The XSR700 Desert Sled is slowly becoming my favourite bike to ride.
Ever.

To preface this all, it’s important to give credit where credit is due. This bike wouldn’t exist without the R&D of a close friend of mine who built the initial prototype. Drew Mansini is one of my favourite riding companions, and collectively we’ve provided more support and feedback to XSR riders across Australia than anyone I can think of.

He’s an incredible engineer, rider, mentor and friend, and his prototype was what lit the fire originally, and kept it burning over the course of this not-so-simple conversion.

It rides like an Africa Twin that’s lost 60kg from a diet of speed and cigarettes. It lifts the front wheel with the slightest hint of a lean back, and slides out the rear wheel with such balance and control. There’s nothing on the market quite like it, though the obvious comparison would be to the T7. Much as I love the T7, I was initially put off by the price tag, styling, the weight, and the fact that I had much of the bones of that bike in my garage already with my XSR700. I love my XSR700, and I hope I never sell the thing.

This was not about recreating, matching or even surpassing the T7.

This was about making something as unique as it was capable, whilst being equal parts modern and classic.
A true modern re-imagination of the XT 500 from the 70’s and 80’s that has inspired many of the scrambler builds that have come since. The build process is outlined below, as well as some of the quirks, challenges and features that made it equal parts journey and triumph.

Realistically, there isn’t much to this build outside of wheels, suspension, and crash protection… but frankly that’s all it needs to be capable off road. Everything else involved was already a part of my XSR700, from the mods to the seat, lighting, exhaust etc. It’s been a fun bike from the get-go, but it became that much more exciting when I fully derestricted it; throttle plate, throttle tube, air filter, snorkel delete, intake manifolds, a full exhaust system and a tune that all up added almost 50% more horsepower (74bhp at the wheel).

On the brake upgrades, the KLR650 front brakes were woeful in comparison to the stock XSR dual caliper setup. To get them up to the standard of being good enough for road, without being too good for dirt, it needed a few upgrades. Braided lines make a big difference, as does the 320mm upgraded rotor, and as do sintered pads. In terms of the rear brakes, we left them entirely stock and haven’t looked back since. Most gen KLR650 forks fit into the XSR700 triple trees, and the 2014+ model’s forks have noticeably better dampening and an ideal spring rate for a 75kg rider as is. We went with some emulators when rebuilding the forks we found from a wreckers, though I’d recommend riding with the stock forks and getting a feel for whether you’d prefer it to be a bit harder. Wheel spacers were machined to fit, with an ABS ring bracket getting put on the backburner… I have never liked ABS on dual sport bikes, though I recognise the benefit.

To fit a 17” or 18” rear wheel, there’s a few bits to work through. In our instance, we used a DR650 rear wheel with the stock XSR700 axle and a series of different wheel spacers to get it sitting correctly on the swingarm. From there, two much larger 7000 series billet aluminium sprocket and rotor spacers have allowed us to get the chain and sprockets lined up on a much skinner hub, as well as the stock rear brake rotor sitting correctly into the calliper on the other side.

For the rear shock we needed so many things that the stock shock was woefully underprepared for. Thanks to Drew Mansini’s testing, he was able to make changes to the valving, oil type and spring rate of a suitably dimensioned shock, and since then we’ve been able to replicate those changes into a custom shock with YSS. The end result is roughly 60mm higher at the rear, with much more dialled in travel and smoothness that feels as great on the road as it does off. It’s not light and flickable like a 250 dirt bike, and yet it’s equally not as smooth and powerful as the larger adventure tourers. But my issues with both of those segments of bikes always lands me back in the middleweights. The ideal wouldn’t need to be nimble like a dirt bike, just nimble enough. And in equal measure, it didn’t need to be as powerful as some of the 1200 adventure tourers, just powerful enough.

Update: May 2023
The bike is proving more capable than I had hoped, with most areas no longer in prototyping phase and now down to fine tuning. It’s not even begun much of it’s aesthetic stage, which I’ve waited to do until all of the functional elements of the build are locked down. Since most of these pictures were taken, the front end has been updated with a Clearway 5.75” headlight surrounded by an S2 Concepts headlight shroud, with a custom stainless fender low mounted to a fork brace finished in splatter black powdercoat. After a particularly muddy glasshouse mountains session where the front fender clearance became an issue with the front wheel locking up with mud, I raised the fender a further 20mm to hopefully stop this from happening again. The rear shock is proving more than competent at hooking up confidently on dirt, sand and road, but a couple of quickly squared off 150mm wide tyres highlighted the need to drop down to a 130mm to better suit the rim width. It’s interesting how things come full circle, as I’m in the process of returning the original rear fender back onto the bike with a tail tidy to reduce the amount of dirt build up across the rest of the bike. From there, our Crosser carbon bars will be added with barbusters and the forks will be raised in the triples a further 20mm to get the rake and trail closer to the bike’s standard geometry. It’s only once this has been done that I’ll begin working on the final touches to bring it up to build standard: powdercoated wheels and radiator guards, with paint across the headlight shroud, tank, side panels and fender. As yet there’s about 5 different paint concepts, and I’m unwilling to tell anyone exactly which it’ll end up being.

Parts List

KLR650 Front End
(Wheel, Axle, Forks, Brakes)
DR650 Rear Wheel
YSS Fork Valve Emulators
320mm Upgraded Front Rotor
SV650 Rear Shock (2nd Gen)
SW Motech Bash Plate
Engine Case Savers + Oggy Knobs
Kelpi Alpha Full System
Kelpi Pathfinder 7” Headlight
Kelpi Blindsider Indicators
Kelpi Nullarbor XSR700 Seat
Kelpi Splitter Mirrors
Generic Tail Tidy & Adjustable Levers
Custom Wheel Spacers Front & Rear
Custom Rear Sprocket Spacer
Custom Rear Rotor Spacer