G'day Mick, Nice looking pipes. I saw them on another TE a few months back - sound very nice (I have the Arrows on mine). Where do you usually ride that beast and what sort of riding do you do?
Hi Russ. Bought this bike for adventure type riding, but it will do anything, which was the main attraction to it. As you may well know it is impossible to own a roadbike in this state and keep a licence. Am saving for a safari tank to extend how "lost" I can get!
Hi Mick, I am going for a ride with 6-10 riders on Saturday 28 January if you are interested in giving the new girl an outing. We are meeting at the Zig Zag Railway (Clarence) car park at 9am & taking the trails to Capertee for a refuel and lunch at the pub. The main group is then heading to Hill End for an overnighter, but I don't have time so one of the other riders & I are going to head out with them towards Sofala, then cut back south via Sunny Corner then back to Lithgow & home via Bell. Not too sure how technical if will be, but shouldn't be too difficult, particularly to Capertee as some of the riders are on GS1200s and 950 Adventures. The second half will probably be more technical, with just myself and another rider at this stage on a XR650R Will be a reasonably long day I should think. I don't know what your riding background is, but if you are interested in joining us let me know.
Thanks for the invite! I'll be heading in the opposite direction that weekend for an overnighter up Cells River. Ride sounds great tho. Ive never been to Hill End so a ride that way in the future would be tops. Got another baby coming in March so the bike may cop some serious shed time then
Nice pics. Just ride to the top of the chair lift, eh? I had to look up Lesotho. A landlocked country in South Africa? So, wiki says it's the poorest nation on the continent...why do they have a chair lift? What took you there, and where are you from. Would help if you filled in your profile. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you - have updated my profile now. Lesotho is one of the poorest countries in the world - which is sad on one hand, but makes it interesting for adv riding as it poses quite a contrast to the relatively rich South Africa. And my experience is that people in the poorest parts of the world are usually the best to interact with. It is fantastic adv/dirt riding playground for South Africans as it is landlocked in the middle of SA (i.e. accessible) and while not big (about 200 x 300 km) it is all mountains up to 3400 m high and therefore offers fantastic views and riding. It is also location for annual Roof of Africa race, which is one of the top extreme enduro races in the world together with Erzberg, Romaniacs, Hells Gate. The ski lift is I believe a South African affair - run by South Africans for the South African/foreign clients. It's attraction is that it is only one of two lifts in Africa (as far as I can tell - the other one is in South Africa close to border with Lesotho). And there is dirt road right next to it :-). However the slope is not steep and gnarly and I believe almost anybody would be able to get up there.
What's wrong with this picture? I performed a catadectomy, eliminated the "Y" pipe, an voila, lost 15 pounds of ugly fat. I think there's room in there for a 1-1/2 gallon Kolpin. I powder coated the heat shields as well.
Congratulations, looks great. You are the first I've seen to convert the standard duals to a single. How well does it run now and what's the sound level like? I really like the powder coated shields as well. Good work!
Cool- been thinking of doing that! Tell me- did you use a larger diameter pipe from the missing Y to the can? Seems to me you'd have to in order to optimize benefit and to be sure not to have made it more restricted than it was (as the larger head pipe Y's off to the two, smaller, pipes each leading to their own can.)
The stock pipe really necks down right after the "Y" and then expands somewhat right before the left side muffler. Yes, I extended the mid pipe with the same (larger) diameter tubing. Other than removing the cat, I didn't modify the muffler at all. By no stretch of the imagination is this a performance muffler, but I think it has more than adequate flow for a 600cc engine. It appears to me that the biggest restriction now is the spark arrester. I may modify that at some point, but I don't want to run afoul of the rangers. It doesn't seem any louder or quieter, and it pulls just as before right up to redline. This bike is still a lot faster than I am, especially off road. My main impetus for the mod was to rid the bike of some weight, and aesthetics. I like the single exhaust look.
nice work on the conversion to a single.. Like to hear if you can adapt some fuel to the right side of the bike now.
What rear tire is that? Do you like it? I need to accept the fact that I ride a lot more street than dirt...
