Overland Journey

So after spending a couple of days riding it around, I built confidence in the bikes road worthiness. Reinstalling the factory seat made it a much more comfortable ride. I also replaced the cafe style handlebars with the factory set that was given to me by previous owner.

The street tires will have to do for now. I took the bike down several gravel roads and it did fine. I dont want to get into any serious trails until I build a skid plat anyway, so the street tires will work a bit longer.

To my surprise the front fork seals seam to be holding. The ride was terribly soft at first. I put about 10lbs of air in them and it smoothed right out.

I cleaned the chain and gave it a dose of Lithium Grease. Runs really smooth now.

The rear frame that was hacked off is still an issue. I received the original rear light assembly (minus the tail light which was broken) from the previous owner as well, but with no frame to attach it to it was difficult to mount. Staying with the theme, I just bolted the front mounts of the assembly and used bailing wire on the rear part. Not sure how long that will hold. Hopefully long enough to figure out what I am going to do. The good thing is that it opens up options for some custom rear frame work to accommodate luggage. No passengers with the frame hacked for now!

Overall the bike is great and I am confident its ready for the first big trip. Denver to Salt Lake City, then up to Teton National Park and back to Denver. For luggage I will be going light and using a backpack.

A few more items to mod on the bike and Ill be hitting the road.

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I just wanted to do a quick assessment of the Red Baron. Ive ridden it around for a couple of days and thought Id report.

It runs great, shifts smoothly. Top highway speed is about 75MPH, hard to tell as the speedo needle bounces a bit. Brakes good, but front rotor might need replaced. Its got good low end torque. For a 500CC it moves me around fairly decent. So it was obvious that there are some changes needed.  Anyway, so I made a quick list of items. Remember that no mod can cost more than $100-kinda running with the purchase price theme.

Mods/Repairs needed:

• Replace Seat
• Tighten Chain
• Replace Handlebars
• Get taillights working
• Skid Plate–has nothing and will need for sure!;-)
• Upgrade to a dual sport tire
• New Gauge light bulb
• Clutch Lever (cracked)
• Luggage
• Install the new Progressive Springs and Fork Seals

Remember we are keeping it super simple (KISS). I dont want fancy luggage or high end GPS systems. This is a serious “raw and rugged” Adventure bike.

Only 2 rules to the build:

• KISS
• No mod can cost more than $100

Tally so far:

• Red Baron: $100
• Battery $45
• New Oil, 3 quarts. I also had laying around $9
• Fixed Rear Brake with $1 worth a brake fluid I already had
• Bought Rear Brake Light Assembly as it was missing, $20

Grand total thus far: $175

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The Overland Journey $100 Adventure Bike all started one afternoon while having lunch with a couple of buddies. High up in the Rocky Mountains sitting at an outdoor diner we were discussing motorcycles. We could see our bikes there in the parking lot, a BMW GS Adventure 1200, a KTM 990 Adventure, and my BMW 650 Dakar. We were discussing the positives and negatives of the bikes when a buddy out of the blue made a comment that would change my thinking on how I look at my overland transportation. He said it doesn’t matter what you ride, the wind feels the same.

This really hit home to me. I thought about that comment for a couple of weeks and eventually decided to sell the Dakar. I have a twisted passion to do more with less. I guess its part of the “self reliance” thing that I’m into. I started with the obvious spot, Craigslist. I was surprised that I couldn’t find the deal I was looking for. After a couple of days of searching I went over to Adventure Rider and started looking around. First day on their and I found what I was looking for. There was a post in the Colorado forums that said something like ” buddy has a old Honda FT500 he needs to sell. $100 and its yours. PM for contact info”.

What the heck is a FT500?

My first thought was what the heck is a FT 500? FT stands for flat track. And you can find more info on this unique bike here. As I researched more on the bike I realized that this could in fact be a great foundation for a cheap adventure bike. It has the XR500 air cooled 4 stroke single cylinder thumper motor, but one cool feature is that it comes with electric start. Has a 5 speed transmission, sprocket and chain setup, disks front and rear, and mag wheels.

The Purchase!

So my research found that the bike would most certainly work. The guy on the phone said the bike hadn’t ran in a couple of years and had been sitting outside. Then came the bad news!!! He said it made a “bobber” out of it and hacked off the back part of the frame. He didn’t have the pieces but said he still had the original seat. He was about a 45 min drive, so I decided to “take my wife to lunch” and swing by their afterward. When I got there I must say I was really surprised at the bikes condition. The paint was faded, but it was in decent shape. The seat was good to go, tires had good tread, and chain/sprocket looked decent. Someone already converted the ugly square headlight to round. The owner said that the bike hadn’t ran in years and needed a bit of work. I paid him $100 and loaded it up. He then came out with the title, 4 extra oil filters, a new set of progressive springs, for seals, and some other items. SWEET!

Getting it Started.

I couldnt wait. I pulled in and unloaded the bike. Took it around to the back shop and started looking it over. It sure looked complete and very clean. The gas smelt old and the oil looked pretty old as well. I poured about a gallon of fresh gas in and put the charger on the battery. I cranked on it for about 45 seconds and it fired up! Water came flying out of the tailpipe and it sputtered a bit, then ran just fine. The idle was smooth, throttle response was good. I turned it off and tore into it. I drained the oil gave it a good look over. The back brakes didnt work and I noticed the resevoir was empty. I filled it up with Dot 3 and bled the brakes. No leaks and was good to go. I kept thinking about all the things I wanted to do to it. I had to keep reminding myself, budget build! KISS! With everything working I took it out for a ride around the block. Everything worked, except the blinkers-no back blinkers on the bobbed seat setup. That thin bobbed seat cushion had to go, looked cool, but hard to out miles on it.

More to come on Overland Journey’s $100 Adventure Bike!

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So I spent the afternoon giving the Low Budget Expedition Camper a new paint job. This is definitely nothing to brag about. Like I mentioned this is more a proof of concept. Once I  check it out and like it, Ill then tear it down and build it up using better quality. While at Home Depot I found a sale on this paint. $1 a can. It actually only cost $5 to paint the trailer. I didn’t want to paint the camper black, so I just did the trailer. Its not the best paint, but for $5 it at least covers up potential rust spots and matches The Badlander. I asked my wife what she thought after I bragged that I painted it for $5. She said, “It looks like a $5 paint job.” HAHA! Oh well, at least the rust is covered and doesn’t look too bad from 20, err 50ft  away.

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I ran across this Lifted Subaru 4wd wagon in a Home Depot parking lot. I am very impressed with the “function over form” build up. The ground clearance is very impressive, nearly same as my old Pinzgauer. I’d wheel this in a heartbeat. Always thought about building one as a cheap expedition vehicle and actually mentioned them in a previous article, The Ultra Cheap Expedition Vehicle.

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Here are some mods to my Land Cruiser. Shot during my lone crossing of the Kalahari, August 2008

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Building a low budget camper or camp trailer does not mean that it has to be cheap or fall apart. I have had some really nice camp trailers in my day, but not this time. I have been on a low budget kick I guess, but I get great satisfaction from building something for less money. It also comes out of necessity since we sold our last trailer, the Conqueror Camper. These types of campers are nice, built to handle a lot of abuse, but we needed something a bit different.

Our kids still like to tent it, momma doesn’t. With six kids, we needed a trailer to haul more gear anyway. But I wanted something that we could quickly put up if the girls needed to go to the restroom or we wanted to grab a quick roadside lunch. After searching high and low, I came up empty. They were either off-road capable with no restroom or quick deployment with standing room, or they had all that and were built for street use, maybe a gravel road at best.

In my frustration, and lack of time with summer coming up, I came up with this idea! I took a military trailer, M101, and slid a Four Wheel Pop Up. I wasn’t sure if this would be permanent so I wanted it cheap as well. I found the trailer on craigslist for $500, and the Four Wheel Camper for $500 also. The trailer was in great shape, and the camper was in fair shape. Not bad I thought! I have a expedition capable off-road camper design for $1000. Certainly a lot cheaper than other trailer designs. Is it perfect? No. But neither were the $20k Aussie Camp Trailers, for what I needed anyway. Does it do the job? Absolutely!

How I Did It:

Take one M101 Military Trailer

Cut 1.5 inches out of the wheel wells

Then add one cheap ol Four Wheel Pop Up Camper:

Note:

There is still plenty to do, but technically you can go camping in this setup tomorrow. It took less than a day to put this together. I still want to

• bedline the inside
• bolt the camper down
• Adjust the tailgate out one inch so it will close with camper in bed
• Install new hitch assembly
• Extra water storage
• Solar power
• New Fridge setup
• etc.

It will never end. Its one of those types of projects. But what I like about it, I can be camping with it and modify it slowly if we decide to keep this setup. Ill be posting more, as our first camp trip for the summer is next weekend. Lots to do.

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