Hey all,

Really appreciate the advice given so far. Slowly adjusting my budget to suit (mostly upwards!)

I've ridden this 100cc's of fury through Vietnam:


And then tried something similar through the Philippines on this:


I said "tried":


And driven the old girl almost all the way around Australia:

A few of you asked more about what type of riding / route I'll be taking and it's looking a little something like this.

The route is yet to be determined after South America. Currently looking at how long I may take for that section, along with shipping costs (or even possibilities) to eventually get to Vladivostok or just to Africa.

There's a possibility of me doing some months with a certain young lady on the back. This will be mostly on road riding, the odd bit of dirt roads thrown in for a laugh. I'll follow the sun as much as possible, but am quite happy in the cold / rain, camping and riding.

The majority of the ride will be solo, and I want to be able to attempt / focus on mostly off road riding. I've ridden more than enough sports bikes and bitumen tends to bore me when it's not ripping the skin off my bones.

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With my current budget, which is mostly a wish list really, I'm looking at around:
$16,000 for the DR650 and quite a lot of mods. Can easily drop this down by about $2k.

$4,000 in camping, riding gear, all clothing, personal equipment and the like

$14,000 Visas, Shipping, Flights, Travel & Medical insurance for two years.

This is mostly rough estimates along with some numbers off Hubb. But it also assumes that I own ZERO equipment, camping gear or underwear so there shall be savings.

This just leaves my daily cost, which varies. Once again, parts of this are purposely inflated estimations and parts are prices off the web / hubb.

Cheers!

For a late, low mileage, lightly used DR650 in the US with some modifications already done, you should be looking at no more than $5000 usd and even with most of the mods you've mentioned you should be able to sort the bike completely out for under $10,000 - the main problem/cost is finding a place to stay and do all of the work - with a shipping address, so if you have friends in the US ask them nicely....


You should be able to make savings off the other costs too, the US is THE best place to buy gear. What are your plans for shipping ? South America to South Africa and then North and East ?

__________________
Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca

One possible route is:

North America - Darien Gap - South America -> Africa -> Ride to Europe -> East across Russia -> SE Asia via Korea / Japan -> Indonesia -> Home.

Although I would very much like to find out if I can get from South America directly to Japan / Korea and from there up to Russia. Then west across Russia -> Europe -> Africa -> back up Africa -> somehow -> SE Asia -> Indonesia -> Home.

Hey Steve,

Cost wise the Easterly route will be more efficient and cheaper, heading West you will have 2 major shipping costs, but it is doable I'm sure to ship from South America to South Korea, get to Vlad and go West to Europe, Africa. To SE Asia might be a little trickier but you could go anti clockwise around Africa, head up to Kenya and Ethiopia, then head back South and maybe ship from Durban to Bangkok before heading home. You may run into problems bringing a US registered bike back into Australia as an Aussie citizen without a Carnet, look into that issue or sell the bike in Asia.


Re other points raised:

As for car type 12v power sockets, IME they do not work so well on thumpers, smooth multi cylinder bikes fine, but on thumpers you end up taping, cable tying, bodging plugs into sockets to keep a good connection and its easy to pop fuses or wreck sensitive electronics with poor intermittent connections. The BMW type plugs positively click in and don't rattle loose. Also if you have a Powerlet /BMW socket you can borrow all the shiny expensive gear the BMW crowd carry (compressors etc) when yours (and mine) breaks. Like I said, having a few different options is a good idea, one $25 socket and a couple of plugs isn't much cash on top of a $10,000 bike build, if you want to save money, buy a bike that has already been farkled up with someone else buying all the new parts and taking the hit with taxes and shipping. (that's normally me!)

Oil, buy motorcycle oil when you can, use car oil when you have to, Ive had to use Castrol car 10-40 oil in Bolivia, couldn't find any motorcycle oil anywhere, ran with no problems, just make sure it doesn't say 'energy saving' on the bottle (friction modifiers that will ruin the clutch) that's the beauty of the venerable old DR - they aren't too fussy with oil or gas!


16 tooth sprockets are good if you have to do long stretches of pavement, Nevil used one to ride across Europe and I believe Canada last year on his RTW, I wish id had one a few years ago for some long highway stretches in Chile. At 60 mph/100kmh with 14/42 sprockets the DR pulls 4500 rpm, with 16/42 it sits at 4000 rpm at the same speed or 70 mph/120 kmh at 4500rpm, less engine wear, better fuel economy or you can go a bit faster makes sense to me. If you are staying off highways/motorways don't use one, if you have to do a bunch of highway riding they work well. I have found with my DR keeping it at or under 4500 rpm is the cut off for better fuel economy.

This is how mine has ended up after 4 years of tweaking.....

I have the Pelican 1500 box mounted fairly well to the rear because we ride 2up, but its not too heavy or big and I like having at least one fairly secure storage, if I use a DR250 light it cant be seen so easily from any angle with the HT rear rack and indicator extensions, yes its big, but its also more visable, im running a stock tail light bulb with the Procycle LED plate light, toolbox holds compressor/tools/tyre levers. Pannier bags are Happy Trail Mojave which fit straight onto the HT SU pannier racks, they have an aluminium plate on the rear and 'pucks' so no straps over the seat, the same mounting system as the HT Teton aluminium panniers. Aerostitch tank panniers, Laminar B king screen with a removable MRA lip works ok, GSXR 40F0 can sounds sweeeeeeet........

__________________
Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca

Gippers your setup looks just like what I'm going for

Some great advice there re power let / BMW sockets, I'll adjust the list accordingly.

Did you find the storage space enough for two? I'd be looking at taking a small tent and the likest some stage, really don't want to end up with a bike drowning in luggage!

The pelican was used for expensive equipment I assume. Do anything crazy like run power to the box? And yes, I'm searching for a GSXR can, everything points towards it. May just have to wait till I'm closer to heading to the USA and try to buy one on eBay or the like, post it to a friends till I get there.

I've put up a post in route planning to try to get some more information for my route. It's all well and good to SAY I'll go here, here and here. But without any idea on how long regions will take it's hard to then plan where to go re the weather.

Cheers!

Hi Steve,


Check out some photos on our blog under 'trip prep' for photos of our SAmerica setup. For that trip we used the HT Teton ali panniers with 12v power going to the top box which worked ok.


Pretty much all of our trip was 2up, it sounds like the majority of your trip will be solo, so there's some compromises, all I can say is prep the bike to enjoy the longer solo part of your trip and when you ride 2up carry as little 'stuff' as you can.


The HT Mojave bags are OK for a solo rider, but IMO don't have enough volume for 2up extended travel. However if you can pack super light it would be ok for a while. But there are plenty of other larger soft bag options out there that would make 2up travel easier. I will be putting some footman loops on top of the Pelican case so I can have the tent tied on it for 2up - when we ride 2up we are not generally doing hardcore routes these days.


For charging electronics Id take a smaller camera and maybe a small tablet instead of a laptop/netbook and keep them in your tankbag and just put a USB outlet on your bars with the charge cable straight into the tankbag.


The tankbag goes with you when you leave the bike, so do you need a Peli case ? maybe not, but it is handy.......


Its better to have slightly larger panniers and keep the weight low and as close to the centre of the bike as possible instead of having a huge duffel bag high up on the tail. But if you do end up with a duffel/roll top bag on the tail, make sure only lightweight bulky stuff goes up there.


You could maybe start the trip with a Peli case and if you don't have enough room for the 2up part sell it or ship it home.....

__________________
Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca

I'll check out the setup section on your page, thanks mate.

I was looking at Magadan AS panniers. Seem to keep the weight low, and are relatively waterproof for when the bike is dropped in a river. It's going to happen I mean cmon.

Really hard to judge how much storage is needed at the moment, but that'll come once I start buying gear for the bike. Now that I've a complete list I'm definitely trying to cut down / downsize items on it. I'll hopefully have a pelicase on the rear at the most, light is key I believe.