Preparations for Russia 2013

So its now final we have the visas for visiting Russia.

Preparations are well on their way.

Was able to get some gravel riding with some friends during the week …riding is preparation also =)

Regarding the bike I had the issue with crankcase ventilation and had replaced the balancer shaft seal but kept the catch bottle and wanted to see what came out after the replacement but after similar mileage I had this happen:

The bottle had been in contact with the highway peg and worn a hole in it, but from looking there was less oil in it then before still some greenish gunk but have replace the hose into the air box for now and hope it will hold up and not clog the carbs during Russia.

Also found that the rear fender had worn away on the crossbar for the luggage rack quite a bit:

Took the trusty rotary tool and ground away some of the plastic.

Have had some rattling also and turned out the exhaust was loose so stripped the right side to be able to have good access to tighten everything up good:

Spooned on a new TKC 80 rear tire and replaced the worn rear brake rotor:

Also put fresh pads in:

Also replaced the rear brake fluid, front was replaced when installing the Pyndon 320 suspension, what came out of the reservoir was quite grey so was about time:

And after spilling half the bottle on the floor I started filling and bleeding and all of a sudden there was a fly in the reservoir, were did you come from, removed and made sure all air was out of the system before bolting things back up:

Also wanted to check the gear selector wheel and 1 pin seems to have moved slightly, tapped it a few times with a screwdriver and hope it will be enough to survive Russia and Ill look into it better once back home:

To get there the oil screen had to be removed and there was some debris most with a slight blue/green color and must be coming from the sealant used to seal the cylinder bases just a few bits of magnetic stuff:

Had a break in the preparations when my dad calls and the XR400 died on him and seems like the compression is bad so might have some wrenching to do when getting back a home =(

And by now its the final evening before leaving looked over the toolkit at the garage and found this:

Must have been forgotten so and there was some minor leaks from the master cylinder.

Also cut out this out of reflective tape:

Finally added a Swedish flag to the bike but forgot to take pictures.