the DR200 thread

[Andyinhilo]

Originally Posted by tlong2

So me and a buddy were looking through his barn and I came across his dads 2003 dr200, its in great shape except for some minor gummy carb problems, and bad fuel lines. We tried to get it running by push starting, and then pulled it with the four wheeler and popped the clutch since the battery was dead, and we could get it to barely run very badly and it would misfire and just sounded plain awful and it wouldn't run by itself, and then i went to screw around and honk at him up on the four wheeler and pushed the horn button and the bike just launched foreward. So it wouldnt run until you pushed the horn button, and then it would fire up and take off, but you had to keep the horn button pushed and the horn sounded like it was barely getting any juice. Does this bike require a charged battery to run? Or is there something else wrong with it like a cdi (i dont know much electrical stuff). I have confirmed that the battery is shot and wont take or hold any charge, and he doesn't have a lot of money to put in this, but if it is just a battery related problem that would be amazing and we could ride together on our 200s.

Get a charged battery in there, and the problems should clear up.

[HeReTiK]

Originally Posted by tlong2

So me and a buddy were looking through his barn and I came across his dads 2003 dr200, its in great shape except for some minor gummy carb problems, and bad fuel lines. We tried to get it running by push starting, and then pulled it with the four wheeler and popped the clutch since the battery was dead, and we could get it to barely run very badly and it would misfire and just sounded plain awful and it wouldn't run by itself, and then i went to screw around and honk at him up on the four wheeler and pushed the horn button and the bike just launched foreward. So it wouldnt run until you pushed the horn button, and then it would fire up and take off, but you had to keep the horn button pushed and the horn sounded like it was barely getting any juice. Does this bike require a charged battery to run? Or is there something else wrong with it like a cdi (i dont know much electrical stuff). I have confirmed that the battery is shot and wont take or hold any charge, and he doesn't have a lot of money to put in this, but if it is just a battery related problem that would be amazing and we could ride together on our 200s.

What a lucky find, you bastard! Get that battery charged and ride!

[tlong2]

Originally Posted by HeReTiK

What a lucky find, you bastard! Get that battery charged and ride!

got a new battery, some sea foam, fresh gas, and he rode that bike to death today, 7 years of no running and no proper storage and it fired up without much trouble at all and ran as good as mine that gets run almost every day...very impressive

[Ladybug0048]

Originally Posted by coloradogoose

Hey Ladybug... I should have the diodes here soon. (shoulda been here a week ago!) I'll take a bunch of pics as I install them, also some pics of the replaced flasher, and some pics of the wiring I did for the signals themselves. I'll look up the link for the flasher as well. As far as the signals go, I'll see if I can find the link for them again. I ordered them a long time ago. They are quite bright, actually brighter than the stock bulbs, but they don't have a DOT cert on them so in a stricter state those particular ones might be a problem, however at $20 shipped for a set of 4 I don't mind. Colorado actually doesn't even require we have flashers as long as we know the hand signals so I figure I'm a step ahead of the game anyway.
If it all works out I'll do a write-up with the pics to make it as easy to follow as possible.

[tlong2]

Ok so i've started to try doing some small basic jumps that are more humps than anything else(2-4 ft tall with no landing, just flat), and im running into a problem with the front fork soaking up so much of the hump and then rolling over the hump more or less and then the back kicks way up into the air and almost bucks me off. Ive found that slower approach and a crack of the throttle at the base gets the front up, but it still is way to soft. Im about 150 and the preload on the back is in the middle. So ive read some previous posts and found one about changing to 15w fork oil, would this make the front more stiff? because i believe that this would give better jumping abilities by forcing the front end up the hump and soaking up less of the hump, and then i was going to set the rear preload to max because when i come down from about 4ft the rear bottoms out sometimes and i would like to have everything more ridgid. I know this is no mx bike, but i think a little stiffening up would be a great improvement from now, let me know your ideas and or experience with this and or other bikes

[coloradogoose]

Just thought I'd mention that, when installed the way Sateev instructed, the diodes did the trick and the LED signals are working perfectly. I took the needed pictures and hopefully I'll be able to do a write-up in the next few days.

[patski]

Last fall I bought these at a 50% off sale at my local Cycle Gear store, also moved the front signals to the headlight shroud.

As it still gets dropped a bit, I couldn't justify the $$$ for LED lights. The slightly retro look fits the very retro 200.

[coloradogoose]

Here are the directions for how to make the swap to LED turn signals specific to a DR200. If anyone has any questions about what to do just let me know. Hopefully the pics aren't too big. I tried to walk the line between "so big they take forever to load" and "too small to see anything".
The directions that go with each picture are above the picture.
The directions may sound much more complex than the process actually is. For anyone new to electrical stuff, just take your time, do it one step at a time and you should be fine.

Parts you need
(4) new signals
(1) new flasher relay specific to LED lights
(2) 1N4007 diodes

Here are the parts I used. The lights are NOT DOT certified, but I live in Colorado where I don't even need flashers so I figure I'm a step ahead of the game. They are plenty bright enough but you should check your state regs to make sure you get what you need. I spray painted the fake carbon fiber and made them flat black. Looks better that way. The lights are mounted on rubber arms so they should be fine over rough terrain and the arms are very short so they should be shielded when (not if ) I drop the bike.

http://www.virtualvillage.com/4-ambe...511-087-2.html

As far as the flasher relay goes, the one I ordered was off of ebay and it seems to not be available right now. It's a 2 pin relay specific for LED lights. LED lights use a much lower electrical draw than the stock lights so they don't activate the stock flasher. If you google Electronic Led Blinker Relay you can find plenty of options. You need one compatible with a 2 pin design. Some of the three pins will work but you need to read about them before you order to make sure.
The linked one SHOULD work, but it's not the one I used so I can't be 100% sure. It's also more expensive, but still not an awful price. It also doesn't seem to mount to the bike the same way but the electronics should be plug and play. May need a zip tie or electrical tape to hold it in place but it's a DR200 so it's no big deal.

http://www.customled.com/products/fl...FQoLbAodtXxaIw

For the diodes I just ordered them from Parts Express through Amazon. It is a 1N4007 diode and you need 2. I ordered three just in case something went wrong. I now have an extra because it was very easy so nothing when wrong.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ef=oss_product



First thing to install is the new flasher. The flasher relay is found under the seat next to the battery. Center of the picture.
Installing the new one that I used is as simple as pulling the old one out and plugging the new one in. The one that I ordered even came with the rubber part that holds it to the bike. Unfortunately I tried to man-hands it back in place so I broke the little hanger that's on it. That's why there is electrical tape in the picture.

Plug the new one in and put it right back where you found it. Super simple.

Second is installing the diodes. Thanks to Sateev for spelling out which diodes to get and where to install them.

Pull the headlight shroud off the front and find the bundle of wires that has a blue connector. Once you've found that, isolate the light green, black, and black & white wires.


If you trace the black and light green wires to the speedo box you will see that they enter it right under the turn signal indicator light.
Above the blue plug (the speedo box side) cut the light green and black wires so there is enough room on each end to work with. Also, on the black and white wire there is a connector that is part way down and is covered in heat shrink. Strip away a little of the heat shrink to expose some bare metal.


This is a drawing of how the old set-up looked.


Now, once the wires are cut, both diodes should be installed on the light green wire. If there is a white or colored band on the diode, it should be on the side of the wires that go towards the speedo box. This is crucial. A diode is a one way circuit for electricity. We want the electricity to flow toward the speedo box but not be allowed to flow away from it.
Once the diodes are installed, the open end of light green wire should be attached to one diode, and the non-speedo-box end of the black wire should be attached to the other diode. The speedo-box end of the black wire should be spliced into the open section of the black and white wire. This will ground the indicator light. I used a soldering iron to make the attachments. Anything that you want to use should be fine, but make sure it can hold up to a bunch of rattling.


Once this is all done, wrap all the exposed wire in electrical tape or shrink wrap while making sure that all the wires stay separate.

Third thing to install is the signals. You can get under the bike and find where the signals plug into the wires that come from the front of the bike, match the connectors, and plug in there, but that's not the route I ended up using.The wires that come out of the stock signals don't have any markings on them to tell which is positive and which is negative, so I cut the old signals off one by one and tested the new signals by touching the wires from the signals to the wires on the bike. If I touched the wrong ones together nothing happened. If they were the right ones the new signals would light up. Just make sure to turn the flashers on for the side you are testing. Once you have the correct wires matched, splice in the new signals and bolt them into place. I used heat shrink wire connectors. Stick the open ends of the wires in each side, crimp them, and then hit them with a cig lighter. They are bonded together and waterproof. After connecting them I wrapped the wires in electrical tape (not shown) to protect them from chaffing.


Once this is all done test the lights, put the shroud back on, and drink a beer to a job well done.

[frdbronco8]

I saw that some people just short the wires to the kickstand under the seat but I was wondering if there is something that can be shorted somewhere that will bypass all of the kill switchs on the bike like I was able to do on my LC4.

Thanks

[Ladybug0048]

coloradogoose, Thanks for the info on how to change out to LED turn signals.

[coloradogoose]

Originally Posted by Ladybug0048

coloradogoose, Thanks for the info on how to change out to LED turn signals.

No prob... I'm not sure if anyone else feels like doing it, but I hope it helps if others make the switch.

I bought my bike used and pretty haggered, with damage to 3 of the 4 signals so that's why I wanted to make a change. I decided to use LED mainly because it was a little different and a way to make the bike a little more mine. However, there are a lot of great options out there for short stalk signal swaps that don't use LEDs.

Thanks again to Sateev for making it easy on me by telling me what I was in for with the diodes before I got to them. I would have been one pissed off mess if I'd installed them, they didn't work, and I didn't know about the diodes!

[patski]

Originally Posted by frdbronco8

I saw that some people just short the wires to the kickstand under the seat but I was wondering if there is something that can be shorted somewhere that will bypass all of the kill switchs on the bike like I was able to do on my LC4. Thanks

I found this somewhere, probably here, if you can't download it fullsize, let me know:

[frdbronco8]

Girlfriends 96 DR 200 ran fine one day. Now when it gets to about 25+mph it starts to stumble on its face in the upper RPMs in any gear.... Tide the kickstand up to make sure it wasnt the switch cutting out. Its all stock including jetting as far as I know and it ran fine a couple months ago. Gas is fresh, fuel is on and Im at Sea level. I was planning on puting in a Keintech jet kit but Id like it to run first.

[Klay]

I'd start with checking the air filter and the fuel screen. Then I'd suspect dirty jets.

[Andyinhilo]

Originally Posted by frdbronco8

Girlfriends 96 DR 200 ran fine one day. Now when it gets to about 25+mph it starts to stumble on its face in the upper RPMs in any gear.... Tide the kickstand up to make sure it wasnt the switch cutting out. Its all stock including jetting as far as I know and it ran fine a couple months ago. Gas is fresh, fuel is on and Im at Sea level. I was planning on puting in a Keintech jet kit but Id like it to run first.

What Klay said, and if that doesn't work, try a new spark plug.