ZUMZUMZUM- from Romania to Thailand on a bike

I’ve installed the new chain and sprokets.

since the new chain was the endless type so I had to disassemble  the rear suspension  anyway,  I’ve checked and re-lubed the suspension linkage bearings…

I  was a bit stressed about the gearbox output shaft bearing, as it’s prone to fail (this would be a disaster as changing would involve splitting the engine case). Luckily there was no play on the output shaft.

A common problem with the Africa Twin is the OEM fuel pump.The technical details of what happens are very neatly described by Mr. Thomas Hedlund in this article on xrv.org.uk.

There are two solutions, you either install an aftermarket fuel pump or install an external relay to control the existing pump.

I decided to go with the external relay solution which is described in the same article. The first step is the open the fuel pump to verify the condition of the switch contact surfaces.

Well, I’ve took the pump of the bike, I’ve opened the pump and I’m kind of puzzled 🙂 . The contact looks very strange, the surfaces are not parallel, they are diagonal to one another. This would suggest they are worn out, on the other hand the two surfaces are quite close to one another so I can’t see how the switch would work if the two surfaces were parallel.

I’ve decided to contact Mr. Hedlund to ask for help 🙂

In the meantime if there are some electrical engineers among you, please tell me what is your opinion

The combination between the windscreen height and my riding position it’s not a winning one. All the turbulence hits me right in the helmet creating a lot of noise in the process. If I lower or raise my head 15 or 20 cm all the noise is gone.

The best solution would be to change the windscreen with a taller one (or add a laminar lip), but the cheap solution is to cut down the current windscreen 🙂

The only problem with cutting the screen is that the smaller the screen the less protection it provides from water for the dashboard instruments.

As a first step I’ve cut about 5 cm ,I’ll test it next week and see if there is any improvement.

Len helped me with the plexi cutter. Thanks.

As good as a brand new Africa Twin:

One of the more common faults of the Africa Twin, is the voltage rectifier malfunctioning.

There are 2 ways in which the rectifier can die, if you are lucky it will not supply enough voltage and you will be stranded in the middle of nowhere with a dead battery. If you are not so lucky it will supply too much tension and will burn the electrical installation.

Neither of these 2 alternatives is something that one would really enjoy on a long distance trip, so the safe thing to do is to have some way to monitor the status of the rectifier.

I found a nifty little voltmeter that I could install and for good measure I also bought a thermometer (so we could brag about riding in 40+ degrees in Iran) .

A good place to install them is on the trip meter, so with the help of Len we made a little bracket out of some aluminum sheet and tucked them undet the windscreen.

The Africa Twin came with Michelin T66 tires but since they were kind of worn out and stiff, I’ve decided to replace them with Metzeler Tourances. Since I have no experience with tire changing I thought it would prove useful down the road if I’d change the tires myself.

So I bought the tires, new tubes, some KTM tire irons (these should add at least 5 hp to the old AT), and set to work.

The front wheel took me about 2 hours, until I was almost finished but I pinched the new tube with the tire iron so I had to start all over again. The second time it was even easier 🙂 , so in under 3 hours the wheel was installed with the new tire on.

The back wheel was an entirely different story. First, I could not break the bead so after an hour I’ve improvised a press and managed to take the old tire off. Then, the new tire was unbelievably stiff, and I just could not force the last few inches on the rim (even with the help of Len), so finally I’ve cheated and went to a tire shop 🙁

Let’s just hope that we won’t have many back tire punctures on the road.