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V85 Questions

Oldman

Tuned and Synch'ed
GT Contributor
Joined
Dec 2, 2020
Messages
72
Location
Sanlucar de Guadiana Spain
Hello! V7iii owner here. Just clocked up 10k km in six months. Very happy with the bike but 2 issues: 1) I find it dreadful off road and I live in southern Spain so that is a shame 2) Whilst I have just ridden it to Scotland and all ok it is IMHO just a bit under powered. So today I looked at a V85 TT....the Travel and the Nero version, not the one that looks like it was painted by Ronald McDonald. Looking at the bike I noticed these things and I was hoping that an existing owner may be able to comment. (1) The tank is covered with a plastic cowl with vents at the front but the air filter is under the seat, what is this all for? Some sort of addition to engine cooling? (2) The shields in front of the upside down forks look completely inadequate and not even the right size, do they in fact do the job? (3) There is preload and rebound on just one fork, what is that all about? How can you just adjust preload on one side? And lastly the general question of can it deal with fire brake type trails? I am not really interested in sand but gravel, rocks, mud all of a standard which your average car would be able to cross, not bahia sort of stuff! Thanks for your time, Mark
 
When bolted together, both fork legs function and a single unit, so if you make a preload adjustment on one side, you are effectively changing the preload of the entire fork. While these only have rebound damping and not compression, it's not unusual to have rebound adjusted on one fork, and compression on the other. Again, adjusting one or the other affects the entire fork as a unit.

Not sure what the vents on the tank are for. Next time I have the tank off, I might have to investigate further, but I'm pretty sure they have no connection to the airbox.

As for the fork protectors, they do cover the full front of the sliders. Given that the design of bike is biased more towards road use, with relatively "light" offroad duty, they are probably just fine. The Tenere 700, on the other hand, is more purpose-built for offroad use, and as such has beefier fork protectors:

Upload 2021 7 7 15 7 25

Ass for the off-road capabilities... I've not had mine for very long, and frankly, I don't really plan on doing much more than the occasional dirt or gravel road on it. However, the guy in this video apparently had no problems with the offroad abilities :D:



__Jason
 
That video is impressive. I bought mine for adventure trips that include Forest Service (fire access) roads, but have no plans to emulate that video. I have a few miles of gravel road experience so far (without the luggage which I have not yet received) and it seems stable even with the more street-oriented tires on the Centenario. I have tried adjusting the suspension—adjustments do make a difference.

Edited to add: I do need to use “Off-Road” mode to keep traction control from activating constantly on washboard surfaces with the street tires.
 
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The Video. Wow! I don't intend anything like that! I live 7 km down a steep, unpaved road of the type you guys in the states call a fire access road. The V7 I have is very poor at handling it. I have to turn off the traction control to get up it at all and the lack of ground clearance and a bash plate is leading to damage on the sump and front engine cover.
 
The Video. Wow! I don't intend anything like that! I live 7 km down a steep, unpaved road of the type you guys in the states call a fire access road. The V7 I have is very poor at handling it. I have to turn off the traction control to get up it at all and the lack of ground clearance and a bash plate is leading to damage on the sump and front engine cover.


Maybe it is time to run a motor grader over that road.
 
My dad lives in La Aljorra, I'm not sure how far that is from you but I'm somewhat familiar with the terrain in his area.

I have no idea what the vents are for, but they look pretty cool in my opinion.
I haven't adjusted the front suspension, so I have no idea about that either.
I think the fork slider protection is good enough, of course it's really there for when stuff gets kicked up at you from in front than what you are doing. At least that makes sense to me.

I think the V85 will do what you want out of it, much moreso than the V7 versions. Although you can ride just about any bike wherever you want to go, sometimes the machine makes things easier for you.

Graded dirt is pretty easy (pic below). I have taken this on much rougher trails and I think the bike handled it much better than I did. I'm not the greatest off-road rider and something like 20 miles of washboard with large cobbles was a chore. I ended up using offroad mode and the bike worked much better after that as it kept trying to engage the traction control.

 
So I had an hour and a half on one and this is what I found: Ride was very good, seemed quicker in corners than my v7iii so I will be dropping the forks by 10 mm. Suspension ok, not great but ok. I managed to find an unpaved road and its performance on that was quite acceptable. Switchgear dreadful. Indicator switch soft and vague, worst of all was my thumbs simply don't reach right hand controls whilst the rest of my hand still on the throttle. I don't think I could get used to this at all. Engine.....Dreadful! Impossible to hold a constant throttle setting without surging. Even snapping open the throttle resulted in a surge and then a jerk back as if the brake had been applied. At tickover, without any movement in the throttle the engine blipped all by itself. I am sure re-routing the drive by wire will solve the tickover and a proper map will smooth the engine out but then I saw the recall for valves! So, an interesting day but not for me.
 
Sounds like the one you rode was a bit of a lemon. The right hand switchgear is bad though, no way I can reach it with my hand on the bars... fortunately you only have the DRL or Headlamp or Headlamp/Fogs, so you only really need to do anything with that switch if it is in the wrong position, and you can sort that before pulling away :)
 
Engine.....Dreadful! Impossible to hold a constant throttle setting without surging. Even snapping open the throttle resulted in a surge and then a jerk back as if the brake had been applied. At tickover, without any movement in the throttle the engine blipped all by itself. I

For me holding a constant throttle was perfect and better than my triumph, and opening the throttle gave a reassuring acceleration with no jerkiness. So not sure if the V85 you rode was setup correctly.
 
For me holding a constant throttle was perfect and better than my triumph, and opening the throttle gave a reassuring acceleration with no jerkiness. So not sure if the V85 you rode was setup correctly.
Agreed... that bike must have been broken - that behavior is abnormal.

__Jason
 
Thanks for your replies. Very interesting. There is apparently a bulletin out about routing of the throttle cable and pick up which explains the throttle blipping on idle. What are your thoughts on the moderate rpm steady throttle but jerky response? It fits right in with closed loop fuel control which my V7iii also had until I mapped it and replaced it with open loop all the way. The tech immediately said 'euro 5' when I brought the bike back. Thanks for your replies.
 
Thanks for your replies. Very interesting. There is apparently a bulletin out about routing of the throttle cable and pick up which explains the throttle blipping on idle. What are your thoughts on the moderate rpm steady throttle but jerky response? It fits right in with closed loop fuel control which my V7iii also had until I mapped it and replaced it with open loop all the way. The tech immediately said 'euro 5' when I brought the bike back. Thanks for your replies.

I've experienced no blipping on idle.

I covered 170 miles yesterday, with pillion, covering all rpm ranges with and without a steady throttle and experienced no jerky response. Ride was smooth, consistent and a pleasure to experience.

I've ridden both the euro 4 and euro 5, both seem identical.

Ride was very good, seemed quicker in corners than my v7iii so I will be dropping the forks by 10 mm.

Can you explain the meaning of dropping the forks by 10mm?
 
I've experienced no blipping on idle.

I covered 170 miles yesterday, with pillion, covering all rpm ranges with and without a steady throttle and experienced no jerky response. Ride was smooth, consistent and a pleasure to experience.

I've ridden both the euro 4 and euro 5, both seem identical.

Very Interesting! May I ask where you are in UK? I live on Spain but tried the bike in Chichester. The 'blip by itself on idle' is pick up so it just depends on how close together the cables are. The comment about euro 5 came from the engineer, I told him the bike almost felt like it was mis firing and he volunteered that it was euro 5. I know that my v7iii became way, way more smooth as soon as it was mapped. I am pleased you are so happy with your bike. As an aside I was very happy with my V7, I just rode from Andalucía to Scotland and back but the charging system failed in Northern Spain and the fault has been a real bugger to diagnose exactly what is wrong. No voltage display or charging light on a V7!

Can you explain the meaning of dropping the forks by 10mm?

There is advice on here to change the geometry of the V7 by dropping the forks a little to make the bike turn easier. I found the TT quicker in turns than the V7 hence my comment
 
There is advice on here to change the geometry of the V7 by dropping the forks a little to make the bike turn easier. I found the TT quicker in turns than the V7 hence my comment
I totally agree, the V85TT response in turns is one thing I liked when I test rode one before I bought one.
 
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