the DR650 thread

I guess you could do the job with forks (and wheel) on bike but you will still be draining the fork oil since the bolt that holds the damper needs to be removed and the oil will drain anyway. Removing/reinstalling wheel and fork shouldn't add more than 20 min. and you get the joy of getting up close and personal with more of your new toy.

Well, I had planned to measure them with a digital caliper. But, you make a good point about them being fuel/ethanol resistant. I don't know the answer to that question. Mine have half the mileage as yours but both show dirt (the carb was filthy). I figured now was as good a time as any to replace them, what with the entire carb in a state of dis-assembly.

I may try that. Perhaps they'll ship today and arrive by the weekend. Thanks.

I purchased a Superbrace from Procycle and installed it per instructions. Measuring between the brace and the fender mounting bosses (fender removed) with the front supported off the ground there is 8 1/4 inches of clearance.With the fender installed it would be an inch or so less. My bike is not lowered. The front suspension travel is supposed to be 10.2 inches, so the brace is going to be hitting hard parts long before the fork gets to the end of travel. If you look closely at DirtySumo's picture (post 62853) you can see that there is nothing like 10+ inches of clearance. I have emailed both the maker and Procycle about the problem, but have not yet received a reply, when I do I will post it here.

I called Sudco and they told me they do not carry parts for the BST40 carb. Those parts are Suzuki only. Unless I could provide them with Sudco part numbers, they could not help me. That's disappointing.

I can't find the BST there. I just had to order the float assy o-rings for my DR650 from the dealer yesterday. They had one but not the other in stock I just did them a year and a half ago. This ethanol is awful. I should'a ordered from ProCycle and they'd have been here tomorrow and I'd have saved the gas money.

If you’re thinking of installing a heavier shock spring rather than replacing the entire shock, here’s my experience.

I weigh 235lbs wearing street clothing, don’t know how much more my riding gear weighs but it’s the usual amount. I always carry 20-25lbs of miscellaneous stuff in the tailbag or saddlebags. My bike is a single-seater, I’ve removed the passenger pegs; at 6’2”, there’s no room for a passenger. Riding is 20% freeway, 75% “spirited riding” on paved and sometimes rough mountain roads, 5% dirt forest roads.

I had the OEM shock spring adjusting collars all the way down, and was happy with the ride. But, I couldn’t carry camping gear, the spring compression was maxed out. So I bought ProCycle’s heavier spring of the two offered. Now, fully loaded with camping gear, the ride is plush and there’s still 1.25” of thread left under the adjusting collars. Rebound dampening is set at 3 full rotations counterclockwise; the spring does not overwhelm the dampener for my usage.

I had read different ways of doing the job: taking the shock off from the top or the bottom, or just dropping the spring off the bottom. I did what appeared to me to be the easiest way, leaving the shock in the bike, dropping off the spring. My main concern was how to take the pressure off the linkage when removing the bolts. Here’s what I did.

Back off adjusting collars to near top of shock using a hammer and a drift – will take a few minutes of easy work.
Raise bike on lift; lifting arms under motor.
Lift bike far enough to put 8” support under rear wheel; I used four pavers I had laying around; you could get by with less support, though I don’t know how much less.
Lower bike until the bike’s weight begins to come off the lift; the rear wheel will then be raised as close to the fender as it will go.
Tie down bike to lift.



Remove dogbones – be careful not to cause inner tubes/races to fall out.
Remove bottom shock bolt.
Remove “Y” bracket – be careful not to cause inner tubes/races to fall out.
Push up thick U-shaped piece at bottom of shock until it clears the bottom of the shock and can be pulled off shock; may have to first push rubber conical bumper up on shock shaft – high friction.
Spring and a couple other parts drop off bottom of shock shaft.

Take the parts containing bearings to your workbench, carefully push out the inner race/tube, lube the needle bearings (mine all had a light coating of OEM grease), carefully reinstall the inner race/tube.

Reinstallation is reverse of the above, taking care not to push out the inner race/tube when inserting the bolts. I adjusted the lift height minutely to get the bolt holes to line up.
Dogbone bolt nut torque is 72.5lb-ft or 100N-m.
The front nut on the “Y” piece is 58.0lb-ft or 80N-m, however there’s no way you can get a torque wrench on that nut.
Shock bolt torque is recommended at 37N-m by Rick at Cogent Dynamics, using medium strength threadlocker (blue Loctite); the spec in the manual is WRONG and may result in stripped threads.

Overall, an easy operation.

Lex

Do it. I just ordered the stock o-rings and they cosy $10+ for the pair and they lasted less than 2 years. Harbor Freight sells an O_RING KIT for about $10 that has 397 o-rings in it and BTW, I just discovered, IT"S ON SALE!!!!

http://www.harborfreight.com/397-piece-metric-o-ring-assortment-67580.html

so what if they don't last, I can switch'em without removing the carb from the bike and fix it for less than 20 cents and save gas from not driving to the dealer. Bet they last as long or longer than stock.

it would be nice to know o-ring sizes; viton is far superior. i wonder if any of the o-rings in this kit would fit:

http://www.harborfreight.com/180-piece-viton-o-ring-kit-67525.html

doug s.

It gives all the sizes in the kit. You just have to figure out the "P" sizes in mm to know. The 397 piece kit consists of a lot more sizes, but they are Nitrile rubber, maybe someone here knows how that mat'l hold up to ethanol.

Does anyone know what the voltage should read on a running bike. I think I may have a charging system problem. Alternatively, is there any simple way to determine whether that's the case? Thanks!

13.6v at 1600rpm (cold motor)

Motor off, the battery reads 12.6v immediately after unplugging the trickle charger, which is always plugged in when the bike is in the garage.

Does anyone know if a Set of OEM DRZ-400 SuperMoto Wheels will fit on the DR 650?

boulder

After chatting with Derek @ Moto-Lab, I'm going to check a few more things in the carb and then order what I need from him. My DR isn't going to be road-ready for a few more weekends so there's no rush in trying to get a couple of o-rings sent to me. I might as well get the right stuff the first time around. BTW, those o-rings lasted 20K miles and 15 years. So, they must be made of OK stuff...

You are right about the clearance. . . but in all honesty, a person doing knarly offroad will do quite well w/o a brace.
Rock-gardens were comfy on my XR600. . .UNTIL I put a brace on it. I think the flex prevented some stress/torque from transmitting up to my arms. Took them off, and serious rocks for a quater mile were ok again.


If others expect to be bottoming those forks often. .don't use a brace?. Hopefully we get things right and use a fork set-up where 98% of our riding never bottoms out, and that last 2% is us trying to recover from a duffus move I'm so good at. . . . . . . . .then maybe it'll barely touch. For the off-roading my sorry-ass-butt can tolerate at my banged up age. . .8" is plenty. ( no snide comments from the peanut gallery, please.) If I'm having to go airborne for much of the trail ride. . .I'm taking my dedicated single-track battle weapon. Damn, I hurt just THINKING about my battle-weapon. Let's see. . .ahhh, broken back, shattered shoulder, snapped collar bone, two blown knees, cracked ankle, crushed finger, crushed disc at the lower neck. The price of "going faster than the other guy".


No. . . A DR650. . . "enough" wheel travel for a pretty worn out single-track guy. . .The years of going really fast are over for me. I'm going out when I'm still a "Legend in my own mind". . as Dirty Harry said.
Your post is a good heads-up for the more aggressive at heart. (and body). My road-race friends think mo'tards are the scum of asphault, so to them even 8" travel is for wussies. They still buy me pizza & beer, so I deal with it.

DirtySumo. You left the rear rim Stock? And added just the front 17". How is that in the dirt?

boulder

Never mind, the smallest o-ring in the kit is too big. Nice to have the kit for that price though. Just won't fix the float on a BST carb.

Thanks Lex, hope I can find this post when I get around to doing this. I really hate when camping gear is loaded looking for a spot where the kickstand isn't too long.

I found this post from 10/15/2010. That's how long the o-rings lasted. They were stock Suzuki parts. I wonder if the "STAR*TRON" additive is doing it?

Never mind about my question regarding RMZ moto swap. They are different axle sizes and rotors etc.. wont work without allot of machining.

Except for a DR350 Rear wheel swap everything else needs machining or finding the right spacers or both.
There is no complete swap without machining involved with the DR.

Popular swaps are... as per my knowledge...
DRZ Swingarm, Forks and wheel swap. (Expensive)
SV650 Swingarm swap for wider supermoto tire in the rear.
RM, RMZ Forks swap for better suspension