Tag Archives: dr650

Carver Surf Racks

6 Mar

OK, down to the good stuff: Surf racks on a motorcycle. I checked Deus Ex Machina rack, but you can’t buy it without buying the motorcycle attached to it, and at this point they’re only doing street bikes. I also checked out the Surfer Peg rack, but again, it’s street oriented, and needs to attach to the frame. That’s not inherently bad, but it would require fabrication that I’m not quite interested in. Primarily, though, it’s the street focus that steered me away. I settled on the Carver Racks, even though they’re not for motorcycles – bicycles and scooters, but not motorcycles. What I liked, though, is that it could be bolted to the rear rack.

When putting the racks together I encountered a small problem: The rubber tubes were too long, so the pieces wouldn’t fit together without a bit of cutting. I called the guys at Carver in Hawaii. They were a bit surprised, but were good with the mod.

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Moose Hand Guards

5 Mar

Another delicate area is the handlebars, especially the clutch and front brake levers. Even a parking lot tip-over can break a lever, so a fall in rocks out in the Baja boonies would be worse. So hand guards are in order. Tons of online research yielded nothing but concern about finding myself having to do a bunch of handlebar cutting, buying new levers, and all sorts of make-it-fit stuff, because everywhere I looked I read about problems with the installation. I found the fewest problems with the Moose guards, so I went with those. Actually, the problems were few. Just the usual make-it-fit stuff. The one real problem was the clutch lever not fitting inside the guard. (The brake lever would have had the same problem, but the previous owner bent it in his fall. Convenient for me.) That was solved with a hacksaw. And I saved an ounce or so!

Not an elegant fix, but it works, and I can clean it up later.

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Case Savers

5 Mar

A slow-speed fall could spell disaster if the brake pedal or shifter gets driven into the engine case. And it happens all the time. So adding case savers is a must. I checked out the case guards at Procycle. They’re $80 and made of stainless steel. Then I found the aluminum (translation: lighter) guards at Motorcycleproducts for $60. Lighter on the bike and wallet too.

Easiest things in the world to install, once you find the right adhesive. The instructions ask for “RTF” adhesive. Went to the local hardware store, OSH, but they never heard of it. Went to Home Depot, same deal. But after scouring the aisle I found this (below). As it turns out, it’s basic silicon seal.

After finding the right stuff it’s easy. Clean the guards with 409 to remove all dirt or finger oils, and spread the silicon seal.

Press the guards to the cases and tape to hold in place.

After letting the silicon seal set for a day I added a bead around the edges to keep dirt from getting inside.

UPDATE: The installation went well, and after riding over 2,500 miles in Baja, most of that in desert temperatures well over 100, I’ve seen no problems. The news is that ProCycle now has installation instructions on their site. Not much different than these, but they like the red silicon. Check it out here.

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Magnetic Oil

29 Feb

Changed the oil, of course as a new-to-me bike. But importantly, changed the oil drain plug to a magnetic plug. Not only does it “suck” damaging metal bits out of the oil, it’s also a 14mm bolt head, instead of the stock 17mm, which means one less tool to carry as I already need the 14mm. Not many needs for 17mm.

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Upper Chain Roller

28 Feb

Read too many posts about damaging frames from upper chain roller mishaps. Replaced mine today with an 8 x 12mm bolt. Save frame damage and a few ounces.

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Motorcycle Insurance – Better to Buy More Bikes

26 Feb

Adding the 2009 DR650 to my insurance policy actually lowered my premium $44. I thought it was strange when I added the 2006 Ducati S2R 1000 to my policy (that already had my 2009 Ducati 848 and my 2000 Ducati 748) and the premium dropped $88, but Progressive said that’s how they roll. The lesson here is, buy more bikes and save money!

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A Good Welder is Hard to Find

25 Feb

I mentioned Bob at Elco Welding. You would never guess that right there on Abbot Kinney and Venice Blvd is a welding shop two full generations old. A gear head/fabricator’s delight. I asked around at the bike shops for a good welder and no one could help me. One shop even said they were about to add that to their services. Then I saw Eldo while riding home. Heaven.

 

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Exhaust Pipe Replaced

25 Feb

As previously mentioned, I replaced the stock pipe with a DG, saving weight, improving performance and safety. The safety was from the louder pipe – people often hear motorcycles when they can’t see them, especially louder bikes. So here’s a before and after look at the pipe replacement, using video with sound. As it turns out, it’s not that much louder with the DG, but it’s a deeper, throatier sound. It is louder, but I didn’t want to rev it like I did in the stock pipe video and bother the neighbors (any more than usual). Bottom line: A good mod.

Here’s the “before” of the stock pipe.

Here’s the video of the DG pipe. Now it sounds like the thumper it’s supposed to be.

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Keeping Her Up

25 Feb

One of the well-known problems with the DR650 is that it stands so upright that it’s easily tipped over on its right side. And with a load, like a surfboard (which will be on the right side) and luggage it’s guaranteed to fall over when parking on level ground. Stiffer fork and shock springs help, as that makes the bike taller pushing the center of gravity up causing it to lean more over on the kickstand, so I’ll get the springs. But I’m getting the springs primarily for handling/performance reasons. Instead, I increased the lean by cutting 1/2″ out of the kickstand, a $25 mod by Bob at Elco Welding in Venice. Perfect! The pics below are: The kickstand awaiting the operation at Elco Welding, post-op (Bob smoothed out the weld on the visible side – nice work), and the new lean angle.

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In pre-op at Elco Welding.

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The cut and welded side stand. Bob smoothed out the welds on the outside, the visible side. I don’t think I’ll paint it black. I like the “worked on” look.

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Nice lean angle; no longer standing nearly straight up. (That, or she just wants to get close to my beautiful Ducati 848. Heck, who wouldn’t?)

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Big Day – Rack Arrived

23 Feb

Tail rack from Manracks. The foundation for attaching the surfboard racks, as well as a place for luggage, probably the largest bag (the DBz Flat Top Duffle).

Big day, because the tail rack is the key component needed to getting this SurfMoto thing going. The surf racks bolt to it, and once the surf racks are on I need to make sure the DBz side luggage racks fit along with the new pipe. All good stuff; it’ll work out. This is the ManRacks rack. It weights 1.5#, so with the savings from the DG pipe With everything installed I’m currently at a net weight savings of 6#. BUT, I haven’t installed the surf rack, and that weighs 7#, so that puts it at a 1# gain…until the hand guards and luggage arrives. I can remove the foot pegs, for maybe a pound or so, but there’s not many more places to cut weight. Except from my own body.

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