DR650SE Index Topic #3- CRASH PROTECTION

[Krusty ...]

Crash & Impact Protection. As delivered, Suzuki leaves some room for improvement in this area. Tell us how you made your DR "bulletproof". Skid plates, engine guards, chaIn guards, hand gaurds, rotor guards, etc...

Thanks!

[Krusty ...]

I added some protection for the oil filter, clutch and ignition covers with a set from AMP...

http://www.motorcycleproducts.org/En...ds/DR650SE.htm

Cheap insurance, especially for the vulnerable oil filter cover...

[sagedrifter]

I will second the AMP covers.

I have the Dual Star skid plate, has a couple scratches now, the ears do protect the engine well. In retrospec I wished I could have gotten a plate that used the stock holes. The clamp on style is not the best idea but, mine has been fine with my light off roading.

My rear rack protects my turn signals very well, too bad the old Ebay diamond back racks are not offered now. I really like the size, no worry of my dry bag dropping on the muffler. I've had zero issues with it.

[eakins]

ims tank stick out farther to additionally protect the oil cooler.

utah sport makes skid that most people have. dual star, moose, msr all sell/rebrand this one.

suzuki makes a oem small on.

pat walsh makes a skid plate as well as turbocity.

krusty & i are lucky enough to have jumped on the last remaining dg plates for the dr. we needed to modify the mounts. these are some of the beefiest us plates on the market and equal to what they produce in oz.

b&b & whipps from oz also make plates. strong, manly & expensive. they don't mess around down under.

i use all 3 of those amp side protection plates. good stuff.

jessie sells b&b frame guards.

no one has made a rear disc guard.

i think plastic acerbis guards can be modified to fit the front disc. i think procycle has these as well as a copy 2 of the 3 amp guards.

[eakins]

the old man who was making those ebay/bbq rack plates just up and stopped one day...health issues? i'm surprised no one copied his design. jeff @ procycle???
i have one and it's the best one ever for the price imo. protects the side in a crash and it hold a nice large rear bag.

Originally Posted by sagedrifter

I will second the AMP covers.

I have the Dual Star skid plate, has a couple scratches now, the ears do protect the engine well. In retrospec I wished I could have gotten a plate that used the stock holes. The clamp on style is not the best idea but, mine has been fine with my light off roading.

My rear rack protects my turn signals very well, too bad the old Ebay diamond back racks are not offered now. I really like the size, no worry of my dry bag dropping on the muffler. I've had zero issues with it.

[greenlizard]

How about a how-to on modifying the DG skid plate front mounts? I like the plate, but what a pain to deal with!

Also I think the plate contacts the shark fin that is in front of the sump drain plug - not good. I may cut a clearance slot in the front of the drain plug access hole to fix this, but I hope there is a better solution.

[GaryW]

Here are some guards I welded up and then powdercoated

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_UyAfvrvL3Y0/TB...0/IMG_1352.JPG

[Krusty ...]

Bump

[eakins]

Originally Posted by greenlizard

How about a how-to on modifying the DG skid plate front mounts? I like the plate, but what a pain to deal with!

Also I think the plate contacts the shark fin that is in front of the sump drain plug - not good. I may cut a clearance slot in the front of the drain plug access hole to fix this, but I hope there is a better solution.

i did just that and used 2 1" utah sport clamps (on the bike frame) up front with newly drilled holes in the plate, while using the original mount points in the rear. in dg original front holes i used their tapper bolt and put a nut on the backside to basicly fill up the hole. so you know, the clamps & bolts i added are on the next lower flat surface (roughly centered top to bottom) below where the front dg bolts are found. i used stainless steel button nose bolts & oversized washers as the hole i drilled is slightly oversized to get it to lineup properly where i wanted it.

i have not noticed the plate contacting the lower engine case but i also wrapped & ziptied some pieces of inner tube on the bike frame towards the front where the plate would directly touch against against it when bolted tight. this isolated the plate away from metal to metal contact with the frame and more importantly the 2 side bolts/post that come of the frame. without this i noticed how the plate would touch directly against the threaded posts that come out from the side of the lower frame. i thought this would create excessive noise.

so i just looked under the plate in the area of the drain hole and do notice how that engine case fine just ahead of the hole almost touches the plate.
my rubber inner tube spacer mod on the fame is about 1/4" thick (i wrapped it arround many times) and i was unaware it also kept that fin away from touching the plate as it moved out the plate a few cm. thanks for the heads up and this is what i think you should also do.

in this end it's really not an issue for anyone else as the plate is not avail. anymore. for such a strong beefy plate dg really did screw up 2 key things on it, the clamps and it touching the engine. dg has dropped out of building protection for bikes years ago to focus soley on atvs and this is probably why they never redesigned it.

[eakins]

Originally Posted by sagedrifter

I will second the AMP covers.

I have the Dual Star skid plate, has a couple scratches now, the ears do protect the engine well. In retrospec I wished I could have gotten a plate that used the stock holes. The clamp on style is not the best idea but, mine has been fine with my light off roading.

My rear rack protects my turn signals very well, too bad the old Ebay diamond back racks are not offered now. I really like the size, no worry of my dry bag dropping on the muffler. I've had zero issues with it.

yes the ebay bbq racks do a great job of protecting the left & right rear parts of the bike. it's one tough bugger as i've dumped my bike several times and it took the brunt of the drop with just a few surface scratches.

... like i said before procycle or jesse really needs to copy that design since they guy is out. i used to have his name and contact info but i can't find it. he's in sw utah in Vigin or Mt. Cramel Junction. he was an old timmer and just got out of biz.

this guy might still have his info:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=136001

[Kranked]

Handguards:
I use Barkbuster aluminum backbones with black Barkbuster Storm S4 handguards - approx $60 CDN. I used the BB.BSC.STD mounting kit - approx $32 CDN - to mount them to my stock handlebars. No issue with mounting them, very easy to do, there's enough room that the clutch/brake levers have room and there's no need to cut off the ball ends on the levers. Purchased from Twisted Throttle. www.twistedthrottle.com
These things have saved the bike from a lot of damage - highly recommended purchase.



Skid Plate:
SW-Motech aluminum skid plate . I can hear tons of ricochets off of it when flying down gravel roads. It will withstand tree trunk hopping and supports the bike beautifully when sunk in the mud down to the skid plate. It may not have as much protective surface area as other skid plates but it's easy to clean, looks great and doesn't reflect as much engine noise back up to the rider as other skid plates. I purchased this from Twisted Throttle; it was really easy to mount to the bike. Approx $125 CDN.



My next purchases will be from ProCycle - www.procycle.us/bikepages/dr650.html - they appear to have the most gear for the DR650, in one place.

Tip: If you ship to Canada from the United States - use USPS (United States Parcel Service) and you will save yourself a ton of money in shipping/border costs.

[LukasM]

Originally Posted by Kranked

Skid Plate:
SW-Motech aluminum skid plate . I can hear tons of ricochets off of it when flying down gravel roads. It will withstand tree trunk hopping and supports the bike beautifully when sunk in the mud down to the skid plate. It may not have as much protective surface area as other skid plates but it's easy to clean, looks great and doesn't reflect as much engine noise back up to the rider as other skid plates. I purchased this from Twisted Throttle; it was really easy to mount to the bike. Approx $125 CDN.

One thing to note is that the SW-Motech plate is made of thinner aluminum than most of the others (IIRC 3mm vs. 4/4.5mm). There is at least one person on here who cracked his engines crankcase when he hit something and simply punched through the plate.

That's why I wouldn't recommend it for anybody doing serious off road.

My €.02

[ER70S-2]

http://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/sho...7&postcount=25

[LCubanaso]

I was hoping to see a clever way of rigging some kinda frame slider so as to protect the shift lever when the bike goes down. I'm constantly needing to straighten out the shift lever whenever she goes down on her left.

I did add the case saver to the magneto cover, but that simply protects the case.

[NordieBoy]

Originally Posted by LCubanaso

I was hoping to see a clever way of rigging some kinda frame slider so as to protect the shift lever when the bike goes down. I'm constantly needing to straighten out the shift lever whenever she goes down on her left.

I did add the case saver to the magneto cover, but that simply protects the case.

Brake snake?