Hi from Darwin, Australia

Hi all, been lurking for a while.
Picking up an 04 XR650R in 7 days time, riding it approx 4600klms to get it back home.
Will give me some good alone time however I only have 6 days to get home.

Going to be a big trip, mostly slabbing it due to time constraints.

Need some tips on tooling and spares I should be carrying.

Just the usual stuff - spare tubes , spark plug , some wire and electrical insulating tape , clean airfilter some basic tools , some oil and oil filter and most importantly plenty of fuel

Congrats on the new bike

Don't do it lol, get a trailer and bring her back....the stock seat will kill you after an hour

Yeah the seat is going to kill me I know, however I'm going to grab a square of high density foam and duct tape it to to the seat if need be.

Very agricultural I know but I will invest in a "Seat Concepts" seat eventually.

What size are the front and rear axle nuts?

Buy a roll of emergency tape from supa cheap....about $12.00 but will save your arse of you shit a hose.
Do a couple of oil changes, Motul 2 litre for $32 1.8 l with a filter change

Find out what the gearing is before you pick her up and get a 15 front and a 41 rear...less revs, less fuel

Enjoy the ride

I'll pop in to Super Cheap tomorrow and grab a roll, can't say I've heard of it before though.
Plan on an oil change once I get to Townsville, that should see me through until I get home hopefully.

What do you think of running Shell Rotella in the engine?
Have heard a lot of guys running this without issue.

Also, bike has the 25ltr Safari tank and an 8.5ltr rear tank.
The current owner thinks it should get around 550klms if not pushed too hard.

Is the second tank the underseat tank ? If yes God help your bottom end

No mate its mounted behind the seat on top of the rear guard

You have had lucky escape there

Zoro wrote:Also, bike has the 25ltr Safari tank and an 8.5ltr rear tank.
The current owner thinks it should get around 550klms if not pushed too hard.

Well with 15/48 gearing on a good run a couple of weeks ago I got 270 k's out of 16 litres. So if youve got a genuine 33.5 litres on board its possible on a road ride.

Id be checking exactly how much your carrying.

Throw up a photo of the old girl, interested in your rear tank setup

Sean=SeanO?

Burp = Burpsa ?

Yip, sorry, thought that was common knowledge.
Nick was taken there, thus had to be boringly inventive - rather than adding a number.

BuRP wrote:Sean=SeanO?

No, Im younger, faster, better looking, sober sometimes, hahahahaha
Seano is doing some great mods on his pig though....a little jealous

Sober? Yer no Ozzi mate - farging imposer!
SeanO's a good dude, didn't know he was tinkering.... will wait on that!

I never said Im sober all the time...

Well that was an interesting couple of days.....
I had picked the bike up in Young NSW and ridden it to Coonabarabran through 48'C heat, not fun and one hell of a sore ass. Rode through to Iluka NSW the following day and parked it up at my parents place.
I'm going to freight it back the remaining 3500klms as its going to be way too hard to ride it back to Darwin.

I've had to suck it up and admit defeat this time, I'm not one to give up easily but this is the most sensible thing to do at this point in time.
I would never have made it back home in time to get back to work.
Was covering around 600klms per day and it was taking 8hrs. Not to mention the toll it was taking on my body.

So I'll have to get another seat for the other trips I want to do later on.

However the time I did spend on it was great, saw some awesome sights, sorry no pics, just wanted to get out of that heat...
I will try and post some pics of the bike when I work out how to.

Mission aborted, this time......

10 outa 10 for trying though!
Slabbing a piglike bike over those distances (in your timeframe) is only doable if you've got no choice, if only for boredom & fatigue. (Road)Train it, yer best bet.
And, post a fooken pic?

Zoro wrote:not fun and one hell of a sore ass. Rode through to Iluka NSW the following day and parked it up at my parents place.
I'm going to freight it back the remaining 3500klms as its going to be way too hard to ride it back to Darwin

I'm not going to say "I TOLD YOU SO" as that would be childish and immature

High density foam did not worked ?


Sorry man , i know how it feels .

Yes Mauser, you did tell me so and that's all that was running through my mind when my ass was begging me to stop...

The foam allowed me to continue maybe another 1/2 hr or so but that was it.
I was also carrying 14kgs on my back which didnt help matters either, so time to ge some decent saddle bags and a seat, I should be good to go after that.

Now photo's, let me see how I go, I not computer savvy but i'll have a go soon after I get them onto my puter

Thar she be......

Hopefully it worked

Nice bike "Z" That's a long ride for any any "new to" bike! props for trying!

Zoro wrote:Yes Mauser, you did tell me so and that's all that was running through my mind when my ass was begging me to stop...

The foam allowed me to continue maybe another 1/2 hr or so but that was it.
I was also carrying 14kgs on my back which didnt help matters either, so time to ge some decent saddle bags and a seat, I should be good to go after that.

Now photo's, let me see how I go, I not computer savvy but i'll have a go soon after I get them onto my puter

Look at this way your now the best person to advise others on traveling long distances on the piggy....lol.
Bike looks great...must feel top heavy when both tanks are full of fuel ?. Does the back 1 only work when you turn it on or does it always use it..... ?

Once full it does feel heavy, probably not the best for racing through singles or tight stuff but not bad in a straight line as you'd expect.

Yeah you need to turn the rear on and use it first, once it starts to stutter and burp just switch one of the front's on, no need to turn the rear off, however it does slowly siphon into the rear if you do not turn it off.
I have the original tank (still to be sent up here) and once that arrives i'll remove both long range tanks and use the original for around town and the close by tracks.
When I can afford to replace/ modify the seat I'll put the L/R tanks back on when doing my "Cape" and "Kimberley's" trips and other long distance work.