Aussie trail/enduro/adventure magazine Trailzone has a TE630 as a long-term test bike and will be making mods and reporting thereon over the next few issues. In the current issue they have done the basic mods most of us have done - fix the suicide stand, bark busters, bash plate, rear rack and remove rubber inserts in foot pegs. They also put on a lower gel seat and the genuine Husky bag. Their website is shown below, although it doesn't show any detailed info on these mods: http://www.trailzone.com.au/ They are doing this in conjunction with Offroadexplorer.com - you may have already seen their original YouTube review of the TE at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljMI3T1mI48&feature=youtube_gdata_player
They will no doubt put the pivot pegz on, as they are a big fan of them. They will also fit the Arrow pipes for sure, probably next issue. The way it works is that the manufacturer backs themselves by giving the mag a bike to play with over an extended period of say six months and they thrash it and make various mods as they go. It's only published every second month, with the current issue (July/Aug) being the first featuring it. The mag is also a big supporter of Safari Tanks, and the boys do a lot of longer rides, so I suspect one of those will make it on as well. Time will tell... They really like the bike so far, as they are dirt bike riders at their core and the TE is a lot harder edged than almost all of the soft and porkier adventure bikes available, allowing them to ride serious off road trails as well as long hours on tar. They had a 610 a couple of years ago and loved it, particularly its powersliding abilities. They are great, knockabout, blokes who have been on the enduro scene since the early 1980s, so they will give the bike a solid workout.
I'm hanging out for the next issue, it convinced me to get my TE 630. Ive done similar mods but for the seat.
In the last issue they added a shield to Lambda, I ideas why they just didn't put the PU kit on especially with the Arrow pipes. Any ideas ????
`Cos they can´t very well openly discard the bike´s road legal status by removing the lambda sensor. (That´s why I left mine in too and just taped the end of the cable to the frame under the saddle. Otherwise I´d make it too easy for them to run me in)
Come on mate no one is going to ping you by removing the sensor. Just about all bikes have it done down under.
Wow, I didn't realise it was illegal! Couple of questions, non of my other bikes have had them. This is the first bike I have ever seen with one, I think the law would be hard pushed to spot it, maybe. So what if you change the whole exhaust system and it doesn't have a lambda. I thought it was more of a European requirement. You would think the law would be spending time on A: Harley exhausts, B: unregistered bike at state forests. I took my 3 hours to take the thing out and now I have to put it back.
Ah! But you don´t live in `elf `n safety´ Europe with a police force that´s not there to protect society from dangerous criminals but show no compassion with little old ladies riding pushbikes with no rear reflectors. I´ve been stopped on my CCM and held there waiting for the Berlin police `specialist´ to arrive with his measuring equipment and video camera to get my bike for his archive.
@CinyTalk: `Tis ok over here if the bike was registered before they became mandatory. But if the bike was registered with the sensor, it has to be shown to be on the bike at all times.
Interestingly when they fitted the Arrow pipes they left the standard ECU in rather than fitting the one that came with the pipes, citing better mid range performance compared with the Arrows at the higher end. I don't know about this, as mine has both the Arrow pipes and ECU and it has a heap of crisp grunt from low/mid revs. They said fitting the pipes transformed the bike's performance, as it did with mine. They also fitted the 25 litre Safari tank, in red rather than translucent, and in my opinion the colour better matches the bike and it somehow looks less bulbous, although it may not be as practical for checking the fuel level. Surprisingly they haven't lowered the gearing or put Pivot Pegz on yet, although they'll have it for another few months and continue to tinker. Mods so far: · B&B alloy Bashplate (they wanted better protection so replaced the Husky genuine one they'd originally fitted) · Barkbusters (VPS red) · Suicide stand deactivated · Safari tank 25 litre (red) · Husky lower seat (930mm down to 900mm) · Husky rack · Husky bag · Arrow pipes, but not ECU · Lambda sensor guard Touratech · Footpegs – removed rubber inserts · Unifilter air filter · Barkbuster VS Handlebars · Touratech bar riser kit – 24mm · Locating lugs on the sidecovers filed lightly to round off the inner edge to make it easier to pull out. Overall they love the bike, as they are dirt bike riders at their core, and the TE is by far the most dirt orientated adventure type bike available, save perhaps the 690R.
'round these parts, all they care about is if your plates are current, you have a motorcycle endorsement on your driver's license, and you have valid insurance. They don't care how noisy your bike is, how dirty the emissions are, or whether or not you have turn signals and mirrors. The tradeoff is that the riding kind of sucks compared to just about everywhere else.
I'm just wondering what to do next on my mine? I'm under 6ft but happy with the existing seat. I would do the exhaust but that's expensive, local dealer here can do Barrat pipes. How beneficial is the air filter change to performance or is this just over long distance with the larger tank? The Bar riser kit, is that an easy fit , I get what they say about stand up riding. Now how will the gearing change help performance? What tyres are your running 50 - 50's, I changed from the originals to Dunlops as the dealer said I would only get 1000k out of them with road use, recommendations.
Here's what I've done to mine: power-up kit removed airbox labyrinth removed passenger pegs Uptite Skidplate ground ribs off of mudflap to keep it from wearing a groove in the swingarm ground part of the kickstand foot down to keep it from banging into my swingarm cut off the auto-retract nub on the kickstand Leo Vince full Ti Exhaust iBeat set to 106%/106%/106% for exhaust per Bill's recommendation Highway Dirt Bikes handguards/top clamp/mirrors hard-wired a garage door opener to a button on the top clamp Ram Mount for Garmin 60CX GPS Giant Loop Coyote/Fandago bags Seat Concepts seat foam & cover TE510 footpegs used passenger peg brackets to make subframe anchor points for the Giant Loop bags tires: Pirelli MT21
The price of the Arrow pipes is ridiculous at $1,887 plus 2 or 3 hours to fit them, so well over $2 grand. I saw a TE a couple of weeks ago that had the twin black Barratts fitted and it looked and sounded nice, but no separate ECU. I think the owner said they cost around $700. I went straight from the standard pipes with no power up kit to the Arrows, so don't know how much of the increased performance is attributable to the pipes themselves, but the dealer estimated plenty. What I can say is that the performance difference before and after the pipes was pronounced, throughout the rev range. I haven't bothered changing the air filter, as I don't ride in really dusty conditions like those blokes do. I could be wrong, but I don't think the Unifilter adds to performance in terms of increased power, just better engine protection (the dust in the Australian outback is incredible). I had the dealer fit all my accessories at the outset, including bar risers, as I'm 6'4" tall, so I don't know how much work is involved in fitting them. I kept the standard bars and everything feels just right to me. The gearing change I did was drop one tooth on the CS, i.e. to a 14, as I do some tighter offroad work. First is now low enough to idle along at quite a low speed, and second is now much more useable as well. Before the change I was quite often in first in the tight sections, and second was simply too tall, particularly with the engine in standard form where it had little useable power below 4,000rpm. The combination of the lower gearing and much crisper power delivery from low revs has made it a far, far better bike offroad. The compromise of course is that it has lost some of its long legged nature on road. I can still cruise comfortably all day at 110-120kmh, but it is certainly busier than before. My feeling is that with the Arrow pipes it would easily pull the original gearing, so it comes down to the type of riding you do. If you regularly ride difficult, offroad work I would definately go with the 14, but if its mostly onroad or big trips I would stay with the 15. My rear Karoo is pretty much shot at 2,400kms and I won't fit them again. They are good on road (smooth & quiet) and reasonable off, but they have a really low block that looks only just even from new and starts to look ordinary within a few hundred kms. I will go for either Dunlop D606s, which I had on my previous bike (2009 DRZ400E), or more likley Pirelli MT21s, which I haven't tried before. The 606s are good offroad, but howl a bit on. Overall I am very happy with the bike. The only other mods I would like to do are fit radiator guards and Pivot Pegs. I would also like the tank to be around the 16 litre mark, but unfortunately there is no option available that I am aware of (the Safari being 25 litres, which I am not interested in).
Heh Russ thanks for taking the time to provide all the information, I'm with you on the radiator guards and with my adventure boots clumping around the pegs and back break, may look at the pegs.
One thing I left out were EBC X brake pads up front. The OEM pads had this unbelievable howl that no amount of cleaning & greasing would fix. As a bonus, I like the feel of the EBC pads a lot better.
Can you post a few photos of your bike with the red Sarfari tank and what has been your experience with range on 25ltrs?
