The rally bike build so far....

The build of the Rally bike has been progressing well.....

First stage was to sort the electrics, I moved the fuse box from the back of the navigation tower to the side and loosely fitted the relays for the new lights (see below)

Then came the lights:

Plan A was to adapt the new Dottori fairing to fit round the Laser LED headlamp that came with the bike. However I wasn’t happy with the LED lamp as to be honest it was far too bright for everyday use. Great I guess if you’re doing an event like the Dawn to Dusk but as I’m not I had the problem of dazzling everyone if I used it whilst out trail riding!

Plan B was to fit a standard KTM headlight into the Dottori fairing as it is designed for one but  I would have to buy a newer model headlight than the one I have got and this would also need some major chopping of the navigation tower as it was just too close behind the fairing for the headlight to fit.

Then I came up with Plan C….

I’ve always like the look of the KTM 450RR with it’s stacked headlights so decided to aim for a similar look…

But how to do it on the cheap?

The answer was two projector style fog lamps, £32.99 from eBay, mounted one above the other:

And this gave me a chance to finish off the wiring

Additional work carried out at this point included moving the light switches from a toggle switch mounted on the Road Book holder mount, to a more conventional switch positioned on the left hand bar, This gave me a switch that gives off, dip and main. It also means that when I remove the navigation gear for UK Rallies, I don't have to remount the switch every time.

This switch comes with a kill switch as well as the light switch but I used that instead as a horn button, also putting that back in a conventional position as it had been on the right hand bar.

Now that too has been neatened up with just a start and a kill switch side by side.

Then I did a few bits of tidying up like wiring up the high beam indicator light and cable tying the cables to neaten everything up.

Then I turned to my fairing, the brackets were fairly simple, some aluminium strap to make a top front mount above the headlights, and two side support stays.

Not looking bad, all I needed to do was cut the holes for the headlamps and get it painted.

The last time I rode the bike, I was cleaning it and noticed a fair bit of play in the rear wheel bearings.

So that was next job on the list, surprisingly easy to change but it does help that I bought a new head bearing installation tool recently that has a driver that is also the perfect size for the wheel bearings. Certainly easier than the CCM but then that does have three bearings in the back wheel.

I definitely think they had reached the end of their life!!!

One other modification I made was to the bars, the riding position was almost right but a little bit low for me as I do prefer to use bar risers.

Mike had thrown in some bar risers in my box of bits but they looked to be a bit taller than I wanted.

Then I spotted the solution! Sitting in the garage is the CCM and I noticed the bars have a slightly higher bend. So the EXC now wears its Renthal Fat Bars…. result!

 

 

Last job of this stage was to fit the additional rear fuel tank, fairly easy once I had found the instructions on the internet.