Good luck in your next Rally.
It's a wonder Yamaha haven't offered you a job yet to help them make the Tenere version everyone would love to own. That's a real talent you have for functionality a beauty.
Cheers :icon_thumleft:

Thanks!!

I hope Yamaha read you... I would like this job! hahaha!

If you do get to Yamaha can you put in a good word for Kev as well. Imagine what bikes the pair of you could turn out with Yamaha backing & can I also offer my services as a test rider !!!

:smilies0349:

Yeah.. good team!

Well... I can say the bike is almost finished with the new fairing and decals: http://traildreamer.com/el-toque-fin...de-uni-racing/


http://traildreamer.com/wp-content/u...o-7-de-331.jpg

I love it!!! :toothy9:

Very very nice.

Got to agree with Desert Racer. ..your bike is stunning!, and it's nice to see the potential of the Tenere! , even if my ambitions with my own bike are a bit more modest I love to see what's been done. Steve

Thank you for the inspiration, i'll keep working on my bike :)

Glad you like it and hope it can help you.

Next weekend start a new challenge to me and my bike, my first race with roadbook... I hope not to loose my way in every corner... ;-)

Cheers

It's a pity Yamaha doesn't market a package for the Tenere like the "Orange people"do! They have a "Dakar kit" for their new 690.
I reckon, the package you've put together, is a lot better the orange peoples kit too :eusa_drool:

That is supposed to be half the fun, not? [emoji6]

Dunno... we'll see... first experience!

R e s p e c t.
 

Mith's Dad has huge Kahones

Its a wonder that he can actually swing a leg over a bike at all.

Still think Blue is the colour to go for

Well, my first experience with the roadbook was not too bad.
I came to the race quite sick with a bad cold and cough that would not let me enjoy the weekend.
Saturday I was in a good third position but Sunday I was really tired. To avoid a crash I ride too slow and was only seventh. A fourth overall behind the KTM690 Army is not so bad. I hope to improve in the next races.
Here are the post with videos and pics, I hope you like it

http://traildreamer.com/primer-rally...5-siete-aguas/

http://traildreamer.com/videos-rally...5-siete-aguas/

http://traildreamer.com/wp-content/u...lo-1-de-13.jpg

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http://traildreamer.com/wp-content/u...o-30-de-42.jpg

Man & machine in perfect harmony. Its great to see how tough & capable a Tenere really is. Great work.

Thanks!! :icon_biggrin:

Hey JaumeV, really enjoyed the video. ..yours and the official one. So brilliant to see what the Ten's capable of! ! Steve

Great! I'ma glad you like it.
Yes, this is a great bike. Really versatile... and in less than a week she's going to be in its real habitat: the desert. Friday I'm leaving to Morocco, I'm soooo exited!!! ;-)

Wow great videos :bounce016:

The right stuff when the season is starting :applause:.

Good and nice trip to and in Morocco with the 660z!

cheers, Andy

Have a great trip to Morocco, the bike will be in it's element there. Are you posting details/pictures of your trip?
I'm planning to go there again later this year....have fun!!

Thanks!!

Yes this is the real habitat for this bike.
I'm going to post it here: http://traildreamer.com/category/viajes/marruecos-2015/

Ready to go. Dressed for adventures!! :thumbsup:

http://www.subirimagenes.com/imageda...o-16-de-20.jpg

Good luck on the trip. I have a friend at work about to teach himself Spanish, I'm going to get him to translate your website for me as practice!

Today i weighed my bike.
The tank is not completely full, i'd say about 3/4. It weighs in at about 192kg.

Our bikes are somewhat similar, so that seems about right i guess.

Is there any obvious places on the Tenere where you can save weight? The cans are the obvious one. Which place is next? I was thinking the reliability of the engine is great, although its quite low on power. By making the bike lighter you get the same effect as more power (without fiddling with the engine and losing reliability) and less to lug around.

Like you say the exhaust is the obvious way to loose 4 to 5kg. I've heard the tail light assembly and supports are heavy too. You could change the standard battery for a Lithium one, unbolt/remove the pillion footrests, have a lighter frame made in ally to accommodate the front light, remove a centrestand and bashplate if you have one, depends how far you want to go.

The biggest weight saving will be to reduce the unsprung weight which involves changing the wheels and front brake to a single disc set up. This will also improve the handling of the bike.

Consequently, if you greatly reduce the weight of the sprung mass and leave the unsprung mass unchanged the bike will handle worse!

I think the best weight saving mods to do are to find a lighter front hub and go down to a single disc/caliper then to change the standard silencer as both these put excess weight in exactly the wrong places.

Thanks for that. I already have the Leo Vince back pipes (sadly 2 not one). So some weight off the back. If I had the funds, I'd love a YZ front fork wheel single disc (but a bit too expensive for me) as this will also fix the short travel lightly sprung front. Probably just change springs on this. The steel frame, although heavy, I can live with as this makes the back really strong for loading and easy fix if it gets broken (!!!!).
Wonder how the Tenere will handle with 11" travel front fork and 7" (normal or aftermarket) back shock. The rims and the hubs are the main culprits, and I wonder if there is an economical make it lighter fix on these?

Thanks
Here I am again. It was a fantastic trip. I'm trying to find some time to post the details.

Poor guy, you are going to loose a friend ;-)

How you did weighed? what system?

The Tenere is an old fashion adventure bike, trusty but heavy. Not easy to save weight without spend lot of money.

Yes the cans are the obvious part, also the tail. I also save weight changing the forks, front wheel and having a single brake disc.
I took off all the AIS system and few things more, but I add parts that they are more heavy than the original ones, in total I save about 10kgs.

See here: http://traildreamer.com/peso-de-la-t...-traildreamer/

Right!!:023:

I agree with you. I prefer a strong and easy to rebuild stell frame for this kind of bike.
Change the suspensions make a dramatic improvement in the bike. Without this change I wouldn't participate in the rallyes. I know it is expensive but is the bes inversion I made in the bike.
Try to find a used YZ or WR front wheel/fork, there aren't expensive.

You can save weight by not putting on too much sh!t :)

so no crashbars or the smallest available. Not hard cases, but soft luggage etc.

But some weight savings:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-1...113_221459.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-N...113_221434.jpg
- change battery, lithium is lightest, but Motobatt is also lighter ~800gr

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Z...o/DSC_0206.JPG
- s-moto tail tidy compared to original ~600gr

but the numbers wont be that big

- Maybe changing forks and triple tree/yoke? But i dont have any numbers
- changing from double front discs to single
- Excel wheels & Talon hubs, but again, nu numbers available. I can weigh mine, but someone else has to weigh the original
- keep plastic bashplate, no alumunumum :icon_study:
- passenger footpegs
- replacing headers when MTC brings out an aftermarket set ( http://www.xt660.com/showthread.php?t=23807 )

and then there's some other minimal weight savings:
- handlebars from standard steel to amulininium :icon_pirat:
- ...

well, very basic:

i put the front of the bike on a bathroom scale, and then the back. I did this a couple of times and used the average, because measuring wasnt that easy, because a little movement of the bike meant a change of weight on the scale.

It's not exactly scientific, but gives a rough idea

Ok, I did more or less the same.. thanks

Interesting stuff. :eusa_think:

Perhaps the cheapest, easiest, best and most effective way to shed weight is off your own body (if you've got room to). There's little point in scrabbling round for the odd few grams here and there on the bike (at great expense) if you could lose 10-20Kg yourself! Even emptying your bladder and taking a dump before a ride will save as much weight as a lithium battery would! ;)

Power/weight ratio is the biggest beneficiary of a trim rider. Let's assume a baseline of a stock bike, with no rider with 43.5 rear wheel hp (rwhp) and 206Kg (wet). This gives a power to weight ratio of 211rwhp/tonne.

Stock bike with 70Kg rider on board = 158rwhp/tonne

Stock bike with 80Kg rider on board = 152rwhp/tonne

Stock bike with 90Kg rider on board = 147rwhp/tonne

Stock bike with 100Kg rider on board = 142rwhp/tonne

The difference between the 70Kg and 100Kg rider is about the equivalent of fitting a PCV, DNA stage 2 and a set of cans, which would probably set you back �600+!

Also petrol has a mass of 737g/L, so your bike will have the same power to weight ratio advantage as loosing 10Kg if you run it with no more than 10 litres in the tank.

I know the above theory doesn't help with unsprung mass, but the rider's mass sits almost entirely above the bike's centre of gravity, so has a very significant effect on handling as well as power to weight ratio.

I see where you are all coming from, and I too have tried to minimise the bike's unnecessary additional mass as much as possible, but other than junking the standard exhaust, it's all small stuff.

Less pies = more power! ;)

Right, I'm off to gym...

I'm 70kgs so I don't have much margin to loose wheigt but your theory is very accurate. :hello2:

I'm 64kgs and would like to be 10kgs more (in muscle mass preferably) to handle the big ol' tractor of ours better, talk about different perspectives ha ha :-)

Well, another great trip in Morocco... 3.000 km really hard off road, and the bike still working great. :clap

I'm posting the trip in here: http://traildreamer.com/category/viajes/marruecos-2015/


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Hi JaumeV, inspiring pictures as ever..., looks like the bike did you proud! Steve

Thanks Steve
Yes the bike works great as always.

Here you have some videos of the 3 first days, enjoy: http://traildreamer.com/marruecos-20...primeros-dias/