Its time for part II of the adventure bike build of our Yamaha XT660R, and this time we are going to install some very interesting parts!
We still have a bit to go, but we wanted to attack some problems we consider to be major and prioritary. Getting a bigger tank on our motorcycle is definitely a necessity, and if you remember, on the last episode I had the first problem with our tank, and that was taking it out of the postal office.
I'm still amazed at how our broken system works. After holding our tank for more than a month with no reason, the help center's help was to tell me to present a complaint, weirdly enough, that did the trick, we got the tank. Uau, let me tell you, uau.
But tank in hand, time to install it.
We got the Gili Motos tank. A 22.5-liter live saver when compared to the 15-liter stock tank the XTR has. That extended fuel range on any motorcycle plays a huge difference on a dual sport adventure, and although the OTR one has a bit more capacity, and is most likely better built, or at least is made out of fiber instead of the Gili's plastics, it is also twice the price. Literally, we can buy two of these and it will still be cheaper than one from OTR, and when one has a world trip ahead, one needs to budget, and that is a huge price difference.
I don't believe the most expensive things are always the best, far from that. But I do believe that if we do something, we should do it the best we can. Sadly, during the build of our XT, none of the parts we bought so far have made me happy, regardless of how expensive they were.
They clearly are not the best those companies can do - or at least I want to believe it's not - as some of the fit or design problems could be solved on a second or third run, or, they just don't have installation manuals, and when they do, they are extremely incomplete.
I worked 10 years in aeronautical maintenance, and in that industry, where safety is the number 1, 2 and 3 on all lists, even there, the manuals present mistakes and are not clear about certain details. No one wants that, but in manuals of thousands of pages it does happen, and when it does, it's fixed, that's why the manuals are constantly being updated. Its normal, its human, and is understandable.
I cannot begin to explain how amazed I was when I saw the Off the Road manual for the installation of their oil cooler. Almost 2 pages German, 2 lines in English and black and white pictures with no definition. We are not talking about thousands of pages here, we are talking about 2 pages of manual on a product they developed themselves years ago.
Is it a great product with exquisite manufacturing? It is indeed, but manufacturing isn't everything, there is more when it comes to clients satisfaction and to a back to back great product.
We did install the tank and the cooler, but my friends, I have to leave you with this advice, if you are planning on modifying something on your XT, be prepared to be inventive, and arm yourselves with the best mechanical knowledge you have, because thus far, my experience has been that either you will have to figure out how to install things without a manual, or figure out how to fix bad manufacturing problems if you want to end up with a good looking working bike.
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