VOLUME ISSUE JANUARY , P65
TBT Racing's Travis Flateau
was our man for the job. Nor-
mally an off-road guy, "Tuner"
typically specializes in moto-
cross, GP and desert-racing-style
setups. He accepted the chal-
lenge of making our V-Strom
800DE more dirt-worthy.
Spring rates in the Showa fork
tubes are soft, but the springs
themselves are long enough that
Tuner could cut them to achieve
a higher spring rate. He used a
spacer to offset the length and
then freshened up the valving for
more aggressive performance.
A TBT re-valve treatment on the
shock complemented the fork,
leaving us with stronger hold-up,
front and rear, and a chassis
with much better off-road
capability and vastly improved
bottoming resistance.
Pacific Powersports supplied
us with its popular Motoz Trac
-
tionator Adventure tires for the
Suzuki's 21-inch front and 17-inch
rear wheels. The 30/70 off-road-
focused ADV tires were another
immediate performance improve-
ment, inverting the ratio from the
road-going 80/20 stock tires.
The Yoshimura RS-12 slip-
on exhaust was another easy
add-on. The 776cc parallel-twin
engine of the 800DE is pretty
phenomenal on its own. There's
no real need for modifications,
but the Yosh slip-on not only
sharpens the throttle response
and adds a really cool exhaust
note, but it sheds over four
pounds from the stock silencer.
And it also looks super cool with
the carbon-fiber heat shield.
(Top) Yoshimura slip-on
exhaust dropped over
four pounds from the rear
and livened up the engine
response. (Bottom) Installing
the Scott's steering damper
required taller risers and a
different handlebar.
