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

Thanks for the positive comments and I'm coming around to the less is more idea and will probably sell the 1200.. Thats a 6,500 mile ride to Africa last year, as well as this 4,300 mile to Romania both on the 650.

It is the stock seat and with some padding removed as I am only 5' 7, but topped with a sheepskin butt pad, which helps.

Glad you enjoyed the read.

What are your thoughts on the bike generally after those rides?

The bike is very capable. It cruises on the highway at 120km or 75mph or faster if needed. On slower roads it handles well and can keep up with faster bikes. It carries luggage well. I have Yacugar suspension fitted which enhances the bike and a strenthened rear subframe. It seems capable off-road even if I am not, but does not like soft deep sand. The bike has proved totally reliable and is fun and light to ride. I've concluded I do not need my R1200GS!

I guess he should do some iron butt rides, because he's never complained about the seat!

Great travel log jckid, with nice personal drama and joy all wrapped together :)
Very nice pics, beautiful country.
I would very much like to try that small yamaha on my forest trails :)

Jim Lad I enjoyed your journey a lot!
It's always funny to see how somebody's adventure goes through where you live (as I live in Croatia) :)
One of the best adventures I had wasn't on the other side of the world but discovering the road less travelled in my own country, which is amazingly beautiful.
I enjoyed the stories and the photos a lot so now I''ll dive into the Dakar story :)
How did you reinforce the subframe?

Zeus, glad you enjoyed the journey, always good to hear that. I write for my own pleasure and am never sure if it works for others. You live in a beautiful country Croatia, and I always enjoy visiting, particularly on a bike.

As for the rear subframe. The known weakness is in the rear, at the joint between the main structure and the short extension which supports the rear rack. I removed the subframe and had a guy weld some supports to this joint. Since then I've done about 11,000 miles with heavy luggage on a mixture of terrains and no problems. There are some pictures on here showing how others have made this joint stronger.

I had a lot of problems with water loss from the radiator, water pump overflow and so on. In the end I re-torqued the cylinder head as the symptoms pointed to HG failure. The HG is apparently expensive and well made and the recommendation was to try a re-torquing. All my problems (with water loss on the bike) then went away. Not a 5 minute job as there are a lot of bits to take off but the effort was worth it. At 65k miles now, no water pump/seal changes ever and no water loss at all for the last 25k miles.

Viv

Tyre change time soon.

Thinking of Continental TKC80's
Will these fit?

Rear: 140/80
Front: 110/80

This is good info. Were you running a regular paper oil filter? Did you ever notice wavy lines (indicating coolant in the oil) in the paper fins of the oil filter during an oil change? Any white smoke?

I've not slipped 110's and 140's on my XCo but my understanding is other people have done it. Looks like room is there. Up front, with the stock fender, if you catch a lot of mud, you may have scraping under the fender. I've raised my fender.

The TKC80's are available in 100&130 too.

Also, have you considered the new TKC70's ? I am very positive about these tires for dual-sport service. I'm using a pair now. They are not quite as aggressive as the TKC80's but they work very well on pavement at speed in the corners. Not cheap, though.

Overall, from my experience for dual-sport riding, the best buy out there is the Shinko 705! I've used a couple of pair of them. They are of a similar tread aggressiveness to the TKC70 but you can buy two Shinko tires for the cost of one Continental.


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Anybody found source for the Radiator hose (#1 in pic) in silicone? Thinking the silicon might do a bit better as it handles the high temp of the exhaust pipe.

11 51 7 700 310 COOLANT HOSE

Appreciate the feedback thanks leafman. I'll, see if I can get Shinko never really looked at them, not sure they are popular here at all though. Will do some searching. My worry with the sizing is more the rim, that it fits and if one air down that it stays on the rim. I did a search in this thread but although I've seen people fit the TKC80's etc I can't seem to get sizing. Another option is Dunlop or Mitas E07's or even Karoo 3's I do like the look of the tkc80's though and I'd like it to be good on dirt.

Im running a D606 rear and the TKC up front. The D606 is fun off road and handles surprisingly well on road, unfortunately it is noisy. Most of my riding buddies are now running the Shinko ME804/5 combo. The do really well off road and on road, and seem to be holding up really well to aggressive riding. No noise that I can hear or that has been reported from them. Best part is they can be had for under a hundred bucks. That's where i'm headed when my current set is run out.

have the Xcountry guys found a good replacement for the fuel tank cap ?
in the Xchallenge thread we've had no luck.

Yes, I use standard parts where possible - well a Hiflo paper oil filter in this case. At the time there was a lot of white sludge in the oil filler neck, also in the breather pipe to the oil tank and to the air box. Very messy. All that has gone now.

I didn't notice any wavy lines on the filter but there was enough white sludge to show there was a problem. I commute 100 miles a day so it was not lack of warm up that was causing the sludge plus I had the other issues with water loss out of the pump overflow and header tank (or somewhere around there) that pointed to a wider problem.

No white smoke either. Visible exhaust fumes are non-existent and no oil use between changes either.

Viv

Yes.

I have posted several times about the Touratech cap.

It was apparently discontinued for a while but is supposedly back in the parts list.

I am not certain about current availability. Email TT with the part number and ask them.

From post 9245-


Looks like Touratech has brought back their billet gas cap for the X series bikes.

Part number 049-0135 $165

This is almost a necessity, especially if you are adapting an auxiliary tank that feeds through the vent hose of the stock tank.

The stock cap will eventually lose its seal, probably around the internal o-ring.

Be aware that you may still need to make a slightly thicker rubber gasket even with the new TT cap for it to create a reliable 100 percent air-tight seal.

Get some Viton rubber from a rubber supplier. See past posting on this.





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WOW, you might have just given me a whole load of winter work.....
In fact I've been noticing a slow oil "leak" (just mild sweating) either under the cylinder, or the cylinder head, can't quite remember.
Are the required bolts you tightened those that require removal of the camshafts? The service manual is a bit unclear with respect to what must be removed and what could stay in place, sincce they assume a fully dissasebled state.

PS. Did you also see loss of coolant from the overflow reservoir?

Ride report!

So I went down to the BMW RA rally in Arkansas this weekend. Had a great time! Camped in a cow barn in my hammock (No sleeping on cow pies for this guy). Everyone there was great, and I had a lot of questions and compliments about the G650x. Most people just said, "Wow! I've only seen this thing online or in a magazine." One person asked if I would sell it (he was a vertically challenged individual on a GSA who admitted to having trouble pulling into parking lots). I told him why I bought it and said maybe in a year or so, unless, he would do a straight up trade for the GSA. He actually seemed to think about it, looked at his partner, who shook his head, and then he said "no." (this is why significant others should not be allowed at rallies). There were a lot of nice bikes there (mostly big GS's) but no other G650x brothers. I was a little let down.

I went on a ride with the GS giants down there through some challenging dirt and gravel roads. About 30~40 people went, a big group for somewhat narrow trails and roads. At one point we went up a hill with quite a steep grade. The surface was mostly loose rocks roughly between the size of golf balls and baseballs. About 1/2 of the riders ditched their ride trying to make it up the hill, but not the g650x! With my Continental knob tires, The light bike sped up that hills without a problem! She did just as well on every other part of the trail. I wish I could say it was the rider, but I can assure you it was the bike!

I the trip (there and back was roughly 700~800 miles). As you would expect the bike did just fine at higher speeds (70-85). Even without any windscreen.

Couple problems though: (1) my computer resets overtime I turn the bike off, meaning I lose my trip miles etc. Which makes fuel planning confusing. I need to figure out why this is going on. I recently installed a new heated grip controller and a HID headlight...I think those might be suspect. (2) At some point the horse glue must have broken up between the throttle and the grip, made for some real dicey accelerations, especially on the highway (tried to shove some shims in there, but they wouldn't hold). (3) installed a tool tube where the Charcoal Can was. I was happy to have it considering I ran out of gas Yea. I know. I'm really dumb. I must have missed how long the gas light was on coupled with the trip computer being f'd up. But! Apparently there isn't enough clearance with the chain guard and the tool tube. Maybe it could have been helped if I adjusted the travel on my Sach Shock. But in either case, there is a small hole in the bottom of my tool tube. Something I can fix, but something I need to address. I need to preform the lolly pop procedure. That'll surely help with the clearance.

Take aways: I know we all complain about the the Sachs shock, but I felt it did fine. I went over a fair amount of larger rocks & I hit bottom once...and I could have avoided it. (I'll admit, I was trying to bottom out to test the thing). The front spring however...too weak. In either case, I just called up EPM and bought the combo Front and Rear Progressive Spring kit. Those great people also gave me a 10% military discount. <3. I'll install the front myself and have a shop do the rear. While I have out the shock, I'll twist up the lolly pop. (I'll need to find the thread where it says how far I can take it out and how to adjust the front forks, I know it says to bump them up, but mine already look pretty high...so expect some questions). Also the Rotopax fuel can addition to the rear rack (I had to do some surgery to make it happen) was a great addition. Beyond looking cool, it was the only way I could keep up on the 150+ miles I did with the GS's. I have the 1 gallon tank, but if I could fit the 1.75 I would.

Here are a few pics. I didn't get any on the hill because my phone was dead....of course.

cFogs out

BT
NNNN

The use of inexpensive HIDs can cause problems with the dash resettng. Higher quality (and more expensive) HID kits do a better job at containing high voltage and high frequency spikes that mess with your dash and trip odometer.

I got a DDM HID kit, they are fairly reputable & I did pay roughly $80.00 for the light....BUT, I'm still experiencing the system, so maybe they aren't that good.

Anyway to fix this problem, other than dropping the HID?