New bike!

[TN2Wheeler]

Jim - I'm reading Peter Egan's Leanings III and he has great praise for the DR650 so you're in good company!

Tosh

It's not a good fit for everyone but they work for me. They receive criticism because they are an old school,  air cooled,  carburetor fueled, underpowered single. Those are the very reasons I like them.  A simple large displacement,  understressed machine with the reliability of a hammer.  When they do occasionally fail  they are usually repairable in the bush without sophisticated diagnostics. They are fundamentally unchanged since 1996 so there is huge after market support to overcome its shortcomings. The biggest of those is the budget suspension.  Spend a bit of money with  Procycle (procycle.us) and Cogent Dynamics (motocd.com) and you have a pretty capable and durable dual-sport/adventure bike for about half the price of one of those orange ones. This one is my fourth so obviously I like them but i know it would be a big disappointment for those who relish the technowhiz of modern electronics-laden machines. They are definitely not that.

[HawkGTRider]

Mine has been a good fit for me too. I've got more miles on my '97 DR650SE this year than all but one of my other running bikes. Much of that came from a trek up to the Fall Colors Ride where I saw nearly 1,000 miles of fun little back roads but no dirt. It was still a fun ride.

[DirtFlier]

Jim - good rationale for choosing the DR650!  Being fixable off the beaten path is a real positive.

I rode the Euro-version for a week or so when I was in Serbia a few years back.  Suzuki called it the "Free Wind" in Europe.  The example I rode had a terrible glitch in the carburetion just off idle - ostensibly to pass their emissions?  I later read in some Brit magazines that it was a common complaint but easily fixable via fiddling with the jets and idle mixture adjustment.   

[TN2Wheeler]

^^^ Yep, super lean at idle to pass emissions testing. The $20 fix:

[bcd]

Congratulations, Jim!

I've only bought 2 bikes new:

'75 GT250 (free)
'76 CB360T (free)
'84 Nighthawk S
'96 Trident
'97 Trophy 1200
'88? NX250
'03 KLR650
'08 Street Triple (still have)
'06 ST1300
'12 Super Ténéré (new)
'15 Super Ténéré (new, still have)

The first two belonged to friends who didn't want them because they didn't run.

[Brick]

Whoa... so I guess I've purchased 5 new bikes.

1970 Honda SL350 bought new

1970 BSA 650 Lightning used

1952 HD Sportster in a basket

1966 HD FLH Shovelhead used

1956 HD FLH Panhead used

1978 Suzuki GS550 used

1981 Honda CB900F

1982 Honda CB900F

1992 Kawasaki Concours left over new

1991 Ducati 907ie used

1997 Honda VTR1000F Superhawk new

1998 Honda VTR1000F Superhawk used Howard's crash for the engine.

1999 Suzuki SV650 from Jim & Ginny I still have this bike.

1996 Honda ST1100 used (Bambi took this one)

2007 Triumph Tiger 1050 used

2006 Yamaha FJR used

2012 Yamaha XT1200U Super Tenere new

2014 Yamaha XT1200U ES Super Tenere new still own

2015 Yamaha FJ-09 used still own.




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[Paco Bulto]

^^^ Yep, super lean at idle to pass emissions testing. The $20 fix:

Well, that explains why I didn't care for the very low miles (800+) DR650 I test rode at the local Suzuki dealer recently. I love the low end and midrange of my DR385 and DR435 and this DR650 had terrible carburation off the bottom. Good to know that this is easily fixed.

[NinjaBob]

New '71 Honda CL100 Scrambler
New '72 Honda XL250
Used '79 Honda CX500 Custom
New '82 Honda VF750 Sabre
New'84  Kawasaki 900 Ninja burned in a garage fire in 2000
Used '80 Suzuki GS450S (wife's bike)
Used '80 Suzuki GS450 racebike
Used 86 Kawasaki Concours 1000
New leftover '99 Honda CBR1100xx Blackbird purchased in 2000, also lost in above  fire
Used '99 Honda VFR800
New '02 Kawasaki Ninja 500 (wife's)
Used 02 Suzuki SV650 track bike
Used ? GasGas JTX320
Used  2005 Kawasaki KLR650
currently own
Used 74 Yamaha TY250 (not running)
New 2008 Kawasaki Concours 14 currently 168,000
Used (461 miles!) 09 Kawasaki KLX250S
Used 07 Ducati 1098
Used '09 Kawasaki Concours 14
New 2015 Yamaha YZF-R3

[boatanchor]

Sounds good.

For some of the other members of our happy little forum, here's a question...
How many "brand spanking new/not pre-loved" bikes have you had?
Jim's confessed to 2 and that beats me by...2.
What about you?

Only two, a 2007 KTM Super Enduro and a 2012 Yamaha Super Tenere.

[stevegrab]

Congrats Jim, replacing a slightly worn hammer with a new one, always good.

I've owned 5 bikes in my short riding career,
96 Suzuki Bandit 600 (new traded on VFR)
00 Honda CBR600F4 (new)
98 VFR800 (used)
99 Triumph Sprint ST (used from a MSTAer)
06 Ninja 650 (used from a MSTAer)

All but the Bandit are still around, the CBR isn't running. If I can keep finding good deals I may continue to buy used, but I'm also limited in my mechanical ability so a brand new reliable touring bike is something I may consider soon.

[HawkGTRider]

New '82 Honda VF750 Sabre

Used '80 Suzuki GS450S (wife's bike)
Used '80 Suzuki GS450 racebike

There is probably a LOT of overlap between the garages of the MSTA association.

My first bike was a Suzuki GS550T, but my second bike was a V45 (750) Sabre (although mine was an '83 and I was the third owner as best as I could determine). If I hadn't experimented with finding out if a high side was a real thing and wrapped it around a big steel post in 1996, I might still be riding it.

I purchased a barn-find 1980 Suzuki GS450e from Oklahoma member Mike Morris. I lucked out and found the "S" fairing and a gas tank and tail piece with matching striping, and am still enjoying riding it. I've added about 25,000 miles to the 8,700 that were on the bike when Mike made me a deal I couldn't refuse.

[TN2Wheeler]

And now the Winter of Farkling begins!   


Have fun with it!

Indeed!


On Saturday I left my old DR650 (a.k.a. his daughter's new DR650) with Rick over at Cogent Dynamics and came away with some some awesome new suspension components. The new bike will actually be configured mostly the same as the earlier one, just new instead. It's currently scattered all over my workshop  . But heck, it's raining here and there's an arctic blast enroute so I wouldn't be riding anyway!

[HawkGTRider]

And now the Winter of Farkling begins!   

Have fun with it!

Indeed!

On Saturday I left my old DR650 (a.k.a. his daughter's new DR650) with Rick over at Cogent Dynamics and came away with some some awesome new suspension components. The new bike will actually be configured mostly the same as the earlier one, just new instead. It's currently scattered all over my workshop  . But heck, it's raining here and there's an arctic blast enroute so I wouldn't be riding anyway!

Congratulations on the goodies, Jim.

I know we've got parts of the country that are already pretty chilly, but as Jim noted, East Tennessee is going to have several days at the end of this week with lows in the 20s or a bit lower. Brrr. It wasn't a pretty day today, but I took the opportunity to ride over to the home of "my best friend" Roger White. He was kind enough to mount a set of Mefo Explorers on my DR650SE with new tubes.
The last time I rode the DR was just before Thanksgiving, and when I got ready to ride it the last week of November, I was surprised to discover a flat rear tire. Had it been a bike with tubeless tires, I wouldn't have been as surprised. My previous experience has been that a tube tire tends to lose its air a lot faster. So how did I go out for a ride and get home with a compromised tube that was bad enough to go completely flat in a few days? After a bit of searching, I found a cut in the very bottom of a sipe. When we pulled the tube out today, you could see where there was a corresponding spot of damage in the tube. It wasn't enough to allow a quick release of air pressure, but it was just enough to allow a slow leak that went from full pressure to flat in just over a week. Here's hoping that karma doesn't balance things out with a tube that goes flat IMMEDIATELY in the middle of a fast curve some time. I've had that happen once, and there was definitely a pucker factor.

After the new tires were mounted, I took a slightly extended ride home to help clean off the spooge from the new tires. Now it's raining harder and the probability of rain tonight and tomorrow is 100%. Wednesday looks a little better, but the cold front comes through that night. Riding opportunities definitely get more scarce at this time of year.

[vfroger]

I can claim to have put the first ten miles on those new Mefos. Since the pavement was wet and they were new, I didn't push them. Interesting observation: My DR is a 2013 while Geoffrey's is a 1997. Except for his lowered pegs, the bikes feel very much alike ridden back to back. That continuity is what has made this the bike of choice among our little group of adventure/dual sport riders.

Jim, my friend Gene who has done the past two western tours with us bought a new DR a couple of weeks ago as well. He has had it all apart as he added all his farkles and stuff. He rode it out to Walland and back last week for its maiden voyage.