Budget fuel and luggage options FE570

as mentioned elsewhere i blew my budget buying the berg so doing my mods and parts on the cheap. i know the ideal setup is usually aftermarket fuel tank(s), wolfman tankbag and giant loop bags on the rear but if anyone else is on a budget thought they might be interested. i know it's top heavy, and makes getting on and off the bike a bit trickier but can't afford the trick gear yet!

ONE DAY RIDES
i got a kriega 10 liter tail bag mailed out for $100. i wasn't really impressed with the strap system for the berg, and realized i could have just got a heavy duty dry bag from a camping for $25 and bungee strapped it down (however one rider mounted the kriega tail bag to the kriega base normally used with their tank bag and was happy with that). this works out well for carrying tools, first aid kit, tow rope and extra liter of fuel in a camping-style alloy fuel bottle.



i've used one of the kriega straps running under the seat on the slim chance all the octopus straps disappeared. the bag would flap around but at least stay on the bike. i stuck some black vinyl down on the exposed parts of the rear fender so that slight movement of the bag wouldn't rub through decals or the fender plastic. then i cut some rubber strips, put double sided tape on them and stuck them down on the ridges of the rear fender so the rubberized kriega bag doesn't move around at all (see below). ugly as sin but i'll always have a bag on there so doesn't worry me. this setup has worked well so far no matter how many jumps, ruts or corrugations are hit with the berg.



TWO DAY RIDES AND/OR 5 LITERS EXTRA FUEL
next step was how to carry an extra five liters of fuel for adventure rides, with the option of luggage as well. i got a 30 liter dry bag from a camping store for $39 (anaconda if you are in aust). this has a heavy duty rubberized finish so sticks to the rubber strips well, and can fold down easily if i don't have that much luggage. next was a squat-shaped 5 liter jerry can for $19 (supercheap if you live in aust). the opening is at the top when packed so minimizes the chance of fuel dribbling out and stinking up luggage. this extends the fuel range by 70%.



i haven't actually gone out and trialled this setup on a ride. i'd keep the jerry can sitting on the seat, not the rear part of the fender, so that stress on the subframe is minimized. my concern is the strapping: even though it feels very secure, if the indicator stalks both failed then the whole thing could go flying. i'm thinking of an extra strap that goes into the existing hole of the right hand side panel (e.g. the exhaust side), then drilling a hole in left side panel and just run another octopus strap, or maybe a heavy duty rubber strap over the top of the lot. anyone tried this? thoughts on the issue?

THREE+ DAY RIDES AND/OR 10 LITERS EXTRA FUEL
not sure if i'll ever do rides where i need more than 270km between fuel stops, but if so there are similar squat-shaped 10 liter jerry cans with the opening at the top. the one below is $40. however i'd be starting to get concerned about whether this is too much weight on the subframe in rugged terrain, and whether the strapping system mentioned would be strong enough. it would extend fuel range by 117%.

out of interest, i experimented with this, then just light luggage in the kriega 10L tail bag strapped over the top. the whole thing was starting to look too high and difficult to keep stable so doubt this will work.



out of interest, i wanted to get the wolfman tank bag but needed it for an adventure ride and there was no stock in australia so bought a Bags-Connection Enduro Lite strap-on Tank Bag for $39. it's worked out okay but you can see in the pic i need an octopus strap to ensure it doesn't move around. also when i stand up i find my legs are gripping the bag, not the actual bike, which isn't great for dirt riding. does the wolfman tank bag taper at the rear to avoid this? not a big issue, as i'll only strap this on for long adventure rides when i'm after all the luggage capacity i can get.

below is the gear i've bought so far.

had to rethink the luggage setup as we have a three day camping trip planned, but soft luggage like the giant loop bags are way out of the budget. after a lot of head scratching i worked out the following:
three 30 liter dry bags from the camping store - $60
straps, clips and assorted bungee straps - $20

i didn't want to place undue stress on the plastic side panels. so the first strap runs through the gap under the seat and basically does a figure eight to secure the bags to the bike. the rear strap runs under the top bag then around the rear of the side bags.
i cut two slots in each side panel to put the middle straps around the bags. i'll probably add a few more straps here and there for added security but it's working well so far, it's all very secure and holds an impressive amount of equipment for week long trips or longer.

i figured there was the risk of the bags slowly sliding forward to they are secured together at the rear, and also bungee strapped to the rear tail section.

i can't afford any aftermarket tanks as yet, so i've put two x one liter (lawn mower) fuel bottles in the tank bag. this still wasn't enough range for some trips so bought two small dry bags that strap around the tank bag. these hold a one liter fuel bottle each for a total of four extra liters, for a total fuel range of 250 to 270km of adventure riding. i stitched some velcro pads between the dry bags and tank bag for extra security. currently these are only bungee strapped on but i'm currently looking at a better arrangement with straps.







still yet to test the setup on gnarly dirt roads but will report back if anyone is interested. the entire setup has cost $190 to date. it's obviously a bit top heavy as that extra four liters of fuel should ideally be in an under-the-seat tank, but hey, it's still a featherweight compared to my last bike, a DR650.

i love those kick arse pants! on a group ride if anyone said "so who wears the pants around here?" all you would have to do is point to your bike. :twisted:

going back to the yellow dry bags setup above, there's actually far more room than i need. the tank bag with the little side bags holds four one liter bottles of fuel and some tools. the top dry bag on the rear of the seat holds a five liter jerrycan of fuel if more than 250km is needed. or just other stuff.

one of the yellow 30 liter dry bags on the side holds a two man tent, sleeping bag, air mattress and ground tarp. the one on the other side holds clothing, wet weather gear, food, cooking stove and one to to liters of cask port (but just the inner bag of course, not the box).

that's actually a fair bit more space than needed for most of our two or thee day trips, i probably won't take the tank bag unless it's a huge distance between fuel stops.

no probs hitting the yellow dry bags going downhills, the boots just touch the bags if standing up but not noticeably. however, i have found that standing up going uphill the sidebags strapped to the tankbag so will have to reconfigure that if doing some gnarly hilly stuff on our adventure rides (and that's pretty much definite on our rides).

i'm actually giving this setup it's first proper test over a camping trip this coming weekend so will report back on any issues.

food? one of the guys buys those ready made meals for hiking, just add hot water to the plastic bag. i have a little $10 compact stove that comes with four fuel blocks in it, then a $15 army mess kit. this is basically two alloy boxes with handles that fit over each other if needed. i have a few satchels of that 90 second brown rice. it's already cooked so if you throw it into hot water it's ready to go. then just add some kind of soup mix, along with either bits of pepperoni or beef jerky from our favourite butcher who is on the route of most of our adventure rides.

i like a decent coffee but hard to strap the coffee machine on somewhere. so i buy the robert tims coffee bags (don't know if these well outside of australia) and if you use three per cup you get a pretty decent brew. then just powdered milk.

probably the best thread for adventure ride food is over at advrider here: http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=288065 these guys have some pretty cool ideas if you read the whole thing...

got to test out the new setup properly with a two day ride. took extra straps as i was sure there would be problems with only three main straps holding the yellow side bags on but they stayed secure despite jumps and plenty of gnarly tracks.

only real issue was the small side bags i attached to the tank bag. when standing up these got in the way so i'll need to work out a way to mount them vertically and further forward. probably wont need them anyway, the three dry bags on the rear alone give a potential 90 liters capacity. the only real reason for the tank bag is to try and get some of the heavy luggage up the front of the bike, she handles pretty strangely with so much weight on the rear and i find myself sitting well forward on the seat to make the bike behave itself when riding fast on slippery surfaces.

glad i didn't get the underseat tank as the gap there is very useful for passing straps through.

So how did you carry the fuel ? is your jerry can in there ? Were you able to get sleeping bag & tent in those dry bags ? Just wondering as I already have all of this stuff. I dont want to buy all this extra stuff for one trip per year. Thanks

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that pic above was travelling light with no extra fuel on a two day camping trip and fuel stops were less than the 190km i get to a tank on an adventure ride.

one dry bag holds a two man tent, air mattress, camping stool, ground tarp, blow up pillow and sleeping bag.
the other dry bag has food, stove, clothes, tool kit, toiletries and red wine :mrgreen:

if i just need an extra 40km and push the limit to 230km, i strap on the tank bag and put two 1L fuel bottles in it.
if i need way more, then i put a 4L jerry can in a dry bag (see first pics in the thread) and strap it between the two yellow dry bags. that pushes the maximum range out to around 320km which i haven't needed to date. it ain't a pretty setup but it's cheap and worked fine to date.

unless you are carrying fuel in alloy bottles, as you probably know it seeps through plastic and stinks up whichever bags you carry it, so i just keep luggage dedicated to carrying fuel and nothing else.

1Trak Mind said:

Thanks for the info. Looks like all I will have to do is get some ally cans & tank bag to carry fuel. I only need to be able to match the next lowest capacity in the group. Which is 3.1 gals, I think the efi will get better MPGs than the carbed KTM 525s & such. What have you found ?

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it's great on fuel. i like to kick along at a good pace but just using the midrange grunt, carry good speed into corners, minimize rear wheelspin etc. i've managed to get over 200km or 120 miles out of a tank on adventure rides but that drops significantly on a dirt ride of course.

it's way better than any carbied bike on our rides. strangely it's not quite as good as the ktm 690 on our rides, even though he revs and wheelspins a lot. :shock:

1Trak Mind said:

Maybe map settings ? His bike may be more enviromentaly more freindly. My bike wasnt street legal from the factory so no E.P.A.testing. :mrgreen:

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his ktm 690 is a 2012 and he was consistently using 20% less fuel than the FE570... at least 25km/l (59mpg) or higher on adventure rides.

ktm claimed better fuel economy with the later model and it seemed to be the case as my 2009 690 couldn't match that and it was stock too. but mapping has something to do with it, he now runs the richer mapping to suit an akro pipe and economy has dropped but he's still about 5% more economical than the berg - not bad for an engine 120cc bigger and putting out an extra 10hp!

just an update on the budget $75 luggage/fuel setup. done a pile of big trips and the last one was a week long trip through plenty of flooded creek crossings. financially i could now afford something better but the dry bags, straps and 5L jerrycan have worked out so well i'll just stick with it.

it all holds together and has never looked like coming loose, and the jerry can takes the fuel range up to around 160 miles of adventure riding. the only bug bear is that the berg already has a weight bias to the rear so having it all on the rear just makes for weird handling. i only carry extra fuel when needed, then put it in the main tank as soon as possible.

click on the link below if you want to see a video of the trip....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP-bePTfqdc