Preparing our ADV bikes for long distance

I just took the big dog for a spin. Okay, six months ago I picked up a new Yamaha T7 World Raid. Before riding it, I fitted an Akrapovic slip-on muffler, then fitted some Pirelli Scorpion off-road tires to get a feel of how this bike really behaves in the dirt. Yep, I was kind of expecting it. The World Raid is a weapon. But I wanted to get rid of some junk, so I stripped the rear end and reconfigured the indicators into a nice tail tidy. Then I got rid of its lead acid battery and replaced it with a lithium unit. But I wasn't stopping there. Given this engine is 72 horsepower, I figured I could drop even more weight and drag by downsizing to 520 spec sports bike chain and sprockets. Basically what you'd run on a 450 motocross bike. It can take the power, no problem, but how will it handle 7000 kilometers across Australia? I'm willing to find out. As for the overall weight saving at the rear end, perfect. The suspension is great, but I wanted to make it even better with stiffer fork springs and a Touratech rear shock. These bikes need a decent bash plate, so I made one of those too, which I'll probably even make available for purchase. And now, for the absolute icing on the cake, I'm fitting a full titanium Akrapovic rally system. Even more weight saved and a few more horsepower as well. All up, I've dropped 12 kilograms of weight off the World Raid, which is almost ready to start saddling up for a massive trip across Australia. I've already done six videos with this World Raid since I picked it up in January this year. A bit of an introductory one, stripping weight off it, then did that catch-up ride with Hollis and he took the standard T7, the Dark Horse 2.0, three or four others after that. And the funny thing is, it's only got 930km on the clock, like it's just run in, this bike. 200 of those, at least, was with my old mate GK, Glen Carney. He was over with his family and, yeah, we just snuck off for a ride, a bit of a pub run, and he rode the World Raid. Like, I've evolved this bike to my bike. Like, it's sick now. It's really, it's awesome. It's everything I want an adventure bike to be. It's got pretty good fuel range, really good fuel range, actually. It goes without saying, the off-road performance, like it's a safe bike to be on. The majority of these adventure bikes, their suspension's not good enough for their weight and their speed, you know. They're too big, too fast, all of them. You want it to be a 200 kilo enduro bike if you're riding it off-road, not a 200 kilo street bike off-road. And that's the goal with these things. It's taking the standard model, if you're using it for off-road, and making it handle itself off-road. Yeah, so, in saying that, it'd be a shame, now, to just give it back to Yamaha. And, after all the work I've done, so, I said, look, I want to do a big trip on this thing. Saddle it up, go on some epic journey across Australia, and, you know, actually use it for what it's... designed for. I've punched out some pretty big solo adventures lately so I wanted to change it up for this one and uh so I invited a friend along and again these projects these missions Pigeons. we're not just floating around it is another project so you've got to be very strategic. I've got a lot of great friends that I you know in time will do some fun rides with but when it's project Project mode, you've got to You've got to align with a soldier, you know, like someone who's just going to suck it up, get it done, put in the work and not complain and has got the skills to do all of that and help me out if I need it too, you know. And my old mate Rodney, Rod Fagota. I had a sick trip with Rod last year on the old machines, the War Horse and the Super Tenere. Rod's good for it. He's good for all of it. Gun on the bike. Legend in the outback. He's a good companion for this journey. He's a good laugh. Epic rider. And right now I'm on my way to Perth to pick up his World Raid, which he's had shipped over. So we're basically going to start in my backyard and ride to his backyard, which is... where it will end up being probably about 7,000 kms away diagonally across Australia through the guts and up into central to north Queensland. This looks like the place someone's just picked up a KX. Yikes. Rodney, you're on board or what? I've just collected what looks to be a blue warhorse. Of course! A proper desert beast mate, she looks good. Yeah, it should be good, mate. It should look pretty second-hand in about a month's time, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, no. A proper war pig by then. Nah, I meant, oi, when do you reckon this shocky's going to show up? Have you got a tracking number for me? Ah, yeah, it was in Western Australia yesterday. I'm just going to copy the settings on my shock. It's the same shock, right? The latest Touratech Pro set, did you get? Yeah, yeah. It's at post office waiting. Oh it's there, I got that notification. I thought it was something I ordered but it's your shock. I'll get it on the way home. I'm going to put it in this Arvo. Happy days. Happy days, we're on. It's all coming together. It's all coming together. Do I need crazy bladder backup? A couple of 10 litres? What do you think? Well if we do get to You get to do that Connie Sue, I've got three of those 11 litre giant loop. So I reckon potentially we need three if we're going to do it. Yeah, okay. All right, I'll get... It's 800k if we don't have a problem. Yeah, okay. Okay, that's... That's pretty serious. You hearing me? Yeah, I'm hearing you, mate. That's pretty serious. All right. We've got days of food there. Yeah, yeah. We've got heaps of fuel. Oh, I've got to get you a gas bottle too. I'll get that today. Oh, yeah, cool. So we're on, Rodney. We're on. No, it's happening. It's f***ing happening. Yeah, yeah. No, it's good. All right, I'm heading over to my mate's workshop and see if I can't get me bash plate on there. It's a nice little crash bar you've got, but it does look pretty low, so I'll just carve up the bash plate. I think you'll get it on there. You just might have to notch it out a bit, maybe. Yeah. I think it'll go. It will. I'll just carve out a couple of those low points. It'll be pretty close. So, yeah, you'll have a custom jobby. Yeah, that's me. Sweet. The factory bash plate for Rodney's bike, wow, finished product, such a trick, needs a logo engraved on it. One rear shockie for Rodney. Time to give Rodney's horse a run and just safety check all the new features. The shock, the bash plate, look at him he's all over it, he's already installed his own Motology GPS mount, legend. He's got some weight on board, geez. Oh, she's smooth as silk, but so far so good with a shock. It's a kicker. Beautiful. He's got some weight on board. He's got the frigging kitchen sink in here. She's pretty slick today. Very slick. I'll just feel it out. It's not my bike, but so far so good. Rodney's going to love it. He's bloody. So far so good. Oh, she loves it when you feed her some. Oh, clunk the front. That's what I needed to Test the bash plate. he must have a carton of baked beans in one of these saddlebags. hello. how you going mate? I just took the big dog for a spin. yeah. have you done anything with the fork or are they standard? ah stiffer springs. really? yeah. Wow. nothing else, oil levels. what do you find, soft or hard? way soft. hey the rear end is faultless but the front just can't cope. Anyway, all good. Maybe just a bit more preload, a couple of clicks stiff. You'll know, you'll see. I won't do too much, but just to balance her out. But mate, she's primo. Got the factory bash plate, the shock. Probably putting that firmer shock in has probably folded the fork, made the fork seem soft now. Metal to metal easy and I wasn't even... trying that hard it's just yeah more so than i would have expected i thought you hadn't touched it that's all clickers are original and the preloads wound right off so yeah a fair bit of movement there to be had yeah like when i first took off i thought wow this thing feels like a pleasure craft compared to mine but it just metal to metal so quickly with this weight what do you got in the bags man there must have been a carton of beans in one of them I thought so you got heaps of food on board. I think you can deal with it on the fly at worst we'll kick you get some oil at a servo tip a bit more oil in your fork but between the preload and the clickers she'll come good No, it's just those shock g-outs that catch you out. I just thought it was... Anyway, you'll see. You'll know. It was before I found it. It's totally opposite now, man. You won't... Yeah, no, she's good. She's gone the other way now. Yeah, it's completely opposite. It's putting a bit more expectation on the fork. Yeah, yeah. Because that's what I mean. Sag. Wait. But it was still pretty, it was the weak point at that stage. You can't put all this luggage on a standard shock and expect it to still work properly. These things are designed for exactly that. And as a bonus, you and I can send the bikes harder because they're sprung and valved so well just to take the pillion and all their luggage. So it's a win-win for the, you know, just the punters. Anyone who wants to ride hard off-road because it's really good it. I just replicated my settings put it in and it's faultless They're the settings I come up with when I put luggage on my bike. So she's good to go She looks like a bloody Aussie desert pig now No, she's ready. Should be good. It feels good When you're tucked up like a f***ing mad kangaroo, f***ing starving out there, I might even shout your feet. Right? Yeah. I'm curious to see what's in there. You travel pretty light otherwise. It must be all food, but it's a good call. Yeah, it's a bit of food there. We've got to eat. Probably a few tools, a few things, but I'm fine. Yeah, good. I haven't even undone a zip yet. I won't be nosy, but I might. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Alright mate, good stuff. I'll talk to you soon. All right, mate. See you later.