Prepping for the TAT

[deputygene]

"I encourage you to start a new thread for them and share your adventures with us. We love photos! Very Happy
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Weldangrind

Ok here goes. I started on this site several years ago with the purchase of a Tank Trail 200. Hadn't ridden in years, had a project bike in the shed (73' TX 650) but figured some riding would be good. Bought a Tank Trail 200 for myself
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and a Lifan QP 100 for my son
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I found these China Bikes to be ok, engines great, had a lot of fun riding with my son. I soon found out about the TAT
http://www.transamtrail.com/
A cross country trip on mostly dirt roads. I briefly considered trying to ride the China Bike on the TAT but the complete unavailability of parts from Tank made me re-think that Idea. Motor wise, I think the Tank would make it, but if a break down did occur in the back country I would be out of luck. I found a great deal on a used 07 XR650L locally. The bike had less than 2000 miles, 1400, I think. Smog stuff was already gone.
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First mod was a rear rack
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Followed by side racks and saddlebags
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All the while I have been reading the adventures of Dr Rock and his wife LDF as they did the TAT in 2 week increments on DRZ 400's.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...95297&t=344776
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...344776&page=35
With Dr Rock riding a DRZ 400 I thought the Pitster Pro 400 might be just the ticket and contacted PP about using a PP 400 for the TAT but there didn't seem to be that much interest. All the while, with the BRP and new parts my wife is like "what's going on?" I showed her the TAT website and declared that I was going, no discussion. She said "ok, I'm going too". Wow, it is hard to explain the turnaround here, until the Chinabikes she had maintained a No Motorcycles policy in my home. So I started looking for something for her to ride. Found an 07 DR 650 close by and got her riding. First thing was to have some side racks made.
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To fit the tourmaster bags I got for her bike
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We first tried making due with some old Mad 330 gps units. Long out of production, they still work fine for local cruising. I will say this, the mapping CD is much easier to use than Garmin's. We started cruising to the Nat Forrest Uhairre nearby, exploring the forrest service roads and trails
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During these excursions I found the fuel capacity of the Honda to be totally inadequate. 2.7 gals, sheesh. I found I would hit reserve right at 95-100 miles. The DR has a 3.4 gal tank and will go further.
I started looking for something better and settled on this one.
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Red Acerbis 5.8 gallon tank. Had to move the rectifyer though.
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With the bikes coming along we went on our first overnite camping trip to Valley Crucis, NC.
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It was very cold that night, winds blowing like you wouldn't believe. I just knew the tent was coming down, but it didn't. Cheap Walley world tent, has held up well, no ventilation in warm weather is it's only fault.
We also found that my old Coleman stove didn't like to work when it was cold out. Worked fine the night before while cooking steaks
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Took forever to get it to pump up the next morning
Can you tell it had gotten cold out?[img][/img]
Next, i'll show some pics of our next multi day trip up the outer banks.