Hi McThor,

yes I read your note on African fuel somewhere else here, but I must say I am sceptical. I think African nations would have signed anything to guarantee continued aid or grants or goodwill - but as to them actually implementing anything as radical as continent-wide UNL - I find that very hard to believe when you think of all the other extreme problems there - among which the environment is not a high priority.

IMO there is no more chance of UNL-only in Africa than low sulphur diesel (the environmentally acceptable diesel equivalent) which we get here for our nice new cars but which has the same bad effect on older engines' injection pumps as running UNL in an XT500 does on its valves. Both types of fuel are, I imagine, more expensive to produce (they certainly cost more) and work best on modern vehicles. And back country Africa relies on old, knackered vehicles.

Sure you get UNL is the more populated and affluent north of Morocco and Algeria and maybe Libya (areas I know) - but in rural areas or the south it will be 2 star leaded which is red like ribena. UNL is yellowy. Got pix of both being poured into bikes in Mk but can't post them.

So I think you did save your cat pipes. I guess an expensive test would be to run cat pipes on what is not claimed to be UNL (but may be) for a while and see if they survive an emissions test back home.

It's an important issue you raise as many are worried about running leaded fuel out on the world with modern efi bikes.

My XTZ's manual certainly freaked me out about this, but asking around proved it was just the usual corporate 'arse covering' waffle, like the 'check every function of your bike before you ride anywhere' advice.

Anyway, we hear of pre-XTZ 660s doing a quarter million kms RTW (is that you, maybe?) so they can hack it.

Sure, crap fuel may contribute to premature engine wear (as I found on my 2nd Tenere in the mid-80s in the Sahara) but running leaded fuel merely coats a cat with lead and reduces it's emission-cleaning function AFAIK. It may not affect the engine mechanics so severely, though how an ECU reacts to such changes is a worry, and is why people remove lambda sensors, etc. (Have to say I am tip-toeing close to the edge of my EMS/mechanical knowledge here! ;-)

Hans, I ran about 2 in the back and 1.8 on the front. Hard for the dirt and did not give the best handling - but I was running experimental tubeless and did not want any more punctures! With tubes I would have run about 1.4 both ends but suspect the tyres may not have lasted as long as they have.

Yes I did get the chain slack wrong once until I remembered some advice from my own book: check the chain slack cold, like tyres, not hot at the end of the day when it gets slack.
The springs I suppose could be more compliant. I believe the front are 5 turns above zero and 20 below max - as standard. I never came close to bottoming either end (but I ride pretty slow).

Dazzer - not planning any bike trips there right now - the party is well and truly over in the Sahara for indi travels.

stuxtttr - Sure, half the book was researched on the Ten and I had a nice front cover mocked up too, but the publisher got cold feet as it's aimed at 4x4s, vans and MTBs too, so we settled on a non-commital cover.

I've not sat on an X or R 660 but I think part of the tallness (and high CoG) of the XTZ is down to the unseat pipes. Good thing is it's fairly easy to reverse.

afn

Ch