Betty - 2013 Honda XL1000 Varadero ABS

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I don't quite remember exactly why I bought my Varadero - Betty - but I know I didn't know what I wanted except it had to be a 0% APR low deposit finance deal and I wanted to return to Honda for the build quality after my KTM experience.

Regardless of there being better bikes out there and despite all the riding I'd done before it is with Betty that I truely discovered my two-wheeled soul; perhaps better described as all consuming bike passion.

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This is how she looked when I first got her but I doubt she was ever that clean:

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Basically Honda took the VTR1000 Firestorm and beefed it up to make an 'adventure' bike on the cheap in the late 90s. It was never a great success like the BMW GS despite an overhaul in the early noughties. Nevertheless, I like the simple looks and absence of aggressively styled plastics so common nowadays. The engine is pokey and fun, despite being thirsty, and you can have some great fun with it but it will make you work harder off road than some other more specificaly designed adventure bikes. 

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I'd liberated a few bits from my KTM 990 Adventure - Sir Humphrey Bikelby and installed these straight away as well as, what I would consider, a few essentials......

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This is my Starcom Advance comms system. I couldn't afford the digital system this time but it does the job, although it is a bit temperamental in its functioning. This enables bike-to-bike and bike-to-pillion comms as well as amplifying my satnav output via wired speakers in my helmet. I wear ear plugs and can still listen to my fave tunes as I ride.

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As this system is wired rather than bluetooth (as I didn't want to pay extra for that either) it is important to have the socket for the helmet speaker cable in the right spot. I had it in the wrong place on Sir Humphrey and was always bending the plug tynes. I find the dash is the best spot if you don't mind drilling holes in your bike that the bank still mostly owns.

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As you can see in the first Starcom picture I also have a Kenwood TK 3301 radio wired into the system, which a few of us use for bike-to-bike chatting on the go. This is the PTT (push-to-talk) button as we prefer this to the voice activated VOX system the Starcom comes with for some reason; can't remember why.

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I find a Satnav is a fantastic luxury, especially  this Garmin Zumo 660 which will take a 16GB memory card for your music and can bluetooth to your phone; although I find the phone system never really works properly and I've had two of these. They are pretty robust too as this one hit the road at 60mph and still works although it now has new casing.

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The best protective investment for Betty was her Givi crash bars that have already saved a broken right fairing and worse when my right leg forgot to work on coming to a stop and she fell over from standstill. These are high quality kit and really do look the part on an adventure bike, which is great because whilst crash bungs are good, crash bars are definitely better.

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God knows why Honda think it is acceptable to sell an adventure bike without a centre stand and then want near £200 for one. This is why I got this SW-Motech; about £50 cheaper. This was a mistake and a false economy; it does the job but the balance isn't quite right and I'm on my third spring. Refitting a centre stand spring is one of the most frustrating tasks I've ever undertaken.

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I mounted an auxilliary 12v socket in the middle of the bike so I can charge devices either in my pocket, under the seat or in any luggage I'm carrying whilst riding. Don't buy a super cheap one of these; it's not worth it as the fuses will keep blowing and these are a pain in the arse to carry around.

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For aesthetic, as well as the practical reasons of better chain coverage and keeping Betty's bottom a bit freer from mud, I fitted her with aftermarket hugger. I think it looks great but am not sure I could fit a knobbly rear tyre under it. I'll address that problem if I get to it.

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A Haynes manual is a great resource for working on your bike and is generally a lot cheaper than a workshop manual but the explanations could be better and the pictures don't always tell a story that is easy to follow and are often incorrectly numbered; assuming you're not already a motorcycle mechanic.

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I know its not to everyone's taste but I've come to like to personalise my bike a little after having had to with Sir Humphrey for charity advertising. I do wonder if it will come back to bite me as people could track me but its not happened so far. Even though Tiggers Travels was a long time ago now, I'm proud of it and still like to share the website. Just vanity.

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The single most important addition to any bike of mine is my travelling companion Little Tigger. To be honest this is the original Little Tigger's twin brother as the first got himself lost in Guyana's rain forest. He's mounted using an old bar mounted mobile phone case. He's getting quite mucky on his left but he likes it and won't let me wash him; dirty boy!

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So by this time she looked like this:

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In mid 2015 when I read a brief of what the upcoming Honda Africa Twin might be like I had a decesion to make; 1) Just be pissed off I couldn't have a new Africa Twin, 2) Sacrifice my family's security by buying one on credit I couldn't afford to repay or 3) Make my Betty the best she could be and be proud of that. I chose option 3 and feel I would now attempt my South America journey or equivalent again on her because you can do anything on anything if you want to and being a good rider is way more important than having a great a bike.

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So I did that and then this........

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The first place to start when looking for some performance improvements is to replace the paper element filter to improve the air flow. K&N have the best reputation with their cotton air filters. They never need replacing just a quick clean every now and again and are easy to install once you've got to the air box; I had to remove the fuel tank completely.

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The next mod was to upgrade from the standard spark plugs (impressively NGK iridium ones) to Brisk LGS plugs which were developed in collaboration with Lamborghini. You can see from the picture that they make multiple large sparks which, supposedly, improves combustion and therefore power; apparently.

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For aftermarket exhausts I went for the Italian Mivv pipes in carbon fibre as they look amazing and produce a gorgeous deep throaty exhaust note that sooo suits a big twin cylinder bike. They came with new stainless steel mid-sections because the originals are all welded together into one long piece. Click here for their claimed dyno chart. 

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Once you've gone as far as this with performance mods then you really need to get your bike remapped to make the most of them. The best system for this is Dynojet's Power commander and the latest version at the time was the PC-V.

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The Power Commander 5 allows you to flick between engine MAPs via a switch that I mounted on the handlebar. I've chosen standard and modified maps as my two engine maps I can select for now until I can get Betty on the Dyno and a custom map made.

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I had  made a wooden side stand foot plate for use on grass but this big-foot is a far simpler to use solution. These are handmade by a bloke in Portugal and he'll make it them for pretty much any bike. The bottom half is nylon and the top is aluminium so they weigh next to nothing and don't noticably affect the lean angle. I like the rugged engineered look with the exposed nuts.

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I've found in a car and on a bike that car drivers sometimes just can't understand that you're there even after toots and gesticulations so I'm trying an uber two tone horn mounted on a custom steel bracket.

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You may have noticed I have a bit of a thing for the colour orange and I think orange and black look brilliant together. I guess the nickname 'Tigger' rather gives this away. Anyway, I wanted more orange on Betty in the form of orange highlights so rather than buying new bar ends I got the original ones powder coated.

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To go along with the bar ends I had the Givi crash bars shot blasted and powder coated in the same colour orange as the bar ends. The powder coating was cheap at approx. £10 but it cost £40 to get the original paint shot blasted off because it was really hard durable stuff.

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I also tried painting Betty's very scratched screen orange but this kind of went wrong so I had no choice but to invest in a new Givi touring screen which provides even better protection from the elements but this snagged on the new lights brackets so the bottom corners needed to be hacksawed off and the edges 'wet 'n' dry'ed. Came out well for a last minute fudge!

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We all know that bike lights are generally not so good, hence the increasing popularity of aftermarket auxiliary lights. Many of these look the part but are no better at helping you see at night so I went for a pair of Denali D4s which give me 550ft of beam; approx 3x further and wider than typical high beam. I wired them in to run off the high beam switch.

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Given how valuable headlights are, both financially and functionally, it's worth protecting them if you're going off into the wild. Such protection meshes or polycarbonate covers are freely available for many adventure bikes but I could only find one such product for Betty. Stuck on with velco so not ideal but better than nothing?

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Most of the above was bolt-on purchased stuff but I did have a crack at making my own aluminium sump guard from a plain sheet of 4mm. This was quite a challenge as 4mm is nigh on too thick to bend in your garage and I didn't know what I was doing. Click here for the photos of the construction. 

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Given that ED Riders had expanded and gone online since I last gave Betty a tarting up I thought it was high time to throw on a few extra stickers here and there. You may have noticed the cats eyes stickers have disappeared after they were complimented by several OAPs on our last road trip.

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So, after all this buggering about the last thing to do was get Betty on the dyno and get a custom engine map made. I went to BSD at Eye, near Peterborough, who custom made two maps, specifically for Betty - power and economy. Genuinely has made a difference on top of the improvements just with the air filter and pipes. Midrange is like a new bike; pulls better and seems to rev more freely and quickly.

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So after all that she looked like this:

I was happy with that.

Dr Tigger

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Addendum:

Actually I wasn't happy with one change I'd made - the new horns, just were not very loud and had a slight delay. My fault for not researching it before I purchased them. So, to correct this I bought a Denali mini sound bomb. 113db of 'watch out' and 'oh thanks for cutting me up, you car driving POS'. There are two types out there, this simple plug and play one and another (120bd) that needs additional wiring. I went for the plug and play one because I can't be arsed to consider taking off fairings but more importantly because this one makes a deeper better sound. Again I had to make a little extra bracket to ensure the horn is angled downwards - I presume to stop the innards getting blocked or rusting. So, thanks to my Denali lights and horn, I'm a tad more confident of making my presence known to other road users.

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Addendum 2:

I was happy with how Betty ended up until I noticed in my mirrors how good Big Mac's Triumph looked with its riding lights so I splashed out on more slightly unnecessary lights for my girl. The lights are cheap but you need to add in the cost of a relay loom and switch. I've used switches for both set of auxilliary lights so I can disable them for a future MOT. I don't know if this is necessary but seems a good idea to avoid problems plus what bloke doesn't like more switches? Using a relay is essential for anything drawing current as the original wiring is not designed to take the extra load. I'm very chuffed with them. They also go into flashing mode on every third switch on which is pointless.

Is that it? Can I waste more money tarting up my beloved Betty? Yes but not now is the answer. A plug and play gear indicator might be nice?

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Addendum 3:

Well a gear indicator might have been nice but I traded Betty in for a CRF1000 Africa Twin with a DCT gearbox in June 2016 which has a gear indicator as standard!