the DR650 thread

[IdahoRenegade]

Originally Posted by Zapp22

Putting out a feeler here...
A DR friend popped by one day and one of the farkles he had was a one-off [I GUESS... if you know otherwise, speakup] aluminum mounting plate to take the Turnsignal/Neutral/Hi-Beam instrument pod and moving it to front & center of the handlebar. That gave me an idea somewhat different, I drew it up, a fellow ADV'er that is a machinist helped do it in proper form.

So, as you know, the expensive part of a laser-cut aluminum piece is the setup. once you get it right, they can be knocked out fast and at falling cost.
We figure that it would only take about 50 of these to get down to a paltry cost of about $5 or so apiece, plus shipping, which should be cheap.

this is essentially and aluminum plate that would be mounted on the upper pair of handlebar bolts, into which you would place your instrument/light Pod, and screw it in from the bottom just like it is screwed into the stock rubber thingy.

I'll add to this a link to the proper drawing so you can see it.

if this has already been done, somebody let us all know.

I also sent this as an inquiry to HDB.. Highway Dirt bikes, to see if they might have been asked to do this as one of their handlebar clamps offerings, just for DR'heads.

Please respond and simply say "Yes, I'd probably buy" or "Nah... got a better plan"

thx

Just a thought, but have you contacted Procycle or any other distributer and see if they would carry these? Keeps you out of the PITA sales and shipping business (which takes a lot of time) and focued on design and fabrication. Sounds like an interesting product.

[Rumlover]

Originally Posted by Turbocelica

Factory manual is odd for this setting. I don't have it in front of me currently so I'l be guessing a bit here.

In section 4 they list the jet sizes & pilot screw setting for several different areas. Two of the areas are in the USA. One is California and the other is outside of Cali.. The Outside-California setting has the # of turns (1.5?) listed. The California box only has "Pre-Set".

So I think I should probably start at the 1 to 1.5 turns out range and start the checks to see where I'm actually at. Thinking a bit rich would be better than lean right??

I think you will find you will be pretty darn close (1 to 1.5 turns). It seems most end up somwhere between 1 and 2 turns. Some like a little more (rich) to cure surging or low end response, but mileage can suffer a little if opened to far.

[Rumlover]

Originally Posted by maxicardi

Hi guys,

just new to the forum, although not new to biking. Having been riding for the past 20 years, everything from 2-stroke vintage Vespa's to Kawasaki ZRX Lawson rep...so I thought I knew one things or two about mechanics!

But now, my old trusty DR 650 RS start doing something strange: the oil level goes considerably down after just 200km, so much that I have to top up almost 200cc to bring it back to normal values!

YES, I check it correctly, bike is level, engine is warm, wait 5 mins..
The bike DOESN'T smoke
there are no oil stains around exhausts/on the top koffer/on my back
it start and rides well, just had 145km/h (on GPS) with ease
the plugs aren't black/wet

I topped it up yesterday and actually it rode 'worse' for the first 20mins. and after 200km my oil was AGAIN disappeared. Oh, unnecessary to say...NO LEAKS!

Any wise ideas from the experts?

DR650 RS -- What year is it?

Have you checked your airbox. Excess crankcase pressure or improper crankcase breather hose routing could cause it to be pushed into the box.
Could be caused by overfilling -- not saying yours is but I think that could be a cause of excess pressure.
Good luck

[thumpididump]

Thanks. Much appreciated.

Originally Posted by Mr. B

Update. Thumpididump asked for pix of the installation:

This is the Moto-Sport rack/mount. The boxes screw into the top and hook onto the bottom.


This is the aluminum piece that normally comes with the M-S Yukon II Panniers. It rests on the bottom of the mount. I ordered these from M-S:



The screws and odd washers shown below were hunted down at various hardware stores. They screw into the mounts. I attached the aluminum piece with some bolts I had sitting around. In retrospect, I would have saved time using the (somewhat expensive) M-S pieces.



Inside view

[maxicardi]

Originally Posted by Rumlover

DR650 RS -- What year is it?

Have you checked your airbox. Excess crankcase pressure or improper crankcase breather hose routing could cause it to be pushed into the box.
Could be caused by overfilling -- not saying yours is but I think that could be a cause of excess pressure.
Good luck

The bike is a 1990 DR RS, kickstarter only. Breather hose is OK, routing also...moderate quantity of oil in the airbox (it's just "greasy"). Surely not the amount I'm missing...
I'm using Castrol GPS 10w40...maybe too thin???
A Belgian Beer for the one who solves this puzzle

[NordieBoy]

Originally Posted by maxicardi

The bike is a 1990 DR RS, kickstarter only. Breather hose is OK, routing also...moderate quantity of oil in the airbox (it's just "greasy"). Surely not the amount I'm missing...
I'm using Castrol GPS 10w40...maybe too thin???
A Belgian Beer for the one who solves this puzzle

Clean the airbox and go for a ride. See if any oil makes it's way back in...

[kimber45]

Originally Posted by pjensen641

Gear is the important question here. At 20-30 mph you shouldn't be any higher than 3rd with stock gearing. Otherwise you are most likely lugging the engine. Lugging is really bad for any engine. With the DR you get lots of cyclic loading of the tranny at low RPM, probably one of the causes of the 3rd gear blow-ups. I'm pretty sure Procycle said it best a while back (and I paraphrase) The DR engine is a midrange engine. Many people mistake the term thumper for something you can just put in high gear and barely thump along...not true at all.

I personally don't use 4th gear until 35+ and 5th gear at 45+, even then I need to down shift to prevent excessive chain slap and chattering of the gearbox if I need power. When accelerating I normally shift to 4th at 40 and 5th at 50+. This is with a properly set up FCR-MX.

well not sure now but i would say i was in 3rd. if this darn rain ever stops i'll pay closer attention.

you know now that you mention it i may be hearing chain slap. that's sorta what it sounds like.

thanks for the info.

[Tech23]

Originally Posted by Zapp22

Putting out a feeler here...
A DR friend popped by one day and one of the farkles he had was a one-off [I GUESS... if you know otherwise, speakup] aluminum mounting plate to take the Turnsignal/Neutral/Hi-Beam instrument pod and moving it to front & center of the handlebar. That gave me an idea somewhat different, I drew it up, a fellow ADV'er that is a machinist helped do it in proper form.

So, as you know, the expensive part of a laser-cut aluminum piece is the setup. once you get it right, they can be knocked out fast and at falling cost.
We figure that it would only take about 50 of these to get down to a paltry cost of about $5 or so apiece, plus shipping, which should be cheap.

this is essentially and aluminum plate that would be mounted on the upper pair of handlebar bolts, into which you would place your instrument/light Pod, and screw it in from the bottom just like it is screwed into the stock rubber thingy.

I'll add to this a link to the proper drawing so you can see it.

if this has already been done, somebody let us all know.

I also sent this as an inquiry to HDB.. Highway Dirt bikes, to see if they might have been asked to do this as one of their handlebar clamps offerings, just for DR'heads.

Please respond and simply say "Yes, I'd probably buy" or "Nah... got a better plan"

thx

I would be interested in a laser cut aluminum indicator light panel mount. I have made my own, it's not perfect but it's not too shabby either. I made mine so the light panel is mounted above the mount plate. I have seen two other nice versions. Is the mount you are talking about a bolt on or does the speedometer need to be shimmed forward, or any other necessary modifications?

Tech23

[ADVBedouin]

There were earlier posts/questions about this loud metallic creak after parking the bike on it's side stand: I first heard it after re-installing the factory bashguard (used factory torque specs), which required removal of the full-length, lower engine mounting bolt & nuts/washers.

I determined it was just chassis settling, however it doesn't happen any more. I wasn't sure if was the engine cooling (changing clearances on the engine mount bolt in the frame), or if it was lateral forces on the frame induced by the kickstand. But the noise was too loud & sharp to come from the kickstand alone.

The main point is it started only after I re-installed the bash gaurd & engine mount bolt, but that after not touching either for a few thousand miles it has stopped. I tend to think it's because there's no longer any micro-shifting of the engine mount bolt & fasteners on the frame... like everything's settled in tightly back together again.

[Bubba Bauer]

If your neutral light doesn`t seem to work properly stop and search for causes, on mine the screw let go fell into the madly spinning (was doing around 120K-s) clutch assembly and blew it up. End results:

This is going to be a complete strip I think just can`t be sure where did the parts fly... or is this beyond salvation? So far what damage I can see is the inner clutch hub assembly what`s became a 10000 piece puzzle. Use barnett plates my friction plates and steel plates were spotless while everything blow up around them ( I had to bend or cut them to get them off the hub which is broken and bent...

[Bubba Bauer]

This is what I saw when the cover came off...

[B1]

Originally Posted by Bubba Bauer

If your neutral light doesn`t seem to work properly stop and search for causes, on mine the screw let go fell into the madly spinning (was doing around 120K-s) clutch assembly and blew it up.

there's a good intro to this problem at this link. i know it probably wont help your situation much, but good reading for dr owners not familiar with this problem.

[DockingPilot]

[Wannabee]

HOLY SHIT ! That would bring me to tears , seeing the old girl in pain like that.

[Tech23]

Originally Posted by Bubba Bauer

If your neutral light doesn`t seem to work properly stop and search for causes, on mine the screw let go fell into the madly spinning (was doing around 120K-s) clutch assembly and blew it up. End results:

This is going to be a complete strip I think just can`t be sure where did the parts fly... or is this beyond salvation? So far what damage I can see is the inner clutch hub assembly what`s became a 10000 piece puzzle. Use barnett plates my friction plates and steel plates were spotless while everything blow up around them ( I had to bend or cut them to get them off the hub which is broken and bent...

I guess the neutral light was malfunctioning and you let it go. How long between the time you noticed the malfunction with the light and the catastrophic failure? Are you 100% certain the two events are connected? I put longer allen bolts in my neutral switch and safety wired them with the clutch in place. I guess its possible the screw could have wedged in just the right place to set up a chain reaction of internal carnage like that. Looks real expensive. I don't know how fast the oil came out of it after the metal shavings started, but I would open up the oil pump and look inside for scoring and metal. Bearings don't like a diet of oil/metal shavings....neither do internal oil passages or the piston oil cooling jet. Doesn't take much to create a blockage.

Tech23