Famo Adventure Motorcycling Guide

Equipment

General Accessories

As you can see below, my preparations for the trip ended up amassing a big pile of adventure equipment, possibly the funnest stuff I’ve ever had to go out and buy! Sourcing all of this gear (including the bits attached to the bike) involved a small amount of struggle, but wasn’t too difficult. If you can buy online and have things delivered directly to your door, it’s probably a cheaper way to do it, however you can’t beat the feeling of going into a motorcycle store, looking at everything you might want to buy, and half an hour later asking the salesperson where to find the thing you actually need. I love the challenge of finding things myself, even in the supermarket, even if it’s tinned tuna – who knows what you might find hidden amonst the shelves! In the end, half of what I took ended up being sent home in boxes from outback Australian towns. Hopefully next time I’ll be much better prepared to go a lot less prepared….

Storage:

Happy Trails aluminium side panniers
45L Jesse top box

60L Ortlieb dry bag
30L Ortlieb dry bag
5L jerry can for fuel

I stowed my tent in a small Ortlieb dry bag and my clothes in a large one. I spent most of my time riding with these directly behind me, creating a makeshift back-rest for those long journeys. These bags are incredibly tough and survived many many scrapes (some along the hard ground going 30km/hr), check out the Ortlieb site for more options.

Camping Gear:

Eureka 2-man tent – had this for years, has done me months of camping so far
Hallmark Adventure lite II synthetic sleeping bag
3/4 length Thermarest inflatable matress
3L Camelbak army bladder
2L Platypus water bladder
1L Nalgene water bottle
500ml Nalgene bottle (full of Jamaican rum courtesy of Steve and Tatiana)
2-3 changes of clothes only
Sandals – Chacos or something comfortable for when not riding – my chacos lasted until India, where I accidentally left them on my panniers and rode off. When I pulled up only one had survived
First Aid Kit
Coleman Petrol Stove
Water Filter (Actual need for one of these highly debatable)
Thermos flask not needed

Compas

Tool Kit and Spares

Spanners etc were replaced by smaller socket set in Thailand
A couple of spare tubes, air filter, cables, oil filters etc
I had a tool roll made in Bangkok for about $10 out of canvas from a market, I still have it and use it

Bike Fit-Out

Buy a Clymer manual and give it a read!

Most of the luggage and accessories i added to the KLR650 came from the folks at Happy Trails in the US. This included their engine protection bars (PD – Paris Dakar nerf bars) and the fork brace. I chose to buy the SU rear racks because they appeared to be the most rugged option; combined with the Owyhee panniers in textured silver, they were more than adequate for the 12 month journey. I ditched the bike multiple times and was surprised at how strong they were. Buying a pannier with a beveled edge is a good idea as it won’t rip the entire thing off when you fall off while moving, if you’re only going to drop the bike when it’s stationary then it doesn’t really matter. Neither are recommended practices but the latter you’ll have more chance of surviving. The top box was bought from a reseller on the Sunshine Coast.

The Happy Trails KLR650 page is here >>

The panniers required a small amount of indicator rearrangement.

I did the doohickey upgrade before I left. I took it to the mechanic at Pro Kawasaki at Slacks Creek in Brisbane (where I bought the bike) and showed him the part. He said it was a good idea and that he’d seen a couple of busted ones in his life.

The Doohickey came from this site >>

My brother in law and I took the suspension apart before I left and we re-greased the swingarm and gave everything a good clean and lube-up.

The information on how to do this is online at this page >>

I did this procedure once again in bangkok, and back in Brisbane after I returned from the trip. Both times the old grease seemed fine, however there was a little bit of rust on the rear axle. The procedure, if you just want to take it apart, grease it, and put it back together again takes about two hours. If you want to clean and degrease everything and/or you are hungover, put aside about six hours.

I purchased an aftermarket Hel braided brake line from the Kawasaki dealer at Slacks Creek, which seemed to harden up the brake feel quite a lot. i also went along to the bolt shop in Enoggera and bought a handful of 12.9 hardness M10 bolts for the subframe to ensure it didn’t shear under the mega weight. I’m glad I did this because when it was at it’s most loaded (me plus my luggage plus Jacqueline plus her luggage plus her guitar…) there could have been some issues.

I took a lot of info from the KLR650 FAQ >>.

Some of the things listed on the Big Cee FAQ came true while I was riding, and the fact that they were written up eased my mind when it seemed things were going badly. My bike shed a fastener holding the exhaust pipe to the subframe, but I heard it rattling around before the whole exhaust fell off so i fixed the problem in time. When I arrived back in Brisbane there were two or three recall notices from Kawasaki stating that they have had a problem with a torque setting on a fastener holding the exhaust to the subframe and it could cause the exhaust to detatch.

Make sure your mum fits too!