The 650 Dakar Thread

well today i went for a 200 mile ride around the mountains then got back home aroud three then said what the heck and started doing the fork conversion. got it all switched over in about a hour and a half like you said ready to ride! i do have one more thing to do like the key switch. i just got the switch in the mailbox so monday thats going on and it will be done.

man am i happy!

mine is halogen, i was thinking just now and the baja design light i have comes with a 55 or 100 watt bulb so i should be ok?

Wait until you take it for ride.

There is a bit of a technique to getting the axel aligned properly. I found the below document very useful.

http://www.moto-pro.com/files/shoptips/front_axle_alignment.pdf

and

http://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-860817.html

I may well be preaching to the choir here but hopefully someone will find it useful and it does make a noticable improvement.

My axle needed to be filed a little to allow it to be seated all the way in on the RHS (as per second link). PO had being using a metal hammer on it to tap it into place..:eek1

I ran a 90/100w Phillips on my 2001 Dakar back in South Africa.
The wires got warm, but nothing ever melted!

The vibration kills those bulbs in no time though. 3 in 16 months

did a track day on the dakar today

Apart from the first session being as slippery as a slippery thing it was great, overtook a few sports bikes, including a couple round the outside on corners

That went down well judging by the way they nailed the throttle on the next long straight

What kind of displacements were you facing off against?

usual sport bike stuff really, 600's and litre bikes. I had no hope in the straights but I could keep with them and pass them in the twisty stuff. Was only in the novice group as it was my first track day, so I expect it would be a different thing all together with track experienced riders.

I managed to pass a r1 under braking going into a corner, went around the outside of a couple of 600's on other corners and held my own against a few other faster bikes, surely that shouldn't happen

Also the rear tourance is well and truly scrubbed in, it now has those little bits of melted rubber around the edges

thanks for the info, i did some of the stuff listed but not all, good to know for sure!

yea im going to try the 100 watt out and watch for anything getting hot.

Kudos to you for taking the bike to a track day. BTW, it's the rider not the bike. When I started, dudes on baffled out sv650's could pass me on the outside, me on a modern I-4 sport bike. Fast forward a year or so and I was beatin' dudes on their liter sport bikes.

Nothing improves your street skills like track days. Nothing.

I bet the Dakar would be great on everything but long straights. But long straights are boring whether you're doing a 110 or a 150. Until you get to the end.

There was this one............with 1.6g rear tank.








And now this one which I hope to have finished soon..........


Redesigned rear suspension with shock over swing arm configuration gives me 11.5" of rear travel.




Tank plug almost done.




Tank almost complete with Renazco seat. Notice the rear wheel is in it's full up swing position.

My plastic plug melted then cracked, I just broke it all off and put female spade connectors on the exposed wires directly to the spades on the bulb. No more plastic melty.

yea thats what they are talking about, the plastic end plug gets hot from the extra heat off the bulb and melts. my 100 watt bulb did great today, rode about 2 hours during a long lunch break and nothing on the wires. the baja design plug is just a metal spade that plugs right into the bulb.

yup, the dak was great apart from the straights, got left by pretty much everything on those.

i was at cadwell park in the uk, a good little circuit

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dsMp_inrAGY" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>

I was following the r1 guy for ages, he'd blast away in the straights then I'd catch him in the corners but I could never quite get close enough to pass, then I decided to keep it nailed in 5th round coppice and that let me keep close enough to him on park straight to pass him on the entrance into park corner.

Charles was a good one for around the outside overtaking and i even got a wheelie over the mountain

Next time i'll take the sv

man, with the yz frontend the bike sure feels great! i heard the yz front is lighter than the stock dakar if so by how much? the front pops a wheelie way easier so i feels lighter for sure.i was too excited and forgot to weigh the frontends when i had it apart lol!

I think it's around 1.5 kg lighter.

this is copied from page 21 of this thread, according to resident light wieght F650:

I have an "06 Dakar.....kind of.

Last weighed, it was about 338lbs dry.

Here's what I've done:

Yamaha YZ 450 front suspension -7lbs
Replaced stock exhaust with Supertrapp directly to header (no Adventure Pipe connector) -15lbs
Removed ABS system (It's shit anyways) -12lbs
Moved battery into ABS box to lower CG.
Removed Fairing, light assembly, and metal support bracket. Replaced with 1.5lb carbon fiber setup with dual 50w HID's. -12lbs
Removed rear cowling/luggage rack setup and metal sub structure. -6lbs
Cut off rear pegs at the frame. -2lbs
Removed all plastic except to faux tank pieces. -4lbs

Could you please expand a little on this process? I'd really like to see some shots of the carbon fibre setup if thats ok?. Did you install a vapour or similar digital speedo as well?

That's one great looking GS! You should sell a kit to those of us who lack your skillz