20k trip on a GS?
That is what I call an adventure
The parts you want to take depend on where you are riding, how far you are away from any bike shops and what GS you are actually riding.

Never go without spare tyres, if you are some distance away from a tyre shop.
Clutch lever/brake lever/brake pedal/gear shift lever/spare globes (if no led's)

The Long Way Round guys had basically a whole bike as spare kit!
You may want to do some research what can fail under extreme conditions on your specific bike.

Wouldn't you take a bike that is easier to maintain and repair?
There is a documentary on Youtube about an Australian and an Englishman who rode from London to Sydney and they took some lightly modified KTM 690.

Good Luck and have an awesome trip!

 

Credit card..

 

Depends on where your going and what the terrain will be, I have done several rides of similar distances, much of it in remote areas of North and Central America. What I like so much about the LC GS(A) is they are remarkably reliable for the complex machines that they are and can take a good pounding yet still get you out of trouble. In one case it was 60 kms running on one cylinder but she got me back to pavement.
I would not take the emergency items you have listed, never had any trouble with those and I have dropped my GSA many dozens of times. I have had clutch and brake levers break but always the failure has been at the tip where it is designed to fail and leave you enough lever to carry on. A good air compressor that runs off your battery and a tire plug kit. I prefer the gummy worm type as you can seal a very large puncture that the button type will not. If you're doing any serious off road riding get a proper skid plate to protect the belly of your beast. I DO NOT recommend the Tourtech. Just finished riding in Baja and while riding a section of road where the Baja 1000 will run, my partner hit a big rock hard enough the TT plate drove the mounting bracket into the bottom of the engine and punched a hole in it and letting all that precious oil drain out. We had a very long 24 hours in the middle of nowhere getting ourselves out of that mess. I often travel in areas with no cell or wi-fi and for an emergency I carry an inReach device. It allowed me to get in contact with people that I have prearranged via texting and using the Iridium Sat network. It was very useful when having our "adventure" in Baja. Know how to bypass the side stand kill switch, been there, done that. Have good valve cover guards to avoid having a hole punched in the valve cover and don't get any of that stylish plastic junk, you need robust covers if your going off the reservation.
Hope this has been of some value, look forward to you telling us where your going.

 

I can surmise that you are going to be on a newer liquid cooled GS and to be honest these bikes do not appear to suffer from any of the common failures of previous hexhead models, so as far as spare replacement parts go that would be a complete shot in the dark. you are more likely to need parts due to a crash.
If you are going to be packed heavy and in some rough off-road terrain blown shocks are always a concern but I wouldn't pack spare shocks.

I would also not pack a heavy Haynes manual or any book for that matter, since you are almost certainly going to have a computer of some sort with you (even a phone) I would carry the BMW RSD either loaded onto the device or on flash drive, every pound you can save is a wonderful thing.

I also would plan my maintenance stops so that I didn't have to carry those items on-board either, and either ship parts ahead of time or make contact with the shops to be certain they can accommodate your bike

20K miles isn't all that many in the whole scheme of things regarding a GS and I would not expect to have any mechanical problems, I would be most concerned with keeping the load light to reduce the chance of dropping the bike and also reduce stress.

 

Loading the RSD on to the device or flash is a great idea. Question: Is the RSD still only useable with Windows or can it be used on an iPhone now?

 

There was a recent podcast on adventureriderradio.com or maybe their RAW version--think it was that, the RAW version, about just that. I cannot find it right now, but you may be able to find it in the show notes. Or write to Jim Martin asking for which show that was on.

the gist was "less is more."

Their point was: Even in remote areas these days you are not that far away from parts. Admittedly, the people riding would have no problem being stuck in Bogata for a week or so, and many of us are on some kind of time restraint. IIRC one of the major items they did take was a brake cable. They specifically did say no to many items.

I used to carry spares of stuff. Not anymore, but my rides are first world on a newer LC GS and far shorter than 20,000 km or miles. The last item to be "left behind" was an extra bulb for my motolights. You could wind up in the "---stans" with that kind of diatance.
You should also look at the Horizons Unlimited forum for some real world info and experience...nothing against the peeps here, but our worlds are much smaller than theirs, I think.

I do take tools though. Not advocating for anything except the podcast for a group of riders' views

I guess the first question to ask is what is your itinerary? 20,000 in the US is far different than 20,000 anything in Africa, or the Altoplano, or Iran. In the US you can overnight, if need be, anything. In a small fishing village in Ecuador, not so much

PS regarding the brake/clutch lever braking...I do remember that one of the podcast riders used a small visegrip to deal with it and says he is still using it, IOW a basic premise is to have stuff that does double or triple duty

 

Zip ties, electrical tape, electrical wire and butt connectors, J&B weld

always handy...

 

Slowriding, Jetspeed, Dr Strangelove, Stevel, Great advice guys, really appreciate it. Thank you for taking the time to contribute to this post. I have sent the post to the rest of the team to digest.

We will be doing a ride from South East Asia to Amsterdam on a mixture of bikes, GS, MultiStrada, Motoguzzi and one other bike. We are avoiding the terrible off-road sections in the Pamir mountains and sticking as much as possible to the asphalt. However, we will be unable to avoid some off-road gravel sections in Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia. The rest of the trip, which I think is about 90% of the road will be asphalt.

I did consider switching my bike to a 4yr old KTM Enduro 690 I found in the classifieds, but my GS LC is only 18 months old, and I've spent a small fortune to prep it for an 8k trip I just finished in south east asia. In Singapore now where I am, the GS is currently being sold by the truckload due to the fork issue and everyone seems to be switching away from the GS. Hence if I sell my GS, I'll lose a ton of money just to clear it off, not to mention having to spend more to prep it. Frankly speaking, though its a whale to pick up, I'm really in love with my GS..:x

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I will most probably do the following based on all your advice

Carry/Equip
- PDF version of Haynes manual
- Cylinder Head protection
- Altrider skid plate
- BMW Motorrad Repair And Service Data ! (just learnt about this, thank you very much !)

Research
- Plan out maintenance spots for the 10k servicing in between. Most likely in China.
- Experienced motorcycle mechanics at different parts of the journey.. in case I have to haul it there !
- Plan out where I can get spare parts and have it delivered to these mechanics

Skip
- The clutch, brake lever (I have the barkbusters installed)
- Any unnecc thing

 

Advlust, sounds like a grand adventure. I have been considering a similar trip when I wrap up my travels in West and Eastern Europe in a couple of years. I will go in the opposite direction, leaving Germany and finishing in Thailand where I would ship my bike back to Arizona. I hope you will share your trip both in the planning stage and during your travels.

 

Suggest to peruse the Adventure Rider site where a lot more seasoned international riders hang out along with info that are volumes on the subject

 

One thing that no one talks about is health ins. I would have a policy that covers me world wide with repatriation if the s@@t hits the fan. I have to admit I didn't have it but have seen the benefits. The hope is you'd not need it. I used the insurance when my wife fell and had a TBI. even with the ins I had to put over 5 grand on my CC to get care.