Suspensions

Working on suspensions is the first thing you have to do if you want to have a better motorbike. No discussion on this, there is no increase in power that can improve as much as a well tuned fork.

A lot of XRV owners replace the suspensions of the bike with USD forks and fency gold colored rear shocks.  This is a very expensive solution and I don't like it.

Boano sells this kit for the XRV series. Around 2000 €.

It is for sure a good improvement, but it is really to expensive in my opinion.
Moreover this kit leads to a problem: as these replacement forks are more stiff, the bearing of the front wheel are more stressed and they need to be changed a lot more often. On forums a lot of people with these forks say that they always have spare wheel bearings with them even for small raids in Marocco.
I've never changed any of these bearings in more than 26000 km.

The original forks of the XRV 650 are very nice in my opinion, because they allow the user to tune them properly and, as they are not so stiff, it is easier to ride the bike.

Here you can find everything you need to know about the XRV 650 suspensions:
http://www.xrv650.eu/do-it-yourself/modifications/suspension-upgrading


In the front forks I have fit Wirth springs and I'm fine with them.
The sag with me on the bike was to high, so I've placed some sheems between caps and springs in order to increase the preload.

Fork caps and shems increasing the preload (Total thickness is 7,5 mm).

I'm very happy with this set up of the bike.

The fork oil should be changed every 20000 km or less if you are riding a lot off road. I've changed mine after 26000 km with a lot offroad.

Fork oil after 26000 km, it looks like engine oil.

You don't realize that the forks change the behaviour because it is a slow process. When you renew them, you really feel the difference.

The rear shock of the XRV 650 is the best compromise between performance and longevity: don't change it if you want to use the bike for riding all around the world!

It can be renewed and I really suggest everybody to change the spring, unless you weight 70 kg with the full riding equipment on you. The hyperpro one it is said it is the best one. But as I'm taller and bigger than most of the people, I went for a spring with 140 N/mm spring rate: before the trip to Caucasus I had no time to wait for the spring and to renew the shock, so I changed it with a Hagon one with a 140 N/mm spring rate. 

It did its job well despite it had no external tank but in Igoumenitsa, after more than 20000 km, it started leaking oil.

Tune the suspensions of your bike in order to create a better relationship between you and it.

Don't forget to talk to it from time to time!

New look and first test

The 31st of December I've finally got the fairing from perfect-fairings (order placed the 18th of November). No worries, but it is good to know.

The fairing is well made, not made by cheap thing fiberglass and moreover the use mesh fiberglass, so it is very tough.

I asked them make it blank, because I wanted to use it with the big "swiss" square light, so I would have to cut out the hole for the light by myself. Not a big deal.

 Race-ready XRV 650

 The fairing with supports and the hole for the light.

The things that disappointed me, is that the fairing didn't have the 4 thread for fixing it at the light frame. So I had to build some support by meslf.

Moreover, the fairing is a bit  longer (around 3) cm than the standard one. I noticed this when I had already done the 4 supports for it, so I kept it like this.

I've made a instruments panel out of plexiglass with a laser cutter.

Placing the plexiglass intrumental panel.

After painting the fairing with the original scheme (Not standard color sadly), refinishing the internal of the fairing with matt black and putting everything at its place, here it is the bike:

Almost ready for everything.

I still have to put a 2 mm plexiglass protection on the light.

 The very rare Arrow Paris Dakar.

 The instrumental panel. The GPS support is mounted on silent blocks.

I still have to move the clock.

I've also cut a thin foam for the air intake and I've placed a PA sock at the entrance, so that it is a very efficient prefilter and it can really be cleaned easily . In fact it is possible to move the sock a little bit in order to have it clean at the intake: so cleaning the sock it is not necessary to clean it often!
I've also removed the part of the air intake under the tank's cap because it was not necessary at all for fixing the air intake.

PA sock athe the air intake.

I went for a 300 km ride, up to 1600 meters over the sea level with temperatures from -7° C up to 5° C. A very nice day with no traffic on the roads. The air intake proved to be good and the jetting of the bike is more or less fine. Let's see when the weather will be hotter, but I don't feel like it will be necessary to modify anything.
An issue of the upper air intake is the following: At high speeds (More than 80 kilometers per hour) standing in front during the ride modifies the pressure at the air intake, so more air pass through it and the engine runs lean.
It is not a big issues, since this happens only when I stand with straight legs, this happens only when I've been riding for many kilometers and I want to stretch myself. When I ride offroad legs are never straight, so I'm more leaned back and there is no issue

In Ponte Tresa around 9 o'clock.

A detailed report of the ride can be found here:
http://motoalpinismo.it/smf/index.php?topic=14859.msg167945#new

Thanks to Bikerider for riding with me!