So we've all heard/seen the 650 xchallenge...let's see your XCOUNTRY!

[Flachlandtiroler]

Originally Posted by leafman60

My bringing up a DR was to mention it as a 650 possibility that I consider to be a bit more dirt oriented than the XCo. If the seat height is a concern on the DR, it can easily be lowered by shifting a bolt in the shock linkage (much easier to adjust than the XCo.) The DR wont run with an XCo on the highway, though.

By the way, Im 6-2, 205 and my XCo is jacked up with just the correct seat height for me. I cannot quite flatfoot it (part of that is the Corbin seat).

To reiterate, the XCo has a wide range of capability - on-road and off-road.

There are limitations with the XCo for sure. The terribly small fuel tank, the horrible seat, the lack of a tach,
the challenge to adopt good wind protection, the challenge to attach luggage are just a few. Ive spent a lot of energy and money on fixing those things.

I would not like the XCo in stock form.

Going back, I'd probably opt for a BMW 650 single GS model instead of the XCo for my purposes. Most of the limitations I just mentioned are a non-issue on the GS series.

Anyway, I gots what I gots and I like it.

I own both and I agree the DR is a bit more dirt oriented with 21” and 18” wheels, soft and much cheaper plastics, protection of brake and shift pedals and other details.
The DR seat can be easily lowered, but it has only two positions, high and low,and you will have to mount a shorter side stand too.
(Lack of ) wind protection is about the same, as is the ride position, and if you think the XCo seat is horrible, (which I don’t) you should try a DR, feels like sitting on a 4x2 after an hour or so.
The engine of the XCo is stronger and the gas response is much better.Of course you can improve those things on the DR, but it will cost you a lot of time and money.
Why do I keep the DR? Because I love it for its well thought out, simple and practical old school design, I just can’t part with it, yes, I’m a sentimental old fool

[snooker]

Originally Posted by O'B

Yes but at that price you could get a new shock and a set of marzocchi sliders and still be ahead! I bought mine of off Boise craigslist 2009 abs under 2000 miles for 5 grand a year and a half ago. The only reason this bike did not catch on is the price new. It contained a lot of high quality thought and eng. Now that they are totally dissmissed you can pick up one for a steal . It is a bike that takes some investment to bring it into its own. But admit it this thing runs like a little raped ape!!!

I got my 07 with ABS for $5k and that was 3 years ago! Back then that was a steal so that's why now I say it is fair and not a steal. Price wise. (being picky here). So yeah putting $1k just into a shock... well could be worse.

At first I hated the seat on the 07 simply because of the bucket seat feel and no way to slide backwards. Now I actually think it is very comfortable and although I'd like to adjust fore and aft on it, it hasn't been a big enough issue to compell me to do so. I also stand up a lot. Now the 09 seat is much thinner and from the little time I've sat on one, well it seems a lot more uncomfortable, I assume from having much less padding/cushioning.

p.s. CloggyMan you forgot to tell us how much you LOVE your 2 XCountry's.. remember that's what you're supposed to do at this point

[squizzy]

Hi Guys, just bought a 08 xcountry. No abs. The guy I bought it off had not ridden it for 12 months. Only done 8700 klms. Condition is not too bad, considering it has just been sitting in his shed. First thing will be oil and filter change and general check over. Tyres (tourances) look a bit hard, but will wait a while before changing. Comes with windscreen, bashplate, tankbag and tailbag with rack. Bought it to ride on day rides where I think my F650 (800) would not be as much fun. My wife can have a ride when she wants too (maybe)! Going by some of the posts, I might ride it more than the 800! Anything else I should be looking at maintenance wise considering it has been sitting around? Looking at making up racks to carry a couple of rotopax fuel containers. I was thinking a 3.8 litre container each side. Throwover panniers maybe over the top if required for a trip. Seem feasible, or too much for the subframe? Where can I get a service manual, or it is it pretty straightford? Thanks for any info.

[Flachlandtiroler]

Originally Posted by snooker

p.s. CloggyMan you forgot to tell us how much you LOVE your 2 XCountry's.. remember that's what you're supposed to do at this point

Thanks for reminding me, how could I be so forgetful

[valkrider.de]

just a little pic...

my XCo after a day in the dirt

[tbarstow]

Originally Posted by squizzy

Hi Guys, just bought a 08 xcountry. No abs. The guy I bought it off had not ridden it for 12 months. Only done 8700 klms. Condition is not too bad, considering it has just been sitting in his shed. First thing will be oil and filter change and general check over. Tyres (tourances) look a bit hard, but will wait a while before changing. Comes with windscreen, bashplate, tankbag and tailbag with rack. Bought it to ride on day rides where I think my F650 (800) would not be as much fun. My wife can have a ride when she wants too (maybe)! Going by some of the posts, I might ride it more than the 800! Anything else I should be looking at maintenance wise considering it has been sitting around? Looking at making up racks to carry a couple of rotopax fuel containers. I was thinking a 3.8 litre container each side. Throwover panniers maybe over the top if required for a trip. Seem feasible, or too much for the subframe? Where can I get a service manual, or it is it pretty straightford? Thanks for any info.

Please check out the Sticky under Thumpers for the Bike Specific Index thread for the the G650X bikes to answer pretty much all of your questions.

[djb_rh]

Okay, here we go. Still a few more electrical farkles to add, but the heavy lifting is done.

As folks might recall, my 2x2 bicycle rack sheered off two bolts (of the four) that the tail rack I was using had. Didn't even have a bike on it, just a small Givi topcase that was basically empty! But the reality is that rack was sitting pretty far out the back and thus had a lot of leverage, and the four spacers put those bolts really far out there and thus a lot of flex led to a lot of stress and blam, bad mojo.

So to fix this, I decided to have one of my employees fab a new rack system. It uses the four factory mounting holes AND reaches forward of those down to where the subframe does a Y and attaches to the big hole there with some magic. Now it's got six mounting spots to the frame, but required no mods to the motorcycle itself. So here it is in all the glory:



Note that we did some yellow vinyl on the handguards, and did some powdercoating of some of the add-on metal bits in a yellow that seems to match the factory stuff quite well. Yes, I'm sure all this yellow is polarizing...some will hate it. To me, well, the more yellow you have the faster it is. :)

Yes, I realize the hard bags are KTM logoed, but they were so cheap I couldn't resist. And I also realize they are huge and combined with that big top case, extra fuel tank, and all that racking, well, I've added a lot of weight. But in reality I also have soft bags for the sides and a much smaller top case and don't ever really plan to ride it much (if at all) with all these huge bags at once. I just like to have a lot of options. If I have a bicycle on it I'll have to use the smaller top case anyway (or none), for example.





Above you can sort of see the extra bracing the custom rack provides.



We also had to clearance the heat shield on the muffler a little to make room for the new rack. But the new rack serves the same purpose for any passenger, so unless it burns my pretty powdercoating, I'm good.



Gonna put some plastic caps on the holes in the rear tube.



Used some black paint on the bottom edge of the windscreen to keep the scattering from happening at night across the top edge.



I love these hand guards, and the LED signal markers REALLY stand out when you signal. Yellow vinyl was our addition, which also makes the bike stand out that much more in daylight, I think.





More yellow protective goodness.



And the piece that should make all this extra weight (especially since I'm 200 myself) work.

Yep, I think I officially have as much in farkles on this bike as the bike itself. Oh well, it's what I do, which is usually "too much."

So anyone got a recommendation for a good little add-on fuse setup to add maybe three circuits? One will need to be a bigger fuse for a heated jacket and gloves. The other two can be pretty small as their loads will be GPS and phone power.


--Donnie

[TobyG]

Originally Posted by djb_rh

So anyone got a recommendation for a good little add-on fuse setup to add maybe three circuits? One will need to be a bigger fuse for a heated jacket and gloves. The other two can be pretty small as their loads will be GPS and phone power.


--Donnie

These fuse boxes were posted in the Rally Navigation Bracket thread over in /racing :
http://www.easternbeaver.com/Main/El...seholders.html


As waterproof as it gets and pretty compact, IMO


I like the looks of you bike, by the way

[leafman60]

DJB RH , that's a great-looking rig you got there !

[djb_rh]

Originally Posted by leafman60

DJB RH , that's a great-looking rig you got there !

Thanks.

I do have to say, though, that I owe nearly all of it to this thread. Most of the mods were downright copied by what others have already done. My only original contribution to this one is the beefy tail rack and more yellow.

It's funny, because I think the previous owner of the bike was already following along doing many of the same mods that others on this thread were doing. He then sold me the bike and it included some parts that I had NO IDEA what they were. It wasn't until reading through the threads here that I found out...it was stuff like the CNC cut (but still unfinished raw metal!) protectors for the brake and shifter areas! So I have other inmates fabrication efforts to thank (and I don't think some of these parts are available from those original sources any more) as well as just the great ideas of different products to put together to get to this point.

Time to start planning this summer's trip back to Colorado, methinks! This time I vow to ALWAYS have my GoPro ON ME and READY. I swear I rode through some BIBLICAL stuff on the last trip, and the words just don't do it all justice...but the bike just soaked it all up and made it seem nearly easy...once I reflected a bit. :)


--Donnie

[snooker]

Originally Posted by valkrider.de

just a little pic...

my XCo after a day in the dirt

Dirt? You mean mud! Wow I ride in dirt all the time and my bike never gets that dirty. We have no water just dust here so it hardly sees mud. um so that rear is the TKC80? If so the lug depths look a lot deeper than I thought! I wonder if they ship a different product to us in the US?

[snooker]

Originally Posted by squizzy

...considering it has just been sitting in his shed. First thing will be oil and filter change and general check over. .......Anything else I should be looking at maintenance wise considering it has been sitting around? ...

Welcome to the club! Nothing else unusual for "after storage" maintenance. Lube the chain... (maybe check the air filter, good luck on that one ;)... the usual.
Oh wait the battery... it is highly suspect on this bike and the electrical system is picky. If you have the original Exide brand (I think?) then forget it and get a new one, there was also a BMW "campaign" for this to replace with a Yuasa, and a few other campaigns (rollers for chain slack, for one). See the Issues thread for more.

For a cheap service manual, search for "bmw g650x reprom" -- it is a DVD, a PC installable eManual with torques and procedures.

Originally Posted by squizzy

...Throwover panniers maybe over the top if required for a trip. Seem feasible, or too much for the subframe? ...

That's Drone's domain.... oh Drone-eeee?

[snooker]

Originally Posted by TobyG

These fuse boxes were posted in the Rally Navigation Bracket thread over in /racing :
http://www.easternbeaver.com/Main/El...seholders.html


As waterproof as it gets and pretty compact, IMO


I like the looks of you bike, by the way

Damn I keep forgetting about Eastern Beaver and just run up to Radio Shack and get those inline fuses with the giant 16 wires on them for my 2A accessory!

Thanks for that link, gotta remember that next time. My tip in this area for debugging and adding up current draw from devices... is the indispensable Harbor Freight circuit tester that you insert instead of your ATM mini fuse.

[Yukon Ho!]

Originally Posted by djb_rh

So anyone got a recommendation for a good little add-on fuse setup to add maybe three circuits? One will need to be a bigger fuse for a heated jacket and gloves. The other two can be pretty small as their loads will be GPS and phone power.

Instead of fuses get a PDM. It has eight circuits, 5A-15A each. Instead of blowing a fuse, it opens the circuit until you solve the issue -- no fuses! I put mine under the seat. Love it! Hate fuses!
http://www.rowe-electronics.com/modules
Aerostich sells them too, so does RocketMoto (dot com.)

[snooker]

Originally Posted by djb_rh

...So to fix this, I decided to have one of my employees fab a new rack system. It uses the four factory mounting holes AND reaches forward of those down to where the subframe does a Y and attaches to the big hole there with some magic. Now it's got six mounting spots to the frame, but required no mods to the motorcycle itself.

If I have a bicycle on it I'll have to use the smaller top case anyway (or none), for example.





--Donnie

Ok first off, give us your employee's phone number or else prepare to take orders for your rack.. Wow top rate job Donnie! I prefer boring black but that yellow really pops!

Could you show us more pics of your aux fuel tank side, with the case off, showing how your yellow rack pieces mount to the stock subframe holes?

But mainly we want to see a pick of a...
BICYCLE MOUNTED ONTO AN XCOUNTRY !!!

WHAT THE??