BergDonk's DR650

[ER70S-2]

Originally Posted by BergDonk

Yeah, those mounting bolts sure are a PITA

Yep.

Originally Posted by BergDonk

One of my DR circle, the 'invalid' mentioned above re the css retainer test fitting, has the EBC 320 front disc fitted. Definitley works, although the race use only disclaimer and the possibiltiy of button failure is of concern. He has made up some of his own beefed up buttons to address the issue. I wouldn't mind a 320 disc myself, maybe one day.

Like my suspension, if I had known, I would do it a lot sooner. BUT, the disclaimer and button caveats would have me looking for another 320mm rotor; maybe another $50ish like the rear you and Thumpididump recommended (and I'm using). The gold bling was nice but I'm over it; any wave 320 would be my next step.

Originally Posted by BergDonk

One of my biggest ever offs was a couple of years ago when the Tubliss insert I was running in the front of Big Berg let go. Mid corner when cranked over a bit. Was on a fresh 'spray and chip' sealed corner after 2 days of being in the bush. Let go mid corner and I went down head first. A number of deep cuts needing a dozen or so stitches, possible compartment syndrome in my whacked arm, concussion etc.

I recall identifying 14 fractures in the helmet shell:

Fresh 'spray and chip', head first, deep cuts, stitches, concussion, 14 fractures in the helmet.

Short hijack for a public service announcement:
I blew a tight decreasing radius right hander into a blinding sunset in '05. Stuffed my FJR into the guard rail hard enough to bend the crankshaft. Oh well. The problem: squished my left leg pretty good, but nothing broken ; just a 3 month limp. It swelled up like phone pole and black-n-blue. WTH, I've been hurt before and what could the doc do anyway? It was 2 or 3 years later when High Hope (another inmate), shared his story about compartment syndrome in his leg and the permanent damage including loss of muscle tissue and almost losing his leg that scared the poop outta me. If any of you guys' get a limb swelling up tight, get to the fooken' doctor!!

Originally Posted by BergDonk

Because the wire bead let go:


You can see the tools pointing to the ends of the wire that should be joined, and once were. Note how the high pressure tube was shredded when it failed. Suddenly no pressure, and the tyre peeled off the rim real quick.

Note how deep and aggressive the sample gravel rash on the bike is. Me and my gear was similarly cut up.

Damn, that tube looks frightening and you ground the plastic right off the handquard.

Originally Posted by BergDonk

When my wife collected me from hospital to take me home she asked if I wanted to go via a bike shop so I could get a new helmet. All I wanted to do was get home, and I must admit I was wondering if I wanted to keep riding at all.

Sounds like you have a wonderful wife, does she have a sister?

When I was younger and immortal, quitting riding wasn't even considered. Now I hear that my bones are getting brittle and won't heal very fast next time. Sure I love riding, but walking without a limp is moving up on the list too.

[PPCLI-Jim]

Shows why the ATGATT is a good thing to remember. Most accidents you can walk away from are good ones. I was upset I had totaled my CBF 1000 , and got a sprained wrist . but considering that other people have ended up in casts and the bike wasn't scratched I will take the bad wrist . Thats why i am paying more for bike insurance then truck ...

[BergDonk]

Originally Posted by ER70S-2

Yep.

Short hijack for a public service announcement:
I blew a tight decreasing radius right hander into a blinding sunset in '05. Stuffed my FJR into the guard rail hard enough to bend the crankshaft. Oh well. The problem: squished my left leg pretty good, but nothing broken ; just a 3 month limp. It swelled up like phone pole and black-n-blue. WTH, I've been hurt before and what could the doc do anyway? It was 2 or 3 years later when High Hope (another inmate), shared his story about compartment syndrome in his leg and the permanent damage including loss of muscle tissue and almost losing his leg that scared the poop outta me. If any of you guys' get a limb swelling up tight, get to the fooken' doctor!!

Yep, the compartment syndrome is a thing that many/most of us don't know about. What's a bit of swelling after all? Goes down after a couple of days doesn't it, surely?

What was interesting, maybe, about this incident was how it evolved. It happened on a Sunday afternoon about 14:00. We'd been on a weekend ride of mostly single track and fire trails, NOT DR650 riding, and this was Day 2 and almost back to the car park, maybe and 1.5 hrs to go. We'd had to come out onto the road to get across the river on a bridge so it was the first bit of sealed road for about 100 kms. I was sweep riding and it took a while to get radio contact established and eventually get to a vehicle and recover me and the bike. It was rideable, but I wasn't. Back at the car park, my bike was loaded into my ute and a mate drove me and my ute and bike to casualty at Canberra Hospital, arriving about 17:00, right on peak hour. After about an hour of hanging, and my mate needing to be elsewhere, and not knowing what might be happening to me and my ute and bike parked somewhere, I called my daughters who both lived nearby. They drove out, collected me in my ute and one daughter drove my mate home in their car whilst the other drove me in my ute to Cooma Hospital, 110 kms away, and much closer to home, and a friendlier place, and its where my wife works as a pharmacist. I went straight there with one daughter, the other drove home to collect the wife and we were all now in Cooma Hospital. My daughters drove back to Canberra and my wife hung about and had my ute and bike to drive home when she was ready.

Then the nurses decided the doc needed to pay me more attention. The swollen arm was the problem, so an ambulance was called and I was carted off to Canberra Hospital getting back there about 24:00, having left there 6 hours before. Scored a bed in the corridor until a ward vacancy became mine about 06:00. My wife collected me the next day, and fortunately with no surgery required.

And its ATGATT for me, always has been. Apart from other gear damage, the patella cap was removed from my knee brace on first impact, and then the chip dug through my nylons and into my knee.

[BergDonk]

Originally Posted by Kernel

The DR ticked over 57,000 kms yesterday and not really anything to report, all good.

This weekend just gone included:
http://advrider.com/forums/showpost....4&postcount=39
http://advrider.com/forums/showpost....postcount=2047

Trying out a new rear tyre too, a Motoz Tractionator Desert HT.
http://www.motoz.com.au/shop_content.asp?p=tyrerange



Really good drive on hard pack and gravel with great side grip. Noisy and lumpy ride, and won't last much more than 2-2,500 kms.

[Kernel]

How is/did the Motoz tyre go?
Get anything for the DR650 for Chrissy?

[BergDonk]

Originally Posted by BergDonk

Really good drive on hard pack and gravel with great side grip. Noisy and lumpy ride, and won't last much more than 2-2,500 kms.

Originally Posted by Kernel

How is/did the Motoz tyre go?
Get anything for the DR650 for Chrissy?

No change in my comments above re the Motoz, except that as its worn down, the wear rate is slowing, less flex I guess, so might go 3,000 kms.

I reckon if they beefed up the smaller centre knob and/or add a centre rib it'd smooth out the ride and improve the wear and it'd then be 'the' ADV tyre for me. The 110 is on at the moment, and I have a 130 to try too. I also got a Mefo Stonemaster to try as well. RRP is about $170, so couldn't resist at $116 delivered:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mefo-Ston...item2c689947c7


I haven't been out for over a month My 'good' knee is playing up and I'm trying to follow Docs orders and lie low. Bloody frustrating..........

But still managed to pull the suspension and get it serviced when Frank was down a few weeks ago, so fresh oil up front and back, and we also made some tweaks to the shim stacks, but not yet tested the results other than getting up to the gate and back to make sure the wheels didn't fall off.

In the meantime, the DR is getting TLC in the shed in between DVDs. It got a wash and I did the valves yesterday. I'll now pull and service the starter motor and I got a new needle for the carb to test out DR Steve's settings:
http://drriders.com/topic3733-80.html
NCVT purchased here:
http://www.powersportsplus.com/parts...4-MEN-671.html

I'm taking some pics and will write up the above when its done FWIW. I did pull a tappet screw and measure the pitch and can now do the valves without a feeler gauge which might interest some. I'll explain more later.

Just hoping to dodge some knee surgery this time, but I'm not so sure.

[BergDonk]

Santa, along with the carb needle, also delivered a new Garmin Montana for me and the DR with which I'm hoping to replace both my 60CSX and Magellan XL But its faulty, so working through that with the supplier. Frustrating, but can't ride anyway, so..........Arrrrrgh

[ER70S-2]

Luv your detailed info updates, makes for a good winter's eve boredom breaker.

I understand both trying to protect your knee and not riding in nice weather. When I had the flat front tyre (10-14), my only scuff was a jammed right thumb. So I limited my dirt riding for a few weeks. On the next dirt ride, thumb still hurt. So the rest of my rides were limited to pavement. I quit for the season 12-6 (15,000 mile summer ). If I put pressure on the thumb now, it's still tender, 10 weeks after the initial injury; dammit.

Oh well, it's 21* here tonight anyway.

Any idea how that Honda needle looks next to the KTM needle (mx-rob's recommendation)? An irrelevant question as I live at 6000 ft asl and ride up from there. But it's cold, boring and a DR relevant question. My stock needle works well enough, but like the suspension, I don't know what I haven't experienced.

DR650 babysitting the 1200 Bimmer sumptins:

[ER70S-2]

Sorry to hear the Montana is giving you trouble and I've heard of a few others having trouble too (over in Layin' Down Tracks). My 276C is getting old (2005 with 40,xxx DR miles on it), looks like I'll need another GPS before I retire from riding and the Montana is the only thing anywhere near as highly rated as the 276C was in its day. I'm going to miss the ol girl.

[BergDonk]

Originally Posted by ER70S-2

I understand both trying to protect your knee and not riding in nice weather. When I had the flat front tyre (10-14), my only scuff was a jammed right thumb. So I limited my dirt riding for a few weeks. On the next dirt ride, thumb still hurt. So the rest of my rides were limited to pavement. I quit for the season 12-6 (15,000 mile summer ). If I put pressure on the thumb now, it's still tender, 10 weeks after the initial injury; dammit.

Oh well, it's 21* here tonight anyway.

Injuries we brushed off when we were kids now takes months to get over, and the same ones come back to haunt us too. Getting old, bummer.............

25 deg C here today again and cloudless sky, and no riding for me again today. Did a 4wd trip to the coast yesterday to visit the motherinlaw, which was OK, but......

If the knee bends a bit more later in the week I might get out on the 1400GTR, but too many police about at the moment for a proper road bike ride unfortunately. Not to mention all the holidayers wandering all over the road.

Originally Posted by ER70S-2

Any idea how that Honda needle looks next to the KTM needle (mx-rob's recommendation)? An irrelevant question as I live at 6000 ft asl and ride up from there. But it's cold, boring and a DR relevant question. My stock needle works well enough, but like the suspension, I don't know what I haven't experienced.

DR650 babysitting the 1200 Bimmer sumptins:

According to DR Steve its a bit leaner up to 1/4 throttle, so will also likely need to go from a 38 to a 40 pilot. Specs for normal Keihin needles are readily available, but the dual taper Honda ones are not something I've been able to access on the web (yet). I'll take some measurements when I get to it and we'll see.

[BergDonk]

I thought I'd post up how I do it. As far as adjusting valves go, I doubt they can be any easier than on a DR650.

First up, you need to remove the tank to gain access and then clean around the engine, the rocker covers, and importantly, to me, the frame and wiring above. This is because once the engine is open, and you are working there, its easy to dislodge some crud that can then fall inside the motor. I used a hose then compressed air to dry and move anything left on. Having previously assembled all the wiring harness connectors with dielectric grease gives confidence with this process.

I like to remove a spark plug when doing the valves, and its important to pay particular attention to around the plug lest anything fall in when it comes out. I've even had quartz chips wedged in there that I needed to chisel out before I could get the plug socket over the plug properly.



Pulling the outer plug after a basic scrub. Note the best use I've come up with for Golf tees, plugging the fuel lines.




The outer plug and valve covers have been removed.

On the stator cover is a 10 mm ratcheting spanner which works well when removing the valve/tappet covers.

Sitting on the head is a pair of bent feeler gauges from ProCycle, but no doubt available from other sources. You can also just bend up normal straight feelers. They need to be bent to comfortably get them in between the valve stem and tappet. The nice thing about the PC ones is that one does inlets and the other does exhausts using the go no go method.

What's the go no go method? Its when the thin one slides in, and the thick one doesn't. The spec for the DR is:
Inlet 0.08 - 0.13 mm
Exhaust 0.17 - 0.22 mm

The PC feelers are:
0.10 - 0.13
0.15 - 0.20

So when doing the inlets, if the 0.10 slides in and the 0.13 doesn't, or almost does, its all good and leave it alone. Likewise, with the exhaust, if the 0.15 slides in easily, and the 0.20 doesn't or almost does, its all good and nothing else to do but put it back together.

But I'm getting too far ahead. Gotta get TDCC, or Top Dead Centre Compression for best results first. You can do this by the book, and remove the bungs in the stator cover, which can be problematic, or do it my way.



First note that I have a 'porcupine' magnetic LED light stuck to the frame to put a bit more light on the exhausts.

Secondly, there is a plastic drinking straw down the plug hole. By putting the bike into 4th or 5th gear and turning the wheel to turn the engine over you can watch the straw rise and fall. It might need a little help too. Also watch the inlet valves. Once they close, ie the valves rise, and the straw tops out, then that's close enough to TDCC for doing the valves.




Above is a picture of a cam I found on the net. Valve clearance is set when the cam follower, in this case the rocker, is sitting somewhere on the base circle of the cam which is almost 3/4 of the rotation of the cam. This means that TDCC is not really essential, BUT, the DR650 has an exhaust valve decompressor. I'm not familiar with its specific operation, but I know that with my Bergs which also have a decomp on the exhaust, if its not at TDCC, then the decomp can give a false reading, so to make it simple, and take away any room for error, find TDCC.




Here is a pic with 2 lobes, and because of the different position, less room for error with TDCC, but as long as the drinking straw is more or less at the top, it'll be close enough.




Above its checking the inlets for go no go.

Checking the exhaust the same way the 0.15 just slid in, so a bit tight and needed loosening a bit.



Above I'm using a PC sourced adjustment tool. Its got 6 detents on the handle and I've drawn a line joining the opposites with a red marker. These are at 60 deg. I've also dotted one of the red lines and drawn another at 90 deg to the dotted one in black.

Why?

I pulled a tappet screw out and measured its pitch at 0.75, that's 0.75 threads to the mm. So with a little math, the ex clearances, 0.17 - 0.22 is 0.227 - 0.293 turns or 80 - 105 deg rotation. So backing off the lock nut a bit and then gently seating the tappet, then backing off 90 deg gives a suitable clearance. Holding the adjuster at 90 deg, spin the locknut down, then remove the adjuster and nip up the locknut. Check with the feelers if you feel the need and its done.

Similarly, the inlets are 0.08 - 0.13 which is 0.107 - 0.173 turns or 38 - 62 deg. A bit less than 60 deg that's marked on the tool and good to go too.

EDIT Addition
When you seat the tappet screw, make sure you've backed off the locknut enough so that you don't get a false reading. Also, gently seat it a couple of times to squeeze out any oil film that might also give a false reading.

So in 57,000 kms the inlets were loosened off a bit last time, and this time its the exhausts, so one adjustment each needed to date. Not bad at all, and about the same as my Bergs FWIW, although that's extrapolating out their life to date. My Courier diesel ute needed its first valve, and only one of twelve, adjusted at 260,000 kms.

Button it up and done.

But because I'm now at TDCC, I'll take advantage of that to pull and service the starter motor. Pics to come.

[VooDooDaddy]

Originally Posted by BergDonk

I thought I'd post up how I do it. As far as adjusting valves go, I doubt they can be any easier than on a DR650.

Fackin' brilliant. Thank you very much. Even though I don't do the V/A on my DR's very often, I simply like the logic involved and I appreciate the time it took to enlighten the rest of us.

[Kernel]

Hellz yeah, I'm saving that post and printing it out for next time I do the valves. Should cut my adjustment time in half!

Originally Posted by BergDonk

The nice thing about the PC ones is that one does inlets and the other does exhausts using the go no go method.

What's the go no go method? Its when the thin one slides in, and the thick one doesn't.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hh fuck me dead!!

[Bubba Bauer]

If you don`t have an adjustment tool you can use the square headed wood decking screw which head is a perfect fit just don`t forget to carve a fancy knob like Bergdonks and hammer the screw in, otherwise if you manage to drop it inside the heart its a major PITA to fish it out especially if you buy an alu one like I did .

The 60-90 deg increment lines on top of them is an awesome idea I was always marking the knob and the head and trying to eyeballing it, but this one is so much more smarter! Thank you!

[VooDooDaddy]

Originally Posted by BergDonk

...I'm using a PC sourced adjustment tool.

Get 'em while they last kids.....