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.
What's your DR like, then? I'd be interested to hear your comments.
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Originally Posted by Drew
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