10:17 PM
Sander & Marianne
The first leg of the trip we planned is online. See our Route page.
More to follow...
...
These are the motorbikes we had
Unfortunately, for our RTW trip, we have to say good-bye to the motorbikes on which we traveled to the Nordkapp in 2011.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Headlight protection
It's not easy finding a (good) headlight protector for our motorcycles. Eventually we find one on Marktplaats (the Dutch eBay). Let's see if it fits.
The headlight protection needs to be installed using four bolts. Two just above the headlight, where the windshield is mounted and two in the
lower part of the front fairing, the piece that encases the headlight. A trip down memory lane, bolts that won't come out of the Honda plastics.
The four bolts that are holding the front fairing are turning, but won't come out. Let's try that the old fashioned way; pulling hard on the fairing and turning the bolts. After some fiddling the headlight unit finally comes of the motorbike.
It seems the headlight protector will fit reasonably, unfortunately the supplied bolts don't. We will have to work...
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Fitting the tank
We just watched how the tank fits the motorcycle and how it influences the riders position. There seems to be only one problem.
According to some, the Africa Twin tank offers limited leg room, so we want to check if that's a problem before we start any transformation.
The removal of the Transalp fairing and tank has become quite a routine. At first we don't see any major issues, When we put the Africa Twin tank on the motorcycle. One of the crankcase breathers is blocking the tank and one of the petcocks is a little close to the oil line, but that probably won't cause any serious problems.
Unfortunately the seat is. The Africa Twin tank is sloping much steeper, thus forcing the front of the stock Transalp seat all the way up.
Annoying because we just recently have had the seats upholstered...
Saturday, November 3, 2012
More fuel (larger tank)
Because our fuel consumption differs a little and the range of the Transalp isn't very big, we are investigating what our options are.
And sometimes you just need a little luck.
Sander has posted a message on the Dutch Transalp forum to ask what's involved in replacing the tank of the Transalp with a tank of an Africa Twin. This resulted in quite some useful information. But the best response came from a club member, who had a Africa Twin tank laying around
and wanted to swap for a crate of Jupiler.
Such an opportunity we love to seize with both hands. Bought a case of Juup, made an appointment and today we picked it up. I must admit that
I was expecting the tank might not be in its best shape. But it's 100% better than expected. After the usual chit-chat we bang the fuel tank in...
