Peanut's Transalp XL650V

[Peanut]

Yeah that's true but at least you won't need another set for a while.
Does this mean you only need to buy a front?

That's true - apparently they can last up to 20K, but I'd settle even for 10K.
Yes and no. Technically, the front is bald and needs to be replaced immediately. The back is still in very good condition, but I'd like to a) have matching tyres once I do this, and b) upgrade to get my confidence back/ditch the tyre that I might or might not have slipped on (even though it was on brown crud). It all comes down to paying pennance and feeling better about the rubber that connects me to the road.

It's like clean underwear: no one else knows you're wearing, but you feel better for it.

[Yedi]

Good idea on the second set of wheels there... One of the drawcards for me getting the particular DR that I did was the fact that it came with both sets of wheels. While I know that it'll always be a compromise suspension wise between full motard road action and still maintaining usability off-road, in my mind it's worth it as I keep riding past all these cool-looking dirt roads and wondering where they go

At the moment the stock wheels have big chunky knobbys on them, may look at changing them for dual-sport tyres down the track depending on what sort of riding I'm getting into...

[Four40]

Woohoo, great to hear your back in the saddle.

Don't rush yourself, you still haven't learnt how to ride this bike yet. No, don't take it the wrong way. I haven't learnt to really ride my new bike yet. You know the basics, now you just need to work out the idiosyncrasies of Quasi.

[Peanut]

I don't know whom I hate more, the advice giving salesman at Joes or the designer of Quasi's backside...

I was looking for a replacement indicator for my broken rear one on Saturday and a "helpful" salesman showed me the new ones that were just like the ones on Quasi... $50 each. That was a bit too much for me and we looked through the old spares bins upstairs. Nothing matched but I found a reasonable one... I suggested that we go check to make sure it had the same thread as the correct ones. He said "naaah, it's just a thread - it already has a nut on it so you don't need to worry. It'll fit."

Well, in order to take off the old indicator, I had to take off the seat, the luggage rack, the left and right rear farings, the plastic rear cover, and the tail light assembly (because access to the nut holding the indicator is so impossibly stupidly hard). Then I unclipped the cables, unscrewed the indicator, and pulled it all out. I threaded the new (20yr old) cables in place and... The indicator had a 12mm thread that would not fit into the bodywork unless I went medieval on it's ass...

After much swearing, everything went back together and I added a plastic bag held on by a zip-tie to keep the water out of my lensless indicator...

I'm going to see if I can return the $20 pos indicator back to Joes (but I'll never get my time back) and get something like this instead: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....=STRK:MEWAX:IT

[Lurch]

Thats very Joes

[Peanut]

Thats very Joes

I'm not going to write off the store yet... Maybe this guy was a bit lazy, but he's only one of the five or six guys who work there. Still, I can't imagine CMC doing something like that though. They would have checked for sure... but they also don't have thousands of old indicators lying around...

[kip]

$420 isn't an expensive set of tyres Alex. That's what I paid for my last set. That extra $130 IMO would be worth it. I went from cross-plys to radials in my last set and wouldn't go back

and radials are good to ride on when you tyre has metal coming out of it lolol

[Jdeks]

Thats very Joes

+1. Don't listen to the advice that comes from anyone there regarding wrecker parts, except maybe Cory.

Looks like youre getting to finally see the ....interesting way in which the Transalp is assembled. It's a hard bike to work on, no denying that.

As for the tyre matter, I probably better clear up the nomenclature here - Avon is the only company that makes the DIstanzia tyre. They sell 2 versions - the AM 43 Radial -type tyre and the AM 44 Cross-ply-type Tubeless tyre. But both types are Avon. Now, as for what to put on your bike. The TW41's acurrently on the front is about 12 000 kms old. Distanzias on the fron will probaly get you at least 15 000km, assuming youre not doing too much with heavy luggage/2up. As for the rear Distanzia, its still got about 8000 km in it I'd say. So you only need to buy a new front tyre, I'd say. Tyre gurus, feel free to correct me.

[Peanut]

My problem wasn't so much the "work" but the tools - it took me forever to find a long enough socket turner thingy to reach the bottom tail light bolt and a spanner thin enough to get to the indicator nut. I'm tempted to buy the kawasaki tool set CMC sells just to have a bunch of thin spanners... I kind of like tinkering with mechanical things, but I never have enough time, or the right tools for bigger jobs...

As for the tyres, yeah, I know the rear is still decent, and I don't *need* to replace it, but I'd like to. I want to have matching tyres and I'm not confident on this particular rear after maybe sliding it. I'm doing it later this week, so still plenty of time to be convinced otherwise by wiser minds...

[Lurch]

Hmm.... dual sports... am looking for a commuter bike later this year.
Hmmm