Well with 5 weeks to go, the X-Challenge was finally ready to pick up from Touratech and the Off Road School in Wales on the 20th Feb.  Visas all done up to and including Mongolia.  Not sure whether to get China, India and Pakistan now or leave them till Almaty on the way out.  A new logo has been finalised by none other than Matt Hill – the round the world motorcycling graphic designer from Terra Circa.   The logo was inspired by an “Udarnik” badge I picked up on an earlier ride thru the former USSR … its a badge for productive communist labour.  If anyone represents productive communist labour, it surely isnt me.  The new logo is now proudly now displayed at the top of each page.

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Exhausting stuff:  I thought I had sorted out an exhaust supplier but that fell thru 2 days before I picked up the XC, so naturally I threw a “tizzy” and tore that aftermarket exhaust manufacturers poster off my office wall.  I mean, how dare they?

Simon Pavey came to the rescue.  He had a spare unused remus XC exhaust lying around for his rallying needs, but as it turns out BMW will be racing the 450 model this year.  The ‘09 Dakar was the last race for the XC so the spare was about to be returned.  I convinced him I was a more worthy recipient of it.  I had been thinking of even putting up with the extra 2.5 kgs and going with the stock exhaust, but I had a dream last week of the cat converter clogging up in remote Siberia on all the leaded fuel in central asia, rural Russia and Mongolia so Pavey’s remus came in at just the right time to ease my mind.

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Hard Parts: Having picked up the bike, next project was to get it over to Holland ASAP for what the Germans like to call some “hard parts” prep.  I guess for me, the 3 sets of modifications a bike “needs” to go overlanding are related to fuel, luggage and protection.  Obviously there are a whole bunch of “wants” as well … but those mods are the 3 needs.  (I have done big overland trips with neither fuel, or protection mods, and only the most amateurish luggage mods – but its far from ideal).

Protection will come from old mate Nick Plumb at Touratech UK.  A radiator guard, rally bashplate and handguards are to be fitted whenever I can get back to Wales to pick them up, along with a number of other minor protective pieces, the sort of stuff at which Touratech really excel.

Fuel: The fuel mods and luggage mods were to be handled by Dutch metal working guru and bike prep maestro, Erik Bok, from Hot Rod Welding.  Erik was ‘hip to my cause’ when I said I needed the lightest possible solutions.  He makes the only metal aftermarket fuel tank for the X-Challenge, a neat 7.3 litre add on unit called the X-Tank, that weighs just under 2kgs, as it is made from pressed aluminium alloy.  For the Sibirsky Extreme bike, he added 60mm of width to the tank, giving us what Erik estimates as 12 litres.  I reckon it will be more like 13 litres.  Thats a dispute that will only be settled by filling it up for the first time.  The additional weight for the wider tank is only 0.4 kgs.  The tank feeds directly into the 10 litre standard tank.  One fuel stop will give me 23 litres of continuous fuel, and on the super economical XC, that translates to 650 km of range.

Next it was onto the luggage.  To minimise weight, the bike will have Ortlieb soft luggage ; Bicycle panniers (weighs around 1.25 kgs for 2 bags) at the sides and a roll bag at the back.   I have never subscribed to the germanic notion of steel or aluminium boxes.  They are heavy.  Very heavy.   The frames required to support them are even heavier.  A steel frame plus hard boxes will typically weigh over 20 kgs empty.  (Many custom made 3 piece sets are a good 25 kgs a set.)  We should save over 15 kgs vs that set up, and still have 23 litres of luggage per side, plus a 89 litre bag at the back.

Everyone I know rides big trips with soft luggage.  Austin and Gerald Vince have not so much as sniffed at a aluminium side pannier.  Chris Scott tried them once years ago and switched straight back to soft bags.  Lois Pryce wouldn’t dream of metal boxes.  Ted Simon set off on his 2nd trip round the world with custom aluminium boxes, and ditched them half way, only to return to soft bags.  Hard boxes it seems are quite simply un-British.   The debate of hard vs soft luggage will go on for years but I have never toured with hard boxes and see no reason to start now.

I needed a framework for the side bags and a rack for the roll bag.  Erik built a set from 15mm tubular steel which included a rear rack, side mounting bars, and fuel tank protection, weighing less than 3kgs. As there is no room to double on a XC anyway, we moved the luggage as far forward as we could get it, right behind the rider.  With the side bags being 1.25 kgs a pair, plus less than a kilo for the rear ortlieb roll bag, we have come up with a complete 3 piece 130 litre totally waterproof luggage solution (including rack) for 5kgs.  Thats a 20 kg !!!!!  saving on many hard luggage solutions.

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Seating Arrangements: The stock bike seat needed to be changed.  I can ride 15 hours a day, 7 days a week on a good seat, but 1 hour on the X-Challenge and my butt needed changing.  It is not a sustainable proposition.  Modifying the seat is essential.  The Dutch connections again came into play. Ray de Vries is unique among motorcycle seat makers.  He actually rides bikes all over the world himself.   He knows what it means to do long days on gravel roads, sitting down as much as standing up.  And he knows what to do to seat to make it comfortable in that role.  Ray is crafting a new X-Challenge seat in black.

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Suspension: In a final Dutch link up, Hyperpro, the guys with the purple springs, have convinced me that the air-shock at the back of the bike is not really up to the job.  Hyperpro don’t just set up the shock absorbers, they have also built a reputation for the best progressive springs in the world.  I cant wait to try out the new bike and feel the difference.  :-)

For the next two weeks, the bike will remain in Holland for additional prep work.   Erik is looking to create a custom cockpit, Ray will shape a new seat, and Hyperpro will build and install custom springs and rear shock.

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3 weeks to departure:

Well while I have been busy organising all manner of odd jobs here in the UK … such as logistics for spare tyres, getting some Sibirsky Extreme stickers printed, helping Jon the web guru to update our poster, and getting a Pakistan visa, the Sibirsky Extreme X-Challenge – which I still havent finalised a name for – has been in Holland, in the skunk works of Erik the metal meister, as he finished up the metalwork prep.

Since I left Holland a week and a half ago, Erik has built the cockpit of the bike specific to the Sibirsky Extreme Project’s needs, around the Touratech “neck”.  Between Eric and Touratech, there is now a whole bunch of beautifully machined aluminium at the head of the bike.  I havent seen it yet, but Erik has sent through some pics for my visual pleasure … and oh what a pleasure it was.  Putting a neck and head onto the bike has transformed its appearance.  It looks much better balanced now.   Looks poised … poised for Siberia

Eric's Custom Headlight Bracket

First up was building a custom headlight bracket.  I dont like the original lights that come with the touratech front end, so substituted them for some proper headlights.  These puppies are a HID50 conversion headlights of an Audi A6.  They are proper factory high/low lights, so rather than one high beam and one low beam, as is the standard setup, I have projector lamps that function as both high and low beam, just on low beam, a solenoid controlled screen cuts off the top half of the light.  Its a proper twin “bi-xenon” sustem, and the Audi A6 headlamp unit is widely considered to be the best in the business.  It’s a lighting man’s wet dream of a system.  And as a lighting man, I love it.   All it needed to work was the right mounting bracket, and thats where Hot Rod Welding stepped up to the plate, yet again.  Nothing seems beyond Erik.  He has built a pretty damn snazzy set up.  I like the pics, cant wait to see it in the flesh.

Headlamps and Fairing

Next was the cockpit:  I wanted a map holder for the A4 maps I had scanned and reprinted from several dozen original atlases and full size maps.  As my route is pretty well known, and full atlases cover vast amounts of terrioty I dont plan to go to I can save a lot of space by picking and choosing what section of maps I need, scanning them, enlarging them, and breaking the whole route down into upscaled clear A4 maps, which are printed and laminated.  All I needed was a clipboard where a rally bikes roadbook would be.  The space behind the fairing provided just enough room to house A4 sheets both horizontally and vertically and an idea for a map holder was born … but it took a clver metal worker to figure out what shape and size it had to be and how to attach it.  I also need enough space for power sockets and switches.  And voila:

The Map Room

Side On

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10 days to departure:

Just got back from Holland where I picked up the bike.  Apart from Uncle Erik (he is like part of my family now) there was prep work done by a couple of other Dutch Masters.

First up was Ray de Vries … Ray is a motorcycle seat maker.  But he is not just any seat maker … Ray travels the world on adventure and enduro bikes.  In fact he is the only seat maker I know on the whole planet who is also a hard core moto-tourer himself.  That pretty much means he is the benchmark when it comes to knowing what to put into purpose built adventure biking seats.

The new seat was formed with a couple of different foam densities … one to shape the seat, and another to provide proper cushioning.  The seat is narrow at the front (as the original is) for standing up, but unlike the original, Ray widened the seat considerably on the part of the seat that you actually sit on.  The difference is enormous.  On the ride to Holland, I had to stop every hour to stretch the legs and get some blood flowing back into the painful and numb buttocks.  But on the ride back to the UK, it was 4 hours straight to Calais, and no noticeable feeling.   Now thats a satisfying piece of bike prep

New Seat ... new look

The last piece of Dutch prep work was the suspension.  The Dutch are masters at suspension … Koni, White Power, Hyperpro and others are among the world’s top suspension companies, and all started in Holland.  Its kinda what they do.  Just like the British build the best race cars (formula one cars, Indy cars etc), the Dutch build the best suspensions in the world.  Koni however dont do bikes, and White Power are now Austrian since being taken over by KTM.  That leaves Hyperpro all to themselves carrying on the tradition as Dutch motorcycle suspension specialists.

Compressing the Sexy Purple Spring

Bas at Hyperpro was a BMW mechanic for the best part of 20 years before setting up a Hyperpro fitting and service centre.

Hyperpro are the orginal guys who built proper progressive springs … a variable spring rate right thru the spring.  More recently they developed their own dampers, because they couldnt get what they wanted in terms of quality and performance from anyone else in the market.  The end result is totally customised, ultra high quality spring and shock combination, with no compromises.

Fitting rear coil over shock

Progressive Fork Springs

Here is a comparison between a standard fork spring on the left and the new Hyperpro progressive springs on the right.  Note the constant coil rate on the stock, and the evenly increasing spring rate on the Hyperpro springs.  Hyperpro reckon that stopping distance on a bike with progressive springs is 15 – 20% shorter than with linear springs.

Bas fine tuned the existing front shocks, replaced the front springs and put in a progressive coil over fully adjustable shock at the rear end.

The results are dramatic.  The increased confidence from the much better suspension system mean that the bike feels lighter, safer, faster – Even more so with fuel and luggage at the back.  I now understand why people who get progressive suspension say that you can never go back to factory suspensions ever again.

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3 days before departure:

Its been a long week since the last post, as I have been scurrying around trying to get the bike finished in time.  With just over 3 days to go I can finally say we are (almost) there.  The bike I picked up from BMW Off Road Skills centre a month ago with just 530km on the clock, now has about 3000 on the clock and is barely recogniseable.  The only prep left to do is to fit a sump guard / bash plate from Touratech and to sticker up the bike.  Both of which will happen at the Touratech event on Saturday.

After riding back from Holland, the following day was up to the Midlands to meet with camping gear suppliers Khyam.   We went through tent and sleeping bag options before I settled on the Khyam Highlander.  Physically, its long when packed, due to the whole tent being pre assembled.  Managing Director James Simpson showed me how easy it is to put up these tents, and that sold me.  It really is a 20 second job.  The design is very clever.  The only catch is the length of the the packed tent (0.8 metres) , and as that  easily fitted within my panniers when sitting across the rear of the bike, it didnt concern me.  Most bikes with luggage on the back are 0.9 – 1.1 metres wide, so anything less fitted within the existing dimensions of the packed bike.  As for sleeping bags, I chose their VVS 1000 wide bags.  I dont like sleeping in a narrow tapered coccoon of a sleeping bag.  I prefer a vast expanse of a bag so I can move about inside.  Khyam did both types, but the larger wider one was for me.  The 1000 range will keep me warm down to -10 degrees.

From there is was up to see Les Wassall from HID50 and pick up a couple of HID ballasts and bulbs.  The HID50 gear is well known for being the most durable lighting kit on the market and would compliment the modified Audi A6 bixenon lights I had sorted out.  Initially I had planned to take twin 50 watt HIDs, but as I didnt have time to change the generator on the bike from the stock 280 watt unit to a 400 watt unit, I felt I would have to err on the conservative side when it came to lighting power and cut back to twin 35 watt HIDs.  Les had all the bits on hand and in stock and the bulbs and ballasts were fitted in no time.

Then it was up to Manchester to give the bike a new coat of paint and go over the plans with webmaster and co-rider Jonathan Fox.  The bike was painted a sandy khaki colour with black highlights.  It was an amateurish self-paint job, but the bike will get plenty of scatches en route no matter what paint standard it begins with.  Perhaps if I have time, I will look to get it professionally painted in Eastern Europe on the way through.

Then it was down to Touratech in Wales for the assorted add on bits.  What I hoped would be an hour or two of fitting turned into 5 hours and required  the help of master rally bike builder Bernie Wright.  Welding dribbles on the frame had to be arduously filed down by hand to fit the radiator protector.   In the end all was fitted except the main engine bashplate.

Final part of the prep puzzle was the electrics, which was taken care of by extraordinary bike electrician Steve Hallam in his secret workshop in South London.  Steve is one of these guys that you only ever hear about thru word of mouth, yet his workshop has no fewer than 30 bikes in it, in  various stages of electrical rebuild.

Back Street Heroes once described him as “the most famous guy you’ve never heard of”.  Steve mentions with irony as I remind him of that title, that its the spray painters and  engine builders who get all the glory and the wow factor with custom bike work or rebuilds, and the bike sparky’s work is all hidden.  Take it from me, Steve is a Master at his craft.  He has done a couple of bikes for me over the years and has rigged up such outlandish ideas as switchable twin ignition systems for Dakar bikes – one magneto and one coil – just in case one system fails.

Steve wired in 5 power sockets (3 DIN and 2 cig lighter), both custom headlights – hi and low beams, rewired the indicators, parking lights, GPS, heated vest and glove circuit, added a new fusebox, and in general tidied up my amateur electrical bodge work.  The result is a completed bike.

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Jonathan’s F800 GS Prep Work:

The prep for my F800 had already started before I heard about Sibirsky Extreme. I knew I wanted to do a large trip and so after I bought the F800 in June of last year the modifications started in earnest. In the July of 2008 I did a test ride to Devon via Touratech with a pillion to really test the capabilities of the bike. After 3 days of driving rain and gale force winds the trials were complete. By August I had already ridden around Europe and visited 6 countries.

I learnt a lot from that trip and was pleased that from the outset I had listened to more experienced riders and managed to travel relatively light despite carrying an extra helmet and gear for my girlfriend in Austria.

I use my bike every day, in all conditions and so I made further modifications to the bike to cope with the winter months. These included the fitting of a HID50 xenon lighting system, Tucano muffs and a generous coating of ACF-50.

Chris, Dave and Mark from Adventure-Spec were fine tuning their crash bars and so asked me if I would part with my bike for a week so that they could do some tweaks and also display it in the Dirt Bike Show. Of course I agreed and a few weeks later the bike had some serious crash protection bling.

When Walter invited me to join the riding team at the beginning of the year the prep really stepped up a gear.

The modifications in the past few weeks have included the fitting of a Centech AP1 fuse panel to supplement  the BMW Canbus system (This enables me to run aux  lights, chargers and heated clothing independent of the main bike electrical system), pannier racks from SW Motech, Ortlieb soft panniers, Alpkit dry bags, Touratech Risers, Adventure Spec rear rack, Kriega Fork Seals, a shock sleave, A Touratech screen to replace the short stock one and an MRA spoiler,  winglets, a number of Ram mounts for camera and GPS equipment, handguards, Touratech rear brake lever extender, A Wunderlich variable position clutch lever, a scottoiler and some Conti TKC 80’s (Thank you Rudiemoto).

I have tested all of this equipment in the recent snow and can safely say it has performed very well.