Hi, we are back from our absolutely fantastic round the world trip. We did 22,000 miles through 22 countries in 16 weeks. The ride report and pictures is Russ’s very good blog. http://www.russolivant.blogspot.com/ so I am not going to re-hash that here.

We have been getting lots of questions as to how things stood up so I suggest if we use this thread to discuss any specifics.

We made a not very good video in Niagra falls that coverd, the preperation, Ride-abilty and Crash-abilty of the the Tenere's during our trip. Unfourtanlety there is a lot of wind noise the quality is not that great but it may be usefull for some. Here are the links
Preperation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCQhIfYsC9o
Ride-abilty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdpzFCoOtoo
Crash-abilty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR733ZQKqVk

In summary this how various components fared.

The bike – Fantastic. A true all rounder, we went scratching up the Swiss mountain passes, spent weeks offroad crossing Mongolia , rode 1000’s of miles of “road works “ in Russia, rode fast gravel tracks in Alaska and Canada and battled with traffic in some of the most congested cites in the world. In every circumstance I was very happy to be on the Tenere.

Comfort – We all had the standard seats expect for Russ who had a Gel Insert. After you have everything in the correct place most importantly the bars, everyone was more than happy with the comfort . The winding roads heated grips were one of our best ideas!!!

The luggage- Caribou cases with inner bags worked a treat. All the others on the trip with MM pannier and no inner bags were very jealous every time they carried their pannier up stairs.

Luggage frames – We used SW-Motech frames. We always suspected they may be the weak link and after some serious abuse they cracked. We had these welded up by our new best friends, the Iron Tigers Motor cycle club in Vladivostok.

The crashes – The bikes all stood up well to various incidents. Even though the crash bars were broken at the frame , they did save the water pump on a few occasions. Two of the bikes now have new front wheel rims but other than that only a few broken levers and some bent bars.

Consumables –
Tires - We used 4 rear tires and 3 fronts. We started on the standard Tourance , switched to TKC for the dirt, then used Dunlop 750 in Alaska (it’s the standard tire for the KLR 600 very cheap and not bad at all. The one extra rear tire was due to very excessive wear on the very sharp tarmac in Canada.

Chain & Sprockets – I used one new chain and one front sprocket. The standard chain did 20,000 miles. I still have the standard rear sprocket on. We did take some aluminium Renthal rear sprockets but this was a bike mistake, They do not last at all, especially in the dirt and as they wear they chew up the chain.

Oil & filter – We changed oil and filters as per service schedule. During the last 6,000 miles cruising at 5000 RPM the bikes did start pumping a lot of oil out the breather. We suspect that the valve that controls this (it an emissions thing) has got dirty and needs cleaning up. We will investigate in detail when the bikes get back.

We had 5 Tenere’s on the trip, we have all experienced the same issues everyone else has , ( Rectifier wiring etc).

One of the Tenere’s had a major issue it looks like a cam chain guide has broken but until we know for sure what the deal is, I suggest we leave that out for now and don’t speculate.

Thanks to everyone on this forum for their help before the trip the input was invaluable.

Let us know if you have any other questions .. Look forward to seeing everyone at a meet somewhere soon. (Ace Caf� when Jmo is back could be a good idea )

Tyre wear mileage was as follows:
Tourance - 11000 miles (99% tarmac Europe to Uzbekistan, Korea to Alaska) Rear tyre bald, front with a few thousand miles left)
TKC - 7300 miles (50% offroad Uzbek/Krygy/Kazak/Mongolia/Russia) Rear tyre bald, front tyre badly saw-toothed
K750 front - 5300miles (Canada/America) 50% worn
K750 rear - 3300 miles (sharp Alaska/Canada roads) bald
K750 rear - 2000 miles (40% worn)

Original chain & sprockets - 15000 miles- chain knackered, rear sprocket good (includes 6000 miles in the UK before departure)
Replacement chain (DID Oring) Renthal sprockets - 12000 miles - chain good, rear alloy sprocket badly worn

As Scott says, the way to go is with a good quality Oring chain, and the original steel sprockets.

Hope that helps

Well done Russ, we will publish your blog on the adventure page of our website.

http://www.xt660.com/site/node/78

Many thanks for keeping it XT!

A few answers.

1) How did the other brands hold up.
There were two KTM 690's. Modified with larger tanks. These held up fine except for the subframe bolts that broke due to excessive weight of the MM panniers and very rough roads and the LCD displays vibrated themselves apart. They were ridden very hard by very good riders in the dirt. They were also looked after very diligently and they held up very well.
The GS 800’s fine overall, but suffered one broken a fuel pump and one failed rear shock.
The GS 650’s suffered from a blown rear shock , one rear suspension linkage failure and rear sub frame bolts broke.
The GS 1200 needed a new rear diff and rear shock half way round. This bike was crashed a few times but patched up.

2) My top 5 were (In no particular order)
1) South Korea. An amazing place and some of the best mountain roads we road.
2) Burning crater in Turkmenistan - a sight you will never forget
3) The wilds of Yukon & Alaska. It’s a huge very remote place
4) Offloading through Mongolia. It’s got to be done.
5) Lake Som-Kul in Kyrgyzstan. The best trail ride I have done and the most scenic wild camp you could ever imagine.

We made a not very good video in Niagra falls that coverd, the preperation, Ride-abilty and Crash-abilty of the the Tenere's during our trip. Unfourtanlety there is a lot of wind noise the quality is not that great but it may be usefull for some. Here are the links
Preperation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCQhIfYsC9o
Ride-abilty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdpzFCoOtoo
Crash-abilty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR733ZQKqVk

Hey Scottnet

Great report & brill to here the XTZ's faired so well....one in the eye for the GS's I guess ! but I'm interested in fitting the Renthal Dakar high bars and I see some of your group had them fitted. Was just concerned as to whether all cables etc were long enough and whether they required modification ?

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Mods so far: Kev fuel mod, DNA stage 2 filter & air box cover, Peatbog rack,KTM hand guards, zumo 660, Leo Vince SBK's, Renthal Dakar high bars, ARD panniers,OTR bashplate, OTR Windshield,cush drive mod

Yes I had the Dakar bars. As they are the throttle cable is very close to being to short. So on full lock it got tight. But I cut 10mm of the end to make them a bit narrower, I wanted them narrower. Then it was fine.

Great report and pics Scottnet and Russolivant. Must be a fantastic experience.

You had a big group, and I always hear pros and cons in anything between solo and big group rides especially on RTW, mind sharing some of your thoughts, other than the gold tooth policeman in Azerbaijan probably got his year salary from collecting 100 bucks from each of you?

On the mod side, does any of you have done anything to the suspension and/or the exhaust (cat or catless etc)?

Riding in groups is very much a personal preference. For our trip we rode in groups of 2's, 3 and 4's and one rider rode on his own. So that worked very well for the day to day ride.

On the trip there were 14 riders and that also worked well as you always could find someone to talk to in the evening, and if you had enough of your small group you could ride with some others for a day.

Sometimes we had a larger group coming into a busy city and that proved a challenge trying to keep everyone together.

As for the cat , we had the standard cat. We had a lot of dubious fuel and the only thing we needed to do in Mongolia we had to raise the idle speed.

With the MM lowering link on the rear wheel did bottom out on the cat a fair amount over rough roads at a fairly high speed and with fully loaded panniers.

The shock is fine but if I did this again I would get a stronger spring

For your chains.....eg. did you use the o ring chains with split links or by riveting the joining link each time?

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The Suit:What would you consider to be your greatest weakness?
Me: Honesty.
The Suit: Honesty? I don't think honesty could be construed as a weakness.
Me: I don't give a f**k what you think.

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