PARTS MODIFIED....

Rear Brake Pedal. After initially trying the TT pedal extension which came with the bike when I bought it, I realised it was inviting a nasty incident with the clutch cover if I dropped the bike, because it protrudes so far. So I got a local welder to cut the toe off the pedal, weld a little block on the end with a couple of vertical holes, and then I screwed a cheap KTM replacement toe on. Good serration and thus good grip, low profile and easy to replace if it gets bent.

[Brake pedal, KTM style]


Centre Stand Feet. I more than doubled the surface area of the centre stand feet by welding a couple of small plates to the base of them. Makes a BIG difference when using the stand on soft ground.

Seat - Cut Down. The previous owner cut away half of the pillion seat to allow him to slide his butt fore and aft. Great idea, as I found the stock seat a bit restrictive, (but a bit of a pain now that I want to carry a co-pilot!) I don't know if he put a gel pad in there or something similar , but I can go for hours on this seat without getting a numb butt. (I now have a super-thick sheepskin which I got for a tenner in Peru - luxury for the posterior, but means I can barely reach the floor now!!)

[More room on the seat]


Front Headlight Stay - Reinforced. See above under 'GPS mount'. A serious weak point of the bike in my opinion. I'm going to take the Ten to a guy here in Santiago who builds Dakar bikes for a service and some repair work, and I'll be asking him to further shore up the front end.



WHAT ELSE DO I WANT I DO?

Tail Tidy. After 20,000km, my back end finally broke away, taking my number plate and indicators with it. I put this down to the length and weight of the stock tail. It cracked when I unintentionally got the bike airborne (by hitting a small unseen ditch, very hard!), it was further damaged when driving out of a storm drain (due to its length) and the prolonged vibration from riding long distances on dirt finally took its toll. The indicators on the original tail are also vulnerable to getting caught in straps when attaching panniers, bags on the tail rack etc: I'd prefer them to be mounted higher.

[My new Tail Untidy]


Handlebar Risers. I wanted to do what RTW Paul suggested in his ADV Rider post, changing the stock one-piece risers for heavy duty risers with a separate bolt running through them. I agreed that this could pose a big 'on the road repair' problem if they broke. The problem I encountered was the diameter of the bolt that runs through the triple mount: if I remember correctly, on the Ten it is 12mm but all the motocross-style risers such as those from Renthal have 14mm bolts. If I had had the time, I guess I could have got the triple mounts drilled out to 14mm. And then I would have had to engineer something to increase the height of the risers. OTR seemed to offer the perfect solution with their Magura 28mm clamps and risers, but the quality of the clamps was very poor, so I sent them back.

Screen. With the combination of my height, luggage set up, helmet, etc, the screen is crap - my head is right in the buffet zone. I tried the Metal Mule taller screen and also one of Touratech's spoilers, but didn't see much difference. I've also tried the bird comb mod, which only made a minor difference. So I've just got used to it now, but whenever I tuck my head in behind the screen I realise how peaceful life could be if I could sort this out!!

Underseat Storage. With the stock exhaust out of the way, there is scope to create some underseat storage - an ideal place to keep the spare inner tubes and the like. You may have seen a post on ADV Rider a couple of years ago from a South African guy. He had made a great mod, but the thread just died. But something like this (but a bit cheaper!!) would be ideal.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...php?p=17593634

Aha!! I've just seen GStry's post from a couple of days ago on this forum - he is the SA from ADV RIDER!!! It's a no brainer, huh? Why isn't someone marketing these? I'll be getting in contact with GStry right away!!



SUMMARY

I've been delighted with the bike in its current set up. Almost every mod makes a difference to some degree, but most of them are far from essential. I've met people out here on Teneres pretty much as they bought them, and they were full of praise.

What, from my long list of mods, would I label as essential for this trip? More protection and strength: Barkbusters, bash plate, radiator guard, head light guard, stronger handle bars, and get the front stay reinforced. Other stuff: better pegs, bar risers, heated grips, 12V power socket. And if you can afford it, upgrade the suspension.

Hope this is useful to some of you. Feedback and ideas are more than welcome. I may be on this bike for many many more km, so I'm always looking to further improve it.