New DR650 shakedown ride report

[919]

what a great write up, love the mods.  This is going in the research folder towards buying a DS/ADV bike.  I finally have some legal offroad places to ride and I have been getting the itch lately to get back to the dirt.

Thanks for the motivation.

[BlueRidgeKat]

Thats a sweet DR. The only thing I would add is the Happy Trails Highway Pegs/Bar, they are soooooooooooo nice! I'd like to add the superbrace and fork covers like you did to mine, I'm told it makes such a difference!

I have had my leftover 09 since December. Could not pass it up for 4k plus tax and tags. It was however slightly disappointing at first. The seat had to go first. I could not do more than 20 mintues without my butt bone and nuts going numb. Went with the low seat height Sargent and now its good for all day, seriously. The other disappointing thing was the power and warm up time. It seemed it wasnt a whole lot better than the old Yamaha XT 225 I had put over 15k on. The poor thing was just so restricted and running so lean it was killing it. I wanted to keep the stock exhaust so went with the Pro Cycle Jet Kit which has a couple more goodies than the Dyno kit and drilled the slide, then added a K&N air filter and drilled the holes in the air box per instructions that came with the Pro Cycle Kit. What a difference!!! The thing is ready to go as soon as you hit the starter, pulls up hills with a fury now with a lot less downshifts and has good roll on power.

I have went from being somewhat disappointed in the bike to loving the thing. 5000 miles since December and the Tiger is sitting alone more and more these days. Prefer the DR for the daily commute as well. They may be dated somewhat but are great bikes and hard to beat for the money, actually not sure you can beat it.

[scottdc]

Sounds like you would be better served by upgrading the suspension... a light load shouldn't sag the suspension that much. I pack dense, may not look like much on mine in the pix but it's all of 80 lb or more (pans, duffel, tool tube) with a full suite of real tools, recovery gear, 2 quarts of water and emergency fuel, camping gear on board. When I step off the bike the suspension recovers well and keeps a good angle w/ the stock length stand.

How much rear preload have you got dialed in?

Have you measured your sag?

The shorter side stand is recommended for DR's utilizing the lowered mounting setting on the stock rear shock, where is yours set?

Mine is set to the proper (tall) height and preload is cranked up. I wonder if the shock is more worn out than I thought. Bike handles great as-is so I never really thought about it other than being extra cautious to park on level ground. I've heard of others with the same problem but maybe it's time to send the rear off to Sasquatch for an upgrade.

[GRN]

Greg,

Nice write-up!
I notice that they're relatively cheap on the used market, and a lot have low miles as well.  Any idea why that might be?

Steve

Steve, maybe on the east coast... out here used bikes are gone in a few days, and new ones don't last much longer. The 400 is even more popular than the 650, and the 200 isn't easy to come by either. Low miles + cheap = no brainer if you're looking to add depth to the stable. It's a super brace and suspension away from being one of the most fun rides you will ever own. Don't miss the ST a bit :-)

[STrep]

Great report Greg

Enjoy that new ride!

[GRN]

Great report Greg

Enjoy that new ride!

I will, I promise! Any chance I can get you to drag a few of the usual suspects down for a Curtis' run while we're back east next month? We miss you guys!

[BlueRidgeKat]

I wonder if this Happy Trail fork brace http://www.happy-trail.com/Products/Happy-Trails-K9-Fork-Bracebr-Suzuki-DR650__HTP_4-8-9.aspx
would work as well on this bike as the SuperBrace?? The only reason I'm looking at the Happy Trail one is its $60 bucks less and I know they make good products plus I'm a cheap bastard.

[243Win]

Nice write up and a well kitted bike.  Of my stable my DR is the favorite bike and I've not done the suspension mods you have, someday.

Yeah, the stock tires do perform just fine for the most part as long as you stay away from mud.  Rode mine on a fresh set from Port Orchard to just inside Arizona from Mesquite, Nevada this time last year.  Only time they bothered me was at the snow line offroad near Ely, Nevada.  Got a little hairy at that point.  Running the twisties on 299 in N.Cali, just fine, no problems with them.

[Poustman]

When you first posted this excellent thread I read with great interest, and subsequently have checked back at your mods list several times as I've researched DS bikes on my own behalf.  6 months later I'd be very interested in the OP's further impressions of this mount.

[GRN]

When you first posted this excellent thread I read with great interest, and subsequently have checked back at your mods list several times as I've researched DS bikes on my own behalf.  6 months later I'd be very interested in the OP's further impressions of this mount.

OK, you're on.

Still liking this mount a lot, have done a few multi day trips and a track day on it, put on 7K+ since June.

Changes since the first post:

- I should have listened to Brian at Ricor when he told me to initially stay with the stock front springs when I added the intiminators. The heavier springs were too stiff off road, and the intiminators really transform the stock springs very well on road. Fully loaded and looking for ways to abuse the front end into bottoming out I can get it to do so, but it does it so progressively and gently that it's a non issue... especially since I really had to try to make it happen. I have a barely used set of SR .50's I'll sell if anyone is interested.

- Had to upgrade the battery. The stock POS lost some capacity which created some issues with the HID ballasts at start up. For the same $ as a new Yuasa with reasonable specs, I went w/ the Shorai which has a lot more power, is a fraction of the weight, and will last quite a bit longer... no brainer in my book.

- Bought lower pegs with a larger platform to dial in the ergo's for the standing position. Huge improvement - gets me closer to the bars without adding risers which would have made the KX Hi bars too high for me in the seated position, and it lowers the COG when standing which improves peg weighting inputs significantly.

I'm having so much fun with this ride on road that I bought a second set of rims (17"s) w/ PR2's for street play. For on/off road adventures I put on the Pirelli Rallycross DOT knobs... awesome off road, much better than expected on road, and cheap... what's not to like? Everything is holding up well, even the HT pans which barely give away any indication of the two crashes on the WABDR in August :-) The seat has broken in pretty well, 400-450 mile days sitting on road are not a problem. If I were to do it again, I would have the grippy material used on the sides to aid stabilization in the standing position.

Things left to do:

I did some pretty awful shit to my clutch off road this year, not much left of it. I will replace with heavier duty plates before the next extended ride... was pleasantly surprised it made it thought the motor officer training I did a few weekends ago.

Front brakes on road at open road speeds still suck for emergency stopping. I'm going to start by changing to more aggressive pads and a steel braided line and hope that gets me to a comfortable level w/out changing to a larger disk (and discarding my front disc guard).

I may do the airbox/jet/exhaust at some point, the flat spot in the throttle response can be annoying when I want to let out my squid, but then I weight that against the lost fuel economy for extended off road adventures and pause a bit... we'll see.

Happy new year Y'all :-)

PS... some pics from the BDR ride https://picasaweb.google.com/103375463338190092207/WABDR?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNGCj4_c9rerMA&feat=directlink