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

New plans for 2017

Cow adventure 2017 here I come.
Friday 16th of June I will leave direction Farini (PC), I will have some mud fun on the way down along the Val Nure, juster after a heavy lunc in Veggiola. Then the Cow Adventure will start.
Sunday 18th of June on the Evening I will be back in Farini and another big journey will start: exploring deserts in Spain.

I will ride along the road on the attached image. I will sleep in a tent on the top of Colle della MAddalena at around 2000 meters over the sea level! The sky should be clear, so the stars will be amazing up there. Then Monday Evening I will be in Vers after a chill day of Riding on Vallée/Gorges du Tarn, etc. There I will meet with my father. Tuesday we will have an easy ride down to Sádaba, in Spain, where we will sleep for 3 nights. Bardena Reales awaits me. The beast is seeking for some freedom. After this we will go to Andorra for the famous San Juan Festival. 2 nights of it, no idea what will await me. Leaving Andorra will be easy as the beast wants to feel sand and stones under its feet. After two days we will reach Las Negrass, near Almeria, where we will stay for 5 nights. Desierto de Tabernas, Sierra Nevada, Oays Mini Hollywood and a lot of sun are the main attractions there. The beast is gonna sufer and I'm going to suffer even more. After the sea we will head to Granada, two nights there in a city that will be almost empty. After 2 days of chilling touristic stuff, we will be ready for the Marathon, the last test for the pilot and the machine: Granada to Ventimiglia in 3 days with a lot of gravel fun through Parque Natural Sierras de Cazorla, Parc Natural de la Tinença de Benifassà, Serres de Cardó-el Boix, etc.
In Ventimiglia we will spend 2 nights and on Saturday 8th of July we will ride north along the famous Via del Sale, then direction home.

That's it another trip this year!

Nope, that's just half of it.

 Back home I will change tyres, do some maintenance and leave for the Balkans, again. It ain't no Summer if I don't spend some times in the Balkans. With a lightweight beast, Michelin T63 equipped, I will head down for some serious fun. The plan is as follow: First painful day for reaching Bihać, in Bosnia. Then the fun will begin. I will head to Sarajevo along some gravel roads, I will spend 2 nights for sure there. Then I will leave toward East to Serbia, I've never met the Serbs so far so I really have to do that. I will spend some days going down to Macedonia (FYROM for my greek friends). There I will for sure spend 2 nights either in Skopje or Ohrid. Then I will enter Albania near Pogradec. In Albania it will be hardcore gravel roads fun. I will visit the Gjadër Air Base, steal a couple of Mig at the Kuçovë Air Base and visit Porto Palermo. Then Montenegro, Kotor and Budva are must. Some other gravel roads fun, the famous Kapetanovo lake and the up to Žabljak, where I will ride into Bosnia without passing any custom on an isolated gravel roads. Back in Bosnia I will hit Mostar, then ride again on the Dinaric Alps, also here I will leave Bosnia and enter Croatia without any custom. Then in Croatia I don't know, I've seen a lot of Verbot signs so I might end up riding fastly toward home. I will stop in Valdobbiadene for some nice drinking and for learning a couple of Swears from the masters of swearing (Orto Bio!). Maybe I will try some roads like the Strada delle 52 Gallerie but I will see then. I will be back by the beginning of August, rugby pre-season will awaits me!

Who dares, wins. And I always win!

Who dares, wins. And I always win!

Between monte Tamaro (1962 masl) and monte Lema (1621 masl), in Ticino, there is a very famous path that goes along the crest between the Malcantone and the valle Veddasca. Half way of this path, there is the monte Gradiccioli (1935 masl), which can either be climbed or walked on the side. I tried 2 years ago to climb it with the trial motorbike, but it is very steep and rocky and moreover you are on a crest of the mountain, so a mistake can lead to fatal consequences.

After the traditional launch of Easter, it was such a beautiful day that I decided that it was the right day for try the challange. The weather was amazing, warm and very clear, so the views from up there would have been amazing. At 5 o'clock I was back home and I started getting ready. On the way back home I realized that the wind was increasing and that the insects where flying very low, so the first thing that I've done at home, was checking the weather forecast. Bad news, in 1 hour big raining clouds would have come down from north. I didn't care, I had already accepted the challange.

I got the bike ready, I pumped the tyres at 1 bar because I would have reached the bottom of the mountain by roads and easy paths.

I went up the Valle della Magliasina till the deviation for the Val Agario, where the challange was starting:

I let the air flowing out of the tyres to the right pressure and I started the climb. I had already ridden on this path but I was not remembering it at all: it was full of leaves on the ground and the path was always on the side of very steep slopes. Dangereous but not difficult.

The wind speed increased more, now it was already around 6 o'clock, so the rain was coming.

I've reached alpe Nisciora and I've followed the side of the Gradiccioli till Alpe Agario, where I went up to the crest of the Tamaro-Lema. There is an old military construction over there where there is the possibility to get some food and drinks (Yes, even beer!). I had a tea and I relaxed myself because I was on the crest and I could see very well that no clouds were coming...no rain!

Kind of sad because near Cannobio, in Italy, there was a fire and there were some helicopters going on and back throwing water on the fire.

The crest of the Tamaro-Lema, amazing colors. On the back you can see the summit of the Gradiccioli

Then I reached the intersection (around 1730 masl) or climbing the Gradiccioli or passing by the side. I went up, of course. I was believing on myself, I wanted to reach the summit at any cost.

I started riding on the crest which was alway getting smaller and steeper, on the path there were more rocks than dirt, even big ones which required some balance and full throttle for climbing them.

I've reached the point where I had given up 2 years ago. A pictures was a must:

On the back you can see the smoke of the fire.
 Going by the side was impossible as the there is no grip on grass and actually it is very dangerous, because falling it means sliding down a lot of meters before being able to stop.

But this time I went on, I kept riding, in some points I had to go by the side of the bike because I was really afraid of falling. Then after climbing some rocky parts, I reached this point and I realized that the challange would have been completed:

Reached the summit, the bike was very happy and I was feeling invincible. A couple of Braaaps for commemorating the achievement. Blue smoke on the top of Gradiccioli for the first time ever.

The wind was very strong up there, I had bought a beer for celebrating the moment, but I decided to first going back down to the military building in order to still have 101% control of my skills.

On the crest Tamaro-Lema I celebrated my achievement by wheeling the bike while an helicopter was passing up on my side.

Kind of this feeling:

Differents bikes and different speeds, of course.

It has been a short and nice ride and I'm impressed on how my riding skills improved in the last two years. Stay tuned for more soon!

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!