Hey guys!
Just bought myself a Africa twin 750 -94 with 64,000 km on the clock.
And got two questions!

This winter i'm going to tear the bike apart to fix current electric fails and more.

The bike seem to be in reasonable shape.
But i was wondering if there is anything that i really should change like maybe the fuelpump or the wheel bearing?

However, as i've read countless of threads on the AT i starting to regret by affair.
Should a healthy AT drink 0,8 litres/KM? reaaally?
Is there any way i could lower it to maybe 0,5-0,6 liter/KM by detuning it or something?
Also the motoroil, when do i need to change it? The resaonable seems to be maybe every 10,000 km but i've heard it drinks 1 litre of oil every every 1,000km?

This seems crusingly hard against the wallet and i'm starting to freak out

Please guys answer...

Dont worry its the best bike out there.... (for us...) mnine has now 140.000km and I tell you about mine....

1.st Gasoline pump need to be modified. There must go a small electric part inside for 0.50$ to prevent the magnemt switch to spark... (google AT and Gasoline pump)

2. 8l per 100km is far toooooo much, should be not more than 6l/100km (alone, now heavy wind and dual purpose tires). Probably the choke is hanging. Take it apart, clean it and put it back together with some grease, better silicone spray..

3. My bearing I changed after the first 100.000km. Put it on the main stand, somebody holds the stearing bar and you try to move the front tire... should not move at all! if so needs to change the bearings. 18 AUD for all three of them, you can change them by yourself in 1h... no problem.

4. back bearings, same as 3 (without holding the strearing bar though...

5. stearing bearing, your stearing bar needs to move with a light tip from the middle to the other side. IN THE MIDDLE POSITION THERE SHOULD NOT BE ANY RASTERING actually if you move the bar from one side to the other you should not feel anything especially in the middle (straight position) if you do you need new stearing bearings (conical) for 60AUD, 30EUR

5. current electric fails! start your engine, mesure your voltage, on the battery should be 14.4V, lights off, constant above 3000RPM. If not, or anyhow get a new rectifier. 20USD in the ebay states. needs to be probably installed, solded not with the normal sticking toghether.. hmmmm, dont know how its called in English.... google it too

6. 60k km? it should not consume any oil! its brand new! if you put new oil it is important to find out which oil was in there b4. you should not change from mineral to synthetic or via versa. I use Mineral, Jaso norm! (because of the cluch) 20W 50 (but this depense where u r, 10W 30 is OK as well I guess) and NO GUYS I do not want to start a oil discussion!!! If you use different oil do so!


If you have any other question go to the countless AT forums they can help you with everything. IMHO the best one is (but it is in German but they do speak english there) FAT Freunde der Africa Twin e. V. or in english Honda Trail Bike Forums


Dont freak out you got a good bike, took it all around this planet and love it and it has been done countless times b4!


cheers Sascha

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Round the world by bike. www.RTWbyBIKE.com

our AT's now have 181.000 and 155.000 km's on the clock, and we've always maintained them ourselves.

Standard stuff like fuelpumps you can find a lot of info on...

- Wheel bearings we've never changed preventive; just always check them whenever a wheel is out of the bike, and you'll have plenty of time to swap it when you feel some 'grinding' inside. I've swapped my front wheel bearings in South Africa at 135.000km's, and the original bearings from Honda were still in there.
- Connector voltage regulator: solder! and take spare regulator. Put Voltmeter on dash.
- for the rest, our bikes were fine during our RTW-trip of 74.000 km's, besides a faulthy neutral switch etc., no stuff that will put you on the side of the road.
- Clutch-cable you should check where it comes out of the outer cable on the clutch.

FUEL usage: (with 35 km's luggage each) (about 1 km per liter difference between de RD07 and RD07A, where the RD07A uses just a little bit less)
- 1 liter per 16km's on highways.
- 1 liter per 18 km's on slow roads, secundairy roads
- 1 liter per 17 km's offroad, but this may vary a lot.
- 1 liter per 13 km's when we did hardcore offroad at altitudes above 4500 meters.

OIL usage:
We started quite okay, but now both bikes use around 1 liter of oil every 2500km's. Some people think that is not a lot at all, but for the next trip we'll do a top end overhaul. (is is just annoying to carry a lot of oil through Africa etc.)
In the beginning of the trip Mirjams bike used 1 liter per 23.000km's, and mine 1 liter per 8.000km.

OIL change:
Should be done every 12.000 km's, but we change this according usage. In Bolivia we had to slip the clutch a lot on the 1993 AT because one cylinder fialed at altitude :-S, and thus changed the oil quickly after in Chile.
In Africa we couldn't get oil at a normal price, so we did an oilchange after 17.000 and the next one in Turkey at 18.000. Just don't beat the sh1t out of your engine and use good quality semi-synth oils; then I dare to strecht the intervals a lot. Remember, the AT never really gets very hot and you drive long distances with the bike on a daily basis; better that 'nomal use at home' for an engine.

So summarize: the AT's were fantastic during our whole trip. 74.300km's per bike, both old bikes and we did a lot of offroading and river crossings etc. On the whole trip, we never had a day of delay because of the bikes. Tell that to your 1200GS-buddies! :-P

I dare to state the AT is not an expensive bike to run. If your bike uses so much fuel, have it checked as it shouldn't to that!

Any questions, feel free to email me or contact me via my website.

Thank you guys for your really good answers!

No i'm suddenly not so worried anymore

Means that i'll have to change oil atleast once when i'm going to travel this summer.

And thanks for all the other tips, really helpfull!

This thread is gold for me and my empty experience with my new 92 AT, ugly looking as it can be but the engine seems in perfect shape for a long journey.

Thank you all.

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Whatever you are criticized for, do it, because that is what you are!

To add to my story, I do think it is worth it to put your bike on a dyno and have it set perfectly before you go on a big trip.
We burned about 5000 liters of petrol on the trip, so if they can get the bike to run 2% more efficient the dyno-run is for free anyhow.

The riders I know on an AT who manage to do 1 liter on 20km's have had it checked out and set up on a dyno.

What is a Dyno?

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A dyno is a shortening of the name "Dynojet".

A dynojet is a type of bench (much like a treadmil for cars and motorcycles) you throw up your vehicle on the dynojet and by small adjustments och a whole lot of computer tech you can make your vehicle to run more effiently and gain more horsepower. Though it's not very much you'll gain many sportbike owners have their bikes adjusted.

agree, but if they can lower your fuel consumption by a few %, it will pay off easily on your big trip!

OK not a bad idea... just my 5cent to it... how it can calculate the various fuel qualities (80ocatan to 99), bad roads, driving for 1000kms in the sand, off-road, different tires etc...

what should be good though is to have the bike set up best you can b4 you start... but to put ona dyno... I knew that thing only from street, or better racing bikes... don´t know really if it would help a lot if I set my 21 year old XRV up on a dyno, there is nothing to adjust like injection, computer programms or simular just two carborators and the valves etc... but why not... if somebody would ask me he would do it for me for free ... I would prob. try it...

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for adjustment they have to mount adjustable jets in your carbs.

They will adjust the fuel/air mixture by running the bike on the the dyno throughout it's RPM-range. Standard jets in the carbs cannot be adjusted a lot.

The result has nothing to do with your usage, cannot be calculated.
But they just optimize the mixture for lowest consumption if you ask for that, and it will pay back if you drive a lot.


Don't expect 10HP extra, it is not a supersports bike ;-)

Hi waga95,
Did you ever find out why your AT was getting bad millage ?
I have just got a AT 650 and i drive it only in the city for short trips and im getting 8 or 9L/100k very bad millage ...

i was wondering if you were getting similar millage and also driving in city only ?? im thinking the AT only gets good MPG on the Highway ??

For more info here's a like to my thread about my issue with the bike
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-650-mpg-81829


hope to hear from you
Dylan

If you ask and search at Honda Trail Bike Forums you're more likely to get input that here.

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