Another RTW DRZ Prep
 

Several years ago my wife and I decided to do a long trip. We have chosen to ride two DRZ 400s because of their versatility, simplicity and blendability. We have been picking away at the modifications and decided it was time to document the changes. My wife is 5'4", so our first task was to lower her bike. It was not a modification for the faint of heart because it meant chopping the frame in several places to achieve maximum lowering of the seat height. I calculated it out, drafted the parts on my CAD program, ordered aluminum and machined them. I sliced and diced the frame, welded the new pieces in and the subframe was lowered 1.5 inches.
A set of lowering links brought the frame down another inch plus. I sent the forks to Factory Connection to be dialed in for her weight including fuel, panniers, frame and gear. While there, they lowered the forks another inch. After all of these modifications, the bike is still very good travel but is about 4 inches lower allowing her toes to touch the ground. I will be adding more modifications as I go.
(Right now I am working on new panniers and their frames!)

Attachment 9645 Attachment 9646 Attachment 9647

Darrin & Melissa

Fabricating the Pannier Frame
 

The idea was to fabricate a “free-standing” pannier frame in the 10 – 12 pound range. The thought was to have the load of the boxes being carried by a lower cross member “shelf” of the pannier frame and to keep the rear sub-frame out of the mix as much as possible (and keep the weight around 10 pounds!) I chose chromoly tubing due to the high strength to weight ratio and that it can easily be welded with a simple oxy-acetylene system.


Attachment 9674
Tubes fish mouthed and cut to length.

Attachment 9675
Completed stand alone frame weighing in at 11 pounds.

Attachment 9676
The complete frame drops into place on the bike.

Attaching the Pannier Frame to the Bike
 

I designed the frame to bring the force of the load down the lowest point on the bikes frame by designing a new swing arm bolt with attachment bosses. The swing arm bolt was sent for Birdsongs Black-T Teflon coating. Between the Teflon and the grease fittings for the rear swing arm the bolt should not freeze in place between maintenance.

Attachment 9680

Attachment 9677

The load was brought to the highest point on the main frame by clamping as shown in the photos.

Attachment 9679

I added a center load point attachment as shown.

Attachment 9678

This design worked well because I only had to drill one hole on each side of the frame to attach it. The rest is attached through the swing arm bolt and clamping to the upper part of the frame.

Attachment 9681

The rack look over complicated, one of the downsides of your design is that to work on the bike i.e. something simple like accessing the side mounted battery, you need to remove all of the luggage and the rack. I prepped a DRZ 3 years ago for a South America trip and made the racks in 3 parts (2 sides and a top) that bolted together, avoiding the need for full luggage removal.

One other point, your racks are quite large and mounted low down, I'd be concerned that on the lowered bike there's the possibility of the luggage and/or rack getting grounded when the bike's in a rut or similar.

Have you read this thread:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...age-rack-38462

I share a bit of Steve's concerns, but it's your bike and your adventure, if you think this is the way to do it, then go for it!

I just bought an S subframe to put under my E model, then the original Suzuki side rack and then Magadan sofbags. Way "easier" than you r whole construction, but then I can't weld... ;-)

Please, do bear in mind that the less is better on a DRZ andtry to ride as much off road as you can with them as they are not nice bikes on tarmac...!

Currently EU to Mongolia and beyond on 2 DRZ400E... :scooter: