the DR650 thread

Looking at a 2003 DR650 ($2300) with 15K miles and the owner has replaced the clutch. I thought that was kind of early for a clutch to wear out.....unless it had been slipped a lot or?? Searching the thread for "clutch" gives hundreds of post but....after a while I gave up and thought to take the easy way and just ask.

There is also a very clean 2002 at a dealer with 10K miles but $2700.
We just got above freezing for the first time in weeks and I am a fair weather rider so if I get one now it will just sit in the garage for a couple of months. But it is fun to hunt for a deal now and think of all the rides we will go on when it warms up.

TIA

Somebody may have put "Energy Conserving" oil in it and caused the clutch to slip, requiring a change of plates. It might not have been "worn out" but still needing replacement for that reason.

Clutch wear comes down to riding style, some use it as a torque converter and the life is much shorter than someone who uses it in a more conservative manner. Keep in mind the current owner may love to power wheelie and that eats up the clutch faster and is also tough on the head stock bearings so when you look at the bike grab a handful of brake and try to rock the bike back and forth listening and feeling for movement in that area.

listed in the flea market in case anyone's looking for a deal
http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=858510&highlight=dirtbagz

I agree. Not many DR's lose the clutch. Very few I've heard about ... but synthetic oil with friction modifiers will do it. If the rest of the bike looks OK ... could be a good deal. Clutch is easy and relatively cheap to replace.

I ran royal purple

and valvoline in 2 seperate bikes

by accident.

02 ex250 ran the royal purple.
ran if for a day at the end of the day. I FUCKING HATED MY TRANY!!
the normal smooth shifting it had was GONE!

i wasnt about to waste any more time with that stuff
switched back a normal mineral oil but the possible damage was done. it NEVER shifted like it once did.
every gear i went through i could feel it in the gear box.

the clutch never felt like it was the same again. even after 7 oil changes

the other bike was a friends bike.

he had heard about the pro's and cons of energy conserving oil's
how some people had no problems and some said that the motor seemed to run fine

so we dumped it into his speed triple and took a spin.
after about 40 miles. we pulled over.

and i began the interrogation.

having such a horrible experience with an energy conserving oil.

he said the gearbox shifted fine.
it seemed to feel even a little smoother.

but that the clutch felt like it was slipping a lot more.
anybody that knows the triple knows that if you wanna wheelie this is the bike for you.

and he is nothing but a hot dog.

pulling a wheelie at any possible moment.

now before i get to what he said i'll tell you what i saw.

normally he could get the front up with pretty much no problem the guy weighs all of 120lbs
his power to weight ratio is epic compared to me on my now dr650 weighing 240(still can get nose up even though i'd like to keep it down)

but i noticed he gave the bike more gas and a few times he failed.
but after less than a days ride.

even though i wanted to condem the oil to hell.

he was still on the hopefull side.

so months ran by him with his liquid evil.
after the second oil change
he said that saving a few bucks on oil wasnt worth burning up the clutch.
apparently it wasnt just when he was just showing off that it slipped too much.

but normal clutch operation wasnt the same.
sometimes he would let the clutch out slow and then it would suddenly grab.
he varied the throttle numerous times and although it wasnt frequent.

it was still annoying.

the next oil change he did he used motorcycle brand oil.
but he said that even after he changed the oil he still got that random clutch grab.

he blamed it on the oil that remained in the bike.

me not knowing any better didnt want to agree but i didnt really have any reason to believe it wasnt due
to the remaining oil.. Seeing as how he had never had this problem before the random(Hey dude! what? wanna try something? sure)

the problem never went away until he ran new oil in it for some time after a few oil changes and a new clutch pack it was back to normal.

moral of the story dont ever "ever" Ever! !!!EVER!!

run energy conserving oils i your bike.

liquid evil i tell yuh.

But great in cars

A binding clutch cable could have been a culprit too.

Or even a lack of play in the cable.

OE tank. If you stated your tank is an IMS in your previous post, I missed it.
Lex

Thanks for all the reply's. Good info. I'll check the steering head bearings, clutch cable and never use energy conserving oil in a bike. There is a lot of people who use ATF in their trials bikes. Just change it frequently as it is cheap. The clutch on my (and most) trials bike is like a light switch - on or off. I bought the ATF and was ready to dump all 500cc's in and I couldn't do it. It's only 500cc and I just wanted to use oil made specifically for a 2 stroke wet clutch gear box. Cost a lot more but I sleep better.

Thanks for the reply. They were cut out of the multi due to the small novel about the evils of energy saving oil in bikes. JK. Thanks for all the ideas. Going to have a look today.

more here:

http://www.bikeexif.com/suzuki-dr650

or at -40 degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit.

When people say 1/4 throttle, 99 & 44/100ths percent, mean 1/4 open regardless of what the dictionary says.

Why do you have to be such a stickler? When I say stickler, I mean Tool. look that up. When people say choke, they mean the thing the operate when the engine is cold.

I see the same thing on gun forums where new people refer to magazines as clips. (google it to see the difference) There is always some knowledgeable "stickler" that feels the need to lecture the new guy about the difference.

Derek, you are a very knowledgeable stickler. I almost never do this, but I'm gonna hit my ignore button for a while, buh-bye.

JFW! That's a new one for just f'ing WOW! I love that.

+1

In this case, as in all cases, I am attempting to raise the bar. I can see no downside to improving the precision with which we communicate. I see it as indicative of the general sad state of affairs that someone would disparage another (even to the extent of name-calling) for such a thing.

Regards,

Derek

One more question, then I'll shush about tires....can the DR650 run a 80/100/21 up front?

Seems like more choice for that size...okay, I'm done!

If it still had knobblies, then it'd be a WOW!

After many weeks of waiting and working on the DR I finished my project, except for new tires next month. Just turned the key off after starting to make sure it still runs. The project was:
1. strip the bike down to its frame and powder coat the frame black
2. clean up all the rims and hubs exhaust and any other component that needed a thorough going through
3. disassemble the previously installed RMZ450 front forks to change the oil to a lighter weight and at the same time shorten the overall travel from 12.2" to 11.5"--- this allowed me to drop the forks into the triple clamps farther than before and tighten up the steering for serious off road handling, while turning the rear preload down a little for a more trail oriented ride
4. also installed a new set of fat bars that I think I will like even better than the previous bars
5. I previously had purchased a new ULY front headlight assembly but opted to put the stock lights back on and sell the ULY headlight since I also recently bought a 2009 KLR for my road riding adventures
6. rewired the BMW plug and cig lighter plug a little nicer

Looks good. Are the red parts powder coated also?