JohnnyRooster
new rider
Thanks HQV,
Stoked I found this 701 forum. Just joined today. This is my first post on here. I'm currently on a 5000+/- mi trip on my Svart 701. Portland OR to Chicago and Chicago back home, different way back home . 85% avoided the the interstate on the first half. Planning on avoiding the interstates on the way back as well. I'm currently in bed recovering from Covid, so this might be long winded. Believe it or not I am a new rider. Never rode a motorcycle till April of this yr. The Svart 701 is my first bike. After a few weeks of riding it I decided i was doing this trip so i started putting miles in to get ready. I bought the bike on April 11 w/ 284mi. on it basically brand new, before i left on June 26 i had over 4300mi. on her. Im comfortable on the bike and well aware I'm not an expert and feel very new. I'm just an all or nothing kind of person and you only live once.
I do want to share because I think it's relevant, that i am very comfortable on bicycles. I used to race CX, Mountainbike, and do long distance fully loaded gravel riding. So I am very familiar with off road conditions and long multi day all day being on a saddle, just not on a motorcycle. Before this trip I had yet to ride off road on the Svart. I was caught in a situation on the MT/ND boarder where I either double back about 100mi or take the gravel road. It looked short on the map so I said "screw it". Life said its time to learn to ride on gravel. My Svart was fully loaded, my suspension was set up for Sport, and I have Bridgestone battleax T32R tire, there was no cell service and I'm 1000mi away from home. Not the ideal place or set up to try this but again you only live once. I was pretty nervous at first. The gravel felt familiar as to what it wanted to do to the bike, so I started relaxing a bit and always remained cautious for the rest of it. On the straight aways I think the fastest I got was 45 and felt comfortable cruising at 35mph. When I got to turns I slowed down to 20. When I finished the gravel section I discovered I have done 63mile. I was blow away in so many ways in myself and in the Svart. After that I knew I was keeping this bike forever and I need an ADV bike. I also know if I can avoid it I will not do that again with this set up on this bike. I'm open to taking this bike on off roads with a different set up which leads me to the question that I will ask later.
Since I've been sick I've been doing alot of research on adv bikes. I am sold on the Norden 901 with the Tiger 900 rally pro as a close 2nd. I can't afford a new bike yet so that's not happening soon. In my research(youtube) I found a 2hr basically review movie on the Norden 901 that is an amazing wealth of information, just look up "Mad tv Norden 901" it will come up. On there he rode the stock bike in very rough off road stuff it handled it great as long as you minded your speed. He also rode one fully decked out one with the top of the line WP Explor suspension a step above the 890Rs suspension and said it was amazing. I got 2 things from this video: 1 I want a Norden 901 and 2 why can't I do a similar thing with my Svartpilen 701. The Norden went from 220mm suspension to 270mm and it still handled fine on and off road. So I'm wondering if anyone on here does any off roading with there's or put upgraded suspension on there's to handle it better?
My thoughts on the bike is to be able to handle gravel and logging roads nothing to crazy I understand it is only 6in of travel. Im thinking of getting a better rear spring and maybe change the internals on the fork. Not opposed to increasing the travel but its not necessary. Also getting an exhaust , a skid plate and bash gaurds from an Enduro 701. I could be wrong on this but I think they share the same frame. Is this correct?
I checked the forum and there is nothing of people off roading the 701. On the fb page some one once sent me a photo of there Svart 701 in some dirt fully loaded which was the inspiration for me to take it on a long trip in the first place. Now I'm thinking of making mine into a hooligan ADV bike. Does anyone on here have any experience with this?
Thanks for letting me share my story on here, hope this inspires people to get silly with there piles, and I hope some one can steer me in the right direction.
Stoked I found this 701 forum. Just joined today. This is my first post on here. I'm currently on a 5000+/- mi trip on my Svart 701. Portland OR to Chicago and Chicago back home, different way back home . 85% avoided the the interstate on the first half. Planning on avoiding the interstates on the way back as well. I'm currently in bed recovering from Covid, so this might be long winded. Believe it or not I am a new rider. Never rode a motorcycle till April of this yr. The Svart 701 is my first bike. After a few weeks of riding it I decided i was doing this trip so i started putting miles in to get ready. I bought the bike on April 11 w/ 284mi. on it basically brand new, before i left on June 26 i had over 4300mi. on her. Im comfortable on the bike and well aware I'm not an expert and feel very new. I'm just an all or nothing kind of person and you only live once.
I do want to share because I think it's relevant, that i am very comfortable on bicycles. I used to race CX, Mountainbike, and do long distance fully loaded gravel riding. So I am very familiar with off road conditions and long multi day all day being on a saddle, just not on a motorcycle. Before this trip I had yet to ride off road on the Svart. I was caught in a situation on the MT/ND boarder where I either double back about 100mi or take the gravel road. It looked short on the map so I said "screw it". Life said its time to learn to ride on gravel. My Svart was fully loaded, my suspension was set up for Sport, and I have Bridgestone battleax T32R tire, there was no cell service and I'm 1000mi away from home. Not the ideal place or set up to try this but again you only live once. I was pretty nervous at first. The gravel felt familiar as to what it wanted to do to the bike, so I started relaxing a bit and always remained cautious for the rest of it. On the straight aways I think the fastest I got was 45 and felt comfortable cruising at 35mph. When I got to turns I slowed down to 20. When I finished the gravel section I discovered I have done 63mile. I was blow away in so many ways in myself and in the Svart. After that I knew I was keeping this bike forever and I need an ADV bike. I also know if I can avoid it I will not do that again with this set up on this bike. I'm open to taking this bike on off roads with a different set up which leads me to the question that I will ask later.
Since I've been sick I've been doing alot of research on adv bikes. I am sold on the Norden 901 with the Tiger 900 rally pro as a close 2nd. I can't afford a new bike yet so that's not happening soon. In my research(youtube) I found a 2hr basically review movie on the Norden 901 that is an amazing wealth of information, just look up "Mad tv Norden 901" it will come up. On there he rode the stock bike in very rough off road stuff it handled it great as long as you minded your speed. He also rode one fully decked out one with the top of the line WP Explor suspension a step above the 890Rs suspension and said it was amazing. I got 2 things from this video: 1 I want a Norden 901 and 2 why can't I do a similar thing with my Svartpilen 701. The Norden went from 220mm suspension to 270mm and it still handled fine on and off road. So I'm wondering if anyone on here does any off roading with there's or put upgraded suspension on there's to handle it better?
My thoughts on the bike is to be able to handle gravel and logging roads nothing to crazy I understand it is only 6in of travel. Im thinking of getting a better rear spring and maybe change the internals on the fork. Not opposed to increasing the travel but its not necessary. Also getting an exhaust , a skid plate and bash gaurds from an Enduro 701. I could be wrong on this but I think they share the same frame. Is this correct?
I checked the forum and there is nothing of people off roading the 701. On the fb page some one once sent me a photo of there Svart 701 in some dirt fully loaded which was the inspiration for me to take it on a long trip in the first place. Now I'm thinking of making mine into a hooligan ADV bike. Does anyone on here have any experience with this?
Thanks for letting me share my story on here, hope this inspires people to get silly with there piles, and I hope some one can steer me in the right direction.
so I don't doubt you can do the same with a Svartpilen! For extra inspiration, look up Dos Honduros on youtube 