Tiger XC accessories / farkles thread

Sounds like a great meetup Snake, very cool pics in the link!

Lucky man, beautiful scenery, pretty woman and bike! Thanks for sharing man

Just got the bike, but read through all of the great info provided on ADVRider and started off with the 2" Rox Risers and an AltRider skidplate. Took the bike "off-road" for the first time this weekend and was surprisingly stoked at the results...

2" Rox Risers: As most others have already noted "+1" on these babies. I would even go so far as to to say a "must-have" for this bike. Especially for short-armed mutants like me.
Easy to install (I mean, if I could do it... )

Take an M6 allen along with you as I'm sure you'll need a little time to fiddle and get the best fit.


AltRider Skidplate: Very nice, solid single piece of thick aluminum. I was going to go with the SW Motech skidplate, but heard it was a two-piece build riveted together. Not that I would ever find myself in a gnarly enough siuation to bust a skidplate (hopefully), but I opted to pay a little extra for the AltRider design. It's premium stuff, so I fee like I got my money's worth...

Looks cool and install was another slam-dunk...


As I mentioned above, this was the first time I took the the bike "off-roading." Trabuco Canyon road in South OC isn't that bad, but it does have a few rough sections that could easily capsize a larger, heavier advtouring bike. It's also got some stretches that are wash-board, teeth-rattlers. All I can say is that the Big Cat purred all the way up and back. She never broke a sweat in the 90 degree heat and made me feel pretty confident that I could push the bike much harder. Oh, did I mention that I was running the stock OEM street tires to boot? Wait till I get some real track shoes on there. I am sooo happy I ended up with this bike. So far it's given me more than I ever expected both on and off road...

Been searching and reading and can't find a definite answer, so I'm posting it here for you experts!

I have a 2013 800XC and currently have a Givi Trekker 31L as a top case. I am considering adding a second 31L and moving them to side cases. So here is my question...

Which racks will do best for Givi MonoKey Trekker luggage and possibly let me add Wolfman softbags later? I'm hoping there is one rack, that isn't too wide and fits snug to Tiger than I can hang my Givi Trekkers on for a mostly street tour or switch to Wolfman bags if I know I will be going mostly offroad / TAT type travel. Can this be done? Are the Givi racks an better than the SWMOtech with adapter? Does the adapter just make them wider? etc?

What's wrong with the Givi racks? They will do both the things you require.

A little Geek Porn this week

A'la Portland to Dakar...
Used the Twisted Throttle GPS mount kit and the RAM Mount Tab-Tite adapter to install a 7" Samsung tablet just above my Tiger's dash. HA HA! It actually works! I bought the factory refurbished tab for like $150, and have been using several Android GPS-based apps (these apps don't require a cell or WiFi connection to function as a GPS). There's a enough "play" in both the mounting system and the thick rubber sleeve the encases the tablet to provide pretty good vibration damping... Had to install the OEM adjustable windscreen hardware to provide a better viewing angle (you can do it without the mod), but like I said, the setup works great...

RAM Mount Tab-Tite tablet mount

Main Home Screen

GPS Test App (real-time altitude, heading, lat-long, etc.

Trimble Outdoors MyTopo Maps (highly detailed topo maps with GPS positioning)

Co-Pilot Live (Turn by turn GPS)


As you can see, the tablet fits nicely above my dash and allows me to see all of the dials and indicators without any problems. And for those of you wondering, yes the tablet is mounted very firmly. Took the bike on some pretty rough terrain for the past two weeks and never worried about the tablet ever coming lose. The RAM Mount is like a vise grip. I do get quite few "double-takes" from drivers when they see this tablet mounted above my dash though

You have the tablet hard wired for power? Or just rely on the battery to last for the entire ride?

I actually run a charger cable from the tablet to the powerlett outlet on the bike. I just removed it for the pic. I'll probably put together a more "elegant" power connection setup later. When the tablet is connected to the bike I run the display at 100% brightness with no worries. Pretty easy to read even in bright sunlight.

Was not sure they would adapt to wolfman bags. Ordered the Givi racks and another 33L trekker this morning.

Wait...did you delete your post about the tablet mounting? I didn't quote you and now it looks like I'm a crazy person talking about nothing.

Yep. That's what I'm using. Works great.
And I love that the racks can be removed quickly when I'm not using them.
Just make sure you specify "other racks" when you order the Wolfman bags. They will come with little velcro d-ring straps that you put on the racks for the bags to mount to.

Awesome!!!

No, you're not going crazy. I thought I had inadvertently deleted my post last night, so I reposted the pics again. It still hasn't shown up. I have a feeling that it's stuck in moderator-land.

The site is acting funky today. I couldn't get the quote/reply function to work earlier - had to use the manual quote insert tool.

I see a lot of fellas have nice setups for their iPhones and gps devices. All the ones that were waterproof intrigued me however i am still hesitant about wether its truly safe to use in the rain... i commute on Daisy rain or shine and would love to have my iPhone set up and plugged in under the rain... I get and believe the case would be waterproof and i can make the power to the case sealed, but what are you guys using to power the actual bike? I was using a regular 12v outlet on my klr but just wasn't plugging it in under the rain... you guys got any ideas that you have tried and can vouch for even under the rain??

Mucha appreciated!

Oh by the way... This is my Daisy! Picked her up a couple weeks back!

I've been having that problem too. Glad to know it is at the site end.

Great bike.

Waterproof phones? A friend of mine uses one of these and seems happy with it. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Twisty-Ride-Waterproof-Motorcycle-IPhone/dp/B00B0YYSEY

If you use a tank bag you can run the charging cable into the bag.

Nomad Rider offers their Sherpa bag that is waterproof, well thought out with various storage compartments, and a great value at $99.00.

If you install a Powerlet accessory socket into the hole in the box under the seat you will have less worry of water getting into it while riding in the rain. There is a connector there that hooks into the above linked Powerlet (less expensive that buying the Triumph branded version of same)

Then it is easy to lace the lead from there up to a tank bag to charge the phone.

As for the phone itself, I'm now using a Samsung Rugby that is waterproof and shockproof. I no longer have to worry about moving it from the jacket to the tank bag when it rains. (still have to remember the wallet ... DAMHIK)

Daisy sure is purdy. (though I've heard that the black ones are the fastest ...)

The Powerlet socket the bike comes equipped with is weatherproof. I use a Powerlet/MiniUSB cable to power my Garmin Oregon GPS regardless of the weather. For an iPhone the situation gets a little more complicated because I haven't seen any direct Powerlet-to-iPhone adapters, so you'd need to use a Powerlet/USB adapter and a standard iPhone cable. That said, you could weatherproof that combination yourself.

But to be honest, there's a reason I use the Oregon on the bike instead of my iPhone. A dedicated unit just works a lot better. It's much more rugged, doesn't need to be in a case, has much better GPS features, etc. I'd strongly recommend going in this direction instead of using the iPhone.

--mark

From a practical standpoint the phone doesn't make a very useful GPS device while riding. The screen size requires too much time to see and use effectively. Operation with gloves is sketchy if not impossible on most phones.

I would agree that using a dedicated device will work better.

Combining a Garmin Zumo with a Sena Bluetooty headset and the phone give the best all around selection of information, entertainment and communication while riding. (though I rarely use the phone for communication, mostly as a backup Bluetooth music source when the Zumo playlist gets stale)

Trying to use a phone for GPS while riding was a dangerous distraction for me. The Zumo is well designed for use in this environment, works with gloves, and only takes a glance to glean the required info from the screen while tooling down the road. Any of the other large screen devices should provide the same advantage over the phone.

Agreed. Any of these types of solutions can be a distraction though. The dedicated GPS option is always nice (waterproof, easy to use while wearing gloves, etc.), but they don't seem to be very useful once you leave the pavement. Haven't used a dedicated GPS (turn-by-turn) in a while... do they support things like Topo maps? I have a Delomrmre PN60-W that I take with me, but the screen is so small that using it while riding makes it impractical.

As I posted previously, I'm playing with a 7" android tablet, since I'm more interested in GPS for off-road navigation.

7" Android Tablet as a GPS

Also, I did the "touch-screen glove hack" since I'm using a tablet and it works great!

Make your own touch-screen gloves