Improving the air intake system of the XRV 650

A really bad point of the XRV 650 is the air intake: It is very low and closed to the rear tyre and as it is impossible to obtain a perfect sealed system between the rileft fairing, the rear mudguard and the frame, dust and mud will always easily reach the air intake and the filter will get dirt easily.

I knew that before buying the motorbike. The original air filter is the best one for the motorbike (regarding filtering and jetting), but sadly it cannot be washed because it is made of paper, the only way is to use air pressure from the inside toward the outside. The exhaust system can be used for this, but it is not as effective as an air compressor gun (anyway the filter won't be new).
A washable K&N filter can be used, but it is not filtering as good as the original one (The engine runs a little bit leaner with K&N filter), so I didn't wanted to use it, because right now my engine is eating 0,5 liter of oil every 10'000 km, which is nothing.
During the trip I used a filter skin, which allows less dirt to reach the filter (the filter skin was a woman PA collant), but it was making the engine running richer.

So I started gathering informations because I wanted to find a solution to this problem, so that the XRV 650 would have been the perfect bike for travelling.

I've look on the internet and I've found that the RD04 Marathon had an air intake of the tank.

XRV 750 RD04 Marathon with air intake over the tank and longer air filter.
( http://www.nightwings.org/Marathon/Marathon-750.htm )

I've written to the owner of the website for gathering more informations after seeing this picture of a German guy that was building a Marathon replica:

Tim's marathon replica. Work still in progress?

He answered me very fastly and he sent me two more picture of the snorkel itself.

Tim's marathon replica. Work still in progress?

Very nice snorkel, but I don't like the fact that is made of aluminium, fiberglass would have been cheaper and more lightweight!

Roberto Boano was a pilot that raced the Dakar many times with XRV Marathon series, including a RD04. Right now he is realizing special parts for a lot of Honda Twins bikes and many other models. ( http://boano.com/ ). He has special parts for the XRV 650 such as the bigger marathon style tank and the marathon style rear tank (including the shorter seat with place for the transponder). No clue about the air intake over the tank. So I wrote him an e-mail. He answered me very quickly, but sadly he is just making this modification for marathon bikes, this means:

• *Modify the original airbox for the new air intake and for allowing the use of longer air filter
• *Upper air intake / snorkel
• New seat 
• Longer air filter
• Front bigger tank
• Modify the left rear fairing
• New jetting

All together it is costing around 2000 € + VAT (22%!), I've marked with a * the modification that are relevant for me, but they are costing 650 € + VAT, so it was to much for me. He suggested me to use a longer foam air filter with a reduction after it, in order to use the original jetting but having a bigger filtrating surface, would have reduced the maintenance intervals and moreover the foam airfilter is washable. But this was not a good solution for me, because he told me that it has to be cleaned after every day ride if in dusty riding conditions.

Meanwhile I had opened a Thread on the Italian Africatwin club:

 http://forum.africatwinclub.org/index.php?showtopic=25100

and on the xrv community:

http://www.xrv.org.uk/forums/africa-twin/155025-rd03-04-airbox-mod.html

I don't like forums, because they are always full "famous" people that are like a God on the forum, and whatever they say, it is true. It happened on the Italian one, I was told it is impossible to modify the air intake of the XRV 650 without changing the jetting, and a lot of people tried to take the air from the front of the bike or more under the seat with a longer air intake, but the bike was running rich after these tries (Of course, if you increase the length of the air intake, you increase its resistance and so "less" air gets into the airbox). But anyway forums are very good for gathering informations.

A guy on the Italian forum did an amazing modification: He adapted the RD07 air filter to the RD03, he had to cut the original tank  (after the work the bike had around 17 liters of fuel). Nice work, that could be a very good solution, moreover the place for the air conduct under the tank could have been used for holding more fuel and the same for the place where the original airbox was, so that the fuel quantity of the bike was still the same.

But sadly I can't weld, so it was a no go for me, but I think that this solution is way much better than the snorkel, has it lowers the center of gravity of the bike too.

I've written to Africanqueens.de as well, because they have something about a modified air intake for the RD03 in their onlineshop , but they've never replied me back.

So I decided to do everything by myself. I'd like to thank Simone Gervasoni for the hints on how to do the snorkel. I've done some rough calculations of the original air intake snorkel, in order to have a rough dimension for the cross section of the one over the tank. I ended up having a 120 x 20 mm^2 cross section in order to have a lower air resistance, so that I would have been able to compensate it by inserting a low density foam in the snorkel.

So I've started building it. I did directly the mold on the tank, I covered it with 2 layers of cellophan because Simone told me that almost nothing sticks to it, that's true. The first error was that the resin slightly diffuse through cellophan, so a little bit reached the tank and the resin gest warm during the chemical solidifcation process, this damaged the original decals on the tank. Not a big deal for me. In order to form the snorkel, I've used PEEK foam covered with cellophan.

 Ready for closing the snorkel.

 Waiting for the fiber to solidifcate.

The top part is done. 

Meanwhile I've modified the airbox, I had to build an internal separation and close the original air intake. The following image was drawn by a user on the Italian Africa twin club forum. Many thanks again mate!

How the original airbox has to be modified for the higher air intake.

Almost finished snorkel. 

There were some leaks on the snorkel as fiberglass is not 100% sealed. But I decided to try it in order to see if the bike was lean. That was the case, so I decided to finish it.

I used some fiberglass refinish and then and to build the small border in order to seal the snorkel on the airbox (I've putted some neoprene on the airbox in order to ensure a perfect sealed system).

The connection between the snorke and the airbox.

Then I've painted the snorkel and  I had a test ride in order to determin the length of the foam. I started with a 150 mm long foam and at the end I had the perfect jetting with a 20 mm long piece of foam. The seat had to be modified aswell, but that was an easy job.

Next step will be trying a PA collant on the foam, in order to have a pre filtering element that can be easily washed.

The bike has been tested with K&N filter (with the new snorkel there is no risk that a lot of dust will reach it) and Arrow Paris Dakar muffler. The jetting doesn't need any adjustment yet, but I've tested the bike just with an ambient temperature of 12° C.

 The three screws have just the purpose to aboid the foam to be sucked into the snorkel.

That's all folks!

UPDATE 25.05.2017

Last week I've been able to ride the motorbike at more than 2000 meters over the sea level: jetting is fine as it was before the modification. At some rpm there are some small fluctuactions of power, probably due to a formation of turbulences into the channel: there is no internal smooth layer, so it is very rough, with spots of fiberglass obstructing it. But the motorbike can be ridden very well anyway in any condition so far (from mud muletracks in first gear to very high mountain pass in fifth gear at 100 km/h).


UPDATE 12.07.2017

I was able to ride in some very hard conditions like deep water, tough mud and higher altitudes (Almost up to 3000 masl). The beast never had a problem. When I removed the left hand rear side cover it was clear that the filter would have suffered a lot from mud as the plate closing the original air intake was still completely covered in mud.

Then after around 10000 km of test, I've removed the seat and the air intake. Everything is still in perfect shape. This is really a modification that I suggest to do if you want to ride the world with an XRV 650.

Back to school, day 43, around 15000 km, Bedigliora in Switzerland

That's it. The journey is over. It is time to go back to the normal life and to worry about all the silly things. I'm changed for sure: Now I really know what I want from my life, this is amazing but it doesn't mean I know everything! All was almost perfect, there is nothing I have to regret and I'm just looking forward what's next. I want to thank all the kind people that helped me organazing this trip and all the wounderful persons I've met during it. Stay tuned, because the future will bring even more serious stuff!

TT4 in Montenegro

TT4 near Rikavacko lake.

Direction Žabljak.

Dinaric Alps

Passo Baremone.

Balkan remix, day 36, Budva in Montenegro

Day 35 started very well, we could sleep very well in our tents and the weather was ideal, minimum temperature was around 16 degrees celsius and there was a slightly wind, so in the Morning everything was almost dry. We had a breakfast together and then we started the ride to Theth, the road was around 100 km of tough unpaved roads. The first part was around the river and it reaches height up to 50 meters over the river, so a mistake is fatal. The road is very old, so it is half digged into the mountain and half supported by stone walls. The ground is a mix of pure stone and small rocks. Then the road starts climbing and in some points it is clearly visible the old pavment made by blocks (irregular, but around 20x20 cm^2), some parts are still digged into the stone and here I did a ride mistake, I took a big hit on some sharp stones, immediately I heard the sound of the flatting tyre: pffffffffff.

I parked the bike in the shadow, removed the the front tyre, the e07 front is really soft so I was able to break the beads just by hand. I changed the inner tube and I started pumping it, I used a CO tank but it didn't work...the hebo pump broke. Filippo gave me his ktm pump, we started pumping but the tyre didn't pump up....fucking hell the spare one had a hole on it (not where I had used the lever). I used the inner tube of Filippo and the tyre was ready to be mounted. Meanwhile a Ktm 640 from Austria arrived, the rider, Hans, stopped to see if we were able to manage the problem (of course were we...) and to talk a little bit. Very nice and kind man, more than the bikers that passed nearby our camp yesterday Evening and didn't stop or waved hello. He left and we mounted the front tyre. After some kilometers we meet him at an intersection: he had a Zumo but no maps, so he didn't know where to go.

The lovely road to Theth

 We started riding together the 40 kms to the Theth. Amazing places and landscapes, it is incredible that so many people ride to Theth without passing here and just by taking the almost till the end asphalted road. We need more people like Hans! We had a lunch with him in Theth and he payed it all, he said he was really thankful to us because we rode the bad road with him. Thank you very much again!

Theth, after lunch at Bar Lek Gurra

Leaving Theth on the SH21. This is not a 125 version of the XRV.

SH21

We climbed the last road till the top of the pass, where the paved road began: I rode very fast with Filippo, the e07 is really a badass tyre, also after around 13k kilometers! Near Koplik we divided from Hans and we headed to the south of Shkodër lake, then to west and then north to Budva.

Hanging (out) with friends.

 We rode on the costal road as pirates, then in Budva we stopped for waiting for Flurin. When he arrived I went on in order to lead them to the appartment, when at a X intersection, the left lane was full of cars that were turning left, after having passed them I went again on the left lane but a car on the right lane (the right lane was marked as just go straight or right) turned left suddenly. The car hit my right leg and my side right luggage was literally broken and threw away from the impact. The bike started shaking meanwhile I was screaming "Porcodioooooo" (Flurin told me he could even hear me screaming it). Luckily I was able to stop 20 meters after the impact without falling or hitting something else. The guys immediately came to see if I was allright (Pravo?)): yeah I was, but I was shaking full of adrenaline. I thought he called the police but actually he call some friends which arrived after 10 mins and started to say that I had to pay since it was my error. I said no fucking way, then they called the police (some cars already passed by, none did stop..), a police car with just one man came, they shaked hands as old friends and the policeman didn't care about anything (documents, insurance). The other driver started filling the insurance accident report, with all my datas but without filling the dynamic part. He asked me to to sign it. Fucking idiot. Then after more than an hour in which he was saying thar the car damage was just 50 € and that my insurance wouldn't have been involved even if I had said it was my fault (idiot^2). Then the policeman said that I moved the bike and this was a fine for sure (He said a lot of other things, which weren't true). I was really pissed off by all this nosense thing and discussing with stupid people is very annoying, so I told him I would have given him 50€ and now he said the damages were 100€. After some Porcodio, coglione and figlio di puttana I gave him 100€ and they disappeared with the speed of light. This is really bad, it's a "lot" of money of my trip, but I didn't want to lose any more time nor going to the police, etc (It was Friday, so I was afraid to have to wait till Monday). I'm really happy that I'm still here, moreover with no scratches or injuries, it is very sad how some people do mistakes and don't accept the consequences of them even if these consequences are nothing and could have been really worse. No worries, I didn't see any rainbow bridge, so the Gods didn't open the Gates of Valhalla for me today, so let smash Budva!

Today I've been looking for a new front inner tube, I was able to repair mine, but Filippo was needing one. I found a shop and they ordered one from Podgorica, ETA around 18.00. Tailor shops were closed from 12.00 till 16.00, so I did the maintenance during this time. I have also changed the fuel pump back to the original one: I want to see if the motorbike runs better. A woman took my luggage and she understood how it was built together. After an hour I had my luggage back: I thought she would have sewed all parts, but she did just some points and used a glue...let's hope it will hold till Switzerland. Duct tape is ready for for action, just in case the glue fails. Budva is an amazing and strange place, on the beach there are some dancing caffe (Trocadero is the most famous one), you can dance and have fun there under the moon with loud music till 1 o'clock in the Morning, then you have to go to some clubs, as the Top Hills, which is huge and has view on the bay. Average quality of things in the city is poor and prices are pimped, but it is a funny place for having Movida holidays!
Tomorrow we should hit Žabljak, the weather should be nice! The ride will go on!

Balkan remix, day 34, around 12500 km, near the Theth in Albania

We left the mafia like hotel around 0830, we reached Kukës very easily and then we headed to Valbone, all on paved roads. Actually all these road are in a very good shape, that's why we met a gs1200 Adventure.

SH23, Valbone on sight!

Almost on the top of Valbone.

Valbone.

 Valbone was very nice, the color of the river could even impress some swiss guys! Then we went to Fierze, I didn't remember that the Ferry for Koman was leaving only at 13.00....we arrived at 13.30 and the next one was the day after. BUT, the man called someone and told me to follow his friend's car. So I thought there were more than one ferry on the Komani lake. We followed the car for 5 kilometers down the lake, the road was on a cliff, so it was very nice to ride there, at some point the man on the car told us to go down a very bad dirt road: he couldn't go down by car. We went down till the lake and...there was nothing, just a an old small row boat wreck. So I thought they just fucked us since going back to the top would have been really difficult. Then I realized that during the ride we overtook the ferry, which was now coming toward us in order to let us in. 

Telaj, on the Komani lake.

On the ferry, the fee was 25 fucking euros per motorcycle (bike is 10€, car is 5€ per square meter), the captain and the crew were all young guys and I told them we should have paid less, since we did some of the trip by bike...at least we got a free bier and the boat trip was 2 and a half hours long. The landscapes were amazing and really something different from what I'm used to see. Out of the ferry, we rode to Shkoder, we bought some food ad we took the road to the national park od Theth, we stopped somewhere for wild camping. We could even bath into the river, very very grateful for that after this beatiful day, the first one without raining since a long time.

Camping near Logje Prekal.

Balkan remix, day 32, Podgarec in Albania

Yesterday I had to wait for my friends quite a lot since the ferry had some delay, so instead of 9 o'clock in the Morning, they arrived at 2 o'clock in the Afternoon.
We ate a Gyro and we had some talks. We left Igoumenitsa around 15 o'clock and we headed to Albania, by passing on the coast of Greece, were we rode almost on some beaches. Very beatiful places and landscapes. Filippo tried a special on the sand...it ended up with him kissing some sand. In Albania we also rode on the coast and we took the rope ferry in Butrut. 

Kalaja Trekendore Veneciane - Venecian Triangle Castle.

Then in Borsh we had the first unpaved road together and for Flurin was the first ever. He realized soon that he wanted to kiss stones and dirt too. Very nice road, till it started raining hard and the light was turned off very fast, so we rode in a storm in the night, this is very dangerous on a motorbike. We reached Vlorë and we managed to find a good and cheap hotel.

COFFE SOLVES EVERYTHING!

Today started easy and peasy, on the road to Leskovik we passed through an oilfield: I've never seen one in my life and was quite impressive. Then to Ersekë, were we had lunch in a local restaurant. The meal was good and very cheap. We rode on the albanian region of the lake Prespa.

SH100 near Peshkëpi.

SH75 near Kanikol.

 This was a tough unpaved road full of mud puddles or pools, since some where really huge and deep. This is a place where you don't want to fall from the motorbike, but Flurin the newbie decided that it was the right time to leave the Limbo and get baptized. Very nice ride and the abused e07 tyres proved to be ok also in this tough situation! Out of the mud the KLE decided to not work anymore: same issue as mine had in Bosnia, the side sand switch blocks and doesn't allow the bike to run. Removed it and the ride went on till Pogradec where we are right now. Albania is really a paradise for dirt riding and is also super cheap!

Somewhere near Rakickë. A new son of the Ignoranza Enduristica has been baptized!

Byzantine Empire, day 30, around 11500 km, Igoumenitsa in Greece

Here I am after 1 month alone with my motorcycle.
The Last 3 days have been easy day that I've spent in Skopje and Pristina, yes the capital of Kosovo, the country that I thought someone didn't want me to visit. Skopje is a city that really worth a visit. It is really like a Las Vegas and all the colossal buildings seem just fake.
The road to Pristina was very nice near the Border, but then everything turn into flat and it is just a road full of traffic. So I took a road more east that passes near Badovcit lake and I cut straight through Gomnishtë were I had some no mud-no fun under the heavy rain. Actually the road was good with some mud on it, so there was enough traction with an abused mitas e07 aswell. I don't think there is much to say about Pristina, it didn't shock me. After having been in the might and colossal Skopje, all city look poor. I passed the border in Glloboçicë: better road and with no waiting line at border. It wasn't raining so it was a nice ride despite the road was still wet.
I went directly to Ohrid without passing by Bigorski Monastery because it seemed to be raining in this direction. Ohrid is a very nice city, a big fortess on the top of a hill and a huge lake. In Sommer is a common holidays place for Macedonians. I've eaten a Sopska Salad near the lake and then I left for the border with Greece near Bitola.

P504 near Трпејца.

The road P504 between the two lakes on the national park of Galichica is paved but it is an amazing road climbing up the whole mountain with views on the lakes.
 For this part of Greece I had some track of specia stages, but it was late and I wanted to reach Igoumenitsa so that I would have had the whole Sunday for preparing the bike for the next two weeks, so I rode on paved roads. I took the E86 to Kastoria, then Nestorio and to Konitsa where it started to rain hard. Before Ioannina I took the E92 to Igoumenitsa, very nice road. The Mitas e07 proved to be a very good tyre on wet/flooded pavement aswell, I had read a lot of negative comments about them on the web, but as almost always, they they were wrong. I'm really convinced that most of the people that write on forums don't have any idea about riding a motorbike. Rain stopped and I was able to ride on the sunset after a storm, which is always amazing, but the best will always be the one I saw on the Monte Lema with the Gas Gas.

E92.

Sunsets are awesome, the only bad part about them is that they are red...better dead than red! With this sentence I'm able to go back to the fake Freedom of capitalism! I arrived in Igoumenitsa with the dark. The city is so small, I though it was much bigger, finding a T63 here will be impossible... I think I will test the abused e07 on the next two weeks through Balkans, a lot offroad awaits us!

Today maintenance and relax, tomorrow morning Filippo and Flurin will arrive with the ferry and we will head to Albania for some no mud-no fun!

I've changed the chain slider, the repaired one has done around 7000 km...impressive engineering work I've done!

The repaired chain slider after almost 7000 km...Engineering at its finest!

Byzantine Empire, day 26, Skopje in Macedonia / FYROM

Non stop raining. Some days ago here there were temperatures above 35 degrees celsius, now it is nice if they reach 15 degrees celsius. I took a fast tour of Skopje this morning and the city is really stunning, I think I have seen more statues in this small tour than in my whole life. The city is colossal, seems like an ancient city, full of squares, fountains and statues.

Скопје, Скопско Кале.

Скопје, a man on a horse!

The huge fountain of Alexander the Great (because of an issue with Greece, the fountain is now called Man on a horse... Kindergarten) is impressive, he is riding an horse on the top of the fountain, while on a lower level the famous pikemen defend him from Lions, the water jumps in all direction and it changes by time to time. There are a lot of fancy buildings with colossal white columns in front. Then the Fortress Kale is in pure sinthony with the rest of the city, colossal! The walls are impressively high and some of them are cyclopean style, with big stone blocks that form them. This city really deserves to be visited and a weekend should be fine. I left the city with the intention to go to Bigorski Monastery. It was raining hard and the temperature was 13 degrees celsius. The fucking Adventure Boots of Forma aren't waterproof, despite they are described as waterproof. I already knew that before leaving home, last year I experienced this problem, but I had no money for changing them, so Selberschuld and the ride must go on. I stopped for eating a Shapsko salad and, since my friends will arrive in Igonumenitsa on Monday and not on Sunday, I thought I could have spent a night in Kosovo, so I took the direction for it. Last year Kosovo screwed up my first plan because they require you to have a passport in order to enter the country, but I hadn't a valid passport, so renewing it just for going in a country that is not recognized by a lot of countries didn't worth the money in my opinion. At the border they asked me for the passport and you know what happened? I forgot it at the hotel in Skopje.

 Boom Headshot.

I went back to Skopje and I stopped in the same hotel, I took the decision I will never ever again try to go in Kosovo, seems like a magical power (call it God, Allah, Karma or Motumbo) doesn't want me to go there (Last Year on the Balkan tour I had no clue there was the need of having a passport for entering it). So tomorrow I will have a deep look at Skopje, meanwhile my Boots will dry and this is a good thing, because it won't stop raining, but wearing in the morning a boot that is already wet lowers the moral!

Скопје, Stone Bridge, some statues, a man on a horse and a cross on the top of a mountain.

Byzantine Empire, day 25, Skopje in Macedonia/FYROM

Yesterday I planned what to do next and I visited the city of Tessaloniki. There is a lot to see and the city is full of archeological sites.
Today I went to the Honda dealer and he told me that the spare part hasn't arrived and he had no idea when it could have arrived. I was really pissed of since Friday he told me that Monday the part would have been there. So I asked him again where I could find broken Africa Twins or a used one because it is really an emergency and after being really rude he gave me the adress of another Honda dealer five kilometers away. The lovely things is that this dealer had the part on stock. Actually two of them. I can't believe that he didn't tell me immediately to check there, I told him that it was an "emergency" and he didn't redirect me, for 40 fucking euros. By the lucky dealer they started asking me question about my trip and I spent there almost a hour there.

I took the road to Macedonia, the weather wasn't good and it was almost raining most of the time. I entered FYROM without any problem and I was really surprised because the road I took were very nice and in fact I had read about completely destroyed roads and missing manholes. 

Border between Greece and FYROM/Macedonia near Стар Дојран.

Macedonia. Call it FYROM in Greece, or Greeks are gonna hate you!

Then near Sopi it started to rain hard, so I decided to not visit the ancient city and to take the motorway to Skopje. Easy day, I hope it will stop raining so that l can visit the city. Macedonia seems very cheap, the petrol is around 1 € per litre, it is so sad that I can turn most of the country with just one tank!`

Скопје, the old city near the Old Bazaar.