RD07 AFRICA TWIN AT 118,000 MILES

[YEN_POWELL]

Well, I’m bored and stuck at home so I thought I’d do an ‘Africa Twin at 118,000 miles’ thing. It’s all the rage at the moment.

I bought the bike new in March 2000. It’s been taking me to and from work (100 mile round trip) ever since then. It’s also taken me to Brittany, Morocco, Spain and Portugal, as well as numerous rallies/events. It’s never failed any of it’s 3 MOTs (yet) despite having the original (wafer thin) rear disc.

Fuel consumption, highest 58mpg, lowest 41mpg. Currently averaging at 49mpg during my ride to work, which these days is almost all straight 85mph cruising with a bit of town work at the work end (London, I think the place is called). I estimate that something like 2,408 gallons have flowed through the as yet unreplaced fuel filter and into the carbs. I still got banned from my local petrol station for refusing to remove my helmet though….

I’m checking my valve clearances approximately every 15-20,000 miles these days and it’s rare to have any needing adjustment. The same goes for carb balancing, as these too rarely go out of kilter. Sparkplugs get replaced every time I check the valves, although the removed ones look like they’ve had an easy life. In fact I replace headlight bulbs more frequently than sparkplugs these days, possibly a vibration problem somewhere in the headlight mountings.

I had Tony Galea put a pair of new camchains in at 70,000 miles because of an alarming engine noise and for my own peace of mind. Turned out the old chains were still pretty good. The noise turned out to be one of the deep seated plugs unthreading itself and allowing pressure to escape. I did feel stupid when I worked it out. Apart from the camchains, all other maintenace has been done at home. I hate bike shop mechanics, untrained monkeys 90% of them. The other 10% are really good, but I never seem to meet any of those ones.

I opened the clutch up at 83,000 miles and filed the grooves away on the clutch basket. These had been causing a bit of judder on fast pull aways. I checked the springs and plates and they were all within tolerance, but seeing as I was in there anyway, I put new Honda friction plates in. I kept the new springs for another day or another Africa Twin in the future.

I greased all the rear suspension linkages at 50,000 miles and have not touched them since through laziness. I’m expecting to replace them if they seize or corrode as they’ve lasted much longer than expected. I’m still on my second set of head bearings which were replaced with OE items at about 80,000 miles. The rear wheel is on it’s second set of wheel bearings which were replaced before my Morocco trip (50,000 miles) and spent a lot of time immersed in water. Despite this, the replacements are still looking good at each tyre change. The replacements had extra grease placed in them before fitting. The front wheel bearings were replaced this year as a precaution only.

Both front and rear wheels are extremely corroded inside but no spokes have loosened since they were replaced with stainless items at 50,000 miles, so I’m sticking with the wheels in the hope they’ll last longer.

I’m currently running Tourance tyres for the first time (don’t know what every one raves about, they seem pretty average to me, still waiting to see mileage achieved with them. Apart from the OE T66s I’ve only used Bridgestone Trailwing 101/152, as they seemed to wear well if having no other good qualities. The Trailwings averaged out at 12,000 miles for the front and 12,000 miles for the rear. I’ve suffered 3 punctures in the last 118,000 miles. One was a 90mph bum clencher, when a nail ripped the inner tube to pieces. The second was a huge nail from a burnt pallet I rode over on the last mile (on a local green lane) back from Morocco whilst shod with Michelin Deserts (alright, very nearly always Trailwings). The third was a front blow out caused by my own repair patch coming adrift. The bike was just about rideable for the mile or so it took to find a verge to repair it again. Since then I’ve never used a patched tube. It was a lovely day for a breakdown though, sunny evening in the country, even a convenient pile of engineering bricks to prop up the bike on whilst the front wheel was out.

I’m on my 3rd fuel pump. The first 2 OE Mitsubishi electric items all went Pete Tong at 40,000 mile intervals. The current replacement is a Mikuni vacuum type originally designed for microlights. The only problem it has caused me has been on two separate really hot days when the bike cut out at motorway speeds then started again when cooled down. I believe this was caused by the pump being bolted directly the engine, so it has now been ziptied to the frame to see if this problem is cured. Time will tell.

Exhaust corroded away very recently at 110,000 miles. It was replaced with a Pro-Duro road silencer. Definitely goes a little better though I suspect this is more to do with there being no leaks from corrosion anymore.

As mentioned previously, the rear disc is still original. The fronts warped at 65,000 miles and were replaced with EBC discs. These are crap with the recommended EBC pads in the wet, a form of ABS in fact. But I’m too tight to change them so I’ve tried a few different pads and ended up with DP motocross pads which work brilliantly in all weathers and last nearly as long as the EBC.

Right that’s all I can think of. I hope you’ve been paying attention at the back because I SHALL be asking questions later on.

NEXT WEEK- A brief history of DR350 wheel bearing changes (11 pages)

[LaughingBob]

Great post. Just goes to show that the faith we have in these bikes with regard to reliability and durability is well placed. My old 600 TA had 137,000 mles on it when it was flattened by a dustcart. I'd sold it to a friend when it had in excess of 80,000 miles as he wanted cheap transport for work. Other than servicing and normal service items the bike had no additional work done on it.

[piguglyshandydrinker]

Good post, nice to hear of well used bikes.

When the rest of us do 15,000 after a few years and then sell them on!

Regards Phil

[wheeliebin]

I’m currently running Tourance tyres for the first time (don’t know what every one raves about, they seem pretty average to me,

What a relief to hear someone else say that, thought it was just me or I'd had a bad set.

Excellent reading, helps to remind us that Honda build quality can't be that bad

[Maverick]

Oi guv I give you a tenner for that bike it's on the way out

Well done mate and hope the bike lasts another 100k at least before you need to do a oil change

Mine is just over 26k now so still being run in and can feel a difference with the engine getting lose as time goes on. I think there is a bloke down under who's done over 200k km's with his AT and still going strong. So these bike sure are made to last for a very long time.

[robelst]

Thanks for sharing that, this is the really interesting stuff that you don't read in the bike-mags

[Dilbert]

Excellent post Yen, gives me a lot of hope for mine, it's a 17 year old XRV650J, but it's still only showing 47,000 km (32,000 miles?).
my fuel pump is tempramental so I'm replacing it this weekend with a Mikuni from African Queens, I'm getting a bit of clutch slip coming in at harsh accelerations so I guess I'll have to sort out the clutch fairly soon.

I had another thought about the corrosion inside the wheels, which i think the general concensus agreed to be due to electrolytic action, if you clean (and i appreciate you don't like that word) inside the wheel and paint over the spokes and inner wheel rim with a bitumin or rubberised paint, that should exclude water and air? this should then at least slow down the rot (and provide a nice soft seat for the inner tube), I will need to change my tyres fairly soon, and want to get both wheels respoked with stainless, so i suppose i should give this a try too, probably when it gets overhauled in dry dock over winter, being a mere amatuer i will be in the diesel Clio over winter

[YEN_POWELL]

Excellent post Yen, gives me a lot of hope for mine, it's a 17 year old XRV650J, but it's still only showing 47,000 km (32,000 miles?).
my fuel pump is tempramental so I'm replacing it this weekend with a Mikuni from African Queens, I'm getting a bit of clutch slip coming in at harsh accelerations so I guess I'll have to sort out the clutch fairly soon.

I had another thought about the corrosion inside the wheels, which i think the general concensus agreed to be due to electrolytic action, if you clean (and i appreciate you don't like that word) inside the wheel and paint over the spokes and inner wheel rim with a bitumin or rubberised paint, that should exclude water and air? this should then at least slow down the rot (and provide a nice soft seat for the inner tube), I will need to change my tyres fairly soon, and want to get both wheels respoked with stainless, so i suppose i should give this a try too, probably when it gets overhauled in dry dock over winter, being a mere amatuer i will be in the diesel Clio over winter

Cheers for the advice. I'll have a look round for some stuff to coat it with.

[Blues N Twos]

Good post Yen,

I am just on 26.000 now and I am doing an oil change tomorrow as well as taking the tank off to check the choke cables. You have only really had general wear and tear by the sounds of it. Long may it continue.

Jon

[Lord Stig]

Might be wise to use Red Rubber Grease - it won't affect the rubber rim tape or tube (should it get on it). I used to use Waxoil bitumin paint, but it's messy stuff. If you want some red rubber grease I can send you enough to do the job in a poly bag - I have more that I think I'll need for my brakes for the next 10 years.

Stig