All prepared for Timbuktu
 

Both the bike and I are fully kitted out, lubed up and ready to go.

Work done:
Check and/or changed fork oil, engine oil and air and oil filters - have spares.
Hepco pannier racks + top box rack + Famsa panniers (thanks John and mate).
Loctite 243'd vulerable threads.
Michelin 4mm inner tubes with Ultraseal (I know I know...) + spares.
Pair of TKC80s as spares with rest of Siracs for the Moroccan tarmac.
Tsubaki heavy duty continuous chain and steel sprockets + spares.
Spare cables for clutch and throttle.
New rear shock - original was loose.
Philips H4 headlamp plus spares.
Touratech off-road footpegs.
Touratech blingy guards for hands and various vulnerable bits.
Touratech bash plate - the mother of all bash plates!
New seat cover - better air circulation for those Betty Swollocks moments.
GPS tracking device - for those lost in space moments.
The Missus was convinced I was buying another bike in bits. She hasn't forgotten the Husqvarnas......:angel12:

BTW For those travelling afar, if you have to remove your front wheel (tyre change perhaps) you will need a 14 mm Allen key - you can get them married to a 1/2 inch drive socket. Not included in Yamaha tool kit :dontknow:
You'll also need 3 decent tyre levers, and a way of inflating the tyre.
I'd post some pictures, but can't work out how.

Hi
Looking forward to seeing your photo's and reading your report.

Any info you can post on your return with be very helpfull to me .

Here is a photo's of my bike taken today.
I have been out fully loaded checking the bike and making it ready for my solo trip in Spring 2008.

Have a great safe Fun trip ...Dazzer


http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...w/CIMG1628.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...w/CIMG1627.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...w/CIMG1629.jpg

That looks good ,if your interested in selling some stuff when you return let me know

I wanna go too!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have a safe trip fella, keep us updated if you can ;)


Also if you smoke a peace pipe on your travels take a couple of tokes for me too :D

Excellent Dazzer
Bike looks the mutts. I especially love the mega-handguards and extra (fuel?) tanks. OTR �500 large tank?! You're having a larf!

Just one suggestion: havea look on ebay for some 3M diamond grade reflective tape; panniers white front red rear, hand guards - white. Really makes the bike shape stand out. May be a life saver in the dusk.

Will let you know how we go.
Tim

and... you could probably get Sky TV with that screen.... lol :laughing7:

Hope you have a good trip techno prisoners, very jealous of you still trying to plan my trip out, having a few probelms about times.

Also very nice dazzer, like the petrol cans and the home made screen and hand guards. The scot lite tap is brilliant i got some on ebay, people dont seem to see you in belfast, think there are all blind. got the tap, everyone now see me. still dont like me as im faster.hehe. how did you make those hand guards, is it just a large piece of plastic with 3 screws holding it on???

Hi
The screen is off a bmw 1200gs cut down,look's crap but works perfect ;)
The hand guard's I made from a 5lt plastic oil container then mounted them to the KTM Hand guards .
They work that well that I may not need to fit heated grip's
Lot's of reflective tape on the bike,and on the peak of the helmet.
Also fitted a 12 volt socket to charge phone and Ipod,and hard wired the GPS mount also.
Now what did I forget....................
Sat dish ..will work on that this weekend :eusa_whistle:

Aye it looks well gnarly � only thing missing... WHERE'S YER FORUM STICKER (I noted your ADV one!)?????

Look closer bigwink

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...60/There-1.jpg

Humble apologies, how stoopid of me. With that I'm sure you'll have a great trip � since the installation of my forum stickers I've ALWAYS had a great ride ;) Best bit of kit on the market... Touratech eat your heart out!

You dont need to a have a sat dish with that bash plate, i am sure it could pick up any thing you wanted, TV sky, nasa reports, airline radios etc etc

... and if you ever encounter snow you could take the wheels off and sled home :emoticons:

Sticker...one on each side of the swing arm :sunny:

as for the Tiny Sump guard ,,,dont know if you can see it to well in the photo but it took a very big hit in Spain this year when we were doing a off road event,and has a hell of a dent in it.
So glad it was there other wise the engine would be :088:

Job well done I say.. If Yamaha made Combat Ready Tanks this would be it :WellDone_OROQR1:

Tehno P... wherabouts did ye get the big Sumpguard ...asam fancyin one... but a heard \tourtech take ages tae git it tae ye....????? John

whan I had a BMW the parts from TT used to take ages and I used to get feed up waiting,
but I have placed 3 order's for part's for the XT with TT and all 3 lot's arrived with in one week.
so can't fault them .

can ye give me a link tae their website ...thanks

http://www.touratech.com/shops/008/i...82a50e6552df9d

Although, I've not had the best experiences with them either.

Good luck on your trip.

I have, with my brother, just finished a "round the world" trip on our XT660r. We did some modifications, if interested pls. look at our blog side http://sverrirt.blog.is. or www.rtw.is

just wondering, did anyone bought and tried "mousse" (that spongy thing) they are using in Dakar rally ? I saw it in Race to Dakar.

There is mixed feeling from different people about the moose, some people have used it and found it didnt do any thing apart from cause a mess on the inside of there tyre, other have used it and it work perfectly.

Anyone heard of these balls they're now flogging as an alternative?

the thing is, as i understand, that you have to change it after some time (maybe even 10 days), if you ride on very high temperatures.

Hi Einar
Many thanks for pointing me to your site.
There are some very usefull thing's on there
I will be reading it all over the next few night's
Many Thanks
Dazzer

Sorry not to get back to you sooner John, Been busy trying to get the house habitable before I head south for a month. The bash plate is well made and fits easily.
Best to deal with Touratech directly as per the link given by midlife crisis. I rang them to check availability and they delivered 2 days after payment. Spot on. One other thing in case you were thinking of it, don't bother with their bar risers - you can't get enough play in the cables.
Cheers.
Tim

Hi Tim
If you still need some Bar risers,these are very good.
The chap make's them himself and once paid for they tend to arrive in less than a week.Plus with the exchange rate as it is at the moment they work out very cheep at about 30 pounds inc p and p for the off set and a bit less for the standered one's.
If you tell him I told you about them he will post them to you marked a Gift,so you won't have to pay any extra once they arrive in the UK.
I have them fitted to the XR and the XT both fitted in the forward position which improves the bar piostion for me when sat and also when standing up for off road.



http://www.motorcycleproducts.org/ba...n-frameset.htm


They are very well made and the service was First class, with a fast delivery from America .
These are the Off set type which higher the bars and move them forward or back.
Before
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...icture2511.jpg
Off Set Risers
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...icture2514.jpg

Fitting
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...icture2516.jpg
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...icture2517.jpg
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...icture2518.jpg

Darrez

dazzer

did you have any problem with the cables on your yamaha when you put the bar risers on? Ive got an 06 XTR and wouldnt mind the bars to be raised a bit but looking at the clutch there isnt much excess and also the front brake and others dont have much slack either.

The risers are nice and look well made.:smile[2]:

They look well made, but there is no slack at all in my XTR wiring loom and the clutch cable binds when the risers are fitted. I don't think I will be able to fit risers. I may find some bars with more raised ends if I have time as it makes standing on the pegs far less tiring.
Cheers.

I Fit a set on my XTR with no problem at all,
I think you can see in this photo the higher position of the Bar's with the risers fitted.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...CIMG1240-1.jpg

dazzer
just to make sure, not that i dont believe you could you show us some photos of the cables please? Just at the moment with standard bars my clutch cable is always pulling over the top of the oil filler cap already and has little or no slack at all!!!! They do look nice though, and could be temped to still buy them anyway and look into longer cables etc

Hi
I will take some photos and post them on Sunday .

Thanks. I have exactly the same problem the clutch cable fouling the oil filler cap. I've noticed that the black tape which wraps the wiring loom on the nearside of the headstock has split slightly - wires must be OK as everything works - due to the stretch that is put on when I go to full right hand lock.

Some photo's of the risers on the XTR
Some pic's show cable when on full lock
the side view show's the higher and more forward postion of the bar's with the risers fitted.

Dazzer


http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...w/CIMG1716.jpg


http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...w/CIMG1715.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...w/CIMG1717.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...w/CIMG1718.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...w/CIMG1721.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...w/CIMG1720.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...w/CIMG1724.jpg

very nice, still cant understand how your cable doesnt pull over the top of the other cables. Unless it was the way it was installed ie not in front of other cables taking the shortest route to the clutch. Very nice risers i may look into that, but might have to wait a while (spending enough money on the bike already, scottoiler, scot tape, oil filters, oil, petrol, lights the list goes on.)

O yes and like your ride the world sticker

Thanks for the pictures Dazzer.
Having looked at them it was obvious that there must be a way to fit these 'kin Touratech risers, so I had another go tonight. After more swearing than usual, I still couldn't get the clutch cable to clear the oil filler cap without fouling on full left hand lock. Then a bit of luck.....there's a small plastic cable guide on the offside which holds the clutch cable to an oilway. I pushed it to the top of the oil pipe, got all the play needed to fit the risers and get full lock to lock without a problem! I've put a cable tie around the clutch cable under the cable guide to keep it in the upper position on the oil pipe.
Thanks for posting your pictures. If you tell me how to put a picture into a post I'll send a couple.
Cheers.
Tim

Hey Techno this is how to add pictures to a post:

1st way: when you are adding a reply before you press send, scroll down a little bit and you will see an icon named manage attachments you click on it and you add as many pics as you like (since you are an XT Supporter you have that facility as standard)

2nd way: You join a free online photo host such as www.photobucket.com or www.ripway.com where you can upload any pics and then you just paste the link which will direct to that particular picture anywhere in your post.

That's all

I will have to try that one out later techno prisoners but i did see that before just i never thought about moving any of it as normally when you start moving standard bike stuff things go wronge. will definity not be looking into getting something on those lines as well as other stuff. :yahoo:

Touratech risers fitted
 

Pictures as promised. You can see the cable cover has split on the nearside. This was caused by the cables being so tight around the steering head. I've loosened them up by working them through the cable clips which hold them to the frame.
Thanks for the help with the attachments.

I had to include a picture of my old Husky supermoto for you SM pilots: 50 bhp pushing 107kg. XTs can have a snatchy throttle response? Snatchy is relative!