Finnish weather is putting an end to the motorcycling season and I have already stored mine until May. I thought it is a good moment to tell you about my ride.
I will tell you about my motorcycling story in another post, but to make it short I was never interested in going off-road until I got my current motorbike. I was looking for a cafe racer or something that could be turned into one. Jeff Veraldi’s K100 made me look for a BMW K100. But then I thought it would be nice to roam Finland’s forests and unpaved roads, so I changed my mind. And that was one of my best decissions ever.
So I looked for the off-roader of our childhood dreams, the legendary Africa Twin. They are appreciated and difficult to find, but I finally saw Vacaburra advertised in a second-hand dealer near Helsinki.
I call her “Vacaburra”, which is a word we use in my home region to say “crazy cow”. I chose the name because the thing is big, heavy and mighty. Get familiar with it, I will use it from now on.
Yes, it’s a Honda XRV 750 from 1996. The color scheme is my favourite of that bike. The odometer indicated 74800 Kms and I pain 3400 euros for it. Unfortunately after the first night parked in the street I couldn’t start it and I noticed the clutch wouldn’t disengage. I should have had it towed to the seller, but I sent it to an official Honda dealer because I wanted a second opinion. Its workshop said that someone used the wrong type of oil for the clutch and they had to change the discs. That plus a new battery, oil change and other ordinary maintenance added to a bill of 800 euros.
The seller told me they could have taken care of the problem, but still they accepted to reimburse me 100 euros for the new clutch discs. So, at the end, I paid 4200 to have it in working order and I didn’t have more problems. Not a bargain, but I think it was a fair price considering the selling prices in Finland.
The bike came with modifications and extras suggesting that some previous owner used it for long trips. It has plastic luggage cases and mount that I used in my Estonian trip.
It has a wider windscreen that you can see in the picture above. I have the original windscreen too, which I tried and I noticed the difference in wind protection.
You can see that it has a Touratech seat, which feels hard after a while on it. If this is an improvement, I wonder how horrible the original seat is. I have seen split seats that look more confortable but, in my opinion, don’t fit the looks of this motorbike.
The best comfort extra are the heated grips and a 12 volts socket. The grips really work well, I only used them in the low heat position and I still have to switch them off when they get too hot. The wiring could have been better, though.
It also seems to have some performance modifications. The air filter box has extra holes to improve air intake.
If the side stickers mean something, it should have some performance parts from Dynojet, probably in the carburetor. I will never be able to verify this, but I like to believe it.
The exhaust is bigger than the stock one and has been fitted with some pipe welding. Accordingly to the seller it’s a Suzuki Hayabusa exhaust, but I couldn’t confirm that yet.
Other stickers claim it has Wilbers suspension. This should be easy to see, but I don’t know how the stock suspension is supposed to look.
All this power would be of no use if it didn’t have a second horn to get people out of my way 😉
I drove it for 4000 kilometers this season and you know I have put it and myself to the limit. It lived up to its reputation, surprisingly good handling and no remarkable problems at all. It’s true that it’s a tall motorbike, I’m not a short guy and I can only reach the floor with the front of my feet. That makes it very difficult for me to push it with my feet, so I always park backwards to make sure I can get out with the throttle. But I couldn’t be happier with this piece of motorcycling history I got.
When May allows me to ride it again, I will install bigger aluminum cases, change the tires to something more capable off-road, install folding mirrors, and maybe get some other improvements. In the meantime, I still haven’t written about my last trip and I will be sharing my Iceland trip plans and other stories. I hope I can keep you interested.