When I first bought my XT I had had an R before but came to reason that I wanted an X for the fun of it. Concidering it�s november now I should�ve chosen a Z...

Well whatever...even a blind bat finds a friend!

I decided to keep my X which I�ve drivven 15000 km�s from 26 of march �til now dating november 5th. Passed the number today actually!

A few trips around Sweden has eaten a few kilometers on the meter and quite a lot of racing with my sportbike friends has also made quite a difference on the meter so I�m definately one with the bike.

Right now I�m shopping sidecarriers, sidebags & other essential stuff for the trip which is lating for 2 weeks.
Listening to others and judgeing for myself I am on constan watch for the most important gear.

Monday a XT 660 Z Tener� fuel tank showed up on Ebay and today I ordered side panels for it which I�m thinking of extending so they�ll steer the wind of my knees. 15 liters compared to 23 in combination with a 10 liter spare gives one a range of 700 km which is quite durable!!!

On the givi engine protection bars I�ve bought I�m gonna move the extra lights and mount a wide homemade skidplate for protection against both wind and salty wet roadsnow.

I searched for quite a lot of bags and found that the DeWalt "Thoughest" case at 55 liters were the absolute best one for my mission. (DS 400)
Mounted on OTR�s own caseholder/sidecarrier it was the absolute best option.

Some pictures:


The Givi protection bars which I bought for 60 Euros on Ebay with the extra lights mounted.


The bike with lights mounted higher.



This tires are the S***e!
completed with Kold Kutters when in snow!


More fuel for 190 Euros!

Updates at hand continously!

hi, it will be interesting to see how you get on with this, has the tank all the hardware, pump, cap etc?

all the best with the conversion, i'm just suprised you are the first to give it a try. fair play and good luck

Thanks!

Yeah I haven�t seen anyone else makin a conversion like this so It�s nice being the first.

And OOOPPSSS!
I forgot to say that I�m planning for a trip to North Cape which is nothing strange cause a lot of people have done it before.
There�s just one catch....I�m sailing of on he 8th of february which is the coldest month on the year and temperature can and probably will reach -40 degrees celsius and below at some parts of the ride.

Focus on preparations must be:

*Clothing
*Gear made to crash several times with
*Gear that can take extremely cold temperatures

In my search of sidecarriers i�ve found out that soft bags are optimal mounted on the front under the fueltank and in combination with the DeWalt DS 400 toolbox which can take 55 liters of load.
I have to be able to have a lot of loading capacity due to all the gear and warm clothes I�m carrying which requier a lot of space.

Last weekend I had my wintertyres. They�re specially ordered by my to fi my X and made to be ridden even on dry surface for straight ahead transport.



It�s a Metzeler Karoo 150/70-17 for the rear and a Continental TKC 80 Twinduro 120/80-17 in the front (rear tyre) filled with lorrystuds in the middle and enduro icespikes on the edges.

On the first stage of my tour i�ll be landing and taking part on the Norwegian crystalrally www.krystallrally.no arriving in Spidtsbergen on the 10th of february and staying for two days.

Here�s a film made on Swedish by a swedish guy but if you can bare with the language the filming pretty much says it all.
Look at the other clips nearby aswell.



I was looking for the most suitable sidecarriers for the trip and when I got true all the equipment in the world as I could find on he web atleast I had three remaining candidates.

The Hepco Becker Gobi which fell of due to a pricetag of 445 Euros a piece...
The Pelican 1500 series which fell of due to that they were loaded on the side.

Finally as i said earlier I choose the DeWalt toolbox DS 400 due to its 70 Euro pricetag for each case and decided to hang them on OTR�s sidecarrier construction.





A staggering 55 liters loadspace in each case!

All bought and paid for the OTR pannier rack is on route, the DS 400 I bought at my local building material sales firm.

I was also looking for a bigger fueltank that could take a few crashes in the snow and with a pricetag way over it�s value plus the fact that its made of glassfiber which has little or no durability in the chill I decided not to go with the OTR 26 liter tank. Instead I searched on Ebay for the 23 liter Tener� tank and found one at 150 Euros! Need a cap and need to convert the saddle and a few other details to make it fit but this is the least of my concerns.

Some interesting mods you are doing. I looked at getting a toolbox and using it as a top box, ended up using an ammo box. Be good to see how your boxes hold up on the trip.

I likes it when people engineer their own solutions, good luck with it all and keep us posted.

At -40 you're allowed to wear a long sleve shirt, no coat mind.

As well as sorting out decent clothing I'd advise sorting yourself a heated visor or modify your existing one with either stick on reactive foil strips or reactive wire. I tried using a neoprene face mask to prevent my visor from freezing on the inside but it failed dismally left me with a choice between constantly stopping to clear the visor or riding with it slightly open and suffering.

Another tip is to fit a few screw in studs to the soles of your boots because it's very difficult to pick a bike up when you keep falling over and you really do want to get it upright and out of the way as fast as possible. Crashing close to a corner when you know any vehicle coming round that corner is going to struggle to stop is a real trouser filler and not for the faint hearted.

If you use a Scottoiler to lube your chain then be warned that the standard oil will freeze but we tested a low temperature version for them and it worked very well. I'm not sure if it's on the market yet but if you contact them then I'm sure they'll be able to help out.

You'll have a great time and I'm looking forward to seeing how far you get. Don't forget to get prior permission to go through the locked barriers so you can do the final part of the trip or you'll have to try and ride around them and could end up in trouble.

As footwear I�m using the "Baffin Endurance" which is well proven to be the best footwear in the world at low temperatures. http://www.winterfootwear.com/p3099c...ter_boots.html
The boot is often used in Antarctica where extreme weather conditions demand extreme clothing.

And I�m aiming for the silkolene silicon spray as of now since it�s lubrication ability has been tested by me before living nearby the polar circle for 6 years outside the Swedish city of Ume�.

As for the part of travelling all the way to the peak I�ve already made a deal with the Norwegian authorities promising me to follow the snow patrol at a given time along with a few buses for the final Km�s to the goal.

And as for a helmet I�ll use a motoX helmet with glasses witch is sealed in the gaps between the glasses and the helmet. A Self-adhesive heatersticker intended for handlebars will be mounted inside the front of the helmet along with reflective aluminiumfolio.
I learn a few tricks from one of the most experienced wintherdrivers in Sweden Veijo Saarela an innovativ Sami native. http://www.saarela.se

Need I say more?

17" knobbies do the trick!

Not so many updates but plans go ahead anyway and I have now mounted the OTR sidecarrier and tested out an Ds 400 case but we agreed on that it was to big so we stick to the Ds 300 which is 35 liter instead of 55. This combined with a waterproof sac provides me with the space I need.
As you can see in one picture I put bicycle bags on the crash bars for two reasons, raingear in one which is good if it�s wet salty roads and a bike cover in the other easily reachable.
For one they stop wet snow from hitting my feet and second they take away the wind so I�ll manage the cold a little bit more.


I�m also changing the windscreen for an ATV one which takes away yet more wind.

And as a surprise to all of you!

I found this and ordered one instantly!



22,5 liter fueltank at a far more convincing price than the OTRs which almost costs 1000 Euros. This one is UNDER half that price!

With the Conti TKC 80 M*S 120/90-17 I have in the front came a major problem and that was that it wouldn�t fit because the knobbies got into the Stabilizer/lower fender mount so I simply had to cut it off. Either that or choose another tyre where the choices weren�t many at hand.

If I find it flexes to much I�ll put in the TT 600 Stabilizer from OTR otherwise I can live with it.


And what you don�t see on the bike is that I have heated grips and saddle which is very comfortable and YES I�m riding it as of today and will go for a longer trip tomorrow!

See ya for now!

awesome thread dude, trip sounds like it will be a right adventure!

...and then I cancelled the order after a few hours because I had an astonishing idea! (In my point of wiew)
I already had the XTZ fueltank from a 2010 model so why bother?

And I hadn�t even tried it on and when I did... WOOOW!

I frakking love the looks of it so i step forward with this and develop it further with:

*Lasercut Bashplate of my own design painted black

*Lasercut bracket attached to the fueltank holding a "Dominator twinlight with a small windscreen which is tradeable for a higher one when I go touring picked from -12 Triumph Tiger Explorer. Fencelike guard in front of lights.

*short carboncans

*XTZ tener� fueltank

*17" Knobbies back and front

*sidecarriers

*Extended engineguard bars

And probably a few more but lesser ideas to complete the "Belgian Blue"...