Frankenstein ADV bike

Looking to replace my beloved KLR (sold due to contracting orange fever) however much the KLR was a pig in the sand & unhappy @ highway speeds I still miss it, but I would like to improve on it, so I'm considering a Frankenstein build. I have a DR650 with a shot motor & an EX500 left over from my road racing days, it appears that with some fabrication the two could merge, any inmates undertaken such a project?

I never have but I have been thinking about a ninja 650 engine in a KLR.

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The Ninja 650 is a great little power plant, light, powerful, compact & reliable, it was actually my first consideration for this project. But there are a couple of drawbacks, the EX650 is fuel injected with down draught intake & high volume air box, neither the KLR or DR can accommodate that layout without major modification, also the EX650 uses a submerged fuel pump ( in the tank) & the 650 hangs in its frame as a stressed member so the mounts are not in an ideal position. I am going forward with the EX500 my plan is to utilize the lower cradle of the EX500 chassis & merge it with the DR main frame. I will post pics soon meanwhile I need to sell my old DT1 to help finance this project.

sanjoh built a dirt ninja from a wrecked 650 ninja. He didn't swap chassis but made a pretty nice rig. There's a lot of such projects under "some assembly required."

I look forward to seeing how this turns out.

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All are valid reasons to go with the 500

What about yanking the EFI & put a carb or two in it's place? Could it be rewired around that?

Switching from fuel injection to carbs can be done relatively easily but there is still the packaging issue, the EX650 intake is a downdraft which requires alot of room directly above it that would be quite difficult to accommodate on a back bone type chassis used by the KLR & DR. Of course the intake could be altered but I don't have the time or resources to run that to ground, quite simply the EX650 would be a more desirable power plant to use but the EX500 is easier to work with, not to mention less expensive & I already have one. I will be stripping down the DR today anyone looking for a 93 DR650 lump with bad cam let me know.

:eek1

EX lump installed

crappy pics from phone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wSkEx71Umqs

Yup I've seen several KLR/650R's since I started this build, some of them very nicely done too.

Congrats

Looks great but I would expect that from anyone with a shop floor like yours!:eek1