Summer 2018

Sometimes it happens: I can't sleep.
It's very rare but it's normal when too many things go through your mind.

The best in these occasions is to start using the time and so I've started working on next Summer. Right now is Winter and thinking of next Summer and maybe riding through Turkey, a place I haven't seen yet pops up in my mind: Ölüdeniz. I had planned to go there 2 years ago on the way back from Georgia but I didn't. Why?
I can't exactly say why I skipped the whole part in South East Turkey, the Beast was ready for it but the Knight wasn't. Moreover he threw manure on itself so it was not the really right time for that trip. But flowers don't come from diamonds, they come from manure!

So here we go, I still have the tracks of the Georgia trip, which were based on the ones a Russian Rider shared with me. By looking a little bit at Wikiloc I've decided myself: I will reach Central Asia by riding through Turkey and Iran. So I've downloaded something like 40 tracks and the puzzle is starting.

Betwee Ölüdeniz and Iran there is already a lot and there is a lot more to discover, like Taşkale, just found it on the pictures of google map.

I haven't started planning the BAM and Central Asia part of the trip that the Turkey is already making it Epic!

The new Beast

I've had time to mount and almost finish the new Beast, here a recap of the things that have been removed or replaced:
Front fairings with high screen: -1940 g, replaced with Boano's rally fairing: 2360 g  (+420 g)
Original meters&co: ~1700 g, replaced with Koso Db-03r and two lights for fuel indicatiors ~300g (- 1400g)
I've had time to mount and almost finish the new Beast, here a recap of the things that have been removed or replaced:
Front frame plus light: 2720 g, replaced with Boano's front frame and light 1050 g   (-1670 g)
Motobatt: -5500 g, replaced with lithium battery BCB9-FP-WI 730 g   (-4770 g)
Blinkers: -900 g, replaced with One arrow blinkers 160 g (-740 g)
Handlebar: -1400 g, replaced with alluminium one with same measures by Boano 900 g, (-500 g)
Shortened seat: -500 g
Bashplate reinforced with fiberglass: 3060 g, boano kevlar carbon bashplate with pockets 2360 g (-700 g)
Muffler: -6400 g, replaced with original Arrow Paris Dakar 2180 g (-4220 g)
Top carrier: -1100 g, replaced with one made by GPMucci ~200 g (-900 g)
Rear Subframe (Complete with light): -2800 g, replaced with CRF450 mudguard plus plate holder 500 g (-2300 g)
Both rear side covers: -1600 g, replaced with tanks made by GPMucci ~5000 g (+3400 g)
Plastics on the swingarm: -350 g
Front forks plastics: -450 g
Side stand sensor: -200 g
Engine plastic grid: -150 g
Passenger steps: - 1200 g
Original fuel pump plus relay: 900 g, Mikuni fuel pump 250 g (-650 g)

A grand total of 16880 grams have been removed from the Beast, that's a great achievement!

A new Beast is born, completely different and more fun for off-pavement tracks. Right now it is near Bologna by GPMucci: he is building the new side tanks with support for the luggages and other small stuff.

The future of the Beast

After almost 50000 km the Beast had its break-in.

It is time to think big: the future of the Beast is bright!

POV of my proposal.

Lifting and weight loss, this is the plan. First of all the front part, in total it has a weight around 7 kg (complete fairing, headlight, meters, subframe, blinkers and other stuff). R

ally light fairing by Boano and a Koso DB-03, around 3 kg can be loss on almost the highest part of the bike, this is a very nice improvment.

Then by using the Boano's carbon-kevlar bashplate with side pockets, some weight can be saved and tools and some spare parts can be hold as low as possible in the bike. The original bashplate is 2,9 kg, The Carbon-Kevlar one with pockets should be around 2 kg.

More fuel is needed, two extra tanks will be mounted for around extra 12 liters of fuel. I will ask Gian Paolo Mucci to realize them for me ( http://www.gpmucci.it/ ).

 Rear side tanks for the RD03/04 made by GP Mucci.

The extra fuel is needed for riding the BAM as an autonomy of 400 km while riding offroad.

The weight of both tanks should be around the weight of the parts that won't be necessary anymore. (Rear bag support, side panniers, rear subframe, side covers and various plastics).

A big advantage of these tanks is that they will allow the fuel to stay more lower, so I will almost never fill the original tank top the top, this will help a lot while riding offroad.

The original triple clamp weights 2,7 kg: I will see if it is worth to build a new one out of alluminium.

I will cut the useless part of the original seat (It is made for two persons), around 1 kg will be saved.

Battery: The standard battery of the bike is around 4 kg, a lithium battery with same specs weight slightly less than 1 kg, that's a very good improvement.

Another nice improvement will be the use of a Supersprox rear sprocket (Steel teeth, alluminium body), around half a kilo of a rotating mass can be saved.

The Arrow Silencer I have right now is less than 3 kg but there are nice carbon fibers silencers that weight 1,8 kg, so it is also a next step.

Then other small stuffs will be removed: the sprocket cover, rear disk cover, the chain guard.

Money, time and a lot of work. The Beast will be fit as never for the next season!

UPDATE 29.08.2017.

The diet of the Beast:

Front fairings (original) : -1800 g (Rally fairing: +2415 g)
Meters&co: -1500 g ( Koso Db-03 + support: +450 g)
Front frame + headlight (single one, Swiss edition): 2720 g (Rally front frame plus light: +1050 g)
Battery (Motobatt): -5500 g (litium battery: +730 g)
Blinkers: -900 g ( Light ones...maybe: +140 g)
Rear sprocket: -1300 g (Supersprox: +830 g)
Handlebar: -1400 g (Alluminum handlebar: +900g)
Seat: -500 g (shortened)
Bashplate: -3060g (With the fiberglass reinforcements I've made) (C/k bashplate w. pockets: +2360 g)
Muffler: -6000 g (Arrow PD: 2030)
Top carrier: -1100 g
Rear Subframe (complete with light): - 2800 CRF450 rear mudguard plus plate holder: +500 g
Side covers: - 1600 g New side tanks 10 liters in total: (less than 5000 g)
Swingarm plastics: -350 g
Front forks plastics: -450 g
Side stand sensor: -200 g
Engine plastic grid: -150 g
Passenger steps: -1200g
Batanga racks: -3500 g
Left hand side cover: -950 g
Right hand side cover: -640 g
Rear mudguard middle palstic: -100

Grand total of 27650 g taken away from the Beast, on the other hand some pieces will be changed, not completely taken away, so there is a plus of 11165 g, so the bike should lose around 16,5 kg. This is very optimistic, I don't know if the weights I've found around forums and website are correct, but anyway loosing 10 kg is feasible.

This won't mean that the bike will be 10 kg or more lighter than the original one: I've put other stuff on it, like the crashbars (Around +6000 g).

Then other stuff will be removed/added, but I haven't found any weight for them.

Rough calculations, then end result will be a big improvement anyway!

UPDATE 18.09.2017

today I had some time and I've started working. The battery of the bike (Motobatt) is 5.5 kg, so more than 4 kg will be saved by changing it.
The arrow Paris Dakar silencer is 2,28 kg, so I won't change it.
The shorter seat allows to save 0.5 kg and to move luggage more to the front and in a lowered position.
Luggage racks are 3,5 kg (Made by Batanga), the rear subframe (with stop light, plastics and plateholder is 2,8 kg, left side cover is 0.95 kg and the right one is 0.68 kg. Including the standard top rack and the passenger pegs, around 10 kg have been removed.

Last week I saw some picture of rear side tanks for KTM 990 made by GPMucci: both have a weight of araund 5 kg and a total fuel capacity of 10 liters. By estimating 2 kg for the rear fender, plater holder and led stop light, more than 4 kg will be saved and the center of mass will be lowered. This will completely change the bike.

Nex step will be installing the new rally fairing, new bash plate and the new meter. Money is needed for this, so I will have to wait a little bit.

In the end the Arrow PD silencer will come more to the back, so that there will be enough space for the tank.

SSS Raid: Šopska Salata i Šljivovica Raid!

Very short and intense trip through the Balkans, 10 days, 4500 km in total, around 1200 sad kilometers of motorway for passing through the Pianura Padana. The Beast dealt very well with all this.

The objective of the trip was to push the Beast to its limit and it worked. A couple of stuffs failed but I was able to repair them so now I really know what are the next steps for improving the Beast.

Leaving home, the first idea was to change the tyres in Bihac or Sarajevo, in the end I've changed them in Skopje.

I've been riding a lot of kilometers per day if you consider that I've been in Skopje for 3 days without riding.

I will let the pictures talk, for more detailed reports you can have a look at the facebook page.

 Zeljava Airbase, old hangar.

 I've shared an apartment in bihac with those people from Oman, it has been lovely having breakfast with them.

 Sarajevo, the old bob slope of the Winter Olympic games.

 A road in Bosnia on an old railway.

 At some point there was a fallen bridge. I had to change plan.

 Somewhere in Servia, I will have to visit it more in the future.

 Few kilometers away from Skopje, wrong tube was fit in. Now that I'm home I've realized that even the rotation direction is wrong. 

 Ohrid lake, albanian side.

 Somewhere in Albania.

 SH75

Somewhere near the SH75

 Somewhere near Golëm.

  Somewhere near Golëm.

 Somewhere near Progonat.

 Somwehere near Progonat.

 No idea where, the road was going along a river that should have been dry.

 Somwehere North East of Elbasan.

 TET part in Albania, near Tirana.

 TET part in Albania, near Tirana.

 TET part in Albania, near Tirana.

 TET part in Albania, near Tirana.

 TET part in Albania, near Tirana.

 TET part in Albania, near Tirana.

 TET part in Albania, near Tirana.

 TET part in Albania, near Tirana.

 P16 in Montenegro.

 The view over Kotor.

 The broken support of the fron frame.

 Fixed with fine engineering.

 On the road to Mostar for welding the support.

 The Beast could feel free near Prisoje in Bosnia.

 Croatia, near the Mali Alan pass (This is not the road of the pass).

Croatia, near the Mali Alan.

That's it. A short and intense trip. Amazing as always. Now it is time to get improve the Beast more, in order to have the almost perfect machine for travelling.

Is the fuel clean?

You can never be sure if the fuel you put in your tank is clean. It may contain water or particles in different sizes.  This can be really problematic on new motorbikes due to the injection system. On the XRV there are less problems because carburettors can work in very bad conditions.
But particles in fuel do not only mean that your motorcycle may stop running, they also increase the wearing. This is very important to me. I've never had troubles on my trip with carburetors that get stuck or jetting that seize up.
In other places like the Morocco's desert or Central Asia fuel is available from sources that are not trustworthy: cans or very old fuel stations.

So I found on the internet an italian producer of fuel filter: Guglatech.
http://guglatech.it/en/

This producer has various products, from specific ones to other that fits most motorbikes.
I got an 8 magnets - 15 microns fuel filter ( http://guglatech.it/en/products/M12002 )  because I saw an other XRV 650 rider who fits one on the original tank of the motorbike.

I talk to the owner of Guglatech and he asked me to try a new 15 micron filter matrix during my coming trip to Spain and I accepted.

Then he also gave me an Adventure Kit ( http://guglatech.it/it/adventure-kit ) for the upcoming trip to Balkans. The Adventure Kit is made of a 15 microns filter and a 0 microns one. A dual stage fuel filter can be obtained by putting the 15 one into the 0 one: this should be the ultimate fuel filtration system. This filter is used directly on the cans or fuel pistols.
I will test them on my Balkans trip.

Following is the 15 microns fuel filter. On top there are the magnets for the fixation on the tank.

This is how the filter looks when fixed into the tank. Let's see how much dirt there will be inside after the Spain trip!

UPDATE 12.07.2017

After around 7000 km of use, I've removed the filter and there was some particles trapped in it. I didn't clean it as the particles improve the effectivness of the filter. I'm really curious to see it after the Balkans.

UPDATE 02.08.2017

Depending on where you are on the Balkans, the fuel can comee from less reliable sources (Like a simple pet bottle or a very old and rusty fuel pump). For the modern bikes with fuel injection it is very important to have a clean fuel.
For the golden oldies like the Beast there are not the same issues as the engine runs on carburetors, but the cleanest the fuel, the happier the Beast is.
You can compare this to a person eating some food, even if the food is full of dirt, the person will survive and be able to go on, but it will be mostlikely be pinned down on the toilet for a while. Nobody likes this.
Thank you Guglatech!

More specific information:
http://blog.guglatech.it/en/

Find the product for your bike here:
https://guglatech.it/en/

#cleanfuel