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I love riding off road. There’s such a sense of adventure and sliding around everywhere is a total gas.
Worth looking at supposedly mundane stuff like DR650s - they actually handle well on the street and can take on way more serious off road than you’re likely to find on your doorstep. Tough as nails too.
DRZ400s are also incredibly good. Bit less relaxed for long distance but my mate has done 300 mile days on his without much bother. Also tough as nails.
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Thanks for the suggestions, I’d thought about the various DR’s, until now my biggest question has been what will I do with the bike? All well and good the 125cc doing errands, but given the power and planting of a road bike will I eat up miles of road? Or am I going to tour? “Off road”?
The whole pandemic nonsense means things aren’t how I imagined - so much for a full license, do-it-all workhorse and a road trip to France, Germany, etc. That really said “go for a comfortable, cheap, mid-range road machine”. But now I’m not sure.
Suppose now I’m fighting with >600 if it’s all about the road, but <400 if it’s gonna need picking up out the mud.
I hate compromise.
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Maybe all the (gentle) mtb and bmx has been a great help - even on the little 125, standing on the pegs, keeping loose, letting the bike find its route as it slides all over the shop... okay it’s no big skids and drifts, but on road tyres it was slippery but didn’t feel unnatural. On trail tyres it must be a real blast.
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Standing up is the most unnatural part coming from a road background. That and leaning the bike, not your body and grabbing a big fistful of gas to sort out most problems...good work for giving it a proper go.
Either the 400 or 650 DR would be fine for both - I’d probably go with the 400, it’s a lot more modern, better off and just as good on road. The 650 is just simpler and lazier for cruising.
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transeurotrail.org
Agreed, only learnt about it fairly recently
https://youtu.be/9_-Irf7D8V4
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It's proper plush mate. Looking forward to fiddling with the fast rebound to see how it deals with shitty British roads.
@ElephantBreath GSXR1000 with 750 calipers. All the twiddly dials to get things set in. I used to rent a Scrambler back when I was living in Spain and it always stumped me how well damped that bike was. Were they Marzocchi's as well? Still Have a set of Bomber's under the bed that will always more with me.
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They look great. Thought this was quite helpful.
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That r80 is lovely.
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A lot of options must be small enough that a strap can run from the bottom of the bag under the seat. Otherwise there are pannier rails you can strap them against. Maybe with twin shocks people just let them bash against the coil. Depends on the bike for sure. Lots of ‘universal’ square-shaped options out there on ebay that attach to the grab-rail mounts.
Mine, I cut and welded remnants of two scrap bmx frames and used the rear stays. They are mounted to the shock and pillion peg points. I wanted the strongest possible with materials available, since I’d be carrying varying weights often, and such a small bike important to reduce any chance of affecting control.
The (adjustable) top straps through the D-rings hold the bags tight up and over the seat. The (fixed) upper loop locates it on the upper rail. The (adjustable) lower strap clips around the triangle and holds it tight.
I’ve been doing some deliveries for a local charity, as their shop has had to move online, and made the larger red and yellow bags. Stuffed them full of bulky but not too heavy stuff and noticed no ill-handling or flapping about. I can’t get rid of the last 10-15mm of chicken strip, there are no twists and turns local enough that warrant it, but relatively lean-y I’m still seeing good handling.
The black ones had tools and emergency kit for a quick stretch over the Ridgeway (gravel, loose, potholes, undulating) the other day. The bike, bags, mounts, survived. I think my shoulders were worse off than the bike.
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Great to see you are enjoying biking so much. Reminds me of my early motor bikes. One thing that you might want to be careful about when customising the bike with frames is the potential for you following it down the road in an accident and then catching up with it suddenly.
Looking at the relatively sharp ends of your pannier racks and the strength of the metal it would be very unpleasant to get impaled by one.
When you look at the BMW ones upthread you can see that they manage to use a much smaller but solid dimension of steel and it forms a hoop that would be less likely to dig into the road or other things in the case of an accident. The BMW ones manage to hold a lot of weight at high speeds, the only time you notice the big BMW panniers is in a side wind.
I'm not knocking the initiative you are showing but having been down the road a few times I'd like to offer my crash test dummy findings!
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Yep thanks for that, totally agree. I had the same concerns since making them especially bare tube ends poking out as you noted. They are totally concealed by the bags once fitted, especially the rearmost end. I appreciate padded tarp will last only so long and I could be very unfortunate.
I have been meaning to square/round them off and/or see about bar end plugs, but there’s still a chance of one pinging out at impact with the ground. Hopefully I managed to fettle the design before any off.
Edit: took to heart the risk of the bare ends so went out to the shed and tried handlebar end plugs, but they didn’t fit. Instead I pushed as much high density foam into the hollow ends as possible as filler, and layered nearly 20mm thick on the outside, then insulation-taped the hell out of them. Could hit them with my palm with some force and not feel the metal. I’ll tape over again with gaffer tape when I can get a roll, and that should provide some degree of less-likely-to-fillet after a bit of grinding along the road.. not elegant but definitely a step safer.
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Well done, anything to improve your chances. I made the mistake of thinking the leg covers for a scooter would afford some protection if I came off. Not a bit, shredded on impact like tissue paper! Cost me a trip to hospital and a few weeks on the sofa to learn that one.
If you look at the ride magazine testing they use a belt sander to simulate contact with tarmac at speed, it's not pretty.
I hope you get to enjoy this summer biking, you've put up with so much rubbish weather since you got the bike.
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@coppiThat
That looks amazing