HadesOmega Socal BDR ADV

[HadesOmega]

Here's the link to my inreach map page if you want to track my progress off I go!
https://share.garmin.com/hadesomega


Here it is my thread on my Socal BDR Adventure. This thread will document my prep and the actual ride when it happens like my LAB2V prep VLOG. So after LAB2V me and the CactusPuncher kicked ass. I knew the old bike still had some fight left in it. It has been more than a year since we last went on adventure ride though. I didn't really tell anyone but I've semi-retired from adventure riding. We rode the Trans America Trail and the Nevada BDR in 2017. After the Nevada BDR the bike was trashed badly worn steering head bearings and a bent subframe. Fast forward to now the steering head bearings were replaced before LAB2V so that's fixed but the frame is still bent. So I need to find a way to move all that weight from the rear of the bike forward more. That's one problem I need to fix. Then another is fuel capacity. Bascially my prep is to address those concerns.

Why Southern California BDR?
Why not? It's close by and I've probably ridden sections of it before anyway. But I was planning some sort of big moto trip all year. First was Thailand I was going to rent a bike in Thailand and ride the Mae Hong Son Road but didn't have money for that. Then I was planning to trailer the Cactuspuncher to Death Valley and Joshua Tree but this government shutdown has happened and seem like a lot of the roads/attractions might be closed. So the Socal BDR came out couple months ago and figure well why not it just came out at the best time, like it fell into my lap. I've already done the Nevada BDR time to add another BDR to the bucket list.

Replacing Broken Stuff
So I'm constantly replacing broken stuff on the Cactuspuncher it's an ongoing thing hah. Around christmas I replaced a bunch of stuff. I actually made some VLOGs about it I will post them. We practice Kaizen or continual evolution with this bike :afm199

Tusk Shift Lever
So back during the last BARF Baja trip I went on I bent my shift lever on the Window Rock trail. It bent in a strange way that made it hard to bend back. During that trip I put my spare shift lever on. I always car spare shift lever and brake and clutch levers. So for the longest time my spare was bent, still worked but was bent in a funky way. So I went and bought this fancy Tusk Racing Shift lever. Fancy all aluminum and knurled tip so it doesn't wear out as fast. The tip on the one on the bike is starting to wear out.

One thing about the Tusk shift lever is that it uses a different size bolt. From 10mm down to 8mm. Probably because it was aluminum they didn't want you stripping it.

Installed, looks trick and saves few ounces. The one that was on there before will no go into my spares on the bike.

Warp9 Rear Chain Guide
So after LAB2V I was looking over stuff on the bike and cleaning the chain again and noticed my chain guard is broken in like 3 places. Like it was literally hanging on there. I don't know how long it was like that because it's a little hard to notice so I ordered up a Warp9 Rear Chain Guide. Why the Warp9? Because it was about $70 and a new stock one seems to go for about that much on fleabay plus it is aluminum construction so it won't break so easily. Also it's trick looking.

Remember I said the stock one was barely hanging on there? When I took uninstalled it literally fell apart.

The guide block still in decent shape though

 

[HadesOmega]

Turn Signal Switch
So since a long time ago maybe the TAT my turn signal switch has been getting worse and worse. It was really sticky and hard to use. Well during LAB2V it pretty much didn't work at all. Annoying if you are riding on the street. So I went and bought a good used one on ebay. Think this is from a 1996 DR650 older than mine but still works good. The design of the switch is not very good I will admit. I also found of the previous owner had modified the switch a little bit. They had ground off the the part where the choke lever was so I had more handlebar room. I hadn't noticed that till I removed it. I thought it was from a different bike but it's just the stock unit with the lever portion ground off. This bike never had the handlebar choke because it came with an Edelbrock carb and not I have a FCRMX carb. I never really use the choke on the FCR carb either that's why we have an accelerator pump Blip that throttle couple time to squirt some fuel in the engine and fires right up!

The piece that was ground off.

 

[HadesOmega]

Those are last parts were part of the CactusPuncher Christmas VLOG.

youtu.be/-zLPJgOyM-Q


youtu.be/MNlpF912aBI


youtu.be/xYdFdcJ8_jQ


youtu.be/ltScDwEWDBY

 

[Junkie]

I'm a big fan of the KTM switches if you're willing to do a little wiring. https://www.ebay.com/itm/HySpeed-headlight-horn-switch-KTM-Husky-Husaberg-New/143088483563 appears to be the same basic one as https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apico-Kill...E7RfJJ3/dToeDF3bzR8F52x2BfuQ==&frcectupt=true they're the best option I've found

 

[HadesOmega]

Acerbis 6.6 Gallon Tank
So one of things that always bugged me was carrying extra fuel on the bike. It sucks the best answer is to get a bigger tank right? So I had actually ordered this for the CactusPuncher after one of those Ebay sales probably half a year ago. Just never got a chance to install it till recently because of the KLX Supermoto project. Well this tank was a BITCH to install. It interferes with a lotta stuff, it HUGE makes the rest of the front look tiny now. It's literally the IMS tank or smaller Acerbis tank with extended lobes on the front. So the theory that when the tank is low on fuel it's weight is lower is kinda no true. The weight is just more back. Maybe that's true for the Safari tank I guess the largest tank available for the DR650. Get your popcorn ready opcornthis install is long! I will be installed a Yamaha Raptor petcock on it also since that's the one I was running on the IMS and it has never let me down. I figure it's time to replace it so I bought a brand new one.

This gascap is a pretty trick I like it, it's got a carbon fiber pattern on it. But I will be reusing the good old Acerbis locking gas cap I have on the IMS tank even though I really never lock it.

Strip bike down

Install the seat bracket, from what I heard the Sargeant seat doesn't fit this thing it needs to be grinded and it's true.

Quick commercial break I found this portable chopsticks at Daiso that I am going to try out. They are aluminum and disassemble to fit into the case. Chopsticks are really to handy to have when camping. They're simple, easy to clean, and don't take up much space. I have been using some plastic childrens chopsticks in a case probably will take those with me also.

 

[HadesOmega]

The tank needs to be modified to install the raptor petcock. The Acerbis tank uses their own proprietary petcock WHICH is ok but I didn't like that it has a big plastic lever that could break. The raptor installs like the stock petcock but there is no vacuum operated valve on it. So less prone to failure. However the Acerbis one uses one round feed tube wheras the raptor uses a dual tube setup. Time to MODIFY! The first thing that needs to be done is make the mounting surface flat because the Acerbis uses a round Oring whereas the raptor uses a special gasket.

Yuck look at those airpockets in there. I later found out the Acerbis tank does not has the best molding even compared to the IMS tank.

The next step is to elongate the hole for the dual feed tubes. Also can you believe they use self tapping screws for this!? They couldn't have put threaded inserts like the seat bracket?

So now comes time to clean the tank. In the instructions it says to clean the tank so now that there is a bunch of plastic dust and flakes in it it's time to double clean it!

 

[HadesOmega]

These are some picture of the poor molding on the tank. they're just not very consistent. There's no doubt it looks strong hopefully...

Compared to IMS tank

I sanded down some of the mold lines a bit

 

[HadesOmega]

Comparison between the IMS 5.3 vs Acerbis 6.6. The biggest difference is the lobes in the front. They're massive!

Ok tank is pretty much good to go. Cleaned out all the stuff inside with a garden hose and let it dry for a couple days. In this picture I am draining the fuel from the IMS tank to the Acerbis tank. I had about half a tank in the IMS.

The moment of truth does this Raptor Petcock hold the fuel in. IT DOES!

 

[HadesOmega]

Ok time to mount the tank this is where the true nightmare begins!

Oil cooler guard touches tank no bueno. It's probably from all those crashes it's moved a bit over time but it never had a problem with the IMS tank -_-

How do fix this? HAMMER TIME!

Here's how the petcock looks not too bad actually. The choke lever is close to the tank but I never use it anyway.

Hey look it's on there but not full mission capable, why not we'll find out in a bit?

Gross look how small the front end looks compared to the tank. It makes the bike look so porky. i think the IMS tank was great looking it looked like a dirt bike but had capacity. =/

Have to readjust the tank panniers but I manage to get them to fit with some adjusting of the straps.

So here is where the fun begins.

Oil Cooler slightly touches tank

Offroad lights hit tank

Some pics of the tank installed on the bike. Haha it reminds me of those body builders that only work on one muscle and it bigger than the rest of other muscles. BTW look at the Barbie KLR650 in the back does that shape look familiar? Yeah the Acerbis tank is a similar shape to the KLR650 gas tank. It like I have pretty much put a KLR650 tank on my DR650 haha.

Boy does it get much wider in the front too!

Panniers installed

 

[HadesOmega]

So I took a break from working on the tank and installed a new fender on the CactusPuncher. For a while I had been wanting to change this Acerbis Supermoto fender because it was kind short and stubby. It's survived a lot of riding but it doesn't read do a good job of a fender as in keeping all the crude off the bike. So I went and installed this chinese copy of an old Acerbis Supermoto fender. They don't sell these anymore but I found out they do in China! This is the same fender I have on the KLR650 it's a 2 piece 2 tone fender. I got the black and white combo I think it looks sweet! Anyway I kinda figured out probably why they don't sell this fender anymore. It didn't fit very well on the DR. The fork boots rub on it so I had to push in the sides with a heatgun. I had to shave the backside so it wouldn't rub on that oil cooler. I also had to rake it upward using a washers to clear the oil cooler. So it was more work than I thought it would be to install it on this bike.

It's like a good 5 inches longer

Only problem is it doesn't my dragon on it If anyone near the the Tail of the Dragon can get me one of these stickers I'd be greatly appreciative. Or in anyone knows where I can get this exact sticker online.

 

[HadesOmega]

Ok back to that gas tank. So the biggest issue was the offroad lights. I gotta have offroad lights on the bike. It's good to have extra lights on your bike just in case one of them goes out you can see where you're going at night.

Here is what I'm running now. The HadesOmega SPEC off road light mount. Basically it is 2 pieces of bent aluminum flats with holes drilled into it. These mounts have without the abuse of adventure riding but they no longer clear with the tank.

What was the plan? KERPLAM the JNS Engineering offroad light mount! I've always wanted to get one of these since I've seen them come out for the DR. It bascially mounts where your fender bolts on. But you'll see even this wasn't enough. One reason I wanted to get this was the HadesOmega Spec light mounts are mounted on the lower triple clamp bolts and I have to use a special allen wrench to loosen my forks. It looks cool too!

Test fitting. Yep it's a NO GO! I checked on ADV rider if this works with the Acerbis tank and well it doesn't not the 6.6 gallon one When thinking back I should have just bought their single light bracket instead but too late now!

So it's time to re-engineer the JNS Engineering light mount. My plan was to shift forward so it could clear the tank so I slotted it more. I don't like how they have a weird slot pattern on this, this is suppose to fit a DRZ also so maybe the DRZ has a different bolt pattern. I would have just like it to fit proper on the DR650. Anyway...

Also I have to make a new offroad light bracket this one cracked. Why can't they make bombproof light brackets? Anyway you can tell I made this one haha.

Fabricated a new one

 

[HadesOmega]

So even if I moved the light bracket forward it wouldn't clear the tank still. What has to happen is I have to move the bracket more foward and move the lights inward to clear the tank

So how did I move it more forward you ask? Well I used the rear bolt holes and mounted only them to the front. Does it make it weaker and more bendy yep but no choice with this piece. Here you can see it mounted and where I have it scribbed.

Prepped for surgery

Well look at this IT FINALLY CLEARS!

 

[HadesOmega]

Now it works but I have to clean it it. What I'm going to do is chop the portion I don't need from the ends and try to weld up the slots I made in the back. I drilled new hold so to make the plate as strong as possible I'm going to fill those in. It's aluminum so I need to use this stuff ALUMAWELD! Watch at HadesOmega's shitty brazing skills haha! I've only used this stuff once to fill a hole in a muffer and it works pretty good if you know what you're doing.

First prep the area I'm trying to fill.

Here we go so the problem I had was I tried to use mapp gas and no propane the map gas gets too hot.

WHAT A MESS THIS MAKES!

I was at it for a while and yes its ugly

One side semi done time to start the other.

So I've been at this for hours and I suck at this.

Finally results

So now I'm going to sand down the surfaces

Surprisingly the angle grinder didn't work too well I think I need to change the disc on it. What really worked good were Dremel sanding rolls! This stuff is way harder than the aluminum also it's some kind of alloy.

 

[HadesOmega]

So now I'm going to fill in the airpockets in the stuff that I missed. With this very old tubes of JB Weld.

Now it's time to shorten the bracket. I think if I had ordered the smaller dual bracket I probably didn't have to do this =/ Too late I HadesOmega Spec'd it!

Sanding JB weld down

Tada this is the HadesOmega SPEC re-engineered JNSEngineering Offroad Light mount! I painted it with Low Gloss Black Engine enamel also it matches the powder coating pretty well. Needed to do 2 coats though.

 

[HadesOmega]

There it is so getting the lights to clear the tank was by far the most labor intensive process of the Acerbis 6.6 install.

Sayonara HadesOmega Spec offroad light brackets

Lights clear tank now

 

[HadesOmega]

NEXT ISSUE. Supposedly the signal lights will hit the tank with the Acerbis 6.6 tank. Well fortunately for me it was REALLY close to not touching. I only had to do some minor tweaking. What most people do is flip the signal light bracket around and move the lights upward. What I did is use a adjustable wrench to tweak the light upwards a little bit. One of them I slotted a little bit also.

Also since I had the front cover off I might as well install this new Trailtech light switch, the other broke and I had to just twist the wires together to keep the lights on.

 

[Junkie]

if those drums work I'd recommend trying a flap disc for an angle grinder too

 

[HadesOmega]

THE LAST tank clearance issue was that damn oil cooler again. The edge of the oil cooler is like 1mm from hitting tank. The oil cooler has rubber dampners on it when the bike is moving around that will touch the tank I'm sure of it. I could move the oil cooler a bit by bending the brackets but. Well it not really touching so I decided to just add a felt pad to the tank in that one spot so it doesn't wear into the tank. Hopefully it stays on there.

Final thing to do is hook up the fuel line! Finally tank is good to go! If you read my Mt Hamilton Snow Adventure ride report you know how it went. If anything the tank is wider in the front but is narrower in the rear. And yeah its heavy when its full!

 

[HadesOmega]

Tires time! So the tires I ran during LAB2V still have SOME life left in them but they won't last me to and through the Socal BDR. Here I'm installing the Shinko 805 I ran on the last half of the TAT. Still has a lot of meat on it hopefully I burn through it because I have so many of these tires lying around '

Tire irons in my fender pack.

Off goes the D606 and on goes the Shinko 805. So here's an interesting thing I learned about the D606. It is really hard to break the bead on this thing. The tire compound is so hard. It was really easy to install the D606 but I could not break the bead with my HD Beadpros. I had to break out the old Harbor Freight motorcycle tire bead breaker!

I am quite experienced putting the Shinko 805 on and I know its behaviors well. It fights me on the last 25% everytime. This time no so bad.though.

No problems seating the bead also. Bwahaha I have a story about that I could not get the bead to seat when I was spooning this on in Guymon, Oklahoma on the TAT. So I just said F-it let's just ride and it'll seat itself haha. Well Ben my riding parter at the time said he could see the tire wobbling a lot when he was riding behind me haha I didn't notice =P

 

[HadesOmega]

Time for the front tire! So compared to the D606 the front TKC80 is like the easiest tire to uninstall. I literally squeezed the tire and the bead broke =) What will be going on is a brand new Shinko 804. This is my favorite all around adventure front tire. TKC80 is pretty close but they don't last as long and they are $30 more than the Shinko 804

Battle scars

Bead broken *YAWN

Check that cupping out, these tires don't look like their done but they are.

Shinko 804 vs TKC80

Tire slid on with minimal fuss, I think I gave it a little help with a spoon

Tube goes in