Hi guys. I finally picked up the new bike yesterday and got to bring it home for the first photo shoot. To back track a little bit, I have actually had the opportunity to run the bike in at the dealers over the last few days. I had the dealer do the first oil drop and filter replacement and all was good to go. I managed to get a small off road ride during my journey home yesterday and, apart from the need for knobbies, all is really cool. What a great bike... I will go into a few reviews and rants later but it is a great ride. You will see from the pics that I am still waiting on most of the accessories to arrive from the east. So far I have received the top box inner bag, one pair of LED indicators (still waiting on the other pair), and the tank pad. I really like the tank pad, I think it integrates really well with the bike. Its 5:30am here in Perth at the moment and I am loaded up with two Ducati's about to head down to the dyno in Bunbury as a part of final development of some Waspworks Power up kits, http://www.waspworks.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1 I am out of time to offer a ride report but I did want to leave a few pics and will get back onto discussing the bike and what my future plans are later. P.S- The bike was probably home for one hour before I had the L/H side cover off the muffler to see whats going on under there. I can see a carbon replacement happening in the very near future... Talk soon. Greg.
Very Nice. I'm liking that a lot. We will never see it here. Like to hear more as you rack up some miles.
Wasp, as a former Perth boy living in the US I can only say I'm extremely jealous. I'd have one now if I could get my grimy mitts on one. I had a test ride in Paris a few weeks ago and while not able to test a lot of things in Paris traffic, one thing that impressed was how light and easy to handle it felt. My V-Strom is way lighter, but feels heavier. Looking forward to your reports. And looking at your website, I'm anticipating some dazzling S10 farkles in the works soon. Trevor
As I said Friday, I had a full day of development work on the dyno on Saturday and didnt get home till 8:00pm. It was perfect weather for a ride too. My kids and the grand-kids came visiting for lunch today so no time for riding again.... Another great weather day again. So my son and I decided to pull a few bits and pieces of the new bike to see how its put together. I mentioned previously that I plan on making a new carbon muffler. This morning we removed and weighed the muffler and was surprised to find it was a reasonable 5.5kg. A carbon muffler should go around 1.5>2kg so there is not a huge saving to be had, just that it will sound a shitload better than the standard note. Greg.
It,s an easy job to remove the side panels in the field. Under the seat you will find a single Allen/hex key. This key is to remove the four quarter turn fasteners on the lower right hand side cover. You will also use the key to push in the black plastic fasteners on the inside (near the forks) of the cover before it can be removed. You can then remove the top part of the right hand side cover. And this is what it looks like.... The removal of the right hand covers allows full access to all of the vital electrical components including all fuses and battery. I did not specifically look but I am sure the ECU is tucked away somewhere nearby.. The regulator rectifier is located on the inner face (near the forks) on this side. The left hand (radiator side) cover is a similar process to remove but has no quarter turns, they are all full screws and the top and bottom cover is one piece and can be removed with the same key. And this is what it looks like. With the removal of two bolts,The fuel tank on the new Super Tenere can be pivoted backward to allow access to the air filters. This is what it looks like with the tank pivoted back. Greg.
Previously I showed the pictures of the side panel removal and the fuel tank pivoting. The fuel tank must obviously be tilted up to allow access to clean the airfilter/s which, if the bike is to be used off road with any regularity, I suggest you familiarise yourself with this procedure. In Australia they (Yamaha Australia) have removed the factory paper filter and replaced it with foam sock filters with spring inners to retain shape. I dont know why this was done or who's idea it was but I comment them. I much rather clean and oil foam filters than be stuck with unservicable paper ones. Once the fuel tanks is tilted the top of the airbox can be removed. Apart from the obvious 8 or 10 screws around the perimeter of the cover there is also one sneaky little screw underneath the rubber bung shown in the pic below. Of course you new I could not go this far without taking the airbox completely out to see what it looks like underneath. The pic below shows the factory paper filter and the replacement unit as delivered for Australian spec bikes. The intake to the airbox is just above the spark plugs (which by the way have really neat little individual coil on caps) so this will give an indication of the possible fording height. Greg.
In a bid to delay doing my end of financial year Business Activity Statement BAS (BAS actually stands for Bfucken Apain Sin-the-arse), I snuck up the the shed tonight and installed the rear LED indicators. Although these are a Yamaha option/Yamaha part, It appears that there were only one set of these available in Australia. Another set is on order and due in soon. The installation was not a big deal and is quite simple to do. Wires need to be cut and new crimps (supplied in kit) need to be joined to wires. All up takes about 45mins to do per set. Strip the seats and load racks off. pic below shows the finished wiring before the rear load rack is replaced. Note that the Yamaha LED kit comes complete with resisters in line to force the correct flasher rate. The finished product. Greg.
Keep the faith mate... They MUST bring them into the States... I think they will achieve massive sales around the world and they will be forced to bring them in.. Bloody travesty if they dont - this is a farken great machine, and i've only ridden mine a couple of times.. In the mean time, I'll try and think about you each time I ride Greg.
Subscribed! Thanks for leading the way. I was really anxious to see how the fuel tank swiveled and what's underneath it. Thanks for documenting it. Will you be adding heated grips? I know you're in Oz and all, just curious to see where the adjustment knob mounts. I'd be curious to see if you add bar back risers, and if there's enough slack in the wires, hoses and cables to permit this. Also, the carbon exhaust sounds , but is the plastic exhaust cover still necessary to protect the pillion's leg from the heat? C'mon Yamaha Canada, bring on the S10 here! I'll be first in line!
It's a technical neccesity with the fine sanddust of australia, a paper filter would clog up verry fast, and would let more micronsised particles truogh. A oiled foam filter works by not really filtering the air, but by letting the air change direction in sharp corners, so the sand particles (and other junk) effectivily are flying out of the corners in the filter and get cought on the sticky surface, so you get cleaner and in time more air into your engine. Actually a dutch invention, made to a huge succes in the 70's by Twin-Air in the cross-scene, and basing on the ageold centifugal filter like you find in the Honda 350 of the 70's for the oil, it costs a little more time then just putting in a new paperfilter, but longivity wise its better, but only if cleaned and oiled *regularly* according to usage, if your doing extensive sandblasting every day with the bike check it every week, if your a road rider every other small maintenance. ANd about the heated grips, take a look at the Hein Gericke offering, its a nice 4 grades heating controlled with a pushswitch control with colored leds so even in darkness well adjustable. Bit bulky leads, but nice and warm even at -20 like last winter over here, and just 40€.
looks like the fuel would flow fine w/ tank titlted up and thus making it easy job to sync the injector bodies when need be.
This is where Yamaha want it.......YUK And this is where Ray wants it..... And bar risers fit fine, mine are about 25mm (not shown here). Have a flick through http://www.xt660.com/showthread.php?t=14206
Thanks Ray.. Better there or where they have it on the FJR? I guess integrating a heated grips switch into the switchgear is too complicated.