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Preparing my Africa Twin for overland trip to Kathmandu Preparing my Africa Twin for overland trip to Kathmandu
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  #1  
Old 7 Jun 2013
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Smile Preparing my Africa Twin for overland trip to Kathmandu
Hi everyone,

I'm preparing my 1997 AT for an overland trip to Kathmandu and could use some advice on how to modify AT for this trip. We will ride two up and will follow more or less the hippie trail. Once in Kathmandu we will probably continue our trip to Cambodia supposed we get through Birma. This trip is planned for 2015 at the earliest but will most likely happen in 2016.

Done already:
heated grips
two 12V sockets on the dashboard
digital voltmeter
vacum fuelpump
rugged roads crash bars
african queens roll-over bar
headlamp guards
lowering set
Metzeler Tourance tires

Planned:
Double Philips X-treme Vision H4 60/55 bulbs
Continental TKC80 tires
Hepco & Becker alu cases 37L + 45L
HyperPro Progressive rear shock spring
HyperPro Progressive front shock springs

One problem is that I want to use my Hepco & Becker cases on the AT but don't like the H&B rack because the cases sit way too high. Anyone ever used H&B cases with a none H&B rack?

All comments and recommendations are welcome.

Thanks.
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Last edited by icarus; 16 Jun 2013 at 00:29.
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Old 7 Jun 2013
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Hey mate,

Sound like you are on the the right track... Three things that jump out at me are
1) Change the Regulator rectifier to a .... ahh it will come to me..

rr83 regulator rectifier from electrex world. I got the a rally version (RR99H - Regulator Rectifier. modified by electrics to suit). lovely!! When the honda ones fail they do it with out warning.. Also this there is three yellow wires connected by Nissan clips take out the clips and either make sure they are very clean or hard wire it to bypass the clips..there is 350v running though em and it gets hot.. (like fire hot.. trust me....)
I also cut the plastic that cover the R/R and put a screen there to increase air flow.. but stop rocks (i followed the sticker pattern and colour matched it.. looked like a factory mod..)


2) we had a starcom (wired) intercom and it was great. it was great to have My pillion's help with the cities..


3)And make sure the seat is comfortable for your pillion.. This is worth a lot of money...




Do your really want a lowering set, with the extra weight of you two up and gear what is the ride height?

I was two up (2000 AT) with WP progressives, and WP rear (adjustable) and was happy i had the extra height and preload capacity...

and Cambodia DONT MISS THE PLANE OF JARS!!! totally Awesome... stone jars as old as stone henge....

Continental TC80 tires - If you mean TKC80.. LOVE EM!!!!

LOWER PANNERS: I had home made panniers for the same reason.. I wanted narrow and low.. and had to make em.. but my first attempt was to modify a SW motec rack and this worked very well. Basically i added some square tubing to move the pannier loops down the mounting point on the rack. Give that a look. (if you put some picts of the rack on here maybe we can come up with a design.).. we being the hubb in general.

One thing i can say about H&B.. I bought their locks for my panniers and they ALL failed before the Ghana (from the UK). So keep that in mind.
Good luck
Xander
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  #3  
Old 8 Jul 2013
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we also had Hyperpro on out AT's... absolutely fantastic.
H&B, I don't like the locks either as they get full of dirt.

Please send me an email ,then I'll send oyu a mail with pics and descriptions of mods we've done to our rtw-AT's.
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  #4  
Old 2 Aug 2013
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rear wheel bearings- they can let go without warning. change to be safe and maybe keep a spare set with you- two of the bearing seem to be quite common, but i've struggled to find one of them 'freely' from bearing shops
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  #5  
Old 19 Aug 2013
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Hi,

I did the same trip last year and had only a fuel pump (original) with me. Had standard GIVI cases on the bike (worked perfect), there´s no need of any special equipment, your bike is special !!
- Tires: I can recommend MITAS E07 , excellent on bad or gravel roads, my one now is running 22.000 km (until Cambodia) and there are another 3-5000 possible. Max speed is about 110 km/h., then he´s getting loud.
- take some fuses !

How many km´s are on your bike ??

Regards
Heinz
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Old 22 Aug 2013
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22.000-25.000km!!!!! I do something wrong, doesnt matter what I try I never had with any tire more than 15.000km and I tried nearly all of them. I had to change always between 10 and 15.000. I tried once Vmax below 100 on asphalt that gave me a bit more. But our AT was fully loaded about 450kg, maybe thats it...
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