Thanks guys.

I've found a couple more photos of the headlamp stay lurking in my Dropbox. (Unfortunately a lot of my phots from earlier in the trip are now at home on my Mac.)

The stay broke twice at the base, forward of the mounting bracket - exactly the same place as Hunday's, who posted about it last year. Hunday's photos at the link below show the exact location. I did a similar reinforcement job to that which Hunday did, but it broke again a few thousand km's later:

http://www.xt660.com/showthread.php?t=19752

It also broke once on the side of the frame. This photo shows where it broke - under the emergency metal putty repair (which didn't hold!):



After the third brake, I decided it needed a SERIOUS reinforcement job, so a guy at the Yamaha garage in Salta, Argentina did this:



It was bomb proof for sure and survived more rough treatment in Bolivia, but unfortunately the welding had distorted the geometry of the stay, and I couldn't properly fit the side panels, cowling etc. So when I was back in UK I bought a new one (at a cool �125 - ouch) and had it reinforced - similar principle that the Argie used, but not a solid plate, rather a 1 inch strip bracing the upper and lower sections of the frame forward of the mounting bracket. (If that isn't clear, I'll try to get a photo of it when the bike gets stripped down next week.)

Here is what happens when a titaniium silencer gets dented and then later gives up (it split about 2000km after getting dented). I'm not a metallurgist, but I suspect that steel would have handled the dent much better:



I'm thinking about cutting it down by 15cm to remove the temporary repair job, but am unsure what impact that will have on performance and noise levels. Any thought on that, please?? (Kev tells me that when he did similarly to a set of twins, it pushed the power band up the rev counter by 150rpm.)



HEBBO... The seat is the original, with some of the foam cut out at the back. From the photo, you can see it is quite untidy where the rider's butt goes. I'm not sure, but I wonder if the previous owner put a gel pad in there. I'll find out soon, because I need to reshape the seat to carry a pillion.

As for the Zegas... I'll probably do a seperate post on all my luggage, but here's a quick opinion. In the end, the attachment point on the Zega let me down big time and I lost a pannier and all its contents, so I wouldn't go back to Zegas, full stop. Throughout the trip, I found the top clamps tempamental - if there was the slightest gap between the clamp and the frame, it would work loose. I had to stick rubber pads on the clamps as the fit was imprecise without them. Linked to this, any looseness at all would allow the pannier to vibrate and thus fatigue the aluminium where it comes in contact with the pannier frame. One of my panniers was starting to crack at this point - with only 15,000km of use. I met a fellow Zega user in Patagonia who was on his second set of Zegas for this reason.

I'm sold on soft panniers for riding rough. The weight is distributed primarily across the pillion seat and rear rack, rather than solely by the pannier frames - ie, less stress on the bike. And because the panniers 'bounce' a little so to speak, rather than being bolted firmly in one place, I think the shock loading is reduced when you hit big bumps. And of course, there is the small issue of trapping you leg under a hard pannier when the bike goes down. It nearly happened to me on a couple of occasions. For sure, hard panniers certainly have advantages and I'd use them on a road / good gravel trip, but I'm sticking to soft whilst I ride on the dirt.

Magadans are great. I plan to make a couple of minor mods, but all in all they are strong, secure, big enough and easy to use. I've got an itch about the Giant Loop Siskiyous though - unfortunately they weren't available when I was buying.

Cheers!!!!

Paul