage it seems to work OK.
[IMG] https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4732/...910f261e_k.jpg YZ fork and brake upgrade by DARREN MORRIS, on Flickr[/IMG]

For the mud guard, I am using a YZ one, unfortunately it has been painted honda red, so this will be painted Yamaha blue to match the Tenere tank color once I get a patch can mixed up at supercheap auto or similar.
[IMG] https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4640/...0b884114_k.jpg YZ mudgaurd by DARREN MORRIS, on Flickr[/IMG]

So far I have only ridden it down the road and back and it initially all feels good. Hopefully tomorrow I will do some test riding and fine tuning and get a real feel for it. Certainly this saturday will be a test for it when I go up to the Tussock Adventure ride in Waiouru. Looking forward to that.

Sorry about having links for photos. Flikr seems to have limited the format for sharing photos and it doesn't match with this site.

Anyone know of a fix for this?

Edit: How to with Flickr