My wife and I are heading to South America on a 2006 V Strom 1000 (14000 miles). After returning from a 40 day ride in Mexico, I did the 14000 mile maintenance schedule. With my limited experience, I tackled the maintenance to learn about the bike. Everything went well. I replaced air filter, cleaned gas tank and gas filter, adjusted valve clearances, changed the brake and clutch fluid, changed the chain (DID), added new front and rear sprockets, all new light bulbs, and a Centech fuse block, adjusted TBS and TPS, and checked the codes. Before the trip I will change tires (Tourance), replace brakes (1/2 used), and add a new battery. We ride two up and will stick to the main roads, for the most part. Therefore:
1. Would you put new seals in the front forks or take a set with you?
2. What back up parts would you take? I have the old chain, old brakes, and old sprockets. All of them appear to be in very good condition. I intended to take them as back up. I have extra master links, throtle cable, bulbs, and fuses. Any commets on that and any recommendations as to other parts?
3. Our trip will be from September thru March. We will not be heading to the southern tip of Argentina, this time. We will ride up to Cusco and Lake Titicaca. We will cross from Santiago, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina. Given this limited exposure is electrical gear necessary? It appears that adding electrical jackets (2x75 watts=150) for warmth will tax the V Stroms electrical system. It appears the maximum watts left is only 150. The only added electrical components are a small volt meter and 2 - 12v DC plugs (for jackets, if purchased). What has been your experience?

Taking the old chain and sprocket set will add quite a bit of weight. You should have plenty of warning when these parts are wearing. Do you think you could find somewhere on the trip to post these part to before you leave? The other thing is, with a chain lubricator fitted (LoobMan or ScottOiler or similar, my fav is the LoobMan) and working, you should get 25,000-40,000km from a set. Do you intend riding further then that?
You spares list is pretty good I would think. Add a set of spare wheel bearing, front and rear, and think about putting a new set of steering head bearings in the bike, or take a set with you. At the very least, you should grease and tension the old ones before you go.
Take brake seals kits with you, and pack grease under the rubber bellows cover on the rear master cylinder to stop the shaft rusting and damaging the outer seal.
Fork seals are light. Take a set rather than messing with the forks. One thing you can do if you are getting really anal about the preparation is to rotate the fork tubes by 90 deg in the sliders to even up the wear.

You picked a good bike for the trip. The only common complaint about them is the lack of ground clearence, so some sort of under engine guard is a good idea.

Regards

Nigel in NZ

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You may get cold down there and the heated gear is nice.
the DLs have little extra power for heated gear and I know of no good way to get more. But you can save some with LED brake lights and shutting off one of the head lights. There are some good kits made and you can make your self one if you need to. Cool kit here. Suzuki VStrom Electrics

You add a fuse box so it will be easy to add other bits as you need them.

You can go LED all the way around and save more more power and not take the bulbs with you.
You may want to look at that rear shock
And brake pads are good to have (my rear go at 15 to 20k)
oil filter (never know when you can get them)
no do not take a chain set with you I have 25,000 miles on mine and looks like I can get 20k more on it. have a bit extra chain with you and a chain brake tool saves pushing the bike if you foul the chain.

Some things you can do if your itching to do something to the bike.
fork brace and up grade the oil.
new rear shock
1 tooth up fro the rear sprocket
madstad brackets for the windshield
new seat
hand guards
a cig lighter plug for air pump
big nasty horn

All the above is excellent advice, esp taking fork seals. I rode my '07 DL1000 from NY to TDF and that's the only problem I had. One thing I would add is to install some sort of fork gaiters, to keep dirt from collecting on your fork stanchions and runining your seals and maybe scaoring your fork tubes. I made some up on the trip using a rag and some zip ties, but they worked! This is simple and, I think, important. Have a great trip!!

I want to thank everyone for their help.

Greetings Joe

I'm a convert to heated vests and I would take them on your trip if I could, but, I think you might be right about not having enough power for two heated vests if this website is correct (electrical specs about halfway down the page)

Suzuki V-Strom DL 1000 / DL 650 Info and Accessories

I'm assuming that the DL1000 and the DL650 have the same electrical system specs but that is an assumption on my part. Please confirm this yourself.

If you have a voltmeter fitted directly across the battery you could try and test ride the bike at road cruising RPMs while wearing both vests and see if the charging voltage is significantly lower than when the vests are not being used. I don't know what is the "correct" charging voltage for a Vstrom but on my bike (r100gspd) it would be around 13.8 volts. The GS doesn't have a very good charging system so we would turn our heated vests off while travelling through towns or similar.

On our trip we only had lightweight jackets (Joe Rocket Alterego 2) as we planned (planned!, how I laugh) to be travelling through warmer climates, or so we thought.

We ended up buying these lightweight fleece jackets to wear under our bike jackets or as a jacket around camp, etc.

Mountain Hardwear: Synthetic : Compressor PL Jacket

These jackets are warm, light weight, windproof and packs down into one of it's own pockets so it takes up very little room. They are not designed to be rainproof and the shell material used is very thin so it is not "tearproof" but out of all the toys we bought for the trip this was one of the best, I'll definitely be taking it with me on the next trip.

Oh they aren't cheap either!

I rode a bike across the altiplano in southern Peru a few years ago and it was very cold (I think we got up to +3400 metres??) this was in October-November from memory, and it was windy, so warm riding gear is a must.

I second the comments from both Nigel and DL, especially about the chain/spockets/scottoiler and the Big Nasty Horn. Get one that's loud. It will save your life one day.

Are you planning on taking any spare engine oil? A 2 litre container mounted on a rear pannier or similar might be an advantage if your bike starts develops a thirst for oil between changes.

Do you have a tyre repair kit (and mini air compressor)? I bought one of the Stop n Go Tire Plugger kits. I've only used it once but it worked well.

You seem to have everything else covered

Have a good trip

Ian J

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I am planning to do a similar trip next year, so I have been collecting same kind of information from people that have actually been down in SA on a DL1000 or DL650. I would suggest to bring with you Epoxy putty, this was so helpful for the the moto-brothers when the chain broke and fractured the engine case and that was the source of an oil leakage. Check this specific story and more at Moto Brothers: Argentina Archives

I also would like to share the information I got from Daren LaBranche (check his website DMotoRider.com - My Journey Through The Americas - And Inward). These are some of his words from PM's:

"The DL1000 is an EXCELLENT bike for two-up! I have been the president of
the local BMW motorcycle club for 3 years, and a member for 15 years, and I wouldn't take a BMW on a trip like this. It's too expensive and too
complicated. The simpler & lighter you travel the better. Suzuki is well
represented in Colombia and Brazil (although the 650 would probably be morethan adequate for 90% of your trip and would be more fuel efficient). I only experienced back firing in Brazil on their over-priced, high sugar-cane alcohol content, shitty gasoline. No matter what bike you take I would suggest you become familiar with the mechanical work on your bike so that you are capable of doing your own maintenance whenever possible.

I threw my Scottoiler in the garbage after years of trying to get it to work
properly. Get a Pro Oiler (Pro-Oiler, the ultimate automatic chain oiler, microprocessor-controlled, pumped, economical, hassle-free, fit and forget, the future of chain maintenance.), it is really well made and
will not only extend the life of your chain, but free you from hours of
chain lubes & tensions (or having to carry cans of chain lube). The owner's
name is Pablo and he's a really good guy.

Rear brake pads, spare chain & sprockets (multiple aftermarket fronts [flip
& change these often (7-10,000 kms), they're cheap & will extend the life of
your chain by thousands of kms]), tire plugs & hand air pump, butane
soldering iron & some wire, electrical tester, spare keys & ID & documents,
possibly front fork seals, wheel bearings & tapered steering head bearings
(if you don't replace before you leave), upgraded tool kit including 24mm
socket & extension to remove front sprocket, spare clutch slave cylinder,
upgraded rad hose clamps, ducttape, etc... And don't forget to check the
valve clearances & all rear swingarm bearings & seals before you go (these
bearings don't last & you should change them before you go & probably even
carry a spare set if you plan on being gone for a long time). I would
suggest checking them at 35,000 kms & changing them at 70,000 kms. Metal hand guards OR spare levers, & change the footpegs to metal ones like the DR650 uses (the rubber gets slippery when wet or muddy)."

I hope this helps in your trip preparation.

Efrain Martinez
Moto Nomadas
Explorando el Sur
2010-2012

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I would renew the chain and sprockets before setting off, and just maintain them carefully so I´d expect to get at least 30.000kms out of them. I wouldn´t change front fork seals unless they showed signs of giving up shortly. Would probably take them with me as spares.

I´d also take get wheel bearings front&back (and also have them and the steering head bearings checked before leaving), front sprocket, some extra master links, throttle- and clutch cable, bulbs, fuses and maybe clutch- & brake levers (unless you´ve got some knuckle guards installed, in which case I wouldnt bother), as well as brake & gearchange pedals. Oh, and the low-pressure fuel filter also.

My experience is with a 650, but they have a few things in common, even though the engines are quite different. The DL1000 may need throttle body balancing more often than the smaller version. We checked the Wee´s valve clearances and had the throttle bodies sync´d before leaving from Europe to Australia, and rode 35.000kms 2-up without having to do anything to the chain&sprockets (except lubricating and sometimes adjusting them of course!)..... not even the throttle body sync went bad, and when the valve clearances were checked after the trip, they hadnt changed at all. You need to take care of the air filter, though, if you want to avoid problems with these - as well as with a lot of other things of course!

We actually had a bag full of all sorts of spares, like spark plug caps, several relays, even one ignition coil, but I guess its rare to have a problem with these (and I can confirm this - we never needed to use any of our spares!).... and anyway I think in South America you may be able to find model specific or even original spares for big bikes better than you would in most parts of Asia.

edit. ok, I wouldnt get a clutch cable for the 1000, cos its hydraulic of course! And there was some problem with early model DL1000 clutch master cylinder, which I believe was fixed later on, but I dont remember when, so that might be worth checking out.