Man, I'm thinking of doing the same swap in my FXR this winter. I sure like the Progressive 970's on my Sporty but unfortunately they don't make 'em to fit the FXR. I've considered redoing the bottom shock mount to accommodate the shocks. Carb seems easiest to work on or trouble shoot on the road. EFI seems a little too "black box" to me. Skid plate and maybe even some highway bars, even sport bike sliders in a couple places, just to make it so when you tip the bike over, it won't wreck anything. Bright ass head and tail lights, Powerlet charger. Utility rack on back with good, soft saddlebags on either side. Front fender and bars you can strap stuff to. Mid controls, but maybe some sort of highway pegs for long stretches and maybe incorporate a back rest into whatever rack you build.
Not sure on front suspension either. I don't like the look of a sport bike front end on an FXR, so I've been on the lookout for a late model Dyna 46mm take off but they are expensive!
Maybe I'm going overboard, but I think you are considering riding a bike to the bottom of S. America?
Man, I'm thinking of doing the same swap in my FXR this winter. I sure like the Progressive 970's on my Sporty but unfortunately they don't make 'em to fit the FXR. I've considered redoing the bottom shock mount to accommodate the shocks. Carb seems easiest to work on or trouble shoot on the road. EFI seems a little too "black box" to me. Skid plate and maybe even some highway bars, even sport bike sliders in a couple places, just to make it so when you tip the bike over, it won't wreck anything. Bright ass head and tail lights, Powerlet charger. Utility rack on back with good, soft saddlebags on either side. Front fender and bars you can strap stuff to. Mid controls, but maybe some sort of highway pegs for long stretches and maybe incorporate a back rest into whatever rack you build.
Not sure on front suspension either. I don't like the look of a sport bike front end on an FXR, so I've been on the lookout for a late model Dyna 46mm take off but they are expensive!
Maybe I'm going overboard, but I think you are considering riding a bike to the bottom of S. America?
Yes I am considering it. If the stars align and i kiss the right ass and the wife has gotten more independent with her recently going blind and I can do such a journey. If you message me Ill fill you in a little. But...that 111 is a GREAT motor!
There are lots of forks out htere, and most of them are universal, lots of manufacturers use them. Its just a matter of having a set of trees made to put them on your bike.
This all really depends, if I'm riding just to ride it or if I'm doing the Pan-American Rally. I like Bill's take on the bike to have, but from what I've seen with the guys running the rally I'd want something pretty bomb proof that's common place between Panama and Alaska. Probably some big ass thumper motarded fastasssombichi Jap bike.
For cool points it would have to be an Evo motor, or for style points a Trump and then some killer forks and shocks, mids would be a must along with the skid. All day comfort seating and secure mounting for only the most essential gear./tools. BIG ASS fuel tank, oil cooler. of course the frame would be chromolly redux set up for optimal motardation geometry. Some meaty lost void dual sport tires and kick ass lighting.
Nah. Not a rally. 3/4 highway but capable of dirt road and occasional careful off road. If you tall think about it a modern Sportster its not a slouch off road. Its just not socially acceptable. You have to be strong to hold it up but it would take a lot more then youwould expect it to.
This is the kind of ride that makes me think of a BMW F850 or something else.
Bill pretty much killed it with description. I'd get some big Hella 500's or something else, since they are cheap and bright as hell. There are many brighter and smaller lights, but the price range is crazy.
And Bill not sure if you've checked out Work's Performance Shocks yet, but I just scored some on fleaBay and broke them in on the trip to the Philo. Holy shit the bike tracks better in turns, and I actually think I wasn't pissing blood at the end of a shorter ride for the first time in years. Some other guy had a set of them on his FXR and he had nothing but good to say about them either.
Really, for going down there I would probably eschew a cool bike, and go with pure practicality - something that won't break down, and can accomodate both shitty roads and carrying lots of gear. There are shitloads of overlander sites dedicated to this kind of thing.
A lot of people swear by the indestructible (and relatively cheap) Kawasaki KLR650. I have seen lots of kitted-out BMW GS1200's, but usually by guys that just use their GPS and aluminum mil-spec luggage to get them down to the coffee shop for weekly BMW club meeting. When I rode the Dempster Highway up to the Arctic we used Austrian KTM 950 and 990 Adventure's - faster and lighter than the bloated BMW GS' (in fact, they are the bikes that Ewan Macgregor and Charley Boorman wanted for the "Long Way Round" ride, but KTM wouldn't sponsor them, and BMW would. If you watched the show, and saw them having to heave those bikes up every time they fell over, you can see why they wanted the KTM's).
I had a blog on the Adventure Rider site about our ride up to the Arctic. We rode from Victoria (Vancouver Island) to Inuvik and back, about 10,000km in 11 days:
Trip of a lifetime. One of my buddy's (an ex-diver from my old unit) set it up as a "welcome back" trip when I got back from Afghanistan. That was some hard riding though.
Nah. Not a rally. 3/4 highway but capable of dirt road and occasional careful off road. If you tall think about it a modern Sportster its not a slouch off road. Its just not socially acceptable. You have to be strong to hold it up but it would take a lot more then youwould expect it to.
The weight issue with the GS1200's is why I would opt for the F850 or the newer F800. A trip like that would just make it's day. No matter what you are on though this trip would be amazing. All the way from Tierra Del Fuego to the Arctic Circle has boner written all over it. My issue with all of the nice dual sport bikes is my short ass legs. A 34" standover height is not super practical for me when my inseam is a lengthy 29" on a good day.
Springer frontend, rigid frame, Evo, five speed with kick, dual disk up front, dual calipers in back all for the simple point less to go wrong and less to fail!
Springer frontend, rigid frame, Evo, five speed with kick, dual disk up front, dual calipers in back all for the simple point less to go wrong and less to fail!
The Hard Way Around- Journey through the Middle East on a Rigid Shovel...............
And here is his latest bike after crossing the middle east on his rigid shovel.......he decided to go a different route.......
Last edited by Bandersnatch; 08-16-2012 at 9:30 AM.
Reason: more pics....just awesome
The weight issue with the GS1200's is why I would opt for the F850 or the newer F800. A trip like that would just make it's day. No matter what you are on though this trip would be amazing. All the way from Tierra Del Fuego to the Arctic Circle has boner written all over it. My issue with all of the nice dual sport bikes is my short ass legs. A 34" standover height is not super practical for me when my inseam is a lengthy 29" on a good day.
Standover height is an issue with the long-travel dual-sport bikes. I just fit my KTM 950, and my buddy did the ride on a newer KTM 990R which was too tall even for me (and I am 6'1"!)
The new BMW F800 seems like a good bike - much lighter than its bloated older brother (a bit analogous to the sportster-vs-Big Twin H-D thing; a lot of guys buy the GS1200 simply because it is bigger and more expensive and they think that therefore makes it better). I saw some really well kitted-out F800's on the way up to the Arctic (and even some nicely done Suzuki V-Strom's, which uses a de-tuned version of the awesome TL1000 V-twin engine).
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