Major_Tom Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 Hey guys, I'd like to invite you to suspend your disbelief (and your monetary concerns) for a while and indulge a little fantasy build i have bouncing around. The idea started when I heard the adage "It's only 40% the bike and 60% the rider". Looking at my riding style, it never made sense for me to go full weight weenie with all the fire and ATV roads that I can't keep away from. If a superbike spec bike won't make me the fastest rider on its own, it follows that a good-but-not great bike could win any showdown with the right rider. The more I thought about it the more I realized that was the bike I wanted; a lightweight retro styled adventure-scrambler/flat-tracker/trackday-thrasher all rolled into one, with only tire changes and suspension adjustments between arenas. The armor required for offroad will mean it will never be as stripped down as a full-track bike. The front brake means it won't be as light or nimble as a full on flat-tracker, and the lightweight nature will mean it's never as cushy as a lazyboy goldwing. That's all fine, it's only 40% right? The shock mount and frame of the fz/xsr isn't quite strong enough for off-road thrashing, so the base bike would pretty much have to be a Tenere 700. Suspension would pretty much have to be fully adjustable and suitable dirtsome, but still have the capacity to be stiffened up for the tarmac. Here in fantasy land we're free to talk about a big-bore kit to get up to 740-ish cc, with bored thottle bodies and some kind of airbox modification (maybe the fellas at hordpower would mess around and make me an airbox suited to the big-bore kit, and a map for 87 octane). I'm of two minds as to whether I'd want to keep an airbox to keep the mud out of the filters, or if I'd want to expose the filters to trivialize cleaning said mud out of the filters. SS brake lines and sintered pads go without saying. The tenere 700 ships with 21"F and 18"R. For canyon carvers Woody's wheel works mostly suggests 19"Fx17"R. Flat-trackers seem to almost always have 19" front and back. Someone way smarter than me is gonna have to expound on the merits of different wheel sizes, but for now I feel like 19"FR or 19"F 18"R would be a good all-rounder option, and whatever size I would get would be tubeless for simplicity and spoked for durability/repairability. Aftermarket exhaust would cut weight and look fresh. I like the short tucked away Zard I have on my XSR, but I read somewhere that our firing order precludes exhaust scavenging, so a 2->2 high mount can routed up next to the engine through the absent airbox cover might be slick, and lend to it's off-road credibility. This may complicate luggage options though. The steel tank with fake covers has always bothered me, so if I could recreate the XSR tank in solid aluminum Titanium that would be trick, and would get me greater range with less weight. I would need a custom seat, swooped in the front to lift my nards out of the way of the tank in case of a crash. I hate short bobber seats and like to keep pillion pegs to help out a fellow rider in a bind, but they don't need to be comfortable. I would obviously run LiFePO batteries. Tenere ships with a skid plate, I probably can't get better for as light, though it will depend how skookum it is. I'd fit woodcraft sliders, and I like the SW-motech cage, but for the weight I'd probably replicate them in Titanium. I bet fully farkled with titanium bolts I could get the thing to be real close to 400lbs. You might say for my money I should build it off of a KTM, but ABS is the only nanny mode I want on my bikes. What are your thoughts? No idea is too expensive! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinyribs Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 Using a standard FZ, provided the ground clearance was enough for your purposes, one could easily beef up the shock mount to take load off the engine case. That said, I'm not convinced it's actually an issue. There's tons of offroad bikes with aluminum shock bodies/frame mounts that handle the thrashing just fine. That mount definitely looks fragile, but I'm not sure if it is or not. Daily use clearing doubles on a mx bike?....yeah, it might fail. Light duty adv mount?...hmm... I think it would live. I think a standard FZ/MT/XSR with a couple inches more ground clearance/travel via longer forks and rearranged rear suspension components would be all the majority of adv'ers would ever really use. But you wouldn't definitely need a legit bashplate which is hard to pull off without a full perimeter frame. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member norcal616 Posted June 27, 2019 Premium Member Share Posted June 27, 2019 Wait a year... Save some sanity... Aluminum... Stuff is strong unless it's some weak alloy blend... Good luck with your unicorn fantasy build... The T7 is basically a 2008 WR450F frame stuffed with a CP2 motor... 1 2015 fz-07- Hordpower Edition...2015 fj-09- 120whp- Graves Exhaust w/Woolich Race Kit- tuned by 2WDW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major_Tom Posted June 27, 2019 Author Share Posted June 27, 2019 (edited) 22 minutes ago, shinyribs said: Using a standard FZ, provided the ground clearance was enough for your purposes, one could easily beef up the shock mount to take load off the engine case. That said, I'm not convinced it's actually an issue. There's tons of offroad bikes with aluminum shock bodies/frame mounts that handle the thrashing just fine. That mount definitely looks fragile, but I'm not sure if it is or not. Daily use clearing doubles on a mx bike?....yeah, it might fail. Light duty adv mount?...hmm... I think it would live. I think a standard FZ/MT/XSR with a couple inches more ground clearance/travel via longer forks and rearranged rear suspension components would be all the majority of adv'ers would ever really use. But you wouldn't definitely need a legit bashplate which is hard to pull off without a full perimeter frame. Oh please, flattery will get you everywhere. 19" front wheel plus 20mm longer forks and a longer shock gives just around 2" more clearance. Bash plate mounts on the unused front loops on the engine case, and in the rear on the footrest mounts. Don't tempt me to spend more money on this bike... 9 minutes ago, norcal616 said: Wait a year... Save some sanity... Bit late for that i'm afraid! I'm talking full overkill indestructo-bike. If I do go for a big-bore kit I'm gonna make darn sure I'm not gonna punch a hole through the gearbox taking some terrain too enthusiastically. How would you beef up the shock mount? Like I said this is just indulging in a fantasy. Need a bunch more money and I'd have to wreck my baby before I could justify it. Edited June 27, 2019 by Major_Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phanomenal07 Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 I'm so glad this thread is here. I was second away from buying a tiger 800 but then I thought about this fz scrambler idea. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beemer Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 If you stay off the really rough stuff it might do "OK", but although ABS might be good on the black-top it is totally going to suck in the dirt. You might want to rethink using ABS. Beemer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major_Tom Posted July 9, 2019 Author Share Posted July 9, 2019 1 hour ago, Beemer said: If you stay off the really rough stuff it might do "OK", but although ABS might be good on the black-top it is totally going to suck in the dirt. You might want to rethink using ABS. Sliding the rear in second or spinning it in second on the centerstand causes abs to turn off. Not as easy as a button but way ahead of you. Front wheel abs also definitely helps on dirt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beemer Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 27 minutes ago, Major_Tom said: Sliding the rear in second or spinning it in second on the centerstand causes abs to turn off. Not as easy as a button but way ahead of you. Front wheel abs also definitely helps on dirt I seriously disagree with ABS helping in the dirt. Serious draw backs of ABS when off-road - why it could be bad for you and why it's good to drive without it How ABS can be bad when off-road - advantages of ABS off when driving off-road Beemer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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