Mods for your motorcycle list
The exhaust
The standard exhaust on my Yamaha Tracer 7 isn’t bad at all, it’s just very quiet. So if you would like to hear your engine more there are nice options without being obnoxious.
Some bikes have a nice exhaust note and doesn’t need changing at all – it was the case with my previous motorcycle a Honda CB 500X.
For my Yamaha with it’s CP2 engine, I have personally bought the Arrow Works exhaust. I chose it because it’s road approved for the noise and pollution (when using the catalytic converter)
But there are other options, main considerations for me were:
- Acceptable noise levels
- Road Approval
- Not loosing any power
Yes, not loosing any power because there are exhausts that will sound good but you will eventually loose a few HP without a tune.
The Seat
The standard seat is perfectly fine for short trips but in my case after 2 hours of riding my butt starts to hurt. And sometimes I set off on some far far away road trips…
It was even worse on y previous bike.
That’s why I chose to upgrade and contacted a local specialist. They made me a custom comfort seat with 2cm more foam, 2cm wider also. Heck they even asked me my and my pillion’s weight to choose the correct density of the foam. I definitely recommend this if you feel it would benefit you.
Top Case & Sidebags
In my opinion the biggest downside to a top case is it makes your motorcycle look awful. Fortunately not all of them look bad with a top case, pretty much any adventure bike looks okay.
If you have a naked roadster, you could add a windscreen. That way it looks more homogeneous.
The big upside for a top case is the practicality. Achievement unlocked: have a trunk on your motorcycle.
How cool is that ?
Going to a restaurant ? You can put your helmet in your “trunk” instead of dragging it everywhere with you.
Going for a ride ? Now you have room for a bottle of water, a sandwich, spare gloves, rain suit etc and you can still squeeze through traffic (where legal of course)
Now if you really don’t want to alter the looks of your naked roadster with a top case, you can always opt for sidebags.
With the sidebags, your motorcycle will looks almost the same. And if you have a Harley, well yeah don’t put a top case on it… it will look awful.
But with some leather saddlebags ? Even cooler.
A windscreen
This one will depend a lot on your use case.
If you ride a lot on highways for example to go to work then a windscreen is a must in my opinion.
If you only ride on sunny days on the back roads, then it is useless unless it’s for looks.
The main advantage of using a windscreen is less strain on your upper body. When going above 80km/h (50 miles per hour) without a windscreen, you can feel the pressure of the wind trying to put you off the bike and you have to constantly fight this. With a windscreen, you no longer have this effect and if your windscreen is big enough, the wind will even go above your head
Some motorcycles comme equipped with a windshield like my Yamaha Tracer 7 (you can read the review here), in my case it is not big enough for a prolonged use on a highway – it doesn’t stop the wind from hitting my helmet. It is good enough for a everyday use or for example to prevent cold wind from hitting my throat.
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dr_pete/7870917150
Crash protection
Crash bars or top blocks ? What for ?
I had both and each one has it’s own pros and cons.
Crash bars will overall better protect your bike, but will be less discrete, add more weight and you will have to respray them in the case of a little crash (if you want to keep your bike looking nice). Crash bars will be nicer to use on an adventure bike if you plan to go off road.
When off roading there is a very high probability that you will drop your bike on the ground and without crash bars the repairs will cost you a lot.
On the other hand, top blocks are very discrete. On my Yamaha Tracer 7 you can barely notice them. I have installed them just in case I loose my balance and have to put the bike on the ground, or if loose traction and slide. The advantage here is that I can swap the slider in 5 minutes and it will look brand new.
If you decide on buying top blocks, better aim for a model with 2 or more mount points as the ones with only 1 mounting point can break the bolt that it’s attached to – very often an engine mount.
Chain maintenance on longer trips
If you don’t have a chain but a shaft or a belt then lucky you !
For us “less fortunate” you definitely have to maintain your chain about every 500 kilometers (300 miles), at bare minimum put some grease on it.
You probably know how to lube the chain if you own a motorcycle, if no there are a lot of tutorials on YouTube.
But how do you care for your chain when on holidays for example ? It’s hard or near impossible to bring a motorcycle stand with you.
Well there are few things you can do.
There are some stands that take very little to now space in your bags called trail jacks or portable stands. It’s very useful to bring your rear wheel into air to apply grease on your chain.
Of course you can also put some grease on a spot, then move your bike forward a bit, then put the grease again, move forward again etc
Then there are some systems designed to automatically lubricate your chain without much need to intervene. I have tested one: a Scottoiler. I don’t use it anymore as it wasn’t working properly but maybe you will have more luck.
A proper GPS for your bike
I did my first big road trip to Corsica using my smartphone as a GPS. It works okay’ish if you can charge your phone while riding but there are many cons.
- Phone overheating
- Easy to steal, loose or break
- Hard to read in the sun
- Your phone might not be waterproof
- Short battery life – need a USB charging port
Well these issues are gone with a real GPS:
- No overheating
- 6 hours of battery life and can be charged by your bike when running without a dedicated USB port
- Perfectly readable in the sun
- Waterproof
- Quite sturdy, it shouldn’t break when dropped
- Hard to steal and well attached to your bike
For me it’s completely worth buying a motorcycle GPS like my TomTom Rider 550 because it was designed for this particular use case and your life will be a lot easier on any road trip (once you are used to how it works). Plus it comes with some unique functionalities that you wouldn’t think that you needed.
Is there any accessory that you would include in this list ? Let me know in the comments.