Yes, with gear indicator
701 long range anyone ?
- Thread starter peepingtom
- Start date
Yes, with gear indicator
Away on my 701LR for the first time, so first chance in 18 months to stretch its legs.
First time in 20 + years I’m doing a proper trip on a single .
It’s not ideal sat at 70 mph on a dual carriageway but an absolute weapon on back roads here in Brittany .
It’s doing about 5000 revs at 70 mph and I’m sure the redline is 7500 ish, so only about 105 mph .
Pretty low geared if true as my old KTM Duke in 1998 would indicate 120 ish flat out and from memory that had about 55 bhp compared to 74 on 701.
The Mosko Moto luggage works well as does the Nomad tower.
Shown here with supermarket shop also attached !!
This is the plan , starting on Saturday
Then I’m leaving the others after “H” and riding back to my start point .
Should give it a proper run !
Like you say not much cop on m-ways but on anything and that's more than made up for by how much fun they are
I've bought mine as my 'piss off abroad bike' (as well as everything else) so I'm very interested to see how you get on........
Bon voyage
Andres
So, ten days and 2753 miles later….
All I can say is WOW……
The bike truly out-performed my expectations.
When I arrived off the ferry two weeks back and first did a bit of dual carriageway at 80mph I was a tad worried that it wouldn’t be any fun ,especially on my long slog back solo from Spain on autoroutes.
But I’d not ridden a single at speed for over 20 years and you need to re-calibrate the brain.
Anyway, after a couple of days of pottering around Brittany, Evskij arrived and we set off the back way to the Pyrenees via Rochefort and Argeles Gazost.
On the French D road the 701 LR was fabulous.
It absolutely flies and sits at around 5000 revs at 70mph ,just in the power and so has loads off grunt and even better shifting down one or two.
Very light (182kgs fully fulled with 25 litres of fuel ) and my Mosko Moto Reckless 80 luggage was fabulous, not unsettling the bike in any way and very easy to pack each day.
We made our way over the Pyrenees into Spain and a rendezvous with the seven others at Santo Domingo de Silos.
I won’t bore you with the details but over the next seven days we rode some of the best roads anywhere in the world.
Many I had done over the last five years of doing our annual ‘Asturias’ trip, but some were new to me .
I’ve stuck basic details in the Asturias thread.
Suffice to say that the 701LR was perfect.
Light, flickable, the Conti TA3s being very sticky and stable, even with only a 90 on the front and skinny 140 rear.
A mate on his ZX1000 was gobsmacked at how the 701 left him out of the corners,with the way it put it’s power down.
He’s a much quicker rider than me in all respects normally.
Great fun
After a week with the lads, it was time to head back to Brittany solo, as Ev was on the Santander-Plymouth ferry with the others (plus 2 going to southern Spain and Portugal).
My plan was to leave our last stop some 60km west of Santander and ride back via autoroutes to my pad in Brittany and see how far I would get, stopping at a hotel when I’ve had enough.
I left at 0600 and the first 2 hours were horrid, as it was pitch black and raining, and that stetch of Spanish m-way is very twisty.
Great fun in the dry but not so good when dark and wet.
Not much traffic though and my LED headlights were a god send.
To cut a long story short, I made it all the way back, some 668 miles in about 12 hours, though I did stop for dinner in my favourite spot, as route took me right past.
I also had a chat with the cows on the ride back through the lanes
So , to sum up.I wanted a bike to replace my 950SE and be able to cover long distances if needed but be great fun in the back lanes and mountains.
Hence I grabbed the opportunity to get the LR for the short time they were on sale.
I then proceeded to fit the Nomad kit and Renazco seat.
And it all works pretty much perfectly.
The XT mount combined with wireless X-grip for phone was perfect
The X grip is plugged in to one of the USB sockets and I was worried that rain might effect play, but it was fine.
I was also a tad concerned that as I had fitted all the Nomad kit (minus wiring up the electrics) that there might be issues.
But it was all good, minus a couple of minor issues below.
The Nomad rally tower proved very good at speed,sat at 85mph at 6000 revs yesterday for hours on end was just fine.
The engine oil temp would sit at 90-92 at that speed and normally at 85-88 on back roads.
The fan occasionally came on in towns at about 103.
My Renazco seat proved to be even better than the one on my 950SE.
My arse is genuinely not aching at all even after 668 miles yesterday.
The Baja Squadron lights were fantastic, especially coming back through the depths of Brittany last night.
Dip
Main
Range-wise, I was getting the fuel light on front tank coming on at 140-160 miles, depending on type of riding and then switching to rear and getting same again.
Most I did was 285 miles before filling up and still had 3.5 litres left so range to empty was always 300 and sometimes 340 ish !!
Negatives/faults ?
Very few !!
I lost a bolt that holds the Wings carbon heat shield in place so simply wire locked it, not that it would have come off anyway as still held on at the rear.Will get another off Wings…
If I filled both tanks to the brim and the engine was very hot I occasionally got a minor venting issue and the bike would splutter the first mile, so I would not fill up to the brim.But not an issue if bike left to cool for 10 minutes after filling.
The only other issue was one that manifested itself only 2 days ago, so after 2000 miles plus on this trip.
The clutch started to feel spongy and come back too easily to the bar.
We discovered a small fluid leak around the Oberon Slave.Bought some fluid and Ev helped me bleed/refill the cylinder.Checked and tighten things that we could .
It was fine until halfway yesterday when it did it again.Luckliy I had fluid with me and Ev had kindly rigged up an easy refill method using a hotel mini shampoo bottle , as the master cylinder is tiny.
I pulled in to a service station and had another look and found that the nut that tightens the hydraulic hose into the Oberon was loose !!
We hadn’t been able to check it was tight as neither of us had an 11mm spanner.
Anyway, I tightened the nut with the help of a French guy who happened to have the elusive 11mm spanner in his van.
We bled the system and refilled the cylinder and I’m pretty sure that the problem is fixed, as I’ve ridden at least 100 miles since and the clutch is fine.
So I must add an 11mm spanner to my tool kit !! My mini kit only has 8,10,12 s
To be totally honest, I had my doubts that the bike would survive the trip unscathed, chasing mates on GSs/XRs etc for days on end.
I even took out breakdown cover.But I needn’t have worried.
No warning lights, no overheating.Even the minor clutch issue probably would have got me home with no input.
So can you tour on a 701 , if you modify it ? Absolutely !!
Bloody brilliant bike.
interesting report Arsey, looked like great roads / weather / towns / bike etc.
curious in that you took the 701 for the miles covered. how did it compare to your ATAS?
Barry
curious in that you took the 701 for the miles covered. how did it compare to your ATAS?
Barry
Deleted account 211025001
Registered user
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2005
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- -1
That ride home would be a bit of an ordeal on any bike so I'm genuinely impressed the bike (and you) handled it so well 
The more miles I get on mine the more I'm convinced of my choice to have it as my 'do it all' bike; bikes will always be a compromise but your report has reinforced the fact that I've made the right compromises for me.
Glad you had a good trip
Andres
The more miles I get on mine the more I'm convinced of my choice to have it as my 'do it all' bike; bikes will always be a compromise but your report has reinforced the fact that I've made the right compromises for me.
Glad you had a good trip
Andres
I did the ‘same’ trip last September on the ATAS,although a different route and I got the ferry both ways .
We always ride some favourite roads/passes whilst adding new ones each year.
The ATAS was more of a relaxing bike, especially with the DCT but could hustle very well , especially when using the +|- buttons in Manual.
But the 701 was more fun and made me smile more, especially the noise it made through canyons and tunnels .
Gassing it to 8000 revs and changing up on the quick shifter never failed to bring a large grin to my face and keeping the revs above 5000 gave me lots of engine braking .
Much more nimble at around 60 kgs lighter , but with more fuel range.
Probably looked gay but it felt like I’d run off the edge of the skinny tyres with the amount of lean I felt I had through the hairpins .
I should add that the Berotec Cumpan was brilliant for having a shift light and also keeping an eye on oil temperature.
And the Atlas Throttle Lock proved useful on the slog home .
That ride home would be a bit of an ordeal on any bike so I'm genuinely impressed the bike (and you) handled it so well
The more miles I get on mine the more I'm convinced of my choice to have it as my 'do it all' bike; bikes will always be a compromise but your report has reinforced the fact that I've made the right compromises for me.
Glad you had a good trip
Andres
Absolutely!!!
The only compromise you have is an outright range of 150 miles (ish) whereas I have double that .
It’s the game changer on this bike for me .
A couple of the others sniggered when they saw my bike but were surprised when they were filling their GSs up way more than me , only realising after a few days that I had a tank filler under my luggage as well as the front tank !! Twas funny !!
What I like about the bike is it can do a long trip with ease yet is perfect for twatting about on around the local lanes and tracks here in Brittany .
yeah, i get your points. i had an atas dct and thought it was a great carver and tourer then went to the (darkside) 1250GSA just to try something different. your improved range makes a big difference to 'touring' ability.
have got me thinking - i would previously have thought a big bike is needed to cover miles.
see you have a throttle lock, always thought that was something the atas lacked.
the TA3s must help - i had on the atas and currently run on the gsa.
Barry
have got me thinking - i would previously have thought a big bike is needed to cover miles.
see you have a throttle lock, always thought that was something the atas lacked.
the TA3s must help - i had on the atas and currently run on the gsa.
Barry
If still for sale I am interested , sent you a PM
POWERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
https://www.cycleworld.com/story/bikes/2021-husqvarna-701-enduro-lr-dyno-test/
https://www.cycleworld.com/story/bikes/2021-husqvarna-701-enduro-lr-dyno-test/
Attachments
