How much gear and spares?
 

I`m planning a route from Vladivostok to Europe through places like Kazakhstan and Ukraine as well as Russia and Europe. I`m keen to keep weight to a bare minimum.

Is it really necessary to take spare tyres for example? My bike is a DR-Z400 with brand-new factory-fitted Bridgestones. Is adequate just to take spare tubes and patches?

And what about new sprockets and chain? The bike is new and the route I`m taking is probably not more than 20,000km.

Is it feasible to get by with only a gearsack and a light backpack worth of luggage?

I`d appreciate any advice on these questions.

Hai,

I don't think you'll need to bring extra tire's. It depends a bit on the sort you use, MX-tires wear faster on tarmac then dual-purpose. In europe all tires are widely available.
The same goes with the chain and sprockets.

I would not travel with a backpack... it's very very tyring. better to use lugage-rolls and some sort of side-bag's (soft or hard)
Anyway, make sure the lugage is attache good and does not move around.

Have a safe journey

Maarten

hi,
i also plan to travel through ex-ussr
there's not much there if you have mechanical problems
think about spare parts, maybe tyres, if you blow one
don't carry something on your back !

i will have a big bag behind me on the saddle attached somewhere to the bike

safe travels

Hi there,

You should make sure that the sprockets on your new bike are steel, NOT aluminum! Suzuki tried to make a lightweight Dual-Sport bike and it's likely that using aluminum sprockets was one method they chose for keeping weight down. Aluminum sprockets will last only a fraction of what a good steel sprocket will. Krause Sprockets have a good reputation, but any steel sprocket from a major manufaturer will be sufficient.

As for the chain, my XR650L chain only lasted me 12,000 miles (almost exactly 20,000 km) of abuse before it exploded - and I knew I was pushing for the last 2000 miles. If you don't have room for an extra chain, BE SURE to carry a spare section of chain with masterlinks on either end and a chain breaker so that if your chain breaks, you can fit that spare section in. But most importantly, keep your chain well-oiled - you can never oil it too much.

My stock steel sprockets, on the other hand, looked like new after 12,00 miles even after a lot of dirt riding.

On my XR, the chain sliders on the swingarm and in the chain slider that drops down in front of the rear sprocket both wear out quickly. I get about 4-5000 miles out of them, and letting the chain grind through the bolts or the swingarm is clearly not an option. I would bring extras of those or send some to a location you know you'll be passing through, cause you certainly won't find replacements those easily. They're small and lightweight, so mailing them would be cheap and carrying them wouldn't take a lot of space.

Also, it's very dangerous to ride with a backpack full of hard objects. If you crash, spare parts or tools could puncture your back. If you must ride with a backpack (which you shouldn't do as mentioned above by Maarten, it's very fatiguing) only keep spare clothes and other light, soft objects in it. Ideally, it should be light enough that you barely feel it on your back if you wear one at all.

Best of luck! Have you fitted an aftermarket seat? That stock seat looks awfully painful for extended trips!

Wright

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Wright Bagwell
http://www.geocities.com/wwbagwell/

Wright, what would you use to oil youre chain with when you can't find anything that looks like the stuff we are used too?

I carry a small plastic bottle of used motor oil with a flip-top nozzle when I'm out on the trail for an extended period of time.

I'm sure that real chain lube is better, but I really don't want to carry aerosol cans on my bike with me. Too much chance that the cap will get knocked off and squirt out all the lube. Besides, would you really want to carry several bulky and heavy cans of chain lube through remote sandy or muddy places where your chain is going to get most severely abused? You'd have to take a whole lot of chain lube!

Anyone have a more clever solution?
Wright

Hai there,

I mounted a scott-oiler. For those who don't know it: It's a reservoir with chain-oil which automaticly oils the chain when the enigine is running

There is a "magnum" reservoir which is mounted behind the licensplate.

To make it bomb-proof I have put the (plastic) oil-line in a aluminium tube and made the moving bend (from frame to rear-fork) in a RVS-flexibel water-hose. (looks just like RVS-flex-hose, but costs only 1/10th of it http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif)

I don't exactly know what the "milage" is, but the manual say's 1000 Km on the normal reservoir (the magnum is 4 time as big I think)

Filling is easy and clean.

Maarten

Maarten,

Sounds great but I find the scottoiler rather exspensive. Also I have heard it gets clocked up when used off road. And can you refill the reservoir with just anything or only one kind of oil? The ones I have seen had to be refilled with expensive removable reservoirs.
Can't we get it more simple?

Hai Pieter,

The scott-oiler can be filled with just about anything... (oil would be best http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/wink.gif)
But... you are right, it's rather expensive for such a simple device.
I have heared there is an other brand, but don't know what it is.
Getting clogged during off-road seems unlikely to me, but I have no real experiance with it.
I do often see the oil-line hanging loose on off-road bike's, this is why I made it bomb-proof.

I guess you could make something like it yourself.. it's a simple concept.

Drive safe

Maarten

Scottoiler or similar isn't that expensive really - cheaper (?) than a chain & sprocket set & I've had 20,000 miles on a F650 & it had a lot of mileage left in it! Never clogged with mud. Use it with any engine oil. Fill & forget.
You could take a rear tyre but even in the middle of nowhere you should be able to find something to fit a 400 trailie. Especially as you seem to be heading towards civilisation - by the time it needs replacing you should be able to get something.

Cheers
Tim

In dusty (off-road) conditions it's better to use no oil or grease.Keep your O-ring chain dry in that conditions.

Freek (NL)

has anyone heard of a `loobman` oiler? its very simple and basic.it is just a small plastic bottle of oil you ziptie somewhere handy to get to while riding.from it is a thin tube going down to the chain like a scottoiler.as you ride along, you squeeze the bottle a little and it oils the chain. its about 20GBP here i think, but its so simple i would think its easily made.

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dave

We used to - waaaaayyy back when long before o-ring chains - use a small plastic bottle that Suzuki made for 2-stroke oil on their mx'ers, and a gas tap (or any inline valve) in the line which went straight to the chain. Just adjust the tap to the right position to get the right drip. Fiddly, and if you got it wrong you'd empty the tank in an hour onto your jacket...

Cheap and effective. But I think I'd pay for a Scottoiler myself...

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Grant Johnson

Share the Dream!
at: www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Thanks for all the excellent advice. I'm intrigued by Freek's suggestion of running the chain dry in dusty conditions. When I worked on a station in Australia, we ran all the agricultural bikes with dry chains - I was told by the station-owner that the chains last longer this way.

Has anyone else tried this?

I've ran an o ring chain now for 18000km without oil as I was always off road in the dust. It's still in good condition. Now and then I clean it with parrafin/kerrosine and oil it only when the bike is in storage to stop rust.
The bike is a 125 2 stroke but this doesnt make any difference, when in the dust, oil turns to grinding paste.
Scott oilers are good for the tarmac and worth the money, I get about 800km on the standard oil container, less in the rain when the flow rate has to be turned up. Highly recomended!
Andy

If Freek's suggestion of riding a chain dry in dusty conditions is correct it is obviously the most simple and easy way to go. But it sounds so strange and contrary?????
Who has experience with this on a long distance trip? And can you try this with just any o-ring chain (for ex: the standard Honda one that is installed on a Transalp).
I would really appreciate some more opinions on this intriging approach;

I'd agree with freek - in extremely dry/dusty conditions keep an o-ring chain dry. Yes you will get more wear than a well-oiled chain would in good conditions, but oil and dust makes a good grinding paste, so it's the lesser of two evils.

I would keep the speed down a little too. Flat out in top with a dry chain - not a good idea.

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Grant Johnson

Share the Dream!
at: www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

The stock aluminum rear sprocket, and O-ring chain on the Suzuki are of good quality. I have a 2001 DRZ400e with just over 9000km, many of wich are in off-road, and muddy situations and I am happy to say that the chain, and sprockets show no signs of wear. It did stretch a bit at first, but I havn't had to adjust the chain tension for a long time. I think you will be happy with the DRZ. It is verry nimble off road, yet it will out run bikes bigger than it on the street. I strongly recomend you install a set of aftermarket radiator gaurds. Dropping the bike the wrong way can bend, and even puncture the radiators. I have bent a rad myself, but I havn't herd of anyone damaging radiators with gaurds. You might want to look into modifying the seat, or purchasing the optional gel seat. On my bike I find that I have to stand every half hour or so, and at the end of the day I'm sore. I've been told that covering the seat with a sheepskin works well, but I think the problem lies in the fact that the seat is narrow. My bike has proven to be extreamly reliable, with nothing going wrong to date.

Sam

http://www.chainoiler.co.uk/

I think this is what was being discussed earlier.

Whatever you decide to use - avoid the CHAINTEC (if still available) - IMHO it's a complete POS.

I wanted a Scottoiler in late 97 to fit to my GSX-R11 & thought I'd save a few £££ by buying the Chaintec, it's motion operated & supposed to be flow adjustable. The instructions recommended that you drill & tap in to your swingarm to retain one of the components - no way, especially when I had a Spondon Banana arm fitted. The flow was adjustable, either on or off & I had no control over it - complete waste of time & money.

Steve

Just ordered a Loobman oiler, £16 here in the UK. I'm off to Morocco at the weekend, so hopefully it'll arrive in time. It's not a continuous oiler, you have to squeeze the oil bottle to push some oil to the chain. I found ScotOilers to be too complicated and fussy trying to get the correct oil flow. And my back tyre always ended up with a coating round the rim. I don't mind manually oiling the chain, it's just a hassle. So hopefully the loobman is somewhere in between the two. I'll post back once we're home again on how it goes.

Yes, I had a similar experience of Chaintech - but mine very rarely worked from new. A shame, because it should have worked well being such a simple design. They may have been £20 cheaper than a Scotoiler, but the fact they don't seem to be around any more probably speaks volumes.

I have a friend who has (what I think is) a Loobman. That doesn't seem to work very often either, and I would go for a Scottoiler every time in preference. Scottoilers are not really difficult to fit and, even if you get all or nothing when trying to adjust the flow (as I do), they are still worth the extra money. At least in my opinion. Still, off road the chain does seem to attract a lot of dirt, although, unlike that disgusting spray "lube", it does at least get washed off by fresh oil!

Stig

How about chain enclosures? I have an 81 GS(X)1100E that I'd dearly like to get one for but such a product is non-existant in North America. I've seen them on GSX1100s in other markets like Australia and the UK. Does anybody know where I could get one or who manufactures them for other bikes?

Cheers, Steve

Modern 'O' and 'X' ring chains don't need oiling as such - the 'o' ring within the links retains the oil used to lubricate the pin that runs through the inside of the links. Any oil you put on the outside of an o-ring chain shouldn't penetrate into the links - if it does then the original oil can also get out and the chain will wear (stretch) quite quickly. In my experience o-ring chains last for ages and then suddenly stretch up to the limit of the chain adjuster within a thousand kms (or so) as the o-rings fail and the lubricant escapes.

So, the chain's 'bendiness' will not suffer if you run it dry.



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Barry
3AJ Tenere

Keep in mind that also the contact between chain and sprocket needs so lubrication.

Maarten

I lubricated my "x-ring" chain at the point where links are in contact with the sprocket.

Continued for 7000 kms. and didnt have to adjust the chain not even once.

I previously thought that the lubricant used at that "links innersides" was also penetrating to small "x-rubbers" at the outer side of the links and was enough.

But come to think of it maybe its how barry said. Anyway, i agree at lubricating the inner side of the links is enough.