Hi Folks,

Having finally signed up to xt660.com (a year late) and with a bit of down time now I'm static in Santiago for a few weeks, I've been inspired to do what I've been meaning to do for months - put down on paper all the mods to my trusty steed and a few observations on them, having been on the road in S America for 23,000km. I'll post in 3 parts. So here goes....



A BIT OF BACKGROUND

I was lucky to find a 2010 XT660Z with only 5000km on the clock, which had been heavily upgraded - for a big overland trip which never happened. The previous owner clearly had a few bob, and did the 'open chequebook' trick at Touratech UK. I took a few bits off and eBayed them to raise money for other stuff I wanted. So except for a limited bit of riding a stock Tenere (on-road only), all my experience of Teneres has been on this beauty - which means I can't make many meaningful comparisons of the mods on my bike with a stock bike.

So far, I've done about 23,000km here in South America. Wherever I can, I ride the dirt roads and have done many thousands of km on them. I'm happy to ride on the edge of my ability with a heavily loaded bike - unlike all the Beamer riders I meet, I don't mind dropping it. As a result I have done so numerous times, trying to ride on ground that sometimes asks more of my skills than I can offer! Hence, the bike has has a rough ride. Out here you can often find 300km of unbroken dirt and gravel ahead of you, so I have got used to standing up and gunning it - you have no option sometimes if you want to get to where you are going before nightfall. And on the wash-board, that's often the best way to get a smoother ride, but the payoff is the old girl gets a bit of a hammering.

Except for a faulty spark plug due to dirty fuel, the Ten has given me ZERO mechanical problems. The only thing that has let me down is the front headlight stay, which has snapped 3 times due to prolonged the riding on the rough stuff. Oh yes, and there was the minor issue of breaking two cogs in the transmission in a freak accident, but I put that down to very, very bad luck.

[That's not meant to happen!!]


If your 'Big Trip' is going to involve lots of dirt, mountains and deserts and you want to enjoy rather than endure it, I think a modified Ten is close to being the ideal bike: tough, simple, adequately powered, not too heavy, and able to handle the dirt and the long stretches on asphalt in equal measure. Why does everyone in S America ride BMWs? I see very few Teneres. Would I take one again on this sort of trip? (This is going to spark debate!!) It is a toss-up between my Tenere and a KTM 690 with RR tanks / fairing and a few other mods. My only complaint about the Ten is the weight when I'm on difficult ground - and the KTM is notably lighter, as well as being better in the dirt. So I guess the debate for me is really one about reliability. The Ten has been fantastic so far, what about the KTM....

So here are a few photos, a list of all the mods, and a few observations after 10 months on the road. I'm very much NOT a techie, so please excuse the lack of technical detail! I hope they may be of use to anyone prepping their bike for a big trip.

[The Bike]


[Loaded up and on the road - with some wishful thinking]


[Protection and tool-box]


[Cockpit - note, you can see the 'Bird Comb' mod in front of the tank: an attempt to reduce buffeting]


[Back end, with a temporary (becoming increasingly permanent) repair on a cracked silencer]




PARTS SWAPPED....

Suspension - Rear (Ohlins). I haven't ridden a Tenere off-road with stock suspension, so difficult to compare. But the Olhins has handled the rough stuff out here superbly. Cruising at 80kph on the numerous long stretches of gravel and dirt out here with the bike loaded, she soaks everything up and gives a pretty smooth ride.

Suspension - Front Springs (Hyperpro). Similar to above.

Exhaust (OTR 2-in-1, Titanium). Obviously a lot lighter, and with the OTR foam air filter and a Power Commander, the bike feels a lot more responsive to that stock bike I have ridden. A lesson learnt after the silencer cracked in the Atacama (I was rear ended by a Honda about 1500km earlier, which dented and evidently stressed it) - take a stainless steel silencer on big trips, because it's pretty damn hard to find someone who can weld Titanium in rural South America. The OTR stainless version is not much heavier, and the 'fixability' of steel when in the middle of nowhere is worth the trade.

Air Filter (OTR Foam Filter). Not much to say, except the obvious advantage of not needing to find new paper filters. I've always been able scrounge some filter oil from a local motocross garage.

Bash Plate (Touratech). Being a 2010 model, there was no option but to upgrade the bash plate. I've been very pleased with the Touratech one - very solid, and convenient to change the oil - with the hinge at the back, only the front two bolts need removing.

Handlebars (Renthal Fatbar RC). I've gone down hard a couple of times, with the impact point on the barkbusters and the bars taking the weight of the fall. The Renthals seem rock-solid. I wouldn't have trusted the stock bars.

Pegs (Pivot Pegz). A no-brainer, really. Super-sturdy and plenty to stand up on, compared to the stock pegs.

Chain Guard (Motorrad Planet, Stainless Steel - via eBay). I have broken two stock plastic ones, so went for the stainless steel option. If I had more cash I have gone for a lighter aluminium one, but this one is very strong and good value.

[A bit heavy, but strong and good value]


Headlight (HID). The HID makes a big difference to the stock light. Only the dip beam is HID - no change to the full beam. Being seen is a high priority out here, so bright is good. The only minor negative is the few moments of relative darkness when the HID warms up on switching from full beam after several minutes - not ideal if you're going round a bend on a country road. But I have a solution - see below X-Vision LED below.

Indicators (LED Mini Indicators from Touratech). Brighter - always a big plus. And smaller, so less likely to get damaged. I'm no electrical expert, but I suspect they are more robust than standard bulbs when under constant vibration for long periods on the dirt. The stems on two of them eventually broke after some rough handling, but a bit of insulating tape has resolved that.

Clutch / Break Levers (Short Levers from eBay). Once I had fitted Barkbusters, the stock levers didn't fit, so I took a punt at buying the levers that RTW Paul had found on eBay from Hong Kong (one from a GSXR 600 and and the other from a FJR 1300) and Bingo! 2 weeks later they arrived and fitted the bike perfectly. They were really cheap too, which led me to wondering about quality, but 23,000km later all is good. I find the short levers much more responsive when using only one or two fingers - a throw-back from my mountain biking days and perhaps just in my mind. Link to RTW Paul's thread below:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=782959

[Short levers]


Tyres (Heidenau Scouts). You read mixed reviews about these, but for the combination of riding I've done, which has included a lot of gravel and a far bit of really crappy dirt and sand, I think they have been great. Perhaps that is because I have had very little wet conditions to deal with - reviewers seem to highlight the tyre lack of traction in the wet. I'm just about the change them after 20,000km - and there is still a tiny bit of tread on them.

[After 20,000km - looking forward to some new ones]


Front Mud Guard (High guard from Touratech) One very muddy day on Route 40 in Patagonia justified this mod. When all the BMWs were getting stuck with blocked front wheels, the Tenere kept sliding onwards. I won't be changing it back for the stock mudguard. The TT guard is made of pretty flexible plastic, so it can handle the knocks and falls. It also make the bike look very cool, Dakar styly!!!

[Seriously gluey mud on Ruta 40. I kept going.....]


[....but he didn't, until we removed the guilty part!]


Front Sprocket (Renthal 14 Tooth). I lose a bit of fuel economy on the long road sections (but still cruise around 120kph@5000rpm), but get a lot more pull in the dirt / on the hills with full luggage. First gear is a bit short now, but I can live with it. The speedo and odometer are now about 10% out, so I use the GPS all the time. I'm thinking about fitting a Yellow Box to recalibrate.

PARTS ADDED...

Power Commander. More power, thank you very much. And so far, it has endured a lot of rough roads. One nay-sayer suggested the electrics inside the little magic box may fail due to constant vibration from riding in the dirt, but so far so good. I have encased it in a bit of foam to cushion it.

Radiator Protector (Metal Mule). Essential out here, and the MM guard is perfectly adequate and half the price of others.

Rectifier Protector (Touratech). It came with the bike, but seems like a good idea - I'd say all forward facing protection is essential for prolonged riding on dirt and gravel.

Roll Bar (Touratech, upper part only). When I first saw them, I thought they might only provide limited protection. After numerous drops, I'm happy that they are all I need. The geometry of the Tenere means that the Barkbusters take most of the fall on flattish ground (and of course panniers help further in holding the bike off the ground). The plastic crash panels on the fuel tank do a good job at soaking up the shock, and the TT roll bars protect the lower front end of the bike when it's dropped on uneven ground. I think the big crash bars such as the SW Motech ones are over-kill.

Bark Busters + Storm Wind Deflectors + Bar-end weights. ESSENTIAL. I've dropped the bike so many times now, and only recently managed to slightly bend one of the Barkbusters when I came off heavily on a nasty decent. Nearly every time the bike goes down, the Barkbusters take the brunt. The Storm wind deflectors are very effective - a bit too good when it is very hot, but I'd trade that for the protection they give at 4500m or in Patagonia.

[Barkbuster abuse]


Headlight Guard (Touratech, steel mesh). The Touratech grill-style guard came with the bike and I thought it was a bit of overkill, until a 4x4 passed me at speed and threw up a big stone, right on to the headlight guard. Very glad I had it. (The stone then ricocheted into the hand guard, convincing me of the importance of them too.)

Centre Stand (SW Motech). Weight v convenience. It has certainly made life a lot easier when working on the bike, repairing punctures etc. If I had a lighter bike and really wanted to stay light, I'd go without and accept the inconvenience. But the Ten is heavy enough to justify the extra weight for convenience. The SW Motech stand has been good, although the little side arm used for deploying it sits irritatingly under the pillion foot peg - mod needed.

[Annoyingly hidden under the pillion peg, difficult to deploy with your foot]


Camel Toe (Touratech). Essential out here to stop the bike toppling over on soft ground. The TT one has proven robust.

Heated Grips (Oxford Hot Grips). A God-send in Patagonia and on the Altiplano - 40 quid very well spent indeed. Combined with Storm hand guards on the Barkbusters, they mean I can ride in my Klim Dakar gloves even when it gets chilly - so no need to stop and change gloves when the temperature drops in the mountains. I bought the old version of the Hot Grips on eBay for half the price of the new ones, and they haven't given me any problems (and they are hot!).

Pannier Frames (Touratech). They've held up better than the Zega panniers that used to be attached to them - one of them came off in Bolivia and was never seen again! They seem pretty sturdy, handling two relatively heavy aluminium panniers on several thousand km of rough roads with no apparent damage, and definitely limited damage to the bike when I was rear-ended by a Honda.

Luggage Rack (Touratech). Big, stable, lots of options for strap positioning - does a good job.

GPS Mount (Touratech) and Zumo 660. Mounted on the mounting bar above the clocks, the GPS in an ideal place for visibility. But this set-up has one big disadvantage - the additional weight, high and rearwards of the headlamp stay on which it is attached, increases the load on the stay when driving for prolonged periods on the dirt. The stay has sheered three times, despite reinforcement at the base. I now have a new stay which is even more heavily reinforced, but I am going to cut the mount down so that the GPS sits lower and less rearwards - hopefully putting less stress on the stay.

Aux / Backup Lighting (X-Vision 5 Inch Xmitter, Narrow Beam, from Adventure Spec). Super bright, narrow beam. I have them wired into my main beam, which gives me ample light (whereas the main beam on its own is crap). Initially it was mounted on the bottom of the headlight stay, but now it is upside down on the towing hook, which works really well. My logic for fitting one on was recently validated: my main lights packed up, and the X-Vision provided me with both light and the means to be seen. I think the optimal set up with an HID dip beam is to rewire so that on flicking to main beam, the HID remains on and the X-vision supplements it, leaving out the stock main beam altogether. This will give excellent near and far range illumination, and avoid the momentary darkness when flicking back from main beam to a now cold HID.

[X-Vision mounted on the towing hook]


12V Power Socket (Touratech). Essential. I charge my phone and iPad (stored inside my tank bag) on the move, and run my electric pump off it.

Engine Guard Toolbox (Touratech). I was hesitant about getting one of these, but when I came back to UK briefly after 6 months I got one and am really pleased I did. It's not the best design for ease of access (I've seen a neat mod on one of the forums to allow the lid to open more fully instead of knocking up against the headers), but it means I can keep some essential tools on the bike at all times, and more importantly I can get some of the small heavy items like spare brakepads and my chain breaker down low. It seems to be handling the knocks fine. The lock, like all TT locks, is a bit cheap.

Break Fluid Reservoir Cover (Touratech). On the bike when I got it, but not sure it serves much purpose.

Manifold Middle Heat-shield Plate (Touratech). As above, but this one probably does help a bit to prevent melting your trousers.

Pinion Gear Guard (Touratech). It was a pain in the ass when my chain jumped off the rear sprocket in a crash and jammed up in the front sprocket, but maybe it actually limited the damage.

[Manifold and pinion guards]


Bar Risers (Wirtz, from Adventure Spec). Actually these are primarily adaptors, necessary for the 28mm Renthal Fatbar. But they also raise by 20mm, which I need to be comfortable standing on the pegs. Really comfortable riding position now.

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.

Hi Paul,

Great write up mate, keep them coming Nice to see a fellow ex soldier putting some of the 'adapt and overcome' mentality to good use.

Regards

Paul

What a great post!
THanks for taking the time.

Just got a tenere and during the next months I will be on the process of upgrading it to what I will (or think I will ) need for a trip next year.

Looks like you really took the dirt route in your trip! I have read about a few preparations on the Tenere, but this is one of the few that actually says about the final results/opinion after testing on the field.
Definitely this post is a good reference when deciding about upgrades.

- How did the Zega panniers take the beat? I read that soft panniers are better for the kind of trip you are doing?
- About the seat, is that a commercial gel seat modified? or a custommade one?


Cheers!

That was a great read.

There are one or two minor things I would disagree with you on, but we are all different, and I suspect if they weren't on the bike when you got it, you wouldn't have purchased them anyway - so not really in disagreement.

I've always thought the headlight subframe is a weak spot (which is why my lamp brackets fit to the main frame), but to date I've only seen two people who have had it fail, and both in extreme circumstances.

Thanks for taking the time to put this together, it's well written and well presented.

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>-------<

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

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

One word "Fantastic" Thanks for sharing!

Great write up Paul - an excellent resource for others.

Overall exhaust length can also skew an engine's torque and power curves (header length/diameter has a much more significant factors though). A longer overall system tends to increase power below peak torque while sacrificing power above peak torque. Shorter systems tend to affect the engine in exactly the opposite way, reducing midrange torque in favour of increasing top-end power.

It will make a slight difference in torque/power shortening the silencer by 15cm, but probably not so as you'd really notice in the real world (you'd notice it more on a dyno). The biggest issues I reckon you'll have are with increased noise, and the much greater risk of melting your soft luggage!

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good read. thanks. is that a aftermarket rear wheel/rim?

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