vwhammer
Member
Well, since this is an NC700 forum and I have been doing some work on my NCX, it only seemed proper to show you guys and gals what I have been doing.
My goal is to make it a little more off road friendly with the plan on doing some of the back country routes around the United States.
I will start with a rundown of the mods.
Then I will let the pics do the real talking.
I will then follow up with what else I hope to accomplish.
To start off my bike is a 2012 model NC700X and had 2113 miles on it when I bought it about 2 months ago.
First on the list of mods was a suspension upgrade.
Of course I am an el cheapo supreme so I could not bring myself to just shell out pant loads of cash for top of the line suspendy bits.
I simply went with a set of Racetech's gold valve emulators and some new Racetech springs up front of the .95kg/mm variety.
I then finished off the rear with an Aprilia Tuono Shock (2003-2009 I think) wrapped with a new spring from Racetech spec'd out at 17kg/mm.
As a note, the rear shock increased my rear suspension travel by about 25mm (1 inch)
While I had the front apart I installed a set of 50mm (2 inch) inch fork extensions of which I only ended up using about 19mm (.75 inches).
I raised the front end to clear a very minor tire clearance issue due to running a 120/90R17 front tire.
Of course the front fender does not clear the tire any more but rather than just raise the front fender I have decided to go another route that I am still currently working on.
The rear tire is a 140/80R17 which is about 32mm taller than the stock tire and ended up raising the back of the bike by about 16mm.
I have not done any super accurate measurements but by my rough calculations, with the taller tire and new shock and spring, the rear of the bike probably sits about 25mm taller than it did stock and the front is nearly 45mm taller than it was from the factory.
I did buy some 25mm lift "dog bones" for the rear but, as of yet, the bike handles fine and nothing hits anywhere so have not found a need to install them.
Not to mention, with the front end a little higher, the forward sloping seat issue has been virtually eliminated.
Naturally with a taller rear tire it would be smart to change the gearing a bit.
Mathematically I only needed to go to a 45 tooth rear with a 16 tooth front but instead I went with a 46 tooth rear and a 16 tooth front to make it a little better off road.
To be honest now that I have ridden it a little bit I think I could have even gone a little higher.
Perhaps a 15 tooth front sprocket is in order but I need to really get into some off road stuff first before I make that choice.
I only needed a 2.81 final drive ratio to correct for my new tire size.
I went with a 2.875 ratio.
If I switch out to a 15 tooth front sprocket that puts me at a 3.06 ratio.
Since it is not too tough to swap front sprockets I may get a 15 tooth to take with me if I need it.
I think I am even going to modify the front sprocket cover so I do not have to remove the shift lever to swap it out.
Anyway enough about that.
To be honest other than a color change that's about all I have done for stage one of my build.
Here are a few pics of the work.
Stage two involves dropping a few pounds.
I will be ditching the stock muffler in favor of a lighter and smaller unit that is not as likely to get in the way in the tight stuff.
I will also be losing the rear fender/tail light assembly to use some smaller and lighter LED bits.
The last bit of weight savings will come from a new battery, my new lighter front fender set up and I may swap out to a new set of aluminum bars.
All in I suspect I can drop somewhere between 15 and 20 lbs without getting to weird about it.
Of course all of this does not matter too much because Stage 3 will involve adding a bit of weigh back on in the form of armor and/or crash protection.
I will be building my own skid plate and crash bars.
The main point in building my own stuff other than cost is that I do not feel like anything on the market does a suitable job of protecting the actual engine in the event of a serious drop.
I have designed my own crash bars to remedy this issue.
So there is a stage four but after riding a bit with my current mods some of it may get scrapped.
I had hoped to get the suspension travel up to about 8 inches front and rear but so far I have not found a real need for it.
Granted I have not been off road too seriously just yet so who knows
However, after really beating on this thing on most of the stuff that I used to blast around on my XR650L, I have not found a need for more travel yet.
At the top of my list for stage four however, will be a spoke wheel swap in a 19/17 front/rear set up.
I think I have most of the parts sorted but I just need to actually buy them.
After that it will be on to whipping up some spacers and brake adapters to make it all blend together.
Of course the initial set up will be of a budget conscious mentality but if one really wanted to you could get all the stuff brand new and make it work just as easily.
Anyway I will update this thread as I move along but for a more detailed build feel free to check out my thread on Adventure Rider.
Some of you have already seen it and have been following along but for those that have not here is a link.
https://advrider.com/index.php?threads/nother-nc700x-thread-but-this-time-an-adv-build.1215824/
My goal is to make it a little more off road friendly with the plan on doing some of the back country routes around the United States.
I will start with a rundown of the mods.
Then I will let the pics do the real talking.
I will then follow up with what else I hope to accomplish.
To start off my bike is a 2012 model NC700X and had 2113 miles on it when I bought it about 2 months ago.
First on the list of mods was a suspension upgrade.
Of course I am an el cheapo supreme so I could not bring myself to just shell out pant loads of cash for top of the line suspendy bits.
I simply went with a set of Racetech's gold valve emulators and some new Racetech springs up front of the .95kg/mm variety.
I then finished off the rear with an Aprilia Tuono Shock (2003-2009 I think) wrapped with a new spring from Racetech spec'd out at 17kg/mm.
As a note, the rear shock increased my rear suspension travel by about 25mm (1 inch)
While I had the front apart I installed a set of 50mm (2 inch) inch fork extensions of which I only ended up using about 19mm (.75 inches).
I raised the front end to clear a very minor tire clearance issue due to running a 120/90R17 front tire.
Of course the front fender does not clear the tire any more but rather than just raise the front fender I have decided to go another route that I am still currently working on.
The rear tire is a 140/80R17 which is about 32mm taller than the stock tire and ended up raising the back of the bike by about 16mm.
I have not done any super accurate measurements but by my rough calculations, with the taller tire and new shock and spring, the rear of the bike probably sits about 25mm taller than it did stock and the front is nearly 45mm taller than it was from the factory.
I did buy some 25mm lift "dog bones" for the rear but, as of yet, the bike handles fine and nothing hits anywhere so have not found a need to install them.
Not to mention, with the front end a little higher, the forward sloping seat issue has been virtually eliminated.
Naturally with a taller rear tire it would be smart to change the gearing a bit.
Mathematically I only needed to go to a 45 tooth rear with a 16 tooth front but instead I went with a 46 tooth rear and a 16 tooth front to make it a little better off road.
To be honest now that I have ridden it a little bit I think I could have even gone a little higher.
Perhaps a 15 tooth front sprocket is in order but I need to really get into some off road stuff first before I make that choice.
I only needed a 2.81 final drive ratio to correct for my new tire size.
I went with a 2.875 ratio.
If I switch out to a 15 tooth front sprocket that puts me at a 3.06 ratio.
Since it is not too tough to swap front sprockets I may get a 15 tooth to take with me if I need it.
I think I am even going to modify the front sprocket cover so I do not have to remove the shift lever to swap it out.
Anyway enough about that.
To be honest other than a color change that's about all I have done for stage one of my build.
Here are a few pics of the work.
Stage two involves dropping a few pounds.
I will be ditching the stock muffler in favor of a lighter and smaller unit that is not as likely to get in the way in the tight stuff.
I will also be losing the rear fender/tail light assembly to use some smaller and lighter LED bits.
The last bit of weight savings will come from a new battery, my new lighter front fender set up and I may swap out to a new set of aluminum bars.
All in I suspect I can drop somewhere between 15 and 20 lbs without getting to weird about it.
Of course all of this does not matter too much because Stage 3 will involve adding a bit of weigh back on in the form of armor and/or crash protection.
I will be building my own skid plate and crash bars.
The main point in building my own stuff other than cost is that I do not feel like anything on the market does a suitable job of protecting the actual engine in the event of a serious drop.
I have designed my own crash bars to remedy this issue.
So there is a stage four but after riding a bit with my current mods some of it may get scrapped.
I had hoped to get the suspension travel up to about 8 inches front and rear but so far I have not found a real need for it.
Granted I have not been off road too seriously just yet so who knows
However, after really beating on this thing on most of the stuff that I used to blast around on my XR650L, I have not found a need for more travel yet.
At the top of my list for stage four however, will be a spoke wheel swap in a 19/17 front/rear set up.
I think I have most of the parts sorted but I just need to actually buy them.
After that it will be on to whipping up some spacers and brake adapters to make it all blend together.
Of course the initial set up will be of a budget conscious mentality but if one really wanted to you could get all the stuff brand new and make it work just as easily.
Anyway I will update this thread as I move along but for a more detailed build feel free to check out my thread on Adventure Rider.
Some of you have already seen it and have been following along but for those that have not here is a link.
https://advrider.com/index.php?threads/nother-nc700x-thread-but-this-time-an-adv-build.1215824/
