Prospective ADV rider, off-roading in CT?

Well, I got my first dual-sport... after a washing to rid it of a ton of salt (from hauling).

DRZ's Rock

Woohoo....a woods weapon.......someone's going to Pachaug!

Nice choice.. that'll be great for some dirt experience and still be good for the roads

BTW, nice shop.. wish I could keep my stuff half as clean...

keep that NWC tor going blitchfield

Haha.. yeah I've been slacking on my goal for the TOR, tomorrow night looks like fun 43 degrees, heavy rain and wind.

So whats the plan of action for that DRZ? Blow off work, get the plate and ride the shit out of it while the temps are up??

I won't be riding the bike till it gets warmer... I know vag For now I'm doing some maintenance on the bike.

First, stripped all the plastics, subframe and swingarm and did some major cleaning... a ton of mud and dirt in every crevice. Noticed the left side mount (on main frame) for the subframe was cracked and barely hanging on. So I removed it, cleaned up the welds and re-welded it in place.

Second, went to re-grease the swingarm and linkage and found this mess:



Looks like it wasn't taken care of properly by the PO. Essentially all the bearings were rusted and disintegrated to dust. The bearing bores in both the linkage and swingarm were worn/gouged due to bearing failure. So I got a replacement used swingarm and linkage with low miles and in great condition. Took the replacement parts, stripped/cleaned and lubricated them. Also cleaned and lubricated the spherical bearing in the rear shock and re-charged the nitrogen.



Third, the original chain guide/slider/rollers were beat so I ordered a replacement set off eBay, (Hotfootmoto). Quality and fitment are okay (we'll see how long they last). NOTE: the lower chain roller bearings didn't have any grease, so I packed them.

Finally, cleaned the FCR-MX carb (not finished) and received some nice 7 mm ID fuel line (made in Italy, seller valtermotousa) off eBay.



Still have a few things to do...

[sarcasm] Huh...all the Japanese bike fanboys here on ADVRider insist that Japanese bikes are maintenance free [/sarcasm]




Congrats on your new (to you) bike. Enjoy

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:d

Does that come apart.....or some kind of factory press in job?

Yea its pressed in, but you could removed the seals, snap ring and press it out. I just sprayed it with brake cleaner (it was pretty clean) and then sprayed some Wurth HHS-2000 into it.

Been catching up on some needed maintenance... also recently purchased a house. So finding a work/life/house/bike balance has been difficult to say the least

Day after I got it:







Started taking it apart:



Nice surprise:



Fixed:



On the bike:



Cleaned & Serviced:



Re-laced:



Started putting it back together:

• Bought it in January
• Cleaned it fairly thoroughly of dirt/salt/mud
• Replaced and serviced swingarm & linkage
• Installed new chain rollers/slider/guide
• Welded one of the subframe mounts
• Cleaned & serviced the carb
• Re-laced the rear wheel & balanced the tire
• Installed a new air filter
• Checked valve clearances
• Loctite'd the front sprocket

Still have a few things to do... and that'll be all for the pre-season maintenance!

Check Thumpertalk.com and go into mods sticky. I would do Eddies' o-ring mod on the carb, all loctite fixes, And those FCR's are famous for pulling water up from puddles into your carb during water crossings causing a stall in the middle of the puddle. There are one way vent kits or mods to rerun the vent hoses on the carb. I work out of Milford and live in Middlsex county. Welcome aboard!


Don't forget ultra heavy duty tubes for this rocky NE terrain.

I'm a member on TT and have read through those stickies. I took apart and cleaned the FCR and when I reassembled it realized the AP would only squirt for about 0.5 seconds and only a couple feet out. I ended up having to re-clean the AP nozzle, install an AP spring ($5 cycle gear special) and grind down the AP diagram. Now its at 1 sec and just misses the slide.

I'm keeping the vent hose routing just the way it was before, all the hoses go down near the linkage. I will at one point reroute a set of them up either under the tank or seat. Right now I'm just trying to get the bike working 100% again and then I'll dick around with it once I start really using it.

I am planning on doing the rest of the loctite fixes though (starter clutch/stator/counter-balancer/primary gear).

Good to see a fellow rider in the area.

Be careful if your riding local, they put cops over there by the river in the state land quite a bit, one of our guys got a ticket last year! :eek1

Took myself & the DRZ "off-road" for the first time... Thomaston Dam, it was good fun and a heluva work out getting the "pig" around that rocky single-track.