Hi all,

I'm finishing up dualsporting my '96 XR400, mostly to tool around the backroads near my house. But then I caught a crazy idea after reading a story about a guy who rode his 250 Super Sherpa from Arizona to Panama.

XR400 adventure-tourer.

Is anyone using their XR for this purpose? What did you have to do to it to help it survive? I'm thinking you might need to add a bigger oil cooler, and likely a cyl head temp gauge would be a good idea. Anything else? 440 kit?

What about luggage for the XR4? A top case and panniers would be slick.

Anyway, just looking for suggestions. Thanks!

Russ

Sounds like you need to make a trip over to ADVrider.com.

Lots of people use the XR400 for adventure riding. I have even kicked around the idea once or twice myself. Seeing that I have two pre K daughters, I'm not going to have the time to do it for a few years, but I have plans.

http://cycleracks.com

$159, and you're ready to travel.  

I'd stick with reliability as far as mods go, and that pretty much means stay out of the engine.  I'd gear it up a bit, add some luggage, a few bolt ons, and go for it.  All the rear frames I've seen look like they'd cause more damage to the bike in the event of a tip over.  Wolfman makes some nice low profile soft luggage I've been eyeballing.  You'd have to learn to pack light:

Edited by wallrat, 23 April 2012 - 03:04 PM.

These guys offer some nice luggage options and from what I've read they work great and are very durable.

http://www.giantloopmoto.com/

Cheers,

Great suggestions so far, guys, keep 'em coming! Thanks!

Russ

I have been using my 440 for years,all over Baja.I would say best all around bike xr4.The racks that mount your gear up high on rear fender no good.The side saddle bags are the way to go..

Here's another that can mount stuff down lower...  NICE STUFF for someone serious about hauling plenty of gear!  
There are also other items/racks at the first link if you scroll down to the lower part of the page!

http://www.motorcycl...xr400_1996.html

http://www.motorcycl...uct_images/5932

Edited by n2omike, 24 April 2012 - 05:26 AM.

if your looking for a good speedo go with teh trailtech. http://www.trailtech.net/85-402.html  thats the one i have and it works well. also if you go with this you cant mount the temp sensor on teh spark plug, it dosnt fit. i just mounted mine at the breather on the valve cover, not the best spot but it works.

lbxr400, on 24 April 2012 - 12:18 PM, said:

I was certainly thinking of a TrailTech Vapor. They show mounting the temp sensor on the oil return line banjo bolt.

I figure it's good to have RPM, temp, MPH, time of day, and engine odo all in one place.

Thanks.

Also, thanks to everyone else for all the luggage recommendations. Lots to look at!

Russ

I just returned from a 4-month trip down to Cali/Arizona/Utah with my XR4 and mountain bike.  Hauled a travel trailer down so I'd have somewhere to stay, then did day trips on the bikes.  Here's some of the things I bought before and during the trip.

200w Ricky Stator - stock one just wouldn't run my DS kit well enough.  Highly recommended.
Low profile signal lights - rode lots of technical stuff as well, harder (but not impossible...) to break than the ones that stick way out.
DS tires - bought a pair of MT21 Pirellis.  Did not wear well on the road, but were great off-road.  The rear was done by the end of the trip.  Replaced it with an MT43 trials tire - the only rear tire I'll ever use again on my XR4 or 2.5
Rear rack - bought an inexpensive aluminum rack off ebay.  It broke.  Busted both rear signal lights in the process. If I had to do it again, I'd by a Giant Loop bag.
Bestem top box - worked perfectly until my rack broke.  Now it's useless.  See above.
Ram GPS mount - best mount in the business IMO.  Rode loads of technical miles, and it never budged.  Once you have the base, you can buy just the holder for other GPS models.
Baja Designs ignition switch - added security, super easy to install.
Sprockets - Installed a 16t front, but kept the 45t rear.  Could have used a smaller rear for the long road days, but this combo isn't too bad.
3.8gal Clarke fuel tank - THE best purchase.  Bought this on the tail end of my trip.  Before this, I ran out of gas once (2.5hr wait for friends to pick me up) and came within a mile or so of running out a second time.  Would not likely have been able to do the White Rim trail in Moab without it.

I also have a Trail Tech Vapor computer that I installed a couple of years back.  Highly recommended as well.

If you're going on a long trip, consider replacing your throttle cable and clutch cable.  I broke both (separate incidents) during the trip.  It sucks waiting for spares, and braking one of these could leave you stranded.  May want to pack a spare shifter as well.

The XR4 can be a great DS tourer.  It's not ideal for long stretches of fast highway, but perfect for those fun technical days.  It's also a heck of alot easier to load into a pickup truck than a KLR.

Redpoint, on 24 April 2012 - 10:22 PM, said:

Just buy a new set of cables and keep them on the bike.  Zip tie em to the existing cables.  If/when a cable breaks, you'll have it's replacement hooked up in minutes.

Thats actually a good suggestion Wallrat. Having the cables routed, and ready would save a ton of time.

Yeah its awesome.  I run that setup on all my bikes and it's saved my bacon more than once.

Definitely an option for long tours.

I vote for the Giant Loop (it can carry all you need) and the Ricky Stator upgrade + some Baja Designs headlights so you can actually see at night.  Add a long range tank and an old Garmin GPSMap 276C and you're good to go.  It's permanently hot where we ride, and often we're stuck put-putting very slowly through humid sections of African bush.  All the KTMs and water cooled Hondas suffer, but the XR just grinds happily away.

Definitely check out ADV Rider for more ideas.  Below are links to some of my recent rides.  Admittedly, none of these rides were epic in length, but they were all overnighters in hard, remote parts of Tanzania. I'm usually the photographer, so pics of my bike (sometimes kitted out with all of the above setup) are rare, but there are a few of them if you scroll through.

This ride took us through pristine, dry Tanzanian bush.
This ride took us around Mt. Kilimanjaro and back.
This ride proved the XR can handle anything...

Happy riding

Another interesting product, and perfect for an adventure ride is this one:


http://tubliss.com/


I haven't tried them myself, and only found out about it yesterday so some of you may have already known of these.
Found out that a friend of a friend is putting them on his bike this weekend.

Wow, all great ideas. I already have the Baja Designs headlight and lighting kit installed, and yes, the Baja headlight is a MASSIVE improvement over the stock unit.

I see lots of guys like the Giant Loop. What's the big advantage? I was thinking of possibly DIY'ing a carrier frame and some large pistol cases (http://www.amazon.co...e/dp/B000P3WPKK) or Pelican cases.

Definitely going with a TrailTech Vapor, although, I see TrailTech now makes a dash / GPS all-in-one unit. That could make the handlebar area a little tidier, but it depends on the GPS functionality. It looks to me like it doesn't do roads or routing; it's strictly for off-road trail riding. Correct me if I'm wrong on that.

I'm thinking of IRC GP-1's (or their Kenda clones) for mostly road duty with some fire roads mixed in. I have a spare set of wheels for full-on off-road duty, so that lets me choose my tire for the mission, at least so long as I come back home to change wheels between doing mostly road and mostly dirt. I've got Maxxis Maxcross IT's mounted up right now and they work surprisingly well in the western PA dirt.

After reading some of the crazy stories on ADVrider, I'm curious to do some long distance riding on my XR! I had a KLR650 a few years ago, and it was by far the most comfortable long distance bike I ever owned (why, oh why, did I get rid of it?)

Redpoint, what about the trials tires works well for you? I'm very curious about this. I've never ridden trials tires before.

Thanks again,

Russ

Friend of mine runs a trials tire on the rear of his DRZ and LOVES it. It doesn't do well at all in mud or loose stuff, but for hard pack/rock it's unbeatable.

I run a http://www.tubeliss.com in the wheels of my XR4.  Really nice mod, albeit a bit pricey at $100 per wheel IMO.  Flats are a snap since you can just use a plug kit and don't even need to take the wheel off of the bike.

For mostly dry conditions you can't beat a Pirelli MT43 trials tire for the rear.  Everyone out here swears by them.  Unfortunately I've got a 19" wheel so the only DOT trials tire I could put on was the Shinko Trail Pro 255.  DO NOT use this tire.  The lugs started to split and the tire wouldn't hold air after just 250 miles of mostly road use.  For fronts, the trials tires are much less popular.

For a GPS, I personally went with the Garmin 76CX.  It's the standard unit that all the dual sport guys on the west coast seem to run.  I paid $150 for it on sale at West Marine a few months ago.  I also managed to get the local riders to give me the now-discontinued Roads and Recreation software which is pretty much ideal for DS rides.  Having the Trailtech Voyager as a backup wouldn't be such a bad idea, but I'd be curious to see how easy it is to upload software and routes.

Depending on when you kick off, you might be interested in trying to catch the LA-Baker to Vegas ride on Thanksgiving weekend:  http://www.labarstowvegas.com/

My dash.  Ignore the idiot making guido faces in the mirror...

Edited by wallrat, 26 April 2012 - 07:33 AM.

Great tip on the cables.  Sounds so simple I feel like an idiot for not doing it.


Loads of info on trials tires on here and ADV Rider.  Do a quick search for the opinions of others.  Note that the MT43 isn't a true trials tire, just a tire with a trials tread pattern.  It has much stiffer sidewalls and a slightly harder compound than true trials tires.  Having said that, grip on hard surfaces (wet or dry) is second only to a true trials tire.  Wear on the road is better than an agressive DS tire.  Wear off-road is second to none.  It's not great in heavy mud or sand, but I don't really ride much on those surfaces.  Also, tell me which tire is great in heavy mud?   I don't have any more issues in heavy mud than my friends do with their nobbies.  Technique & momemtum are your best friends.

A possible negative is that they don't break traction very well, so drifting in corners is difficult.  Some people don't like this aspect as it's much cooler to rip-up turf and leave roost marks.  A bigger weakness is traction on slick downhills.  It slides quite easily, so that can be unnerving for some.


Most people who try a trials tire never go back to nobbies.  That should tell you something.