I will admit here is something serene about night riding, but it really isn't a good idea. Fauna in particular are super dangerous.

I'd rather ride in Columbia. (okay, not giving up much there).

I did, for a moment, forget that it's just going to be Rob and me on this trip.

Yea, there'll be night riding.

LED off-road lights. Check.

Why an 18" rear?

Larger wheels reduce the contact angle with obstacles. Large wheels means it's easier to rolls over stuff.

While people often look at front tires rears have the same issues.

18 is also a popular rear tire size, so replacements are usually easier/cheaper to find.

18" purely for the tire choices and options. Important to remember that it causes an overall gearing change though. Way down on the priorities list unless I see a cheap one. There's a couple of companies that re-lace DR hubs to 18".

A deer or pig jumping out when your doing 10MPH on a trail is not nearly the same "potential moment" as when doing 50mph on a back road. We used to love trail riding at night in New England and have many, many, many times encountered a variety of forest species. It's not the animals or hitting the animals that's the bad thing. It's hitting the animals at speed. At a walking or light jogging pace it's more like touring a zoo. It gives plenty of time for them to be afraid and run away BEFORE hitting them, and plenty of time for the rider to either stop or maneuver. If folks get the opportunity I highly encourage low speed night riding, totally different experience.

My thinking exactly.

It does make me think about that awesome ride through the Gap in the dark. We do have to do that again this year.

With respect, +50 watts gives you a 25% improvement in alternator capacity, vs. 2%.

I certainly agree with you that many stock regulator/rectifiers on Japanese bikes are still inexplicably wimpy/poorly provisioned, so upgrades there certainly make sense. I had always expected back in the day that they'd get better, but so far...

LED off road lights sound like an excellent idea--no street lights where you're going. Adding HID headlights would drop your highbeams (you won't be using the lows off road) from 60 to 35 watts draw. If the bikes don't have LED tail lights, that might help drop power draw as well.

Ian points out it'll be August, which means mostly warmer temps, but in the mountains and in the dessert it can get quite cool at night even in summer--and these bikes are unfaired. A vest and/or grips might make quite a difference if you allowed the capacity for them.

Plus, these bikes aren't just for the trip, right? So even if you don't need the electrics on the TAT, you might well want them in "real life" riding in the future

Just sayin'

LOL, yes D...the alternator change is a 25% improvement. However, I was not specifically talking about that with my 2% comment. My comment was more around how those of us who love science, engineering, and all things interesting, mechanical and electrical will gravitate towards finding solutions for problems that may, or may not, be all that important in a larger or more practical view. In product development it's like spending a million $ to increase performance by an amount that no one is asking for, but we know we can do. Just because we "can" do something, doesn't make it a truly viable, or genuinely valuable, proposition

As for the electric stuff. I've never owned an electric clothing anything, ever. This is my personal preference and I am not advocating for this approach or dismissing those who do like to fire up the heaters. Call me old school or just dumb, but I'm totally good with just adding layers :-).

The new LED lights are AMAZING!!!! I'm thinking of putting one of the Ninja as well. I saw these and immediately wanted them.:

28watts and *3600*!! lumens. Check out the video.

On the vid look at it at about the 5:40 mark. That's something you can't do easily on the Blue Brick

Yea, pretty much beyond what could be reasonably done on my beloved Blue Brick. Actually, this video captures pretty much what I've been thinking in terms of the most technical sections.

Honestly, there's no way I'd want to do that kind of riding on anything other than a real enduro. Even the medium sized adventure bikes would have trouble in this terrain I think ... the DR650 really is the right choice for the trip.

I LOVE that you wouldn't say that it "couldn't" be done on the coal burner, just that it would be potentially not "reasonable". Awesome

LOL. You should see some of the places I've taken it, although granted nothing nearly that intense.

It is my intention to go back to a few of them just to see how foolish I was as a younger man. There was this one washed out steep incline on a trail up the side of a hill near Thurmont to a fire observation tower where I did jump the thing over some small logs but lost rear traction and over it went into a gulley; wheels pointing skyward. I managed to bail and land on my feet. If you look, you'll notice the right mirror is cracked on my bike. That's from that day, about a mile from the nearest road.

The "Yang" DR650SE is scheduled to arrive in my driveway tomorrow afternoon

Awesome! I'm going to be very curious to hear what you think about the bike.

I am surprised how my opinion of the DR650SE is. "Strange way to spell BMW"

Just for laughs to commemorate the odd coincidence of our DR coloring scheme....

lol!!! Awesome.

Made a change, rather obvious now that I look at it LOL...

I *think* I may actually like the first one more.... this is what a moment of idleness creates LOL

I'm linking both, but maybe the first one just a touch more...

Just arrived:

Ohhhh...*slaps head* ...I have a guest bike now! (I was never really keen on the BlackBird being a "guest" bike ) The DR is a great guest bike!

Excellent! Congrats!

Have you had a a chance to fire it up and take it for a spin?

Very nice

If its nearly as nice as it looks in the pics, you did good!

Let the farkle-ing begin.