Well, the XC can do just about everything I had the courage to try, . The New "Briggs & Stratton
Slimline Exhaust" allowed me to use saddle-bags and is half the weight of the standard one. The
bike seemed to have as much poke as Jockser's and ShortArse's XC's which had standard exhausts.
I didn't like the plastic tail piece so I made a folded stainless steel cover to mount the saddle-bags
on, you can see better in the pic below. The pannier mounts are home made from 8mm stainless
bar, made to suite the saddle bags,
The pipe is a lot lower and half of it is underneath/inside the subframe.
The tanks we got from Touratech, they have two pet-cock valves at the bottom of each lobe
which link directly back to two banjo bolts which have to be fitted to the underside of the stock
petrol tank (Below). It went on easy enough, the sticky template supplied were handy.
Some of the other mods I made were the extension to the bashplate, and I bought two front sprockets
(13T and 14T) and two rear (both 2T bigger)
The pic below shows the problems, first the Acerbis mudguard was only being supported by only two
bolts, so I made a small toolbox(last pic) which bolted to the front of the tee-piece and down into
the mudguard, and the exhaust needed an addition.
As you can see, the exhaust hadn't been finished yet but you can see what it looks like
completed in some of the other pics.
Forgot to mention, I got touratech risers as well, they transformed the bike. I always felt I was
hanging over the front of the bike until I fitted these..
Toolbox/Mudguard support and arrangement for packing for Morocco
below.
Two of the three bikes, ready for Morocco.
The next thing I did was to get rid of the stock Air-Shock, I picked up a XCounry spring shock
which went right in. Physically the shock is shorter then the stock item, but when you're riding
it's just as tall
if not taller and certainly not as plush.
I think the G-Spot (see above) issue is easily sorted
but the drilled hole in the shock rod, I think, is a bigger concern.
After melting a rather large hole in two bike jeans from the header pipe I decided to make up a heat
shield, not pretty but will have to do.
The pipe that attaches to the header pipe was, luckily, a perfect fit, the silencer is 90mm OD
and the exhaust outlet 20mm.
The pipe had been hanging on a nail in a garage for ages, there was a number stamped on it,
which after a bit of google-ing, was belonging to an XT500. I don't know if it's the lambda
sensor or the Fuel Injection, but I think something on the bike compensated for the change, no
noticeable drop in performance and no change in economy, it did 5000km side by side with two
other XChallenges with no difference in MPG or acceleration/performance in any way. The cooling
fans came on at approximatly the same time and the bike started first tip every time.
It is very tidy compared to the stock exhaust, and performed the same.
The pipe that attaches to the header pipe was, luckily, a perfect fit, the silencer is 90mm OD
and the exhaust outlet 20mm.
BEFORE AND AFTER
I damaged the tail section of the bike badly and made up a new one. (€26 Vs. €200)
I know there were a few problems but the XChallenge is an absolutely brilliant bike.
Some day I might understand it
