Well chicks might dig Dakars, but after a year of ownership and 10,000 miles I’ve finally sold mine. The Dakar served me well on Trips to Hungary, Spain, and Wales, but I decided that I wanted something a little lighter and more agile.
The xChallenge was a contender, but I just don’t do enough hard off-road rides to take advantage of it. So instead I opted for the xCountry. Checking howmanyleft.co.uk revealed that there are about 80 xCountrys left on the road in the UK compared to 73 xChallenges and 124 xMotos.
That certainly showed up in my search where I couldn’t find one for love nor money. Eventually I just sold the Dakar anyway, then two xCo’s turned up for sale. One had seemingly seen better days but came was cheap and came with a ton of parts (including an engine), the other had just 6,000 miles on the clock (actually 2000 as the dash was replaced under warranty) and was in better condition. I opted for the later despite it being over 200 miles away, and costing a good £700 more.
Riding it back from the south coast the difference between it and the Dakar was night and day. Being 36 kg lighter (wet) and enjoying an extra 4hp, the engine felt much freer revving and more responsive. It’s better suspended too, with 30mm more frontwards travel than the old Dakar (and the newer Sertao).
The riding position takes a little getting used to. It’s like riding a Dakar that’s had the front-end chopped off. It feels very exposed, almost like you’re sitting on top of the front wheel. Though since you can’t see the front wheel from the riding position, it’s a little unnerving cornering on slippery asphalt. On the subject of the riding position, I also find that the bars are little too close for my arm length but that’s easily sorted.
The bike is pretty much as standard. I’ve owned the bike a week and my list of desired mods has grown to include:
Screenfender extendercentre standhandguardsFunduro/F650 gear lever (to protect the gear shaft)- auxiliary tank (bought a 5l Acerbis)
aluminium bash platewider rack- mosfett reg/reg
- lithium battery
- reinforced or steel sub-frame.
That’s a pretty expensive list so progress will be slow but everything will be recorded here on my blog.
Update Feb 2015
As you can see, I’ve been busy getting through my list of mods. Check out my modification page for more details.
Have you thought about puting a 21 inch wheel?
Funnily enough I haven’t.
I never had any problems with the 21″ wheel on the Dakar, but I’m happy enough with the 19″ on the xCountry. My ideal off-road conditions are more Paris-Dakar style wide open spaces, as oppose to muddy single track through the woods.
Well my trip to Morocco definitely showed the advantage of a 21″ front over the 19″ in rocky terrain. The 19″ was quite well behaved in the sand though.
Hi,
Great to see your blog – especially as someone linked to mine from your comments about trail riding in Spain 🙂
As you know the x-Co ‘community’ is pretty diverse, but the main thing is that these bikes are now the big contenders for the gap left by the X-Challenge’s design.
I’m envious of your wish list but I don’t think you need worry too much about the aluminium sub-frame. I’ve never heard of one failing but I’m happy to stand corrected.
Mine carries a heavy-ish load for my various month long tours and these include some mild off-roading fully laden. But the frame is that same that the likes of Colebatch does extreme riding in Siberia with that same frame and I don’t see him complaining . . .
Keep up the good work . . .
Regs
Simon
Hi Simon,
I’ve heard of two subframes failing both on xChallenges. Never heard of an xCountry one going, but there the same.
You’re right, on his first few trips Colebatch used the OEM subframe, and besides a few threads stripping, he didn’t seem to have any issues. He later changed to the Touratech frame.
Like all bikes, the rear rack warns of a maximum 5kg load. My camping gear come in at about 10kg (for two). Added to that I’m going to be mounting an Acerbis 5l tank on the right-hand side, similar to the xTank.
To my mind that’s pushing it a bit too far. Probably fine for road use even two up, but there will be times on tour when I’m fully loaded, two up, on gravel and dirt roads.
Rather than fork out £550 for a new BMW frame, I’ve considered just getting mine strengthened. Just four simple welds should do it, but it depends on how much that is going to cost.