Thanks! Yeah it seems like a good one, having taken the tank off it's definitely been off road but not hard and not far. Fingers crossed!

There is a local engineer that we use through work for fabrication & welding jobs. I might ask him what he could do to strengthen the subframe without lumping on too much weight next time I spot him.

I'm so happy I went for the 600, for me it's still going to be more than good enough off road, but it seems quite relaxed at 60 - 70mph which is exactly what I wanted. Might need to start going to the gym 5 times a week if I wanna hit any serious trails though!!

I've had one issue so far when I stopped on the way to work to pick up some food for the day. I failed to kick it back into life so I primed it on decomp, tried again, and again, then I noticed fuel pouring out of the carb overflow!!! Pushed it the rest of the way to work with the fuel tap off and it turned out to be a sticky float needle! Sorted now.

I did initially notice a slight oily smell and very faint smoke from the silencer until it warmed up a bit, but I didn't notice it happening the last cold start or two; running in the garage from cold today I could hardly smell a thing. I'm guessing the valves needed a run to re-seat after sitting around for years? Might need stem seals before I take her further afield but that will be no trouble, might be good to take the head off for an inspection and a refresh regardless. Just gonna keep a hawk eye on the oil level for now.

I'm properly over the moon with this bike!

Nice looking bike - a lot better nick than mine!

Re the subframe, what I did with mine was -

1. Reweld the "eyes" at the end of the subframe where the mudguard is attached. Honda only spot weld them and they didn't look like they'd take much weight to me.

2. I ran a separate rail under the top rail of the subframe, fixed at the front end to the rear seat mounting bolts and at the rear to a 2" drop link bolted the "eyes". The rack mounting brackets were fixed to this rail rather than to the original tubes.

I then ran an extra tube from the new rail to near where the existing frame tubes join down by the footrests. Awkward to do on the exhaust side but easy on the other side.

3. I welded in "gussets" top and bottom on the existing subframe tubes.

4. I made up a bolt on cross piece to go behind the wheel to cut down on side to side movement.


As my bike was somewhat battered when I started, the mess that welding makes of the paintwork didn't bother me that much. With your pristine looking one you may think differently though. However better that than the whole thing collapsing in the middle nowhere. I've had that happen twice in my biking career and although it didn't cause any major problems either time it could have had it happened in more remote areas. Whether by accident or design the mods I outlined above worked well enough for me not to have any luggage issues. Of course I may not have any if I'd just piled the luggage on the unmodified bike but at least the construction work made me feel like I was doing something

Sadly I don't have any pics of my set-up (and I've taken it to bits since). I think if I was doing it again I'd seriously consider cutting the existing subframe off and making up a more substantial one from scratch using larger diameter tubing with triangulation and mounting points built into the design. Short of doing that you could do a lot worse than have a close look at how the subframe on this BMW was modified -


http://www.adventurebikerider.com/fo...-fettish-.html

Great info, thanks! My luggage will be light and split between hopefully nothing more than tank panniers and a Giant Loop Cayote so I was initially thinking of avoiding this job, but the thought of the back of my bike falling off in the middle of nowhere is not a happy thought so probably worth a little effort.

If you're travelling light you may not have to do that much to the bike but the temptation to take stuff "just in case" can soon add up. This is what ended up piled on mine and what the mods I outlined above had to cope with -




Way way too much and bits were scattered here and there as I came to my senses.