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Las Vegas to Rio on DRZ

40K views 142 replies 63 participants last post by  tiernanturner 
#1 ·
Thought you guys might be interested in my upcoming ride! Myself and my best buddy Matt are riding our '06 and '08 DRZ 400SM's from Las Vegas through Central/S America to Rio de Janeiro in time for Carnival. ...if we're still alive. Matt just started riding a couple months ago and I like to go really fast all the time. :hmmm:

We're outfitting the bikes for the adventure touring, but we're keeping the 17's on with Distanzias.

The whole trip is going to be documented in HD, and there's going to be a finished film next Summer.

Right now we've got just about all of the gear and we'll be building the bikes in a few days. Check out the website for more info:

ride-report.com

-Tiernan
 
#33 ·
sweet i thought it was around the vernal equinox or "easter" but i guess not. im super jealous i hope to make that trip in the next few years. im planning on doing the trans american trail first prob next summer. maybe even make it into a key west to dead horse alaska trip. if i wasnt as busy with work and just moved into a house i would try to go, looks like you could use a camera man/mechanic. i backpacked europe last fall for 2 months on 2 weeks of planning, quit my job, sold my bike and 99% of my belongings and left. its cool you can find some one to grow some balls and just go. all my friends have shit jobs and think they are tied down or something. i just turned 24 on thanksgiving and i think this is the last 2 or 3 years i can get away with having little or no responsibilities untill i'm an old man. i'm looking forward to your adventure. trust your gut, and if you feel uncomfortable in a situation theres probably a good reason, but its amazing how a complete stranger will go out of their way to help you or even give you a bed to sleep in and feed you. i also found out the more random people i talked to the more i had fun. when you talk to people you can find things to do and see you would have never know about and just passed right by and they might even offer you food. also some of the worst situations i got into made the best stories.

be safe and take your time, and remember to stop and take a picture.
 
#34 ·
bike build update

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend. I hosted a couple of couchsurfers from Israel and two friends from LA at Matt's house in his stead, and made my first turkey, which came out great.

Back to the build. We were waiting to put the tank back on until we got the Unibikers. Yesterday we got our full order from Wheeling Cycle Supply , including:
ZETA/DRC
-Handguards/protectors w/flashers
-clutch lever
-brake lever
-turn signals
-edge tail light
-skid plate
-throttle tube/grips
-brake snake
-wide foot pegs
-sliders
-confidence to crash...

I started the jet kit and realized I had to buy a metal drill bit (even in Vegas the hardware store isn't open at 3am) so we put that off for today.

We're really bad mechanics, but we're improving quickly. What's been easy:
TT case savers, unibiker, levers, luggage racks. The only hiccups we had there was: not having the alan wrench to remove the brake pedal (for the case saver and wide foot peg), the carb was a pain to get out, then I accidentally punched it trying to get the float bowl screws out without stripping them, Matt's bike didn't have the right harness to hook up the Lynx fairing and had to hardwire the electric, my shift lever was very difficult to get off and and Matt overtightened and broke the bolt on his, and the common fixes weren't too easy for us aside from the MCCT. We put high strength loctite on the countershaft nut. I noticed on the poll that the primary nut wasn't too bad for our years of bikes so we skipped that. I was confused by the free power mod, I think the how to here just says run the RR wires directly to the battery with a thicker guage wire, but I wasn't too confident without seeing photos. We've yet to deal with the stator or the swingarm grease, but I bought some and once the fun stuff is out of the way we'll get back to that business. I'm also trying to get my bike running again since it's my only wheels.

So, as I write this, Matt's working on his Lynx, and I'm about to do some jetting, put the tank on, seat on, adjust the levers and handguards to my liking, adjust the MCCT, install the skidplate, sliders, tail light/turn signals, then go test this 3x3 mod (and maybe the armor?) and do some wheelies with luggage racks and panniers on.

Tomorrow we may try to change the tires. We've got some tire spoons and valve stem removers from WCS, and we are afraid to use them. From past experience, we could use some advice there.

I'll post pics up next time.

Tiernan
 
#39 ·
we're out!

Working on bikes is a pain in the ass, but feels good when you get it right.

We're just about to leave, fixing a few screw ups here. Last night we noticed the bolts holding the triple clamp (i think?) weren't on Matt's bike! Glad we noticed that, but we didn't notice that he hadn't tightened the nuts on the throttle mechanism (lol the doohickey, i don't know what it's called), on the carb and we had a fun time trying to start it today. Anyhow, the bikes are built and we're prepping to leave and get some daylight riding to LA.

We had an awesome party last night. Our good friend and realtor made us a four course meal each with it's own beer pairing, and we had a fun time saying goodbye's to friends. Both of us woke up with a lady today :ride:
Panther from ADVrider paid us a visit as well.

The sun is shining, and we're getting the F out of Vegas in a few.


There's a few things we haven't done that were recommended on TT including the stator loctite fix and greasing the swingarm... maybe we'll meet up with an ADV rider along the way who offers us his garage.

Anyhow, thanks for the support, and don't forget to check out Ride-Report.com for updates!!
 
#50 ·
Should be an awesome trip. Am interested in how everything holds up, bikes, tires, seats etc. I think you guys will be pretty sore in the saddle area at the end of the trip. Looking forward to updates. :coffee:

Don't want to hijack thread so if anyone has info on the IMS tanks, where to get them and if mods have to be done to mount please PM me. :D
 
#53 ·
update

We're cruising at most 80mph, but more often around 70 on straightaways. Really there's alot of amazing 3rd and 4th gear twisties that are making the long haul better than I'd imagined. Most of these roads are well paved and have great signs which give you an idea of how fast you can go. Only twice so far have I entered a turn then cringed thinking I might have too much speed... I'm getting some nice outer tire wear though:bannana:
The vibration doesn't really bother me, and Matt hasn't said anything.

I had to readjust my jetting in La Paz, changed to the 2nd clip then fudged with my screw, since then it's been running much better. Matt's bike got a problem the other day where his bike has difficulty accelerating, backfire, and his headlights don't work (though they flash on and off now and again). Someone on Thumpertalk suggested it might be the stator, which is one of the DRZ common fixes we neglected to do before leaving. We took a day off here in Puerto Escondido to check it out.

Otherwise, the trip is several days behind schedule. We'd hoped to be in Costa Rica for Christmas, now we're thinking we'll need to settle for Guatemala.

For a write up and a few pics of baja check out my blog on ride-report.com

Tiernan
 
#54 ·
#56 ·
Excellent!!

Buena Surerte!

In March of '08 I shipped my R12GS (and myself) to Buenos Aires, rode the 2000 miles south to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, then rode to Alaska. 18,000 miles, 3 months...solo..

Have fun, be safe, take lots of pictures!

-eric
 
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