• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

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    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

How to reduce weight on TR650 ?

i would say if you what to make it lighter i would have bought something else, this is a bike you ride as is only thing you can save weight is the exhaust, but then you will be taking it off road so you will be putting it back on with crash bars
 
Don't quite agree Lowrider. The TR650 has some traits that make it a standout as an adventure high mileage tourer.
It is way lighter that the silly adv bikes like the BMW 1200 or 800 ( no offence but I wouldn't want to ride a bike over 200kg in the dirt and have to get it out of a bog). Huge heavy things. It is a single so better low end torque. It is unbelievably smooth vibration free motor. Good travel without rocking too much on the tar. Narrow. Good shaped seat for the dirt. Fuel miser. If you want to take any bike on the dirt, first reduce the weight so you can add weight that's really needed such as bash plates, luggage, etc.
On the long way round there were places where a TR would have been way less hassle than their BMW's.
 
Greg Jetnikoff said:
Don't quite agree Lowrider. The TR650 has some traits that make it a standout as an adventure high mileage tourer.
It is way lighter that the silly adv bikes like the BMW 1200 or 800 ( no offence but I wouldn't want to ride a bike over 200kg in the dirt and have to get it out of a bog). Huge heavy things. It is a single so better low end torque. It is unbelievably smooth vibration free motor. Good travel without rocking too much on the tar. Narrow. Good shaped seat for the dirt. Fuel miser. If you want to take any bike on the dirt, first reduce the weight so you can add weight that's really needed such as bash plates, luggage, etc.
On the long way round there were places where a TR would have been way less hassle than their BMW's.
Click to expand...
Agreed!
 
I've took my BMW 1100 1150 1200 ccm 404 off road in all conditions. I would agree the bm's are a heavy lump but great fun, but when it gets bogged down in dirt you need two to pull it out, but I've done every thing the other ktm's done and I love it, the long way round lads still got round with these bikes, I would say if I had as much suport as they had even my m8 who's had no off road experience would get round,

I'm doing the same thing traveling across Russia 9000 miles to magadan, looking at getting dirty as much as possible. I originally thought I would take a BMW 1150gs that I rebuilt, last year, here is the link https://www.facebook.com/groups/787354357948818/?bookmark_t=group
But I had a low speed spill, I done a little damage to the bike the engine bars saved the bike from servere damage, the bike was still catergory d by the insurance, after spending this winter looking at different bikes BMW's, ktm's, the new ccm
I came across the terra 650 I must be honest I was excited about this bike, I've been a member of a BMW forum for a long time, I was a bit surprised to come across a new terra 650 up for sale with all the bits on the forum, engine bars, exhaust changed to the single unit, touratec alliminum panniers, heated grips, adjustable gear changer, alarm, all this and the bike has only just been ran in 980 miles, so I bought it, I've looked round the bike trying to see if I can save weight before I start to adding touring bits, apart from the exhaust, battery, the back end number plate holder there's nothing else, I'll be looking at adding a larger adventure tank taking the range up to 350 - 400, I'll look at other options as I go though the bike.
 
"I would say if I had as much support as they had even my m8 who's had no off road experience would get round,"
LOL...Sooo true!
Please don't think I am putting anybody down cause they use a big bike ( or a tiny one for that matter) . I admire the give it a go spirit ( I am after all an Aussie AND from North Queensland). Just think the huge bike with a wide Boxer motor is a strange thing for a mmanufacturer to make into a dirt directed bike. Not as bad as a rev happy Tiger xc or the very strange Kawaka 4cyl Versys. Even the dirt oriented Buell made more sense than those.
I secretly harbour a dream to make a Honda VTR 250 onto a dirt tourer. I used to road race one on the track and kept thinking how the motor would make a brilliant dirt tourer. Amazing flat torque curve and very narrow.
I have the Safari tank fitted and now working. It is wider than the stock plastics and protects your knees like a fairing making the bike even more pleasant to ride. I fitted a fuel pump and fed the fuel via the top instead of down low as per the Safari instructions, Gets rid of the worry of leakage and allows you to control when the fuel is transferred.
Alloy bars damp a fair bit of weight over the steel ones and will help with steering column momentum. I used Renthals which have an added advantage of being vibration damping. Not that the Husky needs it. On that note, ditch the bar weights. The TR is smooth enough not to need em. Brake and gear lever can be swapped for alloy ones but I fear you will have to make them ( I intend to ) and that would also allow the rear brake lever to be made lower and adjustable.
IF you find a good rear shock it will be lighter as well as the stock one is steel everything and very heavy. Again with the bonus of improved damping and matching the spring to your weight and load. One place you may be able to dump some weight is the brake discs. Certainly in Australia I can get a set of discs made that are considerably lighter and better in grunge conditions . Again with the added bonus of improving the unsprung weight ratio.
 
This should give insight as to how old I am. My TR is my 39th bike since I was fourteen. It is intended to be my last adventure tour bike (my wife doubts that? go figure). Anyway I concur with Greg Jetnikoff's assessment. This is an extraordinary machine. It is without doubt the best running, most vibration free, thumper I have ever ridden, period. It feels very light when riding it, especially when standing. It is adaptable under varied conditions, and the fuel delivery system is thought out well.

The only thing that IMHO that needs improvement is the fork cartridges. Those need sorting. If one wants to loose weight, then lose a the muffler of your choice and place a plate over the exhaust header. However, as others have already stated you still need engine protection and likely luggage racks or at the least a decent top rack.

I think obsessing about the weight of the bike is silly given the endless opportunities for buying bikes that would provide exactly that, less weight. But think about it. We had a chance to review the specs of the bikes, we knew what we were buying. As High Five would say. "Just go riding" Then try to wipe the smile off your face when you return to the garage.
 
Motorcycles are tools, plain and simple. Like tools, motorcycles are fun to use and play with. However, trying to shave weight on a TR is an indicator that your using the wrong tool for the job. A TR is never going to be a WR250. Nothing you do to your TR will ever make it as capable as a KTM 450 EXC.

The TR650 is a multi-tool. It is a Leatherman. It does a little bit of everything, and does it well enough to make you want to explore its limits. However, if you're building a house, and a Leatherman is the only tool you own, you've got some problems, and building that house will be no fun.

So accept the TR for what it is, a 400lb multi-tool. Ride the asphalt, the gravel, and the dirt. But when you get sick of picking up a 400lb bike, understand that you may have chosen the wrong tool for the job.
 
Dont get me wrong. I dont think I can make this bike dirt monster :) I made my former F800GS lighter by over 20lbs. And it made considerable difference while riding offroad... I did that and it worked...

In case of Terra, I need to at least compensate for farkles I added... For me, 185 kilograms make a usable limit for gravel riding. I want to keep this bike within this limit. Thats all.
 
Well ive got a single exhaust and the standard battery but if you want to get into a bog in the first place, i suggest trying to walk the path before you ride into it!
I would be inclined to either do more weights or buy a smaller bike.
 
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Motorcycles don't come in perfect. NONE do. The TR650 IS a multitool but that doesn't mean it cant be made better. The Husky shows big signs of cost savings ( engineering by accountants). Steel frame, steel footpegs, steel levers, steel footpeg mounts etc.
In the 650cc range ,IMHO, the TR motor is by far the best...period. The bike , however, is heavier than it needs to be. For instance, the ktm 690 is a bigger motor and much lighter ( and could be even lighter) but the motor is vibraty and VERY badly fuel ( we have one).
So I didn't by the wrong tool. I bought exactly the tool that was closest to what I want , and then set about making it as close to what I want as I can get it. Until we start getting custom made motorcycles, that is what we do or just accept second best ( or third best ).
Even leathermans come in versions
 
Being of smaller stature myself, I just spend a bit more time slinging my kettlebells. I find strength to be a great overcomer of many obstacles. I don't care too much about the small weight changes. Im not gonna go try to heft a GS around in the dirt 'cos thats just silly. I bought a great multi-tool in my Husky and make sure I've got the strength to handle whatever life and the bike dish out.
 
Hmm interesting....Apart from the KTM 690, is there a lighter Dual Sport 600-700cc bike around?
If so, you should have bought it instead of the TR !
 
mag00 said:
The two best places to lose significant weight is the mufflers and battery. They are both up high.
Click to expand...

I agree. Going to a lighter single silencer will cut about 6-7 lbs or so.

Unfortunately my Screaming Demon pipes are rather over built (amazing quality) so I only dropped about 1 lb with them.

I plan to replace the battery with a LiFe one, probably later this year. I have a hard time replacing a perfectly good working battery, but ....... it will drop about 5-6 lbs. quite high in the bike.

I've used the Shorai LiFe batteries in 3 bikes now and love them.
 
danketchpel said:
I agree. Going to a lighter single silencer will cut about 6-7 lbs or so.

Unfortunately my Screaming Demon pipes are rather over built (amazing quality) so I only dropped about 1 lb with them

How long have you had the demons? Any shortcomings? I hear they have no mount bracket at the connection... Has that been an issue? I'm trying to get them to do another run of them so I can try them out.
Click to expand...
 
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