Hi my name is Alex and I live in the northern part of Jutland in Denmark. I’m 31 summers old and love to take my bikes on new adventures. My brother and I have had newer bikes, but every time we are going on adventures we tend to use our “old” bikes due to the charm and the old school technology.
A few years ago I bought an xtz750 (AKA the “Emu”) because I’m doing a fair amount of touring with my brother (his bike is called the “Ostrich“). My XTZ had done 52.xxx kilometers when I bought it and needed some TLC before the bike would be ready for new adventures.
The frame was rusty and the service history was unknown, but the bike was a runner and had plenty of “umph” when turning the cable. On my first trip on the Emu I fell in love with the bike
the engine is fantastic and the old school design just inspires one to fuel up the bike and just keep going.This is a picture of my Emu before the makeover started:
I love the blue Sonauto rally replica, so that’s my goal for the Emu. However I’m doing a white frame with blue paint a replica stickers (so stay tuned). Im doing the blue paint and stickering after our trip to Morocco because I’m planning to put quite some kilometers on the old Emu before the trip.. The mantra is “testing the hardware is more important than the blue paint with stickers”
My brother’s “Ostrich” is from 1991 (odometer: 110.000 kilometers) and my Emu is a 1989 (odometer: 53.000 km). By brother has taken the “Ostrich” to “Nordkapp” in Norway (our trip in year 2012), on a 14 days trip to Italy together with his better half and have driven 20.000 kilometers on his bike the last couple of years he has owned the bike. It would be fair to say that the Ostrich is an above average serviced bike and always ready for new adventures.
This is a picture of my brother at “Nordkapp” year 2012:
(In a few months my brother and I are going to Morocco on our two bikes we are leaving week 25 + 26).
We have this crazy idea that we would bring the “dessert birds” back to their familiar surroundings.
The winter 2013/2014 I dismantled the entire bike and sent the metal of for power coating + clear.
This is a few blurry pictures of the process:
As you can see i'm a pretty organiced. everything has its own place and my garage is as clean as a operating room at a hospital
When I picked up the parts from the painter I was a happy camper. It’s fantastic to see how a sanding and new paint can turn old metal into new looking parts.
The engine is in good condition and all I’m doing is a valve adjustment, new coolant and an oil change. The rest of the job is changing bearings in the wheels and swingarm, going through the wiring and most important.. Getting to know the bike before the trip!!
Today ( march 24th 2014) I have done the following improvements to the “Emu”, trying to make it ready for Morocco:
• Oil change + filter (10-40 semi synthetic)
• New rear wheel and tube (“Michellin Anakee 3” – we are sticking to the tarmac and small gravel roads)
• Service of the brakes (fluid, pads and cleaning)
• New shock absorbers in the rear wheel
• New dust and oil seal in the front fork (incl. internal cleaning + new oil)
• Two new air filters
• Ultrasonic cleaning of the carburetor (+ installing a “Swiss kit” for better fuel milage)
• Adjusting the valves in the engine (two of the intake valves needed adjustment)
• New bearing in both front and rear wheels
• New bearing in the front fork/yoke
• Specially made POM bush for the upper yoke (to improve the handling)
• Powder coating of the frame and other metal pieces.
• 3 new locking pieces of the rear spoke
• New lock washer + new nut on the front sprocket
• New bearings in the swingarm
• New bearings in the relay arm
Here is a few picture of the Emu in its current “glory”:
Getting the engine back into the frame after a few months is just wonderful
The newly painted swingarm with new bearings and girly tarmac tire (Anakee 3)
The oil tank, cooler, speedo is mounted, but the wiring harnes is still not sorted out:
This is the current progress of the bike.. A lot of work is still in front of me
