2021 Husqvarna 701 - my adventure setup - Tropical Punch Epilogue

Motorcycle Adventure Dirt Bike TV supported proudly by Adventure Spec in the UK, Rally Raid Products, Giant Loop in the United States, Adventure Moto in Australia, Pirelli Tyres, Motel Oils, RK Chains and Australian Adventure Bike Magazine. Nugget and I have had two great wins. Firstly we've been invited by Craig Woody Woodward and the Lease of Elwood Motorcycle Adventures to join them on a 10 day adventure from Cairns to Darwin and then go exploring with them in the Western Australian Kimberleys where they hope to expand their motorcycle adventure tours. And to make it even better Husqvarna Australia have given Nugget and I two brand new Husky 701s to ride on this 7000km adventure across Australia's tropical top end. Nugget and I were over the moon when Husky offered us the bikes. I'd recently ridden the Husqvarna Long Range and had been very impressed. The Huskies are light and powerful with excellent suspension and handling. Out of the box they are a premium adventure mount and require little modification, just an off-road bash plate, metal hand guards and rally pegs. Welcome to the wrap up episode of the Tropical Punch series. For the last five episodes we've been having this fantastic adventure from Cairns to Darwin and then into the Kimberleys and today I thought I'd talk about bike setup, the lessons that I learned along the way and the modifications I've made to the bike since I've come back. Nugget and I were over the moon when Husqvarna Motorcycles Australia offered Nugget and I two bikes to do the Tropical Punch series. Well welcome to Cairns, oh what's this? Why is there two? Nugget, you better come and take a look. Come and have a look buddy. Always let you pick up one, that wouldn't be fair. How's that Nugget? So we've got the standard 701, LR. Gotta be happy. Husky HQ. This is a little one. Yeah we've got a lowering link on it for you. They gave me a 2021 standard 701 and I'll talk about it in a little minute, slightly modified and they gave Nugget a 2020 long range. Before we left we asked Husqvarna just to do a couple of modifications for us, not much but the things that are important in terms of adventure. The first was an off-road OEM bash plate. The second was aluminium hand guards or bark busters which are worth a million dollars. I mean you crash the bike, they stop you bending or breaking your levers, but more importantly they also stop you injuring yourself and when you're in dense bush as well they protect your fingers. The other thing we got on the bike and it's the second modification I always do to adventure bikes and that's rally pegs. So they're slightly wider and they're slightly longer and they add comfort when you're riding long distances standing up. They also help you in terms of turning the bike and being more agile on the bike but the number one reason you get bigger pegs is they're so much more comfortable when you want to stand and the best place on dirt to be is standing because that's when you minimize your chances of having a crash. The final modification were flip mirrors and these are brilliant. When it gets tough you can just flip them in the inside, get them out of the road and they're a great alternative. Oops and I forgot one other thing and that's a foam air filter by UniFilter and it has also a pre-filter which was fantastic in terms of keeping the dust out. You know the dust up in the Northern Territory is incredibly fine and we got to about three and a half thousand k's and I'm thinking gee you know am I gonna dust the engine? Anyway changed the air filter when I changed it the UniFilter pre-filter had done a fantastic job of keeping out the dust and then also the filter itself the UniFilter air filter had done its job brilliantly. So those five modifications set this bike up adventure worthy. Now after it left Husky I got a couple more things added to the bike and the first was a Moto Tech soft pannier rack and I did this so I could fit my Siskiyou panniers. They're from Giant Loop and what they are basically luggage style panniers that have high volume but they keep the weight low and they keep the weight centralized and I've always been a favorite of them. Nugget did a slightly different setup and he had a tail rack and he didn't have these these panniers and he used a Great Basin Giant Loop product and that's like a horseshoe shape that sits over the back of the bike and he was really happy with that in terms of carrying all his gear. The final thing I did was to take the bike up to Clive Ward and ask him to do some suspension for me. Now there's nothing wrong with the standard suspension on the Husky 701 it's brilliant but we're carrying a lot of weight. Remember we're away three weeks, we've got camping gear, we've got food, I've got camera gear and then our clothes and other gear and you know what happens is irrespective of how good suspension is on the bike what you start doing is squashing your static sag and reducing the ability of the suspension to absorb bumps. So what we did, we tested it with all the weight of my riding gear and all the gear I was going to carry and we noticed that we're sagging beyond those static sag limits and so we upped the spring rate in the front forks by a smidgen and on the back we put an X-Trig preload adjuster. The great thing about the X-Trig is that with an 8mm socket you can increase your preload very easily to get the bike sitting exactly the way you want it. So that's all that was done to the bike and we headed off. It'd be fair to say that Nugget and I were really impressed with the bikes in fact so impressed with the bikes that we made up our minds on the the final day of the tour that we were going to buy them and it wasn't a hard decision, the bikes have been fantastic. Oh that's fine, you shake it up for me. Degreaser! Give the huskies a bath. Yeah well deserved, 6,700km mostly dirt. Yeah so now we've just got to find our car wash and we're on. Yeah let's have a look at this before we go. Get these huskies looking like brand new. Let's have a look at them mate, they certainly... Mate they are a beast mate. Tyres aside, they have been faultless the whole way, 7,000km faultless. Yeah. And they go like a scolded cat, they're comfortable, they go through the rough stuff awesome. They did go through the rough stuff awesome, the harder it got the better they performed. And as for the long range, I just saw you down the road on the side of the road and whizzed past you. Again, you know that's the 14th time you've whizzed past me. Yeah. And the Giant Leap stuff kept the dust out didn't it? Mate awesome, it's been great. And mate you can pack it right up to here and it all folds over when you strap it in. You lean up against it, it's the comfiest ride. Yeah, nah they've done, mate that is a lot of serious dirt on these. Anyway let's get them to the... Let's get them down and... Get it clean. The bikes have been fantastic. They're light, they're agile, they're powerful and they've done everything that we asked of them. And they're just a great bike. So Nugget and I came back and we actually bought these. And then we started reflecting, or I did anyway, started reflecting on how the trip had been and what I could improve on the bike. At the end of the day my philosophy is weight is only good for boat anchors. So I didn't really want to do much to the bike. I just wanted to tidy up some mods and ends. I started by replacing the OEM bash plate which had been more than adequate for the job. But I just wanted greater coverage of the engine. And I wanted coverage of the rear brake master cylinder. So I got an Outback Moto Tech bash plate. Slightly thicker and a much greater surface area to cover around the engine. Happy with that. The only problem is there's a bit of noise generated by it. Particularly at low revs. And I'm thinking of putting just a bit of hard rubber underneath it just to stop the noise. In terms of the OEM bash plate there was no rattling sound or noise amplification. So you know the OEM bash plate is great. It's just a little bit thinner and just a little bit less protection. The other thing I'm going to do is, I haven't done it yet, is to change the exhaust, the muffler on this bike. It's very heavy and it's very hot. And I'd like to, there's a number of aftermarket pipes out there for this bike. Exhaust out there for this bike. And I need to pick one of those and just to reduce the weight. I think the greatest lesson I walked away from though for the Kimberley, particularly the Kimberley part of the ride, was that I needed greater fuel range. There is nothing worse than at the end of a hard day's ride, looking around for a fuel bladder and knowing that you have to fill the fuel up for the bike. And I guess I walked away absolutely committed to putting a long range tanks on this bike. And the 2021 long range tanks come out in a couple of weeks and will be available in Australia. Yeah, they do add 15 kilograms in weight. But you know, where I want to take this bike, I'd like that longer fuel range. I'd certainly want up around 400, 500 k's. And that's what the long range provides. Look, if you're riding this bike and you're keeping to the east coast of Australia, you know, you can get by with the tank that it's got. The fuel range is fine. And you know, you just take about eight liters with you if you needed to at particular times. But you could easily just keep this bike standard. And I love the look of the bike standard. But at the end of the day, I want that fuel range. And that's what I'm aiming for. Another problem that emerged during the ride was with the fine dust, it got into the rear lock of the fuel cap. And so I used to absolutely crap myself sometimes because I take the key out and I go to open the rear filler cap. And the twisting force I'd need, I was absolutely convinced I was going to snap that key off in the lock. When I got back from Queensland, I contacted Rally Road Products and I purchased this filler, rear filler cap. Now this makes the filler system square with the rear guard of the bike. And it also is just a simple service twist top fuel cap. And that makes me feel much greater at ease than the key system. I'm not particularly worried about anyone putting anything in my fuel or fuel being stolen. What's more important is something nice and simple like that. It's just a twist cap and that works a dream. As soon as I got back from the Kimberleys, the first thing I looked up was the Husqvarna hard parts for this little fairing here. It's a small windshield. And look, this is phenomenal. It's just right. It bounces the air about the middle of my visor. Keeps the airflow smooth. Keeps bugs off you. Keeps rain off you. And provides, if you like, a cocoon of still air. The other beauty of it though is it's not big enough to actually cause a problem when you're doing challenging riding. And this isn't going to come up and hit you in the face. So it's a great design. Without any doubt, the best modification I've made to the bike in terms of preparing it for long adventure miles in Australia. You know, you can, you know, I'm quite confident now. You know, you can punch out 500 k's on this in this setup and it'll keep you comfortable. The final modification, I'd love some Oxford heated grips. That's particularly important in the Victorian high country. You know, when it's minus two, it's just not pleasant. And at the end of the day, adventure riding is about ensuring that you reduce fatigue, rider fatigue. And having cold hands certainly makes you fatigued. So what's different between the 21 and 22? Well, I'm only going to talk about the obvious things that Nugget and I discovered. And the first was the first night we went riding at night. The headlight on the 2021 model is just far superior to the 20 model. It's got a stronger, more intense beam. It's got a longer and wider light throw. And it's, you know, the difference between the two models is chalk and cheese. The next one is a topic that was quite funny at the time. And that's the traction control mode. The 2021 traction control is very different in its operation to the 2020 model. On the 2021, when you put this in off-road mode too, it does a number of things. It shuts off ABS to the rear wheel. It reduces the amount of ABS control on the front to give you more dirt feel. It allows you to wheel stand and it cuts off the lean sensitive traction control as well. Now in the 2020 model, to get that from a one push button, you have to actually have a dongle installed in the bike. And now it's just a flick of the modes and just going into number two mode, off-road mode, and all those things happen for you. Now, the funny bit with it is that Nugget and I didn't realize there'd been such changes to the off-road mode between the two models. And Nugget's saying to me, well, mate, it's not doing what yours is doing. It's not, it's still got a little bit of ABS. I can't wheel stand. I can't do this. I can't do that. So I said, mate, you must be pushing the buttons wrong or something, Nugget. You've never been very good with technology. So Nugget, I apologize profusely because it wasn't you. And in fact, there's been a huge change in terms of the traction control. And it's far better because just a one stop button, bang, get it across. And, you know, that's good. You do have the option of turning off everything, but that's a little bit more of a fiddle. So what's gone wrong with the bike? You wouldn't believe it. In the last couple of days, I've had a problem with the side stand switch. And I was up the street today and the bike, I went to, you know, I've started it up. I put it into gear and bang, the engine stops dead. Now that's happened to me a couple of times. And there's something wrong with the side stand switch. To be frank, I prefer not to have a side stand switch. It's just one more bit of complexity that can go wrong with the bike and can cause you to be stuck in the middle of the boonies. So I'm going to work on a solution for that. Not quite sure what it is. Listeners, you might have a view on a good solution to get that done. So that's the final wrap up of the Tropical Punch series. I'm glad you've liked it. I mean, there's been a lot of positive comments about it. Nugget and I had a ball on that ride. Our intention is to get up the north coast as soon as the COVID lockdown stops. And we're going to take these bikes on a decent adventure. And we've got a commitment to return back up to the Kimberleys later next year. And hopefully that all comes to fruition. So some great news. On the 25th of October, I start shooting the KTM 890 Adventure R. This is an outstanding bike and one I really look forward to testing. I tested the 790 and I'll leave that test at the rear of this video. I was very impressed with it. It'll be interesting where KTM have taken the 890.