Snoozin

So, this thing's currently sitting in the shed gathering dust because I'm an idiot/terrible at riding these things, and I fell off it and broke something important.

But first, a wee yarn about the some misadventures.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (145) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

About 3 weeks ago, I went for a skid to see @oftensideways up the line. I mainly wanted to hoon on Turakina Valley Rd as I'd been told the gravel bits were pretty rad. So I did, but to get there I did a pretty convoluted loop, taking in Zig Zag Rd, Ridge Rd, Peep O Day Rd, Sandon Block Rd and then doubling back to Turakina Valley Rd before running that all the way to Tangiwai. I made the journey to get to Sean's place about 280km in total (whoops) and did 450km by the time I'd gotten home. Big day for a rookie, bike ran flawlessly and I didn't fall off.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (148) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

The next day though, didn't end so well (this isn't me breaking the thing, though, really). I tagged along on a loosely organised ride with a Manawatu Adv Facebook group (Blizzo went too, and Simon) which took in some roads/trails over Tararua way. All good on the gravel, zipped through Tararua Rd (I think it was) after a run over the Pahiatua Track on the tarmac (getting more and more comfortable on the road but still not totally confident to push hard), then the group headed further East to Puketoi Rd, which starts as a gravel road then turns into an unmaintained paper road/farm track basically.

Anyway, I struggled keeping up (a lot) on this one, mostly due to being inexperienced on what is a relatively hefty piece of gear (and probably, in retrospect not the best bike for tackling this sort of stuff, but here we are). It can be a bit demoralising when you lose contact with the group, but I soldiered on, concentrating on looking ahead, picking my lines and doing the best I could. Then the front end started shaking a bit at 30km/h and faster... shit, a puncture. Of course, I had a tube and some tools. BUT I was missing the 14mm hex key to remove the front axle. I turned around and went several KM back on a flat front tyre, and left the bike at the last farm house we'd encountered. A couple of the other blokes helped me out, and I got a lift back into town on the back of an Africa Twin (DCT gearbox is nice!) before hauling the trailer out and picking it up. 3.5hr round trip!!!

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (146) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

So that was a bit shit really. But I fixed it the next evening, threw a new tube in and all that, and decided I go for a burn later that week after work. I also fitted up some spare plastics I got from Japan, wrapped the minters with the nice stickers up in bubble wrap and stashed them away for selling time. Looks all right all naked and stuff I guess.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (151) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

And so off we went on a Wednesday or a Thursday night or something. Off, back up the Pahiatua Track and this time turning off to the left at the top, and taking in North Range Rd. It starts off nice and smooth, as an access road mainly for the wind turbines, but quickly deteriorates into a 4x4 track, which posed some challenges to the novice rider.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (153) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Nice views before it got a bit bumpier, though!

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (155) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

I went for a short walk to check out what I'd gotten myself into, before actually proceeding on the bike down some of these sections. They were relatively slippery clay-ish sort of stuff, but I managed all right, albeit at a leisurely pace. Thankful for a good tyre on the front!

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (157) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Plenty of rutted out areas. This one was extreme, and I didn't ride through it, but did some others... water in some cases was thigh-deep (I waded into a couple just to check first).

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (159) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

And this is probably indicative of most of the track, some of these holes/puddles were deceptively deep so I didn't risk hitting everything with lots of speed. 

But then I fell off (the first time). One particularly gnarly looking rut looked a bit daunting, so I chose to go around on the outside, following some bike ruts along a narrow ledge to the left of the big 4x4 hole. Was going OK, until I had to give it some throttle to get enough drive through a boggy spot, then the rear tyre jumped out of the rut I was riding in, and spat me and the bike off the 'ledge' to the right hand side, and into the mud hole. The bike went competely upside down dangling over the half meter or so ledge (it has an inertia switch to cut power thankfully) and I ended up in the mud. Lol. I laughed a bit to be fair, and then quickly focused on the "how the fuck am I going to recover the bike" task at hand. Turns out you can shift 170kg of bike pretty easily when you have to, and it wasn't as difficult as I feared to stand it back upright. We got out of that one OK.

Closer to the end of the '4x4' section though, I binned it again, just hit a submerged rock and got all out of rhythm - again, in a muddy/wet hole. I think this is where the damage occured, although it didn't make itself known to me until later.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (161) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

This is just out the other side, at this point I was ignorant to the problem that would befall me only a few minutes down the track...

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (162) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Here's the last pic I took, descending back down to Gorge Rd at the other end of the track. You can see the muffler has been tweaked slightly after taking a hit. I have ordered an additional bracket/clamp for it and will improve this. While taking this photo of the lovely golden hour views, the temp warning light came on.... bit odd, I thought, but didn't think anything of it and coasted downhill until it switched off before making my way down under power. Until it came on again.

I wasn't far out of Woodville when I thought I'd take a look and whoooops.... the somewhat vulnerable hose from water pump to the radiator had holed, I think mainly because the hose was old and brittle. I patched it with tape as best I could, and filled up a small amount of water from what was left in my bottle and continued home. The light came on again, the tape didn't do a perfect job.... so I pressed on. 

Hopefully no damage was incurred to the engine. It ran fine all the way home, and I figured as long as the temp light was on, there was still water in it... presently waiting for a hose from Yamaha and I'll have it all patched up and ready to go again. 

If you've stayed with me, thanks for reading. It's probably not that interesting to the experienced riders here, but very much a learning curve. I'm wondering if I've over-invested in a not very suitable bike, it would actually be nice to have a bit less weight to deal with and I think would help my confidence a bit. So the XT's future is in the balance. It's a wonderful gravel bike, but leaves something to be desired on the tight stuff, despite the list of upgrades it has. First though, fix it and hope it's all OK after running hot for a little while.

Thing is, what to replace with if anything? Limited budget here... maybe 8 or 9k tops if it sells for relatively OK money.

My shock arrived!

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (118) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

It's a YSS unit from Thailand, with rebound damping adjustment and a 130nm spring for old fatso and his luggage.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (119) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (120) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

I'm pretty impressed with the build quality in general, these seem to get good reviews which place them as a decent mid-priced option. Nitron or Ohlins was NLA for my bike but I bet they would have been pricey if they had been. Everything is nicely machined and anodised, the rebound adjuster clicks nice and positively. At face value, no complaints!

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (125) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

I also scored one of these hydraulic lifts from Supercheap on sale, figured for $180 bucks why not... makes life super easy, give me convenience or give me death!!! In between times I also organised some luggage, this is the Kriega OS Base which is designed for a T7 Tenere originally but fits the XT well. OS-12 saddle bags on each side which are spacious, but still a compact size and keep weight comparatively centered on the bike. I'm gonna need some kind of heat shielding on the muffler, just in case.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (135) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (134) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

On with the show, however.  The internet (and the owners manual) reckoned this was a pretty big job. The general gist being, remove everything south of the engine and you'll be sweet. A bloke on an XT660 Facebook group though, reckoned it was doable without having to remove the airbox completely, which also meant the rear wheel didn't need removing etc.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (136) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Step 1, remove all the bodywork! Only one broken clip thing. Woop.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (138) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

By the time step 2 rolls around, its looking more like this. With the tank removed (to get to the airbox bolts) and you can see if you zoom in, all the electronics removed from the side of the airbox to allow it to slide back in the frame enough to access the top shock bolt.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (139) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

This is just prior to sliding the airbox back in the frame.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (141) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Undo the linkage arms, the shock bolts, and compress the swing arm to get enough space to drop the shock out. EZPZ!

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (142) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Old and busted vs new hotness.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (143) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

All bolted into its new home and torqued up proper like. I took the opportunity also, to grease all the bearings and whatnot.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (144) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Fin. Although you can't really see jack diddly that there's been any changes. 

I haven't ridden it yet. But the garage bounce test confirms a stiffer spring, but a much nicer damping feel. The bike sits higher (even after sag has been set) combined with the new front end so I've also got a net ground clearance gain. And a little less weight, the new shock is slightly lighter. Every bit counts....

Stay tuned for a ride impression, hopefully after work one night this week!

Still messing with it, and enjoying it on the whole.

Threw a new chain and sprocket at it, went a tooth down on the front sprocket as the thing would pull 180kmh flat out and I really don't need that... it's dropped the gearing something like 11%, and has now made it way more useable in the tighter stuff.

Next on the list was the front end. I sent the forks (Paioli from factory) to KSS in New Plymouth and received them back with a set of RaceTech cartridge emulators and uprated springs to bring the prehistoric damper-rod forks closer to modern day life. Also bought some DRC fork boots, and a 2006 YZF/WRF front guard to replace the ugmo black factory one. Also easier to replace when I inevitably break it. Oh yeah, some spare plastic radiator shrouds popped up for next to nothing on Yahoo Auctions also so I snagged those

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (117) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Had the bike at Blizzos on a stand awaiting the forks, so as soon as they got here, zipped around the corner and fired them back into the triple clamps. Short ride home and they felt good...

Over the next arvo, I set about getting the guard on. Lo and behold the pre-drilled holes matched the XT bolt pattern, but I had to space the back down a bit to gain some clearance to the radiator. But then noticed the bottom edge was actually in contact with the header. Yes good.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (116) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Easy enough fix, just get the hacksaw out and choppy chop some of the guard off! I also took to the "fork protector" things and cut them off, while retaining the plastic surround along the sides of the headlight, I toyed with ditching the whole shooting match but figured it looked tidier this way.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (112) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

A pretty strong look though, I think! Much, much less sag in the front end now, it was over half of the total travel when I was on the bike previously... 70mm of that was static sag without me even jumping on the bike. So it does ride a little higher in it's travel now, which can only be a good thing.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (113) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

This arvo I figured I'd go for a ride, since I was feeling a bit dusty following plenty of Daybreaker Rally beers the day prior. Shot out to see the folks, and then carried on to Tangimoana to have a blat along the Rangitikei at Scott's Ferry through to the beach, then visited Burn's Ford on my way home - both spots I used to thrash bikes around when I was a kid, it's rad to see it's still accessible and they haven't been restricted by fun-hating numpties. No pics of the Burn's Ford bit, but she was pretty chewed up in parts by 4x4s, which made it a challenge of sorts after some heavy rain... it's not a featherweight, this thing.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (101) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (102) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (103) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (104) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (105) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

How good's a Junlian Brand loader. This thing wasn't even 10 years old and it was showing it's age...
2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (109) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

^ And yours truly, with some 787B stuff in my diecast collection. Lol.

But can post more of this, now!

2000 Mazda RX7 RZ FD3S-352-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2000 Mazda RX7 RZ FD3S-122-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2000 Mazda RX7 RZ FD3S-180-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2000 Mazda RX7 RZ FD3S-547-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2000 Mazda RX7 RZ FD3S-607-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Mazda RX3 3 Rotor Racing-626-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Coming soon!

Mazda RX3 Racer 3 Rotor Racing-62-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Haven't used it much at all, done maybe 100km this year in total... but anyway, restored some BBS LM and fitted them up. Stripped, polished, painted championship white and new chrome hardware and genuine BBS valve stems/caps.

DC2R Phone (74)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

DC2R Phone (80)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Fleet is good.