V-man: my CB-X is essentially standard bar Rally Raid's bashplate/crashbar and back racks and a few other bits and pieces you can read about
here.
On the way back south I'll be stopping off at RRP to get the full
Level 3 treatment including something new (to them): properly sealed spoke rims like I
DIY'd on my Tenere a few years back.
Heading to Morocco and then Western Sahara in a month.
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I liked the X as soon as it came out and got this 14 model for a bargain £3200.
Quite coincidentally Rally Raid saw the potential in it too. It's not a 690 - but it's not a GS12 etc either.
It's a bargain like the XT660 was when it came out in 2008.
Years ago I tried to make something similar
with a GS500 - an experiment.
17-inch wheels are a problem for all-roading (or so it is thought) - RRP's 19" will see to that.
Road suspension is more the limiting factor - RRP sort that too. I'm tall enough but may miss the low seat after the RRP suspension makeover.
It's a very pleasant, easy to ride moto and to me looks great, does up to 90mpg and goes as fast as I need.
Some might call it bland but I'm over all that - sort of. The RRP kit will give it a bit of scrambling cachet - and not just in looks.
What would have made the CB-X completely irresistible to me is a 270-degree crank, like in the 700 Cross-twins, the new AT and the Yam S10 and MT-07. I even bought a cheap TDM (270) earlier in the year in the hope of
Tenerising a silk, all-road purse from a heavy sow's ear. Again, Honda have done that for us with the new AT.
Paul S:
right about here. I recall someone mentioned it on here a couple of years ago wrt the things to do during the Ullapool rally.
It goes 8km to the off-grid community of Scoraig, but a couple of clicks in I figured if I come up against something I can't ride or do coming back, or slip and fall left on my road tyres and stock suspension (more likely), reversal or recovery would be very hard or impossible alone. You're on a track alongside a 1 in 1 drop to the loch that most of the time is too narrow to turn a bike round. I walked on a mile until I clocked Scoraig round the headland and to that point it was still rideable.
Anyway, I was happy to get some nice pics of the CB-X looking like it was green laning.
I was also reminded of the militant actions of some Scoraigers as told to me by an irate local the other day, and figured if they want to live an alternative lifestyle on the end of a remote peninsula only accessible by informal ferry or foot, the welcome to a motorbike rocking up over the hill - even an inoffensive CB-X - may not be so warm. May go back next week on more right-on pushbikes. There are some interesting yurty/earthship type dwellings there I'd like to see.
And looking at that OS 25k map linked above, I now see the track turns to path soon after where I left the bike or walked to. And that is probably not an RoW so I think I did the right thing in both senses.
As you may know, ironically green laning does not exist is less congested Scotland as it does (what's left of it) in England and Wales.
Rightly or wrongly I interpreted the sign below as a legal right of way, but as it is, in the UK I don't like to push my moto in where it may not be appreciated by those who live there. For that we have the Sahara.
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Thanks Neil M and Big D. Boris the B: my thoughts precisely.
On a day like that up here there's nowhere better to be. Today overcast and chilly again. Monday looks good. Get on up here! I'm sure the recently promoted
NC500 has been mentioned on this forum, even if most of us could have worked that out without the help of a PR agency
