Hello! Thanks to everyone that contributes to the forums at advrider.com. I've learned a lot here and hope my contribution is not boring. The goals of this project: 1. Buy 96+ DR650 for $2000 or less. 2. Strip it, then rebuild/reassemble with easily attainable items. 3. A resulting DR650 that is arguably better than a new one and cost less. Let's begin. There were a lot of people selling newer DR650's for too much at the end of summer. Finally in November on craigslist a one owner 96 with 6800 miles for $2000 in Portland. The wife and I drove down and got it the next Saturday. We stayed at the Hotel Monaco in Portland and came back on Sunday. I felt out of place riding the DR into the underground parking at the Monaco, but was pleasantly surpised at the croud it drew. It seemed all the attendants had DR stories of thier own. The ride back was sunny and the bike ran great. Here she is in all here purple (cringe), yellow and white splendor. Code: [B]The parts list:[/B] unsourced Dunlop 606's 0.00 Handlebar grips 0.00 Dakar Tall Windshield Black 0.00 DR350 18" rear wheel 0.00 0.00 [URL='http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites']craigslist[/URL] 1996 Suzuki DR650 2000.00 2000.00 [URL='http://www.ebay.com/']ebay[/URL] or ebay stores Acerbis Rally Pro Enduro Handguards Black 80.96 ProTaper Contour Cr High bend handlebars Silver 62.96 Protaper Oversize Rubber Bar Mounts 34.94 Stainless Bolt Kit DR650SE 24.99 203.85 [URL='http://www.procycle.us/bikepages/dr650.htm']ProCycle[/URL] Black plastice with UFO front fender 319.00 IMS Sainless Steel Footpegs 75.95 IMS Tank 4.9gal Black 249.95 Moose skid plate 75.95 Top End Gasket Set w/metal base gasket 49.95 TM40 Mikuni Pumper Carburetor kit 449.95 Two Brothers M7 Exhaust 34.94 Two Brothers P4 Powertip 34.94 Vapor speedo/tach 115.95 1406.58 [URL='http://www.kientech.com']Kientech Engineering[/URL] DRC EDG2 LED taillight with license backing 65.00 DRZ250 tailight 40.00 FMF Hi-Flo stainless steel header 179.00 284.00 [URL='http://motocd.com/']Cogent Dynamics Motorsport[/URL] [URL='http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=301968']DR650 Shock Rebuild[/URL] RaceTech Emulators 139.00 RT Fork springs 94.00 DR Shock spring 7.1kg @ 90.00 RT dust seals 25.95 RT oil seals 16.95 RT Inner bushings 17.95 RT outer bushings 25.95 Chain roller lower 10.00 Shock conversion 399.00 Ceramic coating-AOL3- 45.00 863.80 [URL='http://corbin.com/suzuki/dr650.shtml']Corbin[/URL] Seat with build up front like this [URL='http://www.twowheelsgood.net/americas/planning.html']one[/URL]. 379.00 379.00 [URL='https://www.surdyke.com']Surdyke Harley-Davidson / Buell[/URL] HEADLIGHT GRILLE (M0023.1AJAYT) 33.10 HDLIGHT ASSY RH (TRAFFIC Y0421.1AD) 46.80 MOUNT HEADLAMP (M0645.1ADA) 18.84 98.74 mother! 5235.97
Seattle Powder Coat The frame, rack and oil cooler guard got sand blasted, two coats of silver and a clear coat. Dropped them off Tuesday and picked them up Thursday. Seattle Powder Coat is great!
If you're taking the bike off road, you will love the shock after Cogent is done with it. Did you play hell getting the motor out of the frame? I did. Had to remove the clutch cover to get it back in.....
Another Seattle DR650 here. What part of Seattle are you in? I'm near Alki beach. Your choice of mods is pretty close to mine. After reading horror stories here and on Thumpertalk about Moose skid plates and it's clones that clamp to the bottom frame tubes, I would recommend against it. If you ride off road you will eventually case a log or rock to get through bad roads. I don't consider myself a radical rider by any means and I have had to drag my bike over a couple things now. There are several stories now of the rear mount bolts on that style skid plate poking holes in the cases and causing oil loss. Watch ebay for old stock Baja Designs DG skid plates or look around for others that mount to the frame bosses further back on the frame. Here's mine: Eibach springs Cogent shock I have cartridge emultors for the forks that will go on in the next couple months. Vapor speedo D606s (great off-road, a bit scary on the slab over 60 or so.) If you get them mounted at a shop, insist that they balance them. I does make a difference. Most will not balance knobbies unless you insist. Acerbis Rally Pro hand guards and spoilers DRZ 250 taillight Baja Designs skid plate off ebay DJ jet kit Turbo City rack I kept the stock exhaust for noise concerns and because I don't want to deal with repacking it.
Ah, the memories... Loving the PC color, silver looks much nicer than the normal grey. Did the same thing to my 96 DR which was in really bad condition. My list of mods is similar, it never ends! Speaking of which, I should get going on my Scotts damper today. Good luck and keep us posted.
First reply, thanks! Yes, I should have made a video of myself taking it out, because it must have looked ridiculous! I used a 4x4 to lift the engine, one end on my shoulder and the other on a 5' 6x6 and the engine suspended in between. So with my right hand I was trying to guide the direction the engine was being pulled and keep the 6x6 from falling over and with my left I could hang on to the frame and persuade (violently shake) the engine to free itself. I'll definitely do something different putting it back in. Excellent tip, thanks. Nice looking bike. I'm in the Wallingford/Greenlake area. I haven't decided if I want a center stand or not. Do the skid plates that extend further back interfere with DualStar center stands? Good tip, thanks. I don't want a loud bike either. I hope the 93db with the P4 Powertip is true. Lukas, excellent! Lukas' Ultimate DR650 Adventure build up/ rebuild was a huge inspiration. Thanks, I hope the silver looks as good when it's back together.
Tool compartment contents: toolkit registration spark plug condom Wait, what was that last one? Apparently, the original owner thought the DR650 was for the ladies! On another note, it took me a good five minutes banging the tool compartment on the bench to get the toolkit out. I have no idea how you would get it out if the compartment was still on the bike. The tools in the toolkit look like they have never been used. A new tool compartment will have to be part of the rebuild.
This will end well. Best of luck with your project. The best first step was blasting off that purple paint. I'm guessing suzuki had a bunch of leftover paint, mixed it all together and that's what it produced.
Glad to hear it, that was my hope when I started the thread. The DR is a great base to start from (solid engine and frame) and since most owners change a lot of the parts anyway, it just makes sense to a buy a used older model. Even with all my upgrades I am under the cost of a new one (well, almost). If you have any questions or need input on something give me a shout, it's likely that I have been there. Lukas
Step 1: Break exhaust header bolt while attempting to remove exhaust. Step 2: Attempt to remove the rest of the bolt sticking out of the head with vise grips! Optimal results are a red face and a smooth slightly conical shaped stud that make vice grips shoot off (similar to trying to squeeze a watermelon seed (in reverse)). Step 3: Buy the cheapest "easy out" bolt extractor kit you can find. Step 4: Attempt to drill the center of the broken bolt. This part went surprisingly well and I was getting my hopes up. Step 5: The easy out is basically a reverse threaded tap. So the theory is that as you tighten the easy out in the loosening direction of the stuck bolt, the bolt will eventually unscrew. A nice theory, but since you bought the cheapest extractor kit you could find this is what happens. You get the easy out started and at about 3ft/lbs it breaks off in your broken bolt. Step 6: Learn about tap disintegrators. <object width="425" height="344"> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FgDscaUOQnc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></object> Step 7: Try and find a local machine shop that knows what a tap disintegrator is. Favorite responses. a very long pause (with whispering in the background), no. I hate being disintegrated (in the best Marvin the Martian voice summonable on short notice). They make those? Where do you get em?. Step 8: Send the head to a state where they have tap disintegrators and perform tap removal for a reasonable fee. I used Jerry's Broken Drill and Tap Removal. The head should be back on Tuesday. The Art of Extraction gives a great explanation (annealing vs hardening) on how to use heat to help get broken bolts out. I decided against using heat because I wasn't sure what that might do to my aluminum head, but Manley's recommendation for brass or stainless steel on exhaust lead me to looking for the DR650 stainless steel bolt kit. I had also found several references while Googling to bolt removal using various kinds of acid. My favorite is this one, "I don't know where to get it, but nitric acid will eat the steel bolt and not touch the aluminum. It will also eat flesh, lungs, clothes and the like." This reference also contains a couple reasons why I didn't try this method. Yes indeed! That could (should) have been Step 2. I don't have the means to weld anything myself so I would have had to take it to a shop, but the local shops could have done that faster and cheaper. Ahh, hindsight.
Great writeup so far. Very excited to see how this turns out and if I want to attempt something like that myself.
Thanks. I agree the purple, yellow and white combo reaches an astounding level of ugliness. It's hard to go wrong with black and silver, but we'll see. Thanks, I may take you up on that. Thanks, If you try it yourself I hope you do a write up. Thanks, me too.
another option for bolt extraction , weld a nut on the busted bolt , then soak the crap out of it with some PB Blaster , it should then break free , too late for that now huh
