Greetings from cold and rainy Oregon

[SteadyHorse]

Just bought a new blue T7, should receive it later this week. Couple of my buddies have older ones, I'm looking for suggestions for farkles and upgrades, especially tires.  We'll be hitting the new Oregon BDR this year.

[JohnfromDP]

Greetings and congrats,

 As far as farkles, everybody has their favorites. I use my bike off-road and for camping off the bike so I have my bike set up for those types of rides. Me and 3 friends bought them at the same time and we set them up together with all of the bikes set up basically the same.  we had  our suspensions done by George at Suspension 101 in Alpine/ San Diego. We are all very happy with the results. That was the biggest expense but I always get my suspensions set up for my weight and I see it as a savings if it keeps me from crashing (which it most certainly has)...

 Next we all had our ECUs programmed, cat delete, exhaust and intake, completely transformed the bike, way funner ....New seat foam from seat concepts, crash and luggage bars and a skid plate complete the major mods...We are all running Zumo xt units, heated grips and throttle locks, USB charge port, BD lights... as well.. I bought the 6 gallon Acerbis fuel tank and I like it a bunch if you need alot of fuel... A bunch of other small things but those were the major ones...

[Zero600]

Congrats and greeting from cold and rainy Seattle.  I rode the WA BDR last summer and Oregon may be next. Eager to get some reports from you and others on the new route.

[Hibobb]

 

[Simmons1]

Greetings from Texas!

[Windblown]

Welcome!  Folks go in a lot of various directions with these bikes when it comes to mods. If you'll be taking places you are likely to drop it occasionally you will probably want a little more protection.  Handguards, skidplate, and some engine protection is probably wise.  Watch videos, read reports, see what makes sense to you.  There really aren't any bad choices if they accomplish what you want accomplished. 

 

As for tires - For a BDR type rides I generally want something aggressive and tough. I'll gladly give up a bit of peg scraping street performance for a tire that works better in the hard parts. The good news is that BDRs aren't THAT long so you can go aggressive and long lasting, or aggressive and only moderately long lasting.  For long lasting and aggressive my goto is the Motoz line specifically the  Rallz or Tractionator H/T.  They are tough, long lasting, however they are hard rubber and have stiff(ish) sidewalls.  You can go with something that is a bit softer grippier if lifespan is not a big factor. In that regard options are wide open. If it were me I'd find out what's popular locally with the folks riding heavier bikes aggressively offroad.  Dirt, rocks, and mud are not created equal and a tire that might work great in east coast woods might get torn to shreds out west.