Rallye navigation bracket photo thread

machined))

One more post - 3 in a row now.

Somewhat Unrelated to rally brackets but I thought I'd share. This was mostly for lighting (and what I thought were good looks) and for some level of increased functionality of the bike overall from its dirtbike origins. I fabbed up this setup in 2010 for my xr650r at the time (also my first dirt bike). This was from raw steel with some aluminum.











Unfortunately I made the bike too heavy overall especially in the front. The suspension / forks handled like ass maybe because they needed servicing - I dunno (I was a complete novice to bikes in general at the time). It was too much weight and swing weight on the forks for crazy technical riding (deep sand, etc) but overall the setup was still pretty good. Overall weight was maybe about 6lbs for the brackets and another 5-8lbs for the lights. Adding 12-15 lbs to your front end can have issues. Heres an example in the sand. This was one of probably 20 wrecks in those washes.



I used a HID 4" light from checker auto parts (these were the rage with 4wd enthusiasts) And then a 7" Bosch headlight with a high output h4 removable bulb that sat in an old Toyota land cruiser headlight housing. I had high, low, and then hid too. It was rigged so I could turn the HID on with a switch or with the high beams or neither. The HID was deafeningly bright for traffic so I mostly used it off road or super duper rural rides only. I also had issues with blowing h4 s due to vibration, before I started buying high performance vibration-proof H4s such is piaa and a few other brands (some cheap, some expensive).

Eventually I added a small windshield from lexan. This (and the steel) are commonly available at Home Depot stores here in the states.



Note the small windshield and also made the front slightly look like the pope.



It transformed this bike into a pretty amazing, smooth and powerful 650 dual sport. 75 mph even on freeways was pretty good and I did many 300-400 mile rides with zero issues including lots of dirt (roads mostly).

I added this switch as well.


The intention was that I could pull the windshield off in seconds and put it in my pack. I used metric bolts and Thule rack plastic wing nuts for quick removal.

Since I sold it I've done plenty of other smaller front end mods with lighting but really focus on keeping them light and low or non impact on performance.

More photos here:
https://andreshoumatoff.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Xr650r/
https://andreshoumatoff.smugmug.com/Movies/Around-the-Great-Salt-Lake/

Hope it helps,
Andre

I would like to know if the TOURATECH bracket for the XR650R would fit my XR400R with no or few adjustments?


http://shop.touratech.com/rallye-bracket-honda-xr650r-from-2000.html#!prettyPhoto

Does touratech not know? Seems like it mounts to the triple. Check the bar mount patterns between the two bikes perhaps?

Unlikely to be honest - the XR400 has an oil cooler around the headstock, it looks like that bracket that holds the headlight forward would interfere with that?

Personally I would go for something like this that mounts off the bar clamps:
http://www.rally-raidproducts.co.uk...ye/Roadbook-Mounts/ktm-billet-roadbook -mount

There is a similar set-up from RMS (Rally Management Services) that mounts off the bars: http://www.rallymanagementservices.com/collections/instrument-brackets

And have a look at Highway Dirtbikes too - they have a fork mounted set up as well as a frame mounted one (although that is a more complex and expensive set-up)...

Jx

No they don't know

Indeed it is likely that the oil cooler causes some problems....

FYI:

Looks like Rigid just came out w/ an SAE/DOT compliant Dually LED light.

Seems like and ideal aftermarket low beam.

http://www.f150forum.com/f83/new-ri...roved-street-legal-lighting-solutions-278960/




These SAE certified lights allow for a very wide, smooth beam with minimal beam height. This allows us to offer DOT (FMVSS 108) compliant LED lights for front fog lamps and auxiliary high beam usage. By complying with the Federal requirements, Rigid Industries LED light can now be used legally on a federal highway!

They say 'fog lamps and auxiliary high beam usage'' no ?

I would think in Ammeter would be a more useful tool to monitor electrical conditions on the bike. A voltmeter will reflect the fact that the bike is charging but won't necessarily indicate how much of the charging system is being taxed by electrical components.

I second that, was just thinking about that the other day

a very wide, smooth beam with minimal beam height

Hey Dimitri!

Look who I just met in Solitaire, Namibian desert. Blackburn says your roadbook reader rocks

Here's a post from a thread which talks about voltage being a useful measure of demand on your system, but voltage levels depend on OEM battery chemistry and charging system. The levels are different for FLA, gel, AGM, or LiFePo. When measuring current flow, you have to decide what/where you want to measure.

So it's not possible to monitor the entire system? Just single components?

I use the TrailTech Striker.


With lights full nav gear, radiator fan running and operating the roadbook at the same time the charge displayed on the Striker can drop below 12.5V, sign for me to switch something off in order to keep the LiFe Battery charged.

For the upcomming setup with additional lights I got myself a stator upgrade to DC from TrailTech.

Stefan

Unfortunately not a legal High / Low beam replacement yet.
http://www.rigidindustries.com/led-lighting/50481

This post isn't for the hardcore rally navigator, it is for the rest of the lurkers out there.

Having followed rally races for a long time I have always wondered what it took (besides $$$$$) to ride and navigate. Specing out a bike with a massive rally nav tower, roadbook holder, CAP device, trip meters, remote switches and a shiny color matched fairing seems overkill to just try this out and see if it is something worth spending more than pocket money, time and effort on only to find you don't like it, never practice or never have a chance to do in any kind of group or race format (more of a north american comment).

There are some truly amazing builds on here that are inspiring to say the least. But many would take days or weeks to complete and a full machine shop at your disposal. Some are that lucky, have the knowledge to work those tools and easy access to the raw materials. The rest of us look on in awe with wide eyes, a bit of drool and gap mouthed. Oh what are 'regular' people to do to just get a taste of Dakar?

One of the hurdles was making/obtaining a roadbook roll of some sort that was in a area that mere mortals could ride and try without traveling halfway around the world. Welcome Rally Navigator and now TULIP!!!!! Super easy, fun (if you are a Google Earth/map geek) and convenient. Sure most will have to cut the pages and tape them together to make their roll but so what, part of the adventure and it only takes a few minutes generally. Some poo-poo this method of roadbook creation but I for one have embraced it, allowing me to make a book at home and then go out and ride it for fun instead of heading out with paper and pen to make on on the fly for use at a later date.

Then the next bumps in the road are CAP and TripMeter displays. Enter Rally Blitz for Iphones and F2R for android. Both of these work well, the F2R one only has one tripmeter and the CAP numbers are pretty small but for a free version to try this game out it works fine. I just obtained an iPhone and have loaded Rally Blitz but have yet to ride with it but given the great support on his thread here I doubt I will be disappointed. You can adjust both tripmeters forwards and backward using the volume buttons or via the touch screen. There are a lot more options/preferences with Rally Blitz in the end.

CAP is where the 3 dashes are as I took the photo inside and not moving.




As an aside and for those wondering you do not have to have either the Android or iPhone associated with a phone number or cell provider. Both devices I have were setup after being factory reset and aren't on any phone network. For both you just need a wifi connection and a functioning email address to get the device started and access the appropriate app stores to install the app.

So you have a roadbook and a navigation tool on an old phone now the next step is how to mount it all to make it usable. I happened to have a spare piece of aluminium sheet in a size that worked for me. This could be even an old plastic cutting board (your significant other will be please your replace that wretched thing anyway) or other material you have around that suits. For the aluminium sheet I just chamfered the corners to make it safer and then bent it slightly to make the area for the phone at better angle to read. I used a file to dull the edges, again a safety thing.

The roadbook holder was a pencil box from Staples, It is a bit too shallow (1 1/2" usable) for a route of any real length but I was able to load a route with 65 direction changes and could easily do 130+. For the shafts I wanted something better than just a piece of PVC sticking out the end so I bought a length of 3/8" aluminium rod from the local Ace Hardware. I cut two to length a bit longer than the box width and then used an electric drill in a vise as my ghetto lathe. I used some 150 grit sandpaper on a block to turn down one end to something that would fit into a 5/16" die, also gotten from Ace. Slowly cut the threads and then added two knobs (also Ace obtained) with med loctite to the threaded end of each shaft. I also purchased 4 3/8" collars that set with a set screw to keep the shafts from moving side to side and coming out. On the box itself I drilled 4 holes, 2 each side, trimmed with an exacto blade to fit a 3/8" ID rubber grommet. A note on this part. I should have taken the time to make sure the holes were better aligned so the shafts were closer to parallel. Mine are slightly off and that causes a bit of binding when rolling and eventually caused a tear in the roll when rolling it back and forth to check a series of turns. I am already looking for another box that is closer to 2" thick and a touch narrower to fix those minor issues.

To mount the roadbook holder to the bike I just happened to have a RAM mount already on the bars for a GPS and another on my Vstrom for one as well, these ended up on either side of the handlebar mounts. I stole the diamond ball mounts from their respective mounts and put those on the back of the aluminium plate, using the holes to hold the roadbook box down as well. I had the normal 3" arms so I just used those but will be getting some 5" ones to get the whole setup a bit further forward of the bars for next time.

To mount the phone with just a bit more vibration isolation I drilled 4 holes and used some more rubber grommets to help keep the zipties from getting cut on the aluminium as well. I might try some industrial velcro the next time to mount the phone as it is securely held in the otter case that it came with and the placement of the zipties can make getting to certain functions like wifi/gps problematic if you aren't careful or patient enough planning it out initially. That's what i get for finishing this up at 12:30AM the night before the ride to test it all out!

The end result was something certainly usable to get a feel for the whole thing. It was an eye opening experience to navigate and ride this way. The area I did the test in is a convoluted mess of trails and intersections so even though it was only a 20 mile route there were 65 intersections to make that happen.



I hadn't ridden in the area in at least 10 years or longer but was generally familiar with the lay of the land before hand and a mis-step on routing wasn't going to cause any issues. Can't wait to make a few adjustments and put together a longer route, with some off piste sections and see how it goes!! I can feel the pull now towards Baja Rally 3.0 or something along those lines. Thanks for ADV and this thread in particular for getting from just thoughts and musing to "DO IT" Hopefully this post will get some other person off their ass and get into the garage.

Nice work.

I love the ghetto lathe idea. I recently spent some time in an ace trying to work the knob part out myself. Now to find a pencil box.

That was part of the reason for picking the 3/8" shaft to begin with, so it would fit in the drill chuck. I have small drill press and could have put bigger in there but didn't think it would be worth it. The shorter the shaft the less it bobbles around when turning it down, doesn't take a lot of pressure as the shaft is pretty soft material. A pair of cheap calipers helps too, as well as a spare 5/16 bolt so you know what is close to your target size. Take it easy and slow while doing that part, it probably only took 10-15 minutes to turn down the first one and then less for the second one. I used an adjustable clamp to hold the variable speed drill trigger down as the old makita I used didn't have a trigger lock.

Thanks, It was certainly worth the time to do it all and once I get a 'real' setup I will have a spare to throw on someone else's bike to get them hooked on Rally too!!!!