Hello there Ladies and Gents,

Steve from Australia here. LONG time lurker on the forums here. I’ll hopefully be around here for quite some time, as come December I’ll be shipping a DR650 to South America and starting a rtw trip of approximately two years!

Aims:
The Bike – Lightweight & Reliability, will hopefully be able to handle any trail / offroad section.
The trick? I’m trying to configure my luggage setup to allow for a passenger (on paved roads) for periods of up to a week or two.

The Trip – Exploration of all those places I’ve seen on the many blogs here, focusing on meeting people from all walks of life, all cultures, and hopefully I’ll get to use my TEFL qualification to teach English on the odd occasion. No time limit bar the weather, following the sun.



Right now I’m still at the planning stage, hopefully I’ll be picking up a decent DR650 in the next 4 weeks and preparation can begin in earnest with a gluttonous wave of online ordering my credit card will absolutely love.

I’ve put together a list (wishlist maybe) and would really appreciate any info from the experienced crew on here. I’ve put up a mirrored post on advriders/horizonsunlimited.

This list is mainly about the bike and equipment, still to come is a list regarding visas / border crossings / events or POI’s / website, blogging and general route planning.

I’d really appreciate any comments on any of the listed items below, early stages still so many changes are bound to occur. (yes, it’s obviously unfinished regarding riding gear / camping)

Thanks all,

Steve

and here it is...

1. ELECTRONICS
1. Trailtech Vapor Speedo
MX1 Australia - Product Details
2. For above – need dash?
MX1 Australia - Product Details
3. GPS / Mounting – Gamin Montana 650
4. 12v / auxiliary power – check shortwayround for info.
5. Headlight – replace bulb?
H4 Kits - relay kit.
6. Spotlights – 10 watt LED
DR650 Aux light mounts - ADVrider
7. flexible buell indicators – LED?
8. Battery – Shorai Li-Iron?
9. Grip heaters
VSM Vince Strang Motorcycles DR650 Grip Heaters
10. Stator
Suzuki DR650 Parts, Accessories, & Performance - ProCycle


2. MECHANICAL ETC

1. Carby – Stock? Breather vent tubes?
2. Airbox?
07 DR650 Kientech airbox mod ? - ADVrider
3. Oil filter – Scotts stainless reusable
4. + In line fuel filter?
5. Braided brake lines – front only
VSM Vince Strang Motorcycles DR650 Brakes
6. Stator rewire???
7. Rear suspension – Rebuild OEM shock
8. Front? Big job to swap forks. Req? Maybe just –
9. Sprocket? Two x
10. Auto chain oiler
Scottoiler
11. Remove chain roller
12. Output shaft seal – retainer fitted
13. Remove clutch and side stand safety switches
14. Chain – Swap ?
15. Magnetic sump plug
16. Tool kit
17. Spares
18. Wheel bearings
19. Cush drive bearing
20. Change above to sealed?
21. Rimlock

3. BODY
1. Strip and weld gussets to subframe / luggage rack – Paint / Powdercoat?
2. Safari Tank - 30L
Suzuki DR650SE 30 litres | Safari Tanks - Safari Tanks
Replace ally brace with steel
3. Bark Busters
4. Bars – Pro Taper CR High Rise
5. Remove Speedometer
6. Build new plate for dash?
7. Side stand – weld wider plate
8. Bash plate – B&B
B&B Off-Road - Suzuki DR650 Bashplate
9. Windscreen – screensforbikes
Suzuki DR 650 96-14 � Screens For Bikes
10. Custom seat – Sargent
Sargent World Sport Adventure Touring Seat Suzuki DR650 1996-2009,2011-2013 - RevZilla
11. Engine case armour?
Suzuki DR650 Parts, Accessories, & Performance - ProCycle
12. Replace rear wheel? 18inch?
DR350 interchangeability wheel question. : General DR650 Discussion
13. Change out rim tape – check shortwayround

4. LUGGAGE
1. Top - Pelican 1600
Pelican 1500 with Foam Black
Need to work out size
2. Run power to pelican?
3. Luggage plate for top box?
B&B Off-Road - DR650/DRZ400 Luggage Plate
Wolfman Suzuki DR 650 Top Rack
4. Tank Panniers – Soft
5. Rack to mount above
6. Tankbag – Waterproof / Backpack conversion

5. CLOTHING
1. 3 Synthetic T-shirts
2. 2 Light Trousers
3. 3 Pairs Socks
4. 2 Long Sleeve Shirts
5. 3 Underwear Shorts
6. 2 Casual Shorts
7. 1 Pair of 4 Season Socks
8. 1 Water-proof Jacket
9. 1 Sandals (Teva)
10. 1 Thongs
11. 1 Runners / Hiking boots


6. RIDING GEAR

7. CAMPING

8. PERSONAL
1. Cameras, lots of cameras.

9. What the?
1. Swingarm water tank?
2. Passenger setup!
3. Hidden storage – key / money etc.


Links
Parts + Accessories + Performance = ProCycle
VSM Vince Strang Motorcycles DR650 Shop

Sounds like a good plan ... and a very comprehensive list of mods. Some I would do, some I would skip. My DR is at 55,000 miles (88K kms), done 6 Mexico rides (Cent. Am. and Baja). Also ridden Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Idaho and all over California. It's a 2006, still doing well.

There is SO MUCH information about the bike ... bit overwhelming. Learn what you can, set her up best you can ... most of all ... Have Fun!

I'm sure you've thought of costs ...one big expense will be shipping your bike from Oz to S. America. Maybe $2k ? when all said and done?

Seems like you prefer to do full prep on your bike while you're still at home? fair enough. But you could buy a new-ish, low mileage DR650 used in the USA for around $3K to $4K usd and save on the shipping. Just ride South from USA.

Many used DR's here will already have MANY of the items you list. If you can find a place to hang out for a couple weeks (free?) ...
you could probably do some of the up grades and add ons to the bike you buy. ProCycle and others would have everything you might need and shipping is 2 days away. So ... just an idea. Plenty of lightly used DR's here for reasonable prices.

To learn everything about the DR650 and the many mods out there ... go to the BIG ADV Rider thread:
the DR650 thread - ADVrider
A huge thread. But go on, ASK if you need to find something or need a tutorial or just need advice. LOTS of good DR guys there, including a few Aussies and Kiwis who really know their stuff and know the DR well!

Also try the Bike Specific thread on the DR. More specific info on the DR:
ADVrider - View Single Post - DR650SE information index- what say ye?

The last forum is a DR650 one, less useful and not very active but you can get good info:
www.DRRiders.com

Hope you're trip comes off as planned. Let me know if you have questions about the DR. My bike is lightly modified but has worked out well for travel.

Steve,

Glad to hear you're considering a DR. Mollydog has a good point about buying a stock one (or travel prepped one) outside of Oz too.
I guess that decision will be yours in the long Run.
In the meantime, please check out our RTW trip from Last year at Round the World 2013 on motorbikes .....or better still, i have started listing the mods to my DR at MotoExped - Bike build .....i still have a long way to go with that bike build blog but i hope it helps you out a little mate.
If you have any questions please PM me or email me from the Motoexped site and I will happily reply

Kindest regards

Nevil
MotoExped - Home
Round the World 2013 on motorbikes
Nevil | Nevil Stow | Travel Blog

Steve,

Also check out my buddy Gipper's site at Gippers Travels .
He has a wealth of knowledge on DR's too.

Hope this helps

Nevil

We are currently on tour in South America. For what it is worth, have a look at our bike prep list:

DR650 Modifications List - Trans-Continental Mambo

We are running a little on the heavy side and would lighten things up in the future in terms of gear but our trip has mostly been a paved road trip. A few strong opinions:

* signal lights: I haven't tried everything but my partners old DR came with DRC LED signals on the rear and they were terrible in terms visibility compared to amber stock. We switched them back to stock. Current bikes are stock but since we are running Pelican cases there is little chance of breaking them. I know about the Buell's but have not experience with them.

* lots of people on DR forums push the tail light (DRZ) mod. Partner's old DR came with this mod. It sucked big time with duffel bag and Pelican cases (at least in our case) and a mod that I definitely avoided on our current builds - even using a brake modulator. Yes, the stocker is fragile I would rather figure out how to reinforce it than do the DRZ mod since it really detracts from visibility (or can, depending on setup). I believe that Tuckers to TDF (on ADV) also reported that they regretted this mod for safety reasons. If your setup isn't obscuring the tail light, maybe not a big issue.

* Horn: I am a big believer in upgrading the horn. On my KLR I used a Stebel nautilus but it seems sensitive to altitude (or perhaps it was damaged). Never was 100% during Andean sections (South America trip #1) and sounded like a dying duck at times. It failed eventually (perhaps from not using a vent tube) and was replaced. Was having trouble fitting Stebel on DR so are using PIAA Sports horn. Not bad. Not as loud Stebel but much better than stock. We use our horns quite regularly in these parts

* LED aux lights: We have a decent set of LED auxiliary lights. We use these for the occasional night driving where situations permit, but also for daytime use *lots* for warning flashes, or just *on* like today, a national holiday, with parades of impatient drivers passing each other dangerously. Because of the LEDs, we haven't bothered with any expensive bulb replacements. I had an expensive PIAA headlamp and it died a quick death compared to simple, stock bulb. Not impressed. We have had no bulb failures to date on any bulb.

Note that is some parts of the world, people just don't drive with the lights on, even motorcycles, even at night. It is just the culture. It may well be the case that if one was to "overdo" the stock lighting you might end up having people flashing you all of the time as they are politely trying to inform you "that you have your high beams on". Beyond this being annoying, it could add interference to this flashing of the lights communicating, such as speed traps, cows on the road, etc. Similarly, when I run my LEDs during the day, I get flashed constantly here is Latin America. In North America, I rarely get flashed. Food for thought, anyways.

Also, I experimented with LED tail light replacement bulbs, and from the ones I tried, I wasn't impressed. I had both fitment and visibility issues compared to stock.

I regularly run a heated jacket (90W) and heated grip elements, and sometimes with LED lights and really haven't had a lot of electrical capacity issues. We do have the upgraded stator. I was "worried" about capacity issues and consider converting everything to LED but, in practice, not really necessary.

* Center stand. A controversial topic. I had toyed with the idea of using one of the "stilts" solutions for changing flats but I am glad that I went with a center stand. It is useful for flats, working on the bike, etc. We use them almost everyday for packing, and for parking the bike in tighter places (in fact, using the center stands as I write which made the hostal operators happier since it saves space) . IMHO, worth the weight, but other have different opinions.

* Some sort of chain auto-oiler? Daily chain maintenance can be tedious. Using a spray can, especially w/o a center stand is going to get old very quickly.

Also:

* Handle bars: you list a preferred style. Perhaps you have already sorted out your preference. If so, good for you! I went through 4 or 5 bars before I found the "correct" one, which includes for and aft positioning with Rox-Risers. Bar ergonomics was probably the most finicky aspect of my setup. I am glad I spent the time as I can ride pretty much all day w/o discomfort. I don't think my partner got her setup "quite right" - it is close but she complains sometimes about a sore wrist, shoulders, etc. I say this as someone who has had repetitive injuries to my throttle wrist and was quite susceptible to pain. For example, when bought this DR a couple of summers ago and road it home for 2.5 hours, my wrist was *not* happy (neither was my butt) and probably hurt the next day still. Today we just finished a 6hr/500km ride and besides a bit of fatigue from wind blast (might choose a bigger windscreen next time), I could barely tell that I had been riding for a good chunk of the day. I tend to avoid 12 hour ride days nowadays

* foot peg lowering. I am about 6 feet tall. I am using the ProCycle foot peg lowering brackets. I don't know if I would have chosen to use a DR as a travel bike if I wasn't able to lower the foot pegs. This, of course, is absolutely personal opinion but something to consider if you are on the taller side. I lost the rubber vibration dampers due to this mod but never give it a second thought.

* Montana GPS: I have this one. It is "OK" but not w/o issues. It reboots sporadically (way to often for me to be impressed), and zoom and some other functions are a PITA (!!!) as calibration is never quite right. I have my partner my refurbished Zumo 550 and am a bit envious of how well it functions compared to the finicky Montana. That said, the Montana has a lot of nice things about it. I would consider shelling out for a Toura-Tech mount. I have never used it but the damping effect and security features are a peace of mind. If you don't go this route, perhaps consider the locking RAM mount knob. Using this and the security torx security screw you have "decent" security in terms of "grab and go" scenarios. How many people carry around a security torx screw driver? You can probably safely run to the gas/petrol station bathroom without much fear.

That said, I can suggest a useful mod to their powersports cradle. In my experience, the Montana was getting vibrated to its death on the DR with a RAM mount. It is conjecture, I suspect that I ran a fair risk of having the unit fail due to vibration. I couldn't go above about 100km an hour without having warnings about a loose battery, which I did cushion with some foam. What I eventually did was buy four rubber isolating mounts to screw between the RAM mounts and cradle. They work like a charm. They are little rubber cylinders with male/female fasteners. Similar to these. Looking at photos, they look to be the same as what the Touratech mount uses but the cost was about USD$10 for all - and took 5 minutes to install and I am *very* happy with the results and have vastly improved the vibrations. The GPS tends "flop" around a bit heavy corrugation with this mod, but I suspect that overall it is "healthier" than to have it "buzz to death" over the long run.

* Spares: it depends where you are going and availability will, of course, change depending on location. Some things like bulbs and bearing can be found "everywhere". These are common items. Maybe consider bringing one of each for road-side failure, and replenish ASAP. Other things like parts for your brakes (rebuild kit), fork and damper/shock internals are harder to find. For example, we have Cogent Dynamics rebuilt shocks. We are carrying the internals for a full (or close to) rebuild. The labour can be found (even if a Skype call has to be made to the vendor for specifics) but parts are obscure. Luckily, the Progressive shock on my KLR (previous trip) began to leak once that bike was back in Canada instead of abroad as I had no parts and this would have been a real PITA to deal with.

Feel free to add ask questions.

That's my CDN$0.02.

Hi Steve. We are sitting here in Buenos Aires waiting to ship two DR650s back to North America. Are hanging out with one dude who is from Sydney and got into talking. From the looks of things with Vince Strang, did you know that that Aussie made items such as Pivot Pegz and the DR 650 Safari tank, and probably Bark Busters, are *cheaper* to buy in the US than Aussie! We might be missing something here, but you might want to shop around a bit

That's interesting, good to know. I'd heard local Police were using DR's in places ... but things change. Some HUBB members (Ecuadorians and Colombians) claim there is now a Suzuki assembly plant in Colombia. I heard they are putting DL650's and DR's together for regional sale ... but can't confirm. It would be a shame if no parts are around for your DR's.

Yes, this confirms what i've heard too. I would hope to be able to get hold of common expendables: Tires, tubes, battery, brake pads and perhaps get some welding or repairs done if required.

I'm sure your stock tail light will be fine ... I've seen a couple guys break them off riding off road ... and the separation issue is a pain. I don't use LED (maybe I should?) bulbs in tail light or signals. Just stock.
Conspicuity is important for sure!

Tuckers:
As you say "... on a mission". Sounded to me like they suffered mightily the whole trip and just wanted to get it done, get all the passport stamps and get back to Orange County and their swimming pool. I stopped following them early on once I saw their travel style.

Good comments on Horns. YES, at times you need them .. and in certain cultures they are essential! It's just tough to mount a big one on the DR, a couple have failed after a year or two or rough going off road ... actually in the last 5 years I've lost 3 horns ... GONE ... never noticed them fall off. GONE. Back to high quality Disc horns.
HID don't often fail ... especially good for the DR as they use LESS watts and give LOTS more light. Beam pattern is perfect and if aimed properly, no one flashes me!
I hate HOT, high amp "Super Bulbs". Your 3 prong plug will melt. I've not burnt a bulb in 55K miles. (tail light or signal either .. just one speedo light)

Yes, in Thailand oncoming traffic coming at you .. expect you to move over and ride along the 2 ft. wide pedestrian path ... or in the Paddy! Unbelievable .. but just standard practice there.
Warm & Safe are nice, and very well made. But are not the Warmest and draw 90 watts. For the DR, this is a concern. My Gerbing jacket is warmer than W&S ... draws 77 watts. (I have both) W&S have a new one ... 60 or 65 watts I heard.

Very smart to shut off accessories before arrival! (I do the same) Sounds to me like that extra 50 watts on your stator are working well. Do be aware ... try not to stress out your Batt too much in remote area.
I don't carry a Tri-Pod stand. I just stand the bike more or less straight on side stand and clean and oil a section at a time, moving bike a bit after each oiling ... or sometimes just adding a bit of oil. If really cleaning I remove left pannier for access to chain/wheel. I used a stand for a while, not needed.

But for long travel, a center stand is best.

Exactly!
Clean is good ... especially around the drive line, wheels and tires.
All critical day to day essentials to keep an eye on.
Great point about Carpal Tunnel. This is something I am always explaining to riders. Sounds like you guys are very well tuned into this ... it will pay BIG dividends on those too long days. I was a microphone Boom operator on TV/Movies for 10 years ... Carpal Tunnel is also an issue doing that job ... I also rode sport bike for years ... until I couldn't!

Not sure. I think I just pulled it out of thin are ... but I have ridden plenty of 12 hour days, but usually shoot for 10 hours. Going at a slower pace is always better, unless crossing Colorado, Nevada or Montana or trying to out run a storm or on a deadline.

Slowly is always better, no question. But it's good to have the endurance and ability to go long if you should have to.
YES! If you can manage to get your screen smooth and quiet ... then it's ALL GOOD. With me and the DR, I've do mostly HOT weather riding ... so a screen there blocks cooling air ... but you're right .. for Canada or the Andes ... a screen would be a luxury ... maybe a life saver. I've ridden through snow in our California Sierra many times as well as in Colorado ... a screen would have been welcomed.

I had a very similar DR650 shopping list for a lap around Sth America last year.

I have more info on what worked FOR ME if you want more info. Everyone I met travelled differently and had different ideas on what worked, so keep looking around and getting ideas and you will sort it out. Plenty of good opinions so far!

here is my opinion

A little late to the party but there may be something here that helps...

Final incarnation...



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