ZUMZUMZUM- from Romania to Thailand on a bike

One of the more common faults of the Africa Twin, is the voltage rectifier malfunctioning.

There are 2 ways in which the rectifier can die, if you are lucky it will not supply enough voltage and you will be stranded in the middle of nowhere with a dead battery. If you are not so lucky it will supply too much tension and will burn the electrical installation.

Neither of these 2 alternatives is something that one would really enjoy on a long distance trip, so the safe thing to do is to have some way to monitor the status of the rectifier.

I found a nifty little voltmeter that I could install and for good measure I also bought a thermometer (so we could brag about riding in 40+ degrees in Iran) .

A good place to install them is on the trip meter, so with the help of Len we made a little bracket out of some aluminum sheet and tucked them undet the windscreen.

The Africa Twin came with Michelin T66 tires but since they were kind of worn out and stiff, I’ve decided to replace them with Metzeler Tourances. Since I have no experience with tire changing I thought it would prove useful down the road if I’d change the tires myself.

So I bought the tires, new tubes, some KTM tire irons (these should add at least 5 hp to the old AT), and set to work.

The front wheel took me about 2 hours, until I was almost finished but I pinched the new tube with the tire iron so I had to start all over again. The second time it was even easier 🙂 , so in under 3 hours the wheel was installed with the new tire on.

The back wheel was an entirely different story. First, I could not break the bead so after an hour I’ve improvised a press and managed to take the old tire off. Then, the new tire was unbelievably stiff, and I just could not force the last few inches on the rim (even with the help of Len), so finally I’ve cheated and went to a tire shop 🙁

Let’s just hope that we won’t have many back tire punctures on the road.