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Long distance?

B

ben_moto501

Joined Jul 2008
119 Posts | 1+
Taunton, Somerset, UK
Just interested to know...

I have found a company who sell under seat fuel tanks for my 2004 FE 450 with a capacity for 2.8 litres. Also the same company sell fuel tanks for the 2006 to 2008 models (which will fit my bike with some newer rad shrouds) with a 9 litre capacity! This really interests me as I'm wanting to go off on some longer distance rides!

What distance can be covered, realistically, without changing oil or pushing the engine past it's limits? I'm thinking of 3 day rides @ 8 hours+ per day! Is this possible?

Thanks!

Ben
 
Hey Ben.
The answer to your last ? will depend on a number of factors.
present condition of motor/ servicing habits (type and quility of oil/filters etc).
where you intend to ride for 8hrs a day (road dirt mx enduro trail etc)
How you ride (race, cruise, hard, fast, plod etc).
But the simple answer is you would be foolish to do any more than an 8hr day without changing oil/ filters air filter etc as they only have 900mls of oil in a high performance motor. If you can increase the oil capacity substantially would help.
Keep in mind some folk around here rebuild there engines around 60-70 hrs (others get hundreds of hours between rebuilds) so 24 hrs without service seems harsh.

will you put 8hrs on the hour meter each day or ride for an 8hr day (fuel stops, food stops, buddy stops etc)? and clock up 5-6 engine hours?
most important..... 8hours on a husaberg seat is guna be fun let alone another 16 after.
Sorry about all the ?'s but there is no simple answer (except buy a drxrwrklx thingy for long trips).
Hope this helps.

I could be interestd in one of them under seat tanx tho.... who puts them out?
 
Agree a lot with what has been said but a 8 hour riding day is unlikely to be more than about 5 hours engine running time in the UK as gates to open, piss, fuel and food stops. So 3 days will still be in or around the recommended 15 hour oil change for hobby riding. It does not matter how hard you trail ride, unlike a race,the motor will just be ticking over most of the time so the oil should be OK.

You should be able to get 80 miles + to a tank trail riding. But I always plan my routes with a stop for fuel every 60 miles . It avoids someone telling me that they have gone on reserve when we are on a lonely Welsh moor 20 miles away from fuel. Most are glad of a stop by then, some are even praying for one. :evil:
 
on my stock 2005fs650e with the 9l tank I get 160kms per tank. but that's using 8.5l of fuel so not much room for error
 
Ok, an 8 hour ride would prob only work out at 5 - 6 hours engine hours and I'm happy in the saddle that long! I can go for a 4 hour ride and be very low on fuel at the moment so that's why I was interested in carrying more! I didn't know my stock tank held 9l :oops:
I would say I'm hard on the bike, by no means a racer but I don't hang around! Hence the fuel consumption!
If I'm riding on the moors on a Sunday I have found it very difficult to find a fuel station that is open! Without going near a largish road or town! But I can quite happily ride all day without going near either of these which is what I really like doing! My goal I suppose I would say!

I've heard increasing the oil capacity is a good way to take strain off the engine but I have absolutely no idea how to do this!

The bike is in real good shape, and starts very easily, which is what I've always thought was the first thing to go when things are getting tired! I use Motorex fully synthetic oil and genuine filters. I normally change the oil every 5 - 6 hours and the filter every other oil change. Has worked out ok for me so far!

I would really like to have the range to go a couple of days in complete wilderness so more fuel and less oil changes would be amazing!

My mate had a Suzuki DRZ and although I know it's not a patch on my 'Berg I'm so jealous of his servicing schedule!

Any tips on increasing oil capacity? Bearing in mind I'm a reasoable mechanic but by no means am I an engineer and drilling into the engine would be far too scary for me!! :mrgreen:

Thanks
Ben
 
Theres a link on here somewhere about an adventure bike that holds more than twice as much oil, but its a lot of work and probably a lot of engineering skills required. I cant find the link though, maybe someone else can?...

I would say its easier just to change the oil at the side of the road, or when you camp for ze night, seein as it doesnt require many tools. Carrying a litre of oil might be a pain, but theres lots of places on the bike you could 'store' it
 
I guess it's not that much of a pain changing the oil but it's just 'another' thing to carry! I thought about adding one of those radiator style oil coolers which would cool the oil as well as increasing the capacity but as I said before, it's not something I'm comfortable with fitting myself!

If only there were remote fuel stations everywhere I want to ride who were open 7 days a week and stocked Motorex!! :bounce3:

Ben
 
I just had a thought... I believe these under seat fuel tanks are fairly hard to find? I have found a company that sells them but they are quite expensive! £225 euros to be exact + postage! Would it be worth approaching this company and asking about a multi-buy and seeing what sort of discount we could get?
I guess we would need approx 5 people seriously interested in them to get any sort of discount (if any!).

Let me know if you think this is a good idea!

Ben
 
I have a 04 550 and have done a few longer distance rides.

On open flowing trails offroad with a higher gearing and not riding to the stopper , i can generally pull 160-180 km out of the 9 litres.

Depending on how often you intend on doing longer distance rides. I use a soft fuel cell , it holds about 8 litre of fuel , is industrial strenght material and has eyelets in each corner , will fold up and pack away after use easily , flexable .You can tie it over your tank , or over the rear guard. Pretty strong grade material, in fact they can withstand a few hits from experience.They have solid brass industrial filler caps also. if you want more fuel , you may even consider another one , tied together or drapped either side of the rear side panels in canvas bags or the like.

http://www.liquidcontainment.com/fuel_bladders.php

Once you burn the added fuel , you pack them away. These guys do bladders from 8 litre to 12 litre I think for bikes. $160 my was some years ago , maybe more now.
There may be a couple of pics in my photo file.

With the added oil, I used to make a bracket up with a plastic holder that would hold and extra litre of oil in a container as spare. I did not plumb it into the bike though , as it was spare in case the bike dropped the oil, and changed it out after so many hours.
if you ride a 04 bike for to long with those seats , you will need to take a chisel on the trip to wedge your bum off the seat.
Hope this helps some
 
Where is Liquid Containment located, does anybody know? I went to their site and couldn't tell where they are, dropped them a message, and haven't heard back.
 
I dont know about your models but safaritanks.com do 16 l tanks up front side tanks and I think under seat tanks a good spot 4 oil . sad to turn a good berg into a desert sled though.
 
There are a few options I see for the '09+ bikes but very very limited resources for the pre '09 bikes!

The under seat fuel tank would sort my fuel issues I think as it's an extra 2.8 liters but at the moment I can't afford the fairly steep price! What I really want to do though is increase my oil capacity! Has anyone got an idea on how to do this to an '04 engine? An extra liter would be magic! I don't mind drilling and tapping into oil filter covers and anything that can be sacrificed for not a lot of money if they need to be replaced but I can't see myself drilling into anything massive like the engine!

Any info from an engineer that knows the 'Berg engine backwards would be great! :idea:

Ben
 

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