Have you put in new springs yet? The Eibach or Progressive F&R replacements make an amazing difference in the DR650's suspension. Highly recommended!

My wife and I each have DR650s. My '05 is set up with the DynoJet kit, drilled slide, opened airbox top, Twinair air filter, stock exhaust, Spitfire windscreen, IMS tank, Corbin, Eibach springs, ProTaper SE bars, Meier Woods Pro hand guards, Ram mount for a hard-wired Garmin 276C, Baja Design license plate holder w/LED license plate light, DRZ250 replacement tail light unit, Dunlop 606 tires, heavy duty tubes, a fused BMW-style Powerlet outlet mounted on the left side cover for a charger/tender or heated vest or air pump, 14/45 gearing, Moto-Sport pannier rack, Pelican 1520 case panniers, Suzuki rear rack. It is a wonderful all-terrain light-weight touring bike and one of the most reliable and inexpensive do-it-all bikes out there!

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Pain in the Butte Ranch
Durango, Colorado

Sounds like a really nice set up!

Any idea what spring rates are needed for what weight rider?
I know the front needs help, very soft. The rear is OK but the preload is jacked way up so I know I'm too heavy for the stock spring.

With all my gear on I'm pushing 200 lbs.
Can you help with spring rates?

I've planned to do this for a while but some other project have got in the way of the DR. I will get back to it soon.

Hey, can you post some pics of your bike and all the good mods you've done?
I haven't seen a DR with Pelikans yet!

What sort of mileage do you get with the jet kit? I'm still messing around with mine trying to retain power but get better mileage.

Cheers,

Patrick

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Patrick passed Dec 2018. RIP Patrick!

Patrick - For the exact spring rates for you, call Jesse at Kientech.com. I just gave him my weight, bike configuation and installed aftermarket equipment and how I use the bike and he prescribed the Eibach spring rates for me. Installation is simple, maybe a 3-4 hour job, and one of the best modifications you can do to a DR650. Highly recommended.

I am getting around 45mpg with the jet kit up here in the mountains, but I haven't done a precise calculation in a while. I start looking for gas at about 200 miles but have never hit reserve with the IMS tank.

There are pictures of my DR650 with the Pelican 1520 cases in my Smugmug account HERE. These pictures were from last summer before I had the Spitfire windscreen and the DRZ250 tail lights.

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Pain in the Butte Ranch
Durango, Colorado

So you have some experience with both brands of springs? I was wondering, the Progressive ones (at least, the ones sold at Dual Star) don't seem to be tailored to any particular rider weight. What's your opinion on the difference between them?

Sorry if I was misleading. I only have second hand information about the Progressive springs. I have the Eibach springs on my DR650 and do heartily recommend them from first hand experience.

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Pain in the Butte Ranch
Durango, Colorado

They work okay on the street and dirt? I'm a 80% street kind of guy, might be getting some 'tard wheels on her too.

You will be very happy with them both on and off road. After getting rid of the extreme front end dive under braking, you'll wonder why you waited so long.

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Pain in the Butte Ranch
Durango, Colorado

I'm now set on what springs I need. Been in contact with Jesse.
I looked at the Smugmug shots...nice set up!

Are those the Happy Trails racks holding the Pelicans? What additional mods were done in order to mount them? I see the bottom mount rails....good idea! When you get somewhere how hard are the bags to remove? Since I own 5 Pelikan cases already (for work) I may retire a couple and go this route at some point.
Does the Caribou guy sell any mounting hardware?

Cheers,

Patrick

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Patrick passed Dec 2018. RIP Patrick!

Patrick - I am using the Moto-Sports pannier racks. I chose those because I didn't care for the rear stabilizing bar on the Happy Trails rack. The Moto-Sports rack doesn't have that and they seem quite strong as they are. I did not have to do any additional mods to mount the racks, they are basically bolt on, I just messed with some washers as spacers. I used a universal pannier mounting kit that I also got from Moto-Sports to mount the Pelicans to the rack. It consists of some large washers, flat hex head screws (for mounting to the top of the rack) as well as the brackets that work as the lower mount. To remove the panniers with the way I did it, you need to remove two hex screws from the inside of each pannier. Only takes a minute. I will probably still try to come up with a better quick release system (Jesse-like cam lock???), but this works well for my purposes now.

I haven't been in contact with the Caribou guy except about possible liners for 1520 Pelicans (he only has them for 1550), but he does sell his modified Pelican cases separately. I'm not sure if he has his rack system ready for the DR650 or not. I think his stuff is first rate, but I am more than happy with the setup I have for under $450 total ($200 for the racks, a little under $200 for two new generic 1520 Pelicans from the internet and about $50 for the universal pannier mounting kit).

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Pain in the Butte Ranch
Durango, Colorado

We’ve spent a bit of time preparing the bikes for the trip to Russia, so I thought I’d put some details and pictures up.

The bikes are 2006 DR650SE’s from Dannevirke Suzuki. The blue one has been lowered by altering the rear suspension and turning over a spacer in the front forks.

The first thing we did was replace the screws in the bikes with stainless steel cap screws, especially on the carburettor, switch blocks, coil, and body work. The Suzuki fasteners have a reputation for being very soft, and after a few years they become seized and impossible to remove. I got the fasteners from EDL and they cost about $110 for the whole job.

The next thing we did was start constructing the luggage racks front and rear. The rear luggage rack is a simple truss structure, I wanted the frame to be as far forward as possible, but still wanted to be able to remove the seat with the frame attached. This has worked pretty well and I’m happy with the final design. I’ve designed the rack to enhance the strength of the rear sub-frame, but we’ll see how it goes. According to Chris Scott’s Adventure Motorcycling Handbook, sub-frame failure is the second most common problem after punctures. Plenty of good welders in Russia though, so if it breaks it won’t be a show stopper.

To try and get a slightly more even weight distribution over the front and rear, we’ve also decided to add front pannier bags. These are Ortlieb Front Roller cycling bags. I’ve bent the rack up out of 10 mm plain bar and got it zinc coated at Perry’s Metal Coaters in Seaview. I must say I would not recommend their services to anyone. They took about a month to do the job, lost some of the parts, which I had to remake in my own time and cost, and worst of all the job looks like a kindergarten kid did it. The zinc is uneven and lumpy and they’ve missed some bits altogether. The Ortlieb bags themselves are fantastic and we’re really happy with them and the way they sit, taking wind and rain in their stride.

Next we’ve added some tough Factory 909 handle bars and big hand guards thanks to the guys at SportsPro.

We then added a home made headlight guard bent up from a piece of Lexan and added some Givi A601 windscreens, donated by the Givi importer Eurobike. The windscreens have made a huge difference to the wind fatigue and have made riding the DR’s quite a bit more comfy. I’d highly recommend the windscreens if you’re planning to do lots of road miles.

Next we added Scottoilers, also donated by the Scottoiler importer Eurobike. These have kept our chains very clean. I think I’m a Scottoiler convert for life now. Clean, easy, no worries. We mounted them on the main frame near the carb, cutting into the vaccum line for the fuel tap.

We then added some tough B&B bash plates from B&B engineering in Aussie. Really happy with them.

We’ve also added inline fuel filters, and put new oil filters in courtesy of Champion.

We're using a peice of 80 mm drain pipe to put tent poles and tools in. We've attached in the place of the existing tool kit. You can clearly see it in P7.

Then we added our Aluminium pannier boxes, courtesy of Ullrich Aluminium and Velocity Engineering. They’re 1.6 mm thick which is quite thick, but they’re tough enough to handle the weight of the bikes when changing tyres etc. They also make a nice seat. Right pannier is 170 x 300 x 400 mm (WxDxL) and left pannier is 205 x 300 x 400 mm. Overall the panniers are the same width as the handle bars.

Lastly we put on some meaty Continental TKC80’s which are awesome tyres. Highly recommended. Tried them out on and they hook up fine on grass and gravel even when the bikes are well loaded up. Seem to have good grip on the road too. We’re carrying two rear spares and one front spare each, which we’ll send ahead.

For extra fuel we’re using MSR Dromedary bladders and for water we’re using some MSR Dromedary Lite bladders.

We've strengthened the main wiring loom by putting some spiral wrap around where it chafes on the head stock.


Total weight with all our equipment, spares, main fuel etc (but no food, extra fuel and water) is 205 kg average (Jane is 10 kg lighter, Bartman is carrying all the tools and spares). Food water and extra fuel will come to about 20kg, so we’re looking at 225 kg loaded to maximum capacity, which is a bit heavier than I’d hoped but still a full 120 kg lighter than the ‘Long Way Round’ guys. Most of the time we won’t have to carry the extra fuel and water, it’s only through a short 3000 km section, where fuel and water are sparse.

I’ve cut down the side stand on the bikes too, because when loaded up the suspension squats down quite a bit, meaning that they’re very unstable on the side stands.

Spare parts include:
A spare pair of brake pads each
A spare set of wheel bearings each
Spare throttle and clutch cables
Spare brake and clutch levers
Spare inner tubes front and rear
Tyre repair kit, consisting of tyre levers, glue, patches and a small hammer.
Spare valve cores and valve caps
A selection of fuses, electrical connectors and o-rings
Locktite instant gasket
Kneed-it
Rubber and molly grease
Anti-seize compound
Locktite 262
A spare regulator/rectifier courtesy of Eurobike
2 spare rear Continental TKC80 tyres and one spare Continental TKC80 front tyre each
Cable ties
Lock wire
Electrical wire.

I'd be interested to hear your comments.

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It sounds like you've gone over the bikes well. Wiring scuffing, fasteners, etc. I'm not a fan of hard panniers for off road use, but that's just me. I don't know how many miles you plan to cover, but if you're shipping tires forward, maybe chains and sprockets wouldn't hurt either. I assume you have the tools needed.

It looks like you're packing a lot of stuff.....

This is a good thread.

Hi, thanks for the reply. Not a fan of hard panniers either... but for security in countries I've never traveled in I think they're a bit better. Hindsight may tell me otherwise though, but we'll see. The panniers are also very useful for propping up the bikes and as a seat and food preparation surface.

Planning on doing about 15,000 ks in Russia, Mongolia and Europe starting at Vladivostok. Thought about chain and sprockets. We got Scottoilers free so we're hoping that will do the trick. Will carry a front sprocket though. May still pack chain and sprockets and send them ahead with the tyres.

I don't think we're packing too much for 5 months on the road, just a tent, cooker, sleeping bag, basic eating utensils, 1 set of clothes each, socks, underwear, wet weather gear, shoes (which take up heaps of room!) and the spares mentioned.

We've got basic tools to do most routine jobs, Allen keys, spanners, few sockets and a ratchet, small continuity tester, small file, pliers, knife and small hacksaw. A major engine job is going to require a workshop anyway, so there ain't much point dragging a torque wrench and impact driver along.

Thanks again for the comments....

Mark

Funny, I just wrote a detailed message...then went back to edit a small error and the whole message was deleted. Interesting.

I'm not re-typing the whole thing over....so quickly, here are a couple ideas:

Springs, front and rear. To not do this is a safety issue, IMO.

Seat. I can't see getting too far on the stock seat.

Tank. Bigger please. At least 5 US gal.

Do a longish test ride in the desert fully loaded in deep sand, mud et al.
See how you do with the bikes. Now imagine doing 300 kms. of the bad stuff.

Can you break the bead on the rear tire? Using what?


Best.

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Patrick passed Dec 2018. RIP Patrick!

Hey there.
Don't know much about the springs. They seemed fine on the test ride. If you're really concerned send me some better ones and I'll fit them.

Got a Dromedary bladder for fuel. This is 10 L giving a total of 23 L I'm confident this should be enough, according to others who have ridden in the areas we are planning to go. We're not afraid to take local advice though, and if locals tell us that there's no gas available we need to we'll buy some jerry cans on the road.

We've got a bit of sheepskin for the seat. Done several 500 km days on the DR without complaint. What's more to say that we're not going to get far with the stock seat is plain rude. We're using the stock seat and we're going to do 15,000 ks.

I'm sure its going to be tough in the mud and sand. Thats part of the challenge. A guy has ridden a gold wing across Russia, and another guy who I know personally has taken a yamaha FJR, there's also the 2 actors who used big BMWs. I'n not saying it won't be tough, I'm sure we'll make it.

I break the bead using the other bike's side stand. Done this many times.

Thanks for your useful tips. If you've got any more I'd love to hear them.
Mark.

What size sprockets are you running?

Maybe I missed it, but something like JB Weld for fixing a holed case might be good.