With the XSR700 in hand, Kevin’s thoughts immediately turned to the Gold Rush Ride?a hooligan event hosted by Portland’s Sang Froid Riding Club.
?It?s an epic three day riding event through the back roads of Eastern Oregon to the old gold mining township of Sumpter,? says Kevin. ?It?s the type of ride that you begin as friends, and end as brothers and sisters.?

The plan was to tweak the XSR700 to perfection, rather than redesign it from the ground up. ?At Velomacchi, we are not custom bike builders,? explains Kevin. ?We are accordatori [tuners] and privateers. We tune our bikes to meet the needs of our riding style, environment and cargo.?
Suspension was high up on the priority list. ?There is incredible terrain in the PNW,? says Kevin. ?Only half of our navigable roads are paved. The rest are graded as lumber and fire access roads. You will encounter all sorts of hazards at a moment’s notice: tar snakes, pot holes, blind corners, washouts, deer, gravel, drunk drivers, freezing nights and blistering days.?
The XSR’s 689 cc engine is plenty punchy out the box, so the team limited their mods to just opening up the air box a little. A new exhaust system was a non-negotiable though. ?The DOT muffler weighs in at forty-plus pounds,? says Kevin, ?needing all that weight to try and contain the power this thing makes.?
?We needed an exhaust that could elegantly tame this beast and direct its primal instincts, with a third the weight.?

Next it was t...