My Winter Project - DR800

[Vesa]

So, after a whole summer with only a sportbike (Trumpet Sprint RS) it was clear that I had to get an adventure bike for the coming season. Before the trumpet I had a 640 Adventure that I really liked but couldn't live with the ascetism. Just a tad too sporty for street use. What then? A 950 would certainly be great, but a new one is about 17000 euros. XR650R? Yes, if they would be imported and had a button. XR650L, TT600RE, why not, but then again perhaps too dirtbike like. What I wanted was a rather simple bike that could do a lot of highway miles, be truly reliable, preferably cheap and still able to handle dirt and dirt roads (meaning weigh under 200kg's for sure...)

What was left? Africa Twin - overpriced, heavy, sluggish(?), Super Tenere - not many available, heavy as hell, DR800 - slow, heavy, ugly, cheap, simple, reliable (a friend has over 70k kms with two BIG's without any problems), supersmooth for a single (really, I mean F650 smooth!), air cooled, another friend had one that dynoed 61rwhp... hmmm... why not?

So, I ended up with a DR800, a '97 registered '98 and only 21k km's, one owner and full service book. Great! Just have to get rid of those hidious plastics so I don't have to care about dropping it...

[Vesa]

There's a lot of unnecessary crap especially at the rear of the bike.


The original bash plate looks great and has a nice shape - too bad it's made of plastic. A friend said he wanted to relocate his battery in front of the engine like 950 have (don't ask me why anyone would want to do that... ) and sold me his great DIY TIG welded alu bash plate cheap (50euros, thanks to Hannu).


The original rear panels are wide and the CDI unit is located really wide outside. It has to move.


A bike has to have a nice pipe.
The new one is, once again, second hand from another friend (for free, thanks Visa!) 2", should breathe


A new can is a must. Why?

Twelve point four kilograms
Found a 2" inner diameter one ment for a 450EXC on german ebay. New and a whopping 121 euros. I wonder how it will sound with the 800


Weight 1.9 kilograms.

I'll continue soon.

[Vesa]

The frame is one-piece and heavy, so in future it should hold panniers well

Valve adjustments are really easy, lots of room.

The original battery holder is light but the electrics are routed a bit fishy.

So what to do? Well, who could live without an aluminum battery holder ? This diy version allowed me to relocate the rear brake juice thingy a lot inner too.

[Vesa]

Things I cannot understand. The bike has a full service book, but still no one has bothered to grease the linkage. FYI, once again expensive to replace because all are non-standard sizes. '

Original bars have a crappy bend for my ergos and probably wouldn't hold trashing very well, so I replaced them with medium height Afam bars that have a nice bend (this pimpish colour was on sale for 39.90).

Also, now is a great time to protect my hands with Polisport Sharp protectors, 24.90euros. I serviced forks and put on neoprene protectors (about 20e if memory serves).

She's starting to look so purty.

[Vesa]

Light is always a good thing. The BIG has a rather small alternator that puts out somewhere between 150 and 200 Watts, so instead of just putting more wattage I had to think what kind of light to put. Big light means big visibility right? But wots this?


Well, a diy 7" front light holder made of acid steel of course. I paid 50e to a friend for this, not bad in my opinion. A 7" driving light housing from Hella was a whoppin 19.90 euros and the plastic casing for it was 8e.

Now the road appears as though lit by daylight. It has to, says so right there on the box.

Then what? After chopping a lot of stuff from the rear of the bike, I had to get an inner fender of some sort. So I had to make one.

A little bending

And cutting

Not finished in this state yet ofcourse.

[Win38-55]

Nice project. Should be a sweet ride when back together.

[Vesa]

The new can needed a connector pipe.
Cutting it


And after some more cutting and welding, there she is



The position is absolutely perfect and the can is really narrow.



Then it was time to call mom:
"Hey, you mind if I drop by and borrow your oven for an hour?"

Now some Flameproofing. A man at a paint shop where my brother bought paint for his crashed TDM said this VHT stuff should hold up well. Any of you used this?


Time to cook

Btw, she didn't mind at all. :rabia

[Vesa]

Now it's time to put the front end together. A humpy KTM front fender was under 18e and the additional you see above the big one is Hella FF50. I bought a used pair, once again, from a friend for about half price. Then I routed new cables through a relay for the lights, I believe it made a noticeable difference, then again perhaps not. I wanted the FF50 to be a quick connect so I decided to use a cigarette lighter plug for it. Rated at 10 amps so should hold up, wonder how it'll cope with water (the plug says 'Marine' but then again...').


The fender was an easy install after I made a plate from 2mm alu for it.


A pic without a flash to give a better idea.


What next? A plate holder, again 2mm aluminum (wonder if I use too much aluminum as the guy at the local shop greets me every time I walk in and asks 'how much today' )



The inner fender stops right before the electrics so I bent an extension out of 1mm plate.


Also, I added smaller blinkers (under 6e a pop) and cut rest of the plate holder.


The CDI unit found a new place under the saddle.


Some more to come later.

Thanks,
Vesa

[Vesa]

Originally Posted by Win38-55

Nice project. Should be a sweet ride when back together.

Thanks! I've ridden DR BIG's just a few times before and they are quite heavy and adecuately suspended at best, but then again they have a really smooth engine with a progressive thrust. They are just what the look like.

EDIT: Btw, is this thread becoming heavy to load? I can chop the pics if needed.
Vesa

[Vesa]

This image reminds me of an incident that... Well, I needed a silicone cable that I could use for grounding the aux light and I happened to find a piece of old 230V cable that still had the plug left. I measured the cable, dropped it on the floor and did some other things for a few minutes. Picked the cable up and cut the plug off the end first. No, it didn't happen to be the right cable.
Now I have a cordless heater.


I liked the folding mirrors that KTM uses on SXC/SMC, they're just expensive at about 30e a piece. Found equivalent ones for 13.50e, look really close to the KTM ones.


I wanted a cigarette lighter plug to use with Garmin eTrex. I routed it so that it can be used with the bike not powered, f.ex. if I have to load camera batteries or use the GPS etc. when not riding.


The cockpit is rather minimal now consisting of a GPS (have to get a RAM mount ASAP), warning lights, two 12V outs and a bicycle computer (CatEye).


More Light!


The rear end at its current shape (has just a small alu plate on top). Disregard the stickers.

[Vesa]

It's better than bad, it's good!
Log - from Blammo!


So how does it look now?



A bit like this. The pic doesn't show the FF50, bash plate, mirrors or the rear alu top plate.

Next in line:
-Rear side panels made of 1mm aluminum. Just something to cover the frame, nothing too fancy.
-Luggage rack to hold alu pannies or soft bags. Haven't decided which way I should go.
-New tires as the dirt roads melt
-A quick connect for a top box holder
-Heated grips when I find time to get a 4-pole switch

I have yet to ride the bike more than 30 meters. If I had to guess the weight has dropped somewhere 20 and 30kg's. The original is about 195-205kg so in current state somewhere around 180kg sounds realistic. A light year from light but nowhere GS-like heavy.

I calculated a total of 590 euros spent on the bike, including all materials. I'm a rather happy camper.

[ChrisC]

I really like your snow tires!

Looking nice....

[tac650]

Pooh????????

[Vesa]

[DMZ]

DR 800, now that's a THUMPER.


V nice job Vesa!