Africa Twin thread

[William Wolfen]

Here are a few additions that are really practical, as I'm looking at more of a comfy adv tourer than off road beast. Madstad's 20" windshield cleaned up the nasty buffeting the useless OEM windshield allowed. They were nice enough to offer me the 10% discount a couple weeks after the 4th of July sale. I had this windshield on my Tiger 800 as well and it transformed the bike. There was already a wind reduction plate added between the triple tree and fuel tank and I'm guessing its doing its job. An older GPS I found in my truck fit perfect with the cell phone holder that came on the bike, and I had two identical GPS units and power set ups, so it one fails, we got a spare. The $32 Chino TPM is a great safety device and can make the difference in keeping a tire repairable. Have one on my RT as well. The cell charger and voltmeter came on the bike. Added an OEM center stand on so I can service the bike easily ($211 from Chaparral). Then a $96 rear rack plate, that should allow me to stack enough camp gear to go out for a while without side bags. Found the top bag in its brand new packaging among my wife's old gear. Heck yeah! She had every kind of bike accessary know to man at one time. And my bike even came with a tank bag which will help capacity a bit.

Now, if anyone has a Corbin seat, I could use it

You need to get a Camel Adventure windshield brace if you're gonna mount your GPS up there. The stock brackets have a habit of breaking under any additional load.

 

[Boulder Ed]

You need to get a Camel Adventure windshield brace if you're gonna mount your GPS up there. The stock brackets have a habit of breaking under any additional load.

Ill check it out. Does not seem like much extra but the windshiel while mounted much lower may add as well. Seems pretty strong but you never know and they are breaki g on others bikes it could be a risk.

 

[William Wolfen]

Ill check it out. Does not seem like much extra but the windshiel while mounted much lower may add as well. Seems pretty strong but you never know and they are breaki g on others bikes it could be a risk.

It's a well known thing over on advrider. Just thought I'd share. I mounted my GPS on my bars as it's what I'm accustomed to and only added a little spoiler to my stock windshield. Hopefully my mount will hold up. If not, I have a buddy with a MIG welder.

 

[Boulder Ed]

Well, they are sold out for now.

 

[Boulder Ed]

If you want to buy a brand new one, Honda of Russellville (Arkansas) will have the best price. I saved $2401 over the best price I could get in the Houston area and that included taxes.

What model and price otd? My friend just bought a brand new 2022 std. In Dallas . $ 15.8k otd. Seemed like a pretty good deal to me relative to what others were quoting him, but he was not familiar with your deal...

 

[Boulder Ed]

Well hopefully mile will last a while. Ill have to look at how they are breaking. The madstad actually braces it better that stock due to the lowered bracket tie in and fat cross bar. Will peruse ADV.
Just moved it to the Madstad cross brace bar which should support it way better. Also its higher up and out of my instrument cluster.

 

[William Wolfen]

Well hopefully mile will last a while. Ill have to look at how they are breaking. The madstad actually braces it better that stock due to the lowered bracket tie in and fat cross bar. Will peruse ADV.
Just moved it to the Madstad cross brace bar which should support it way better. Also its higher up and out of my instrument cluster.

It tends to break down low and forward, under the fairings. I'm not certain if the exact spot, but subside posted in one if the Africa Twin threads about his breaking and being fixed just recently, IIRC.

 

[N+1]

Well hopefully mile will last a while. Ill have to look at how they are breaking. The madstad actually braces it better that stock due to the lowered bracket tie in and fat cross bar. Will peruse ADV.
Just moved it to the Madstad cross brace bar which should support it way better. Also its higher up and out of my instrument cluster.

Look at my post on the last page, that's where it breaks. Mine had the brace on there and it still broke, but PO put a ton of offroad miles on it with a mount up there i believe so it's not a surprise. It's the factory fairing/headlight mount/brace behind the windshield, def a few hours minimum DIY job. Used they're like 200 bucks on ebay, and probably going to crack anyway.

 

[Boulder Ed]

Thanks for the insight. I assisted/mostly observed in taking a tenere front fairing apart to the framing. An AT could not be any worse!!! Mine wont see much if any offroad. Personal opinion having done 125k miles on gsa's is that these are not off road bikes except for smooth gravel roads. And neither are GSA's to be honest

 

[William Wolfen]

Thanks for the insight. I assisted/mostly observed in taking a tenere front fairing apart to the framing. An AT could not be any worse!!! Mine wont see much if any offroad. Personal opinion having done 125k miles on gsa's is that these are not off road bikes except for smooth gravel roads. And neither are GSA's to be honest

They're remarkably capable bikes, but the skill floor to ride them off-road is much higher than a lighter bike. Biggest assist you can get is well set up suspension and that helps everywhere and all the time. I've always been thoroughly impressed at how well my Twin does when I try something challenging. Definitely a bit out of their element, but that's what I love about these bikes. They'll take you down the freeway to where you want to be, go down any road with confidence regardless of surface, and can still get you through that one nasty spot you find on your route.

 

[Boulder Ed]

Good insight. Ive ridden big bore singles well over 225000 miles to date but as i age im not interested in temping fate on these big bikes. But good to hear it can get you through a rougher spot from time to time. I know ill find myself there sooner or later

 

[Boulder Ed]

So... I am trying to find a good set of replacement tires for my 2017 with its original tires that I need to replace before k-dubya and I go out on some longer rides soon this fall. I'd never seen a radial/bias ply tire mix before on any bike I've owned, and good luck finding decent rubber for this dang bike right now. Especially if I want good 90/10 tires not Mr. weekend warrior dualsport stuff. I wanted a set of anakee 3 adventures, but as its a slightly older model, only the front is available. And that's a radial. Hard to come by a bias front tire from anyone in modern rubber touring rubber for these bikes. Any folks have experience with using both front and rear radial tires, with tube combinations? Anyone got any good mileage reports? I'm gonna top out at 4500 miles if lucky on the OEM Dunlop tires due to the rear. But I don't like to tour without good rubber starting out. Thanks!

 

[Hump]

So... I am trying to find a good set of replacement tires for my 2017 with its original tires that I need to replace before k-dubya and I go out on some longer rides soon this fall. I'd never seen a radial/bias ply tire mix before on any bike I've owned, and good luck finding decent rubber for this dang bike right now. Especially if I want good 90/10 tires not Mr. weekend warrior dualsport stuff. I wanted a set of anakee 3 adventures, but as its a slightly older model, only the front is available. And that's a radial. Hard to come by a bias front tire from anyone in modern rubber touring rubber for these bikes. Any folks have experience with using both front and rear radial tires, with tube combinations? Anyone got any good mileage reports? I'm gonna top out at 4500 miles if lucky on the OEM Dunlop tires due to the rear. But I don't like to tour without good rubber starting out. Thanks!

https://www.motosport.com/product

I’ve got a friend running these on his AT, mostly highway use with occasional gravel, and he really likes them. Don’t know about availability. Amazed you got that kind of mileage out of your original Dunlops. My rear was done at 2500. I tend to keep TC off and sometimes I might spin a little .

 

[Hump]

https://www.motosport.com/product

I’ve got a friend running these on his AT, mostly highway use with occasional gravel, and he really likes them. Don’t know about availability. Amazed you got that kind of mileage out of your original Dunlops. My rear was done at 2500. I tend to keep TC off and sometimes I might spin a little .

Sorry that site didn’t display the tires I mentioned, Pirelli Scorpion Trail II are the 90/10 tires he is using. Has about 6k miles on them. Not sure about availability. Hope you find something before your trip.

 

[William Wolfen]

So... I am trying to find a good set of replacement tires for my 2017 with its original tires that I need to replace before k-dubya and I go out on some longer rides soon this fall. I'd never seen a radial/bias ply tire mix before on any bike I've owned, and good luck finding decent rubber for this dang bike right now. Especially if I want good 90/10 tires not Mr. weekend warrior dualsport stuff. I wanted a set of anakee 3 adventures, but as its a slightly older model, only the front is available. And that's a radial. Hard to come by a bias front tire from anyone in modern rubber touring rubber for these bikes. Any folks have experience with using both front and rear radial tires, with tube combinations? Anyone got any good mileage reports? I'm gonna top out at 4500 miles if lucky on the OEM Dunlop tires due to the rear. But I don't like to tour without good rubber starting out. Thanks!

I have the stock tires from my '19 in the garage if you're interested. They have 22 miles on them from riding the bike home from the dealer.

As for tire milage reports, I bias a bit more towards off-road than you're looking. Still, the Motoz GPS tires in running provide good life and are a nice 50/50 mix for me. Took my last rear off with about 7000 on it right before a trip, but it could've easily give to 8000 or more. I'm on my first matching front, but the reports I've seen have it going twice what the rear does. We'll see. Before that I ran a TKC80 front which will last a good while if you keep it aired up and turn it halfway through. I think I got 7000 out of one and 6000 without turning out of another.

 

[Boulder Ed]

Sorry that site didn’t display the tires I mentioned, Pirelli Scorpion Trail II are the 90/10 tires he is using. Has about 6k miles on them. Not sure about availability. Hope you find something before your trip.

Yep those are the Pirellis we are ready to buy if nothing else more exciting comes along. There is like 48 hours of product left now so I'll need to buy tomorrow. My wife ran the Pirellis to Alaska on her R1200R when they first came out. I thought it was strange, but wherre else can you find anything with a partial off road pretense for a 180/55-17 rear tire and a standard 120/70 17. She "liked" em, not being a dirt rider at all, even despite a couple Moab 10 day gravel attempts on her TTR225 to train and toughen her up. Any loss of traction triggers a freak out from what I have discerned over the years. But she went right through some road construction mud / MgCl mixtures that broke bones on one lady we'd just met at gas station hours earlier, ending her AK adventure.

 

[Boulder Ed]

Yall have any experience with radial front vs. bias?

 

[Boulder Ed]

Well, got me some new tires to install on the AT. Do ya'll replace tubes periodically? I really cannot remember replacing tubes unless I had a flat but my bike sat for a long time (2017 with 2188 miles on it when I got it). About 4k now and time to replace the original tires... thoughts on replacing tubes? HD if they exist vs. Regular tubes?

 

[William Wolfen]

Well, got me some new tires to install on the AT. Do ya'll replace tubes periodically? I really cannot remember replacing tubes unless I had a flat but my bike sat for a long time (2017 with 2188 miles on it when I got it). About 4k now and time to replace the original tires... thoughts on replacing tubes? HD if they exist vs. Regular tubes?

Regular tubes, not heavy duty. Thicker tubes mean more heat at higher speeds the Twin is likely to see. As for replacement interval, I'm not really consistent. I'm on my second set of tires on the factory original tubes. Just over 9k miles on them without issue. I may swap them out at the next tire change as a preventative measure. Undecided at this time.

 

[misterk]

I've reduced the wind buffeting on my AT a bit with a fork shield, but I need to go a step further.

I have the base model with the small windscreen. I don't want to go with a large windscreen for a couple reasons, so I'm looking at some windscreen visors, like the Puig.View attachment 326139
Anyone have any experience - good or bad - going this route?

I have the as, but think skinny at bottom, wider at top….

 

[misterk]

Forget the Corbin. Get one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LW7PURZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

How about beads plus the Corbin? That’s what I do

 

[misterk]

+1 for the Camel Adv support brace, although it didn't help my Madstad brackets, which just both failed for the 2nd time. Madstad did send me a new set. I'll be doing a mod on the new brackets which includes anchoring the whole assembly to the Camel Adv support brace.

The duty tax from Lolo motorway

 

[misterk]

Well, got me some new tires to install on the AT. Do ya'll replace tubes periodically? I really cannot remember replacing tubes unless I had a flat but my bike sat for a long time (2017 with 2188 miles on it when I got it). About 4k now and time to replace the original tires... thoughts on replacing tubes? HD if they exist vs. Regular tubes?

I replaced mine about every 20k miles, no sconce just so I didn’t have to think about it

 

[k-dubya]

A mechanic that worked for me moons ago was adamant about tube-to-tire ratios.

His formula was simple - on-road replace tubes for every two sets of tire; off-road replace tubes with every set of tires.

He was also opposed to HD tubes. He was a long-haul tourer and claimed HD stood for 'heat damaged.'

I'm not sure there is any science to it, but we never had any customer complaints.

 

[Boulder Ed]

The duty tax from Lolo motorway

I'd hate to even think about what that Mexican eagle I hit with the BMW last week would have done to the Madstad windshield. I lost two lower windshield support arms about 2.5" in length is all on the BMW. Whether parts are available is another story entirely.