Equipment

As mentioned before, we bought two brand new Suzuki DR650SE in Los Angeles. The Euro to Dollar exchange rate was quite favourable in the middle of 2008, so this option was way cheaper than shipping our own bikes.

For long distance travelling we equipped both bikes with 9.5” Teton pannier boxesand skid plates from www.happy-trail.com. The original tank was exchanged to an 20 litre IMS. As the stock suspension of the DR650’s is way too soft for riding with lots of luggage, we exchanged the front and rear springs to 10% firmer ones from www.kientech.com. The SAE W5 fork oil is exchanged to SAE W10 (up to 6” from the top without spring). The rear spring can be exchanged without taking the shock off the bike. Taking off the linkage one can pull the rear wheel up into the fender (use a baggage strap). Taking the tension off the spring the spring adapter slides out to the side and the spring can be taken out easily.

For Communication purpose we bought a radio communication set from the German motorcycle equipment supplier ‘Louis’. Those devices are meant to be carried within the jacket and run on AA batteries. For our purpose we attached the radios to the motorcycle. The main advantage is the simpler cabling. At the end there is only one cable from the bike to the helmet. All other cables are hidden behind the main headlight. The PTT button will be attached right next to the indicator button. To keep the units dry we put them into a Tupperware box (from emsa actually) and had the cables come out through a whole which had been sealed by silicone.
The main issue was the electricity supply. The original 12V supply cable is just a charger and not meant to run the device without batteries inside. The interferences of the bike and from the charger cable make communication almost impossible. Therefore we integrated a coil and a condensator into the 12V supply as shown in the sketch below. Through a voltage converter from 12V to 4,5V we connected some the supply cables directly in the battery compartment of the radios as shown in the pictures. Wit a configuration like that the communication is crystal clear, the PTT button is always at the optimal spot and there is only one cable to be handled when jumping on or off the bike.

For more information see our German blog on: