I accomplish my 69th birthday this year, and in January I replaced my horse-packing stock and gear with a TW. While I sometimes ride a bit on the pavement, I find my fun on gravel and dirt logging roads and trails, and as I get more proficient, just plain cross-country. I don't plan to carry overnight gear very often, as we built a custom expedition vehicle in which to sleep, shower and ride out bad weather. So the TW is for day-ride fun and doing recon on whether we really want to take a 21,000# vehicle all the way down "that narrow rutted path."
The more I ride, the more I run into what I consider a few TW limitations:
—the seat is awful — like riding a gymnastics vaulting horse
—the tank capacity is inadequaqte to the distances I like to ride in a day [even in deep dirt]
—I need to have a few tools to cope with some of the inevitable repairs that I seem to have to make in the boonies.
[The first was a cactus-spine puncture of my front tire in the mountains of SW Arizona last winter, and second and third were readjusting the clutch and front brake assemblies on the handlebars after the bike took a brief nap on its side while I was negotiating some very cobbly rock terrain and 'somehow' broke both lever tips off. Go figure!]
Re: the seat, I had a new one built from scratch by Don Weber at Mr Ed's Moto in Albany, OR. Terrific!! I can adjust my position and ride comfortably pretty much for a whole day.
Re: Gas Capacity, because, I did not want to change the width of the tank and/or make a relatively permanent change in the handling of the bike, I elected NOT to put a whole new tank on the TW. Instead, I found a really nice 5-liter metal Jerry Can designed and built to the bullet-proof WW-II specs. With this can plus (3) 1-liter Sigg-type gas bottles in two Quick Fists [http://tw200forum.com/index.php?/topic/241-the-famous-storage-tube/page__view__findpost__p__11331] and a 'Famous Storage Container' [http://tw200forum.com/index.php?/topic/241-the-famous-storage-tube/] I have now doubled my range. So far this is very satisfactory, and the handling feels unchanged [i.e., great.]
Re: Tools, the addition of two more 'Famous Storage Containers' along with my tank bag has given me all the capacity I seem to need, so far.
I have found MANY very useful tips and tricks in the forum so far, so I thought I'd share my project in case some of you find something useful in it.
I began with a piece of 1/2" plywood, and added to the underside some blocks of 1/2" wood to fit in the spaces between the two tubes which run across the width of my Cycleracks rear rack. These will keep the rack from being able to move either side-to-side or front-to-back.
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Then I cut and fitted some aluminum angle iron to span the captured cross tube and secure the plywood platform on the rack rack when we are bouncing across the countryside.
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On the top side I bolted four pieces of 2" alum angle iron with pieces of old rubber conveyor belting glued on for padding. These are placed to hold the 5-liter can in place, and also to secure the ends of the nylon strap which holds the can down on the plywood platform. Next to it is a [third] 'Famous Storage Container' to hold the pouring spout and some additional tools.
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Finally, my magnet-mount Marcee tank bag clanks into place very securely on top of the can. It is very secure and yet very easily removed when I want to carry it away from the bike [to eat lunch on the edge of a cliff, etc.]
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The more I ride, the more I run into what I consider a few TW limitations:
—the seat is awful — like riding a gymnastics vaulting horse
—the tank capacity is inadequaqte to the distances I like to ride in a day [even in deep dirt]
—I need to have a few tools to cope with some of the inevitable repairs that I seem to have to make in the boonies.
[The first was a cactus-spine puncture of my front tire in the mountains of SW Arizona last winter, and second and third were readjusting the clutch and front brake assemblies on the handlebars after the bike took a brief nap on its side while I was negotiating some very cobbly rock terrain and 'somehow' broke both lever tips off. Go figure!]
Re: the seat, I had a new one built from scratch by Don Weber at Mr Ed's Moto in Albany, OR. Terrific!! I can adjust my position and ride comfortably pretty much for a whole day.
Re: Gas Capacity, because, I did not want to change the width of the tank and/or make a relatively permanent change in the handling of the bike, I elected NOT to put a whole new tank on the TW. Instead, I found a really nice 5-liter metal Jerry Can designed and built to the bullet-proof WW-II specs. With this can plus (3) 1-liter Sigg-type gas bottles in two Quick Fists [http://tw200forum.com/index.php?/topic/241-the-famous-storage-tube/page__view__findpost__p__11331] and a 'Famous Storage Container' [http://tw200forum.com/index.php?/topic/241-the-famous-storage-tube/] I have now doubled my range. So far this is very satisfactory, and the handling feels unchanged [i.e., great.]
Re: Tools, the addition of two more 'Famous Storage Containers' along with my tank bag has given me all the capacity I seem to need, so far.
I have found MANY very useful tips and tricks in the forum so far, so I thought I'd share my project in case some of you find something useful in it.
I began with a piece of 1/2" plywood, and added to the underside some blocks of 1/2" wood to fit in the spaces between the two tubes which run across the width of my Cycleracks rear rack. These will keep the rack from being able to move either side-to-side or front-to-back.
Then I cut and fitted some aluminum angle iron to span the captured cross tube and secure the plywood platform on the rack rack when we are bouncing across the countryside.
On the top side I bolted four pieces of 2" alum angle iron with pieces of old rubber conveyor belting glued on for padding. These are placed to hold the 5-liter can in place, and also to secure the ends of the nylon strap which holds the can down on the plywood platform. Next to it is a [third] 'Famous Storage Container' to hold the pouring spout and some additional tools.
Finally, my magnet-mount Marcee tank bag clanks into place very securely on top of the can. It is very secure and yet very easily removed when I want to carry it away from the bike [to eat lunch on the edge of a cliff, etc.]
