FirstGear has the Kathmandu & Kilimanjaro jackets on a really good sale right now. I have the Kathmandu set and it's really nice, though the last time I used it was 2012 in Alaska when my motor blew up and if you need a Medium I'll make you a deal.

https://slickdeals.net/f/17117812-firstgear-kilimanjaro-kathmandu-jackets-2-0-80-cyber-monday-deal

Anyone interested in some gear to make riding in this cold weather more enjoyable?

I have a lightly used FirstGear Kathmandu set along with a Gerbings heated jacket line and gloves. All M except for L gloves

mrerik@gmail.com

Anybody had a flat while riding offroad?

What did you do?

Working out a contingency plan for getting back to civilization and what to add to toolkit.

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Anybody had a flat while riding offroad?

What did you do?

Working out a contingency plan for getting back to civilization and what to add to toolkit.

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Yes, new tube and air the MFer up.

Seen where some folks zip-tieing the tire to the rim and limping home. Anybody ever do that?

Don't forget some way to hold the wheel up in the air, and all the tools to remove said wheel.

Tim Weaver said:

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Don't forget some way to hold the wheel up in the air, and all the tools to remove said wheel.

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True. You can see my dowel rod field jack and I had a couple crescents to remove the axle and tire spoons as well.

There's gotta be a better way

Uh-oh......


Might be trading my DR for a V-Strom 1000.


Not just any Strom, but MY old Strom which I sold a year ago and have kind of regretted ever since.

Keep reading accounts of people preemptively bypassing the side-stand safety switch.

People saying they've had them go out leading to no start, or have problems with them damaged on the trail and intermittently killing the engine.

What as the consensus on this issue?

Is it worth messing with?

Suzuki coming out with a twin cylinder DRZ 650 Supermoto? People are saying it's fake.

I don't think it's worth preemptively bypassing. Failure isn't that common, and it wouldn't be that hard to bypass trail side.

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Keep reading accounts of people preemptively bypassing the side-stand safety switch.

People saying they've had them go out leading to no start, or have problems with them damaged on the trail and intermittently killing the engine.

What as the consensus on this issue?

Is it worth messing with?

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Not sure what bike you have but this was a common item done to KLRs. Not sure how likely but I bypassed mine.

maverick2076 said:

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I don't think it's worth preemptively bypassing. Failure isn't that common, and it wouldn't be that hard to bypass trail side.

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This.


Keep it until you break it. If it does break all you need to do is twist two wires together to bypass it. It's a 2 minute trailside fix.

But I can tell you, one day you will ride away with the sidestand down and have the surprise of your life when you turn left. I've done it more than once on my old 80's bikes....

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Seen where some folks zip-tieing the tire to the rim and limping home. Anybody ever do that?

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I've witnessed someone filling the tire up with all the grass and hay they could stuff into the tire. They limped home just fine. Poor man's bib mousse.

Still looking at putting wide knobbies the supermoto version of the DRZ 400 or KLX 300 for use as a trail bike.

Pros is a lower seat hight, more tire contacting the ground.

Cons: Makes the bike heavier, might see more vibration on the highway than normal setup, less ground clearance and more rolling resistance. Probably go slower, get less gas mileage / less range, and get slightly less front suspension due to the inverted fork on SM models.

Biggest con from what I can tell is that it's harder to roll over an obstacle with a smaller 17" front wheel vs the traditional 21" wheel. See a few videos on this. Turns out the larger diameter front wheel is there for a reason. Smaller front wheel makes it less functional as trail bike.

Conclusion is it would probably work, but ultimately you trying to do something that it wasn't designed to do and the bike might be less functional than a regular offroad wheel and tire setup.

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Still looking at putting wide knobbies the supermoto version of the DRZ 400 or KLX 300 for use as a trail bike.

Pros is a lower seat hight, more tire contacting the ground.

Cons: Makes the bike heavier, might see more vibration on the highway than normal setup, less ground clearance and more rolling resistance. Probably go slower, get less gas mileage / less range, and get slightly less front suspension due to the inverted fork on SM models.

Biggest con from what I can tell is that it's harder to roll over an obstacle with a smaller 17" front wheel vs the traditional 21" wheel. See a few videos on this. Turns out the larger diameter front wheel is there for a reason. Smaller front wheel makes it less functional as trail bike.

Conclusion is it would probably work, but ultimately you trying to do something that it wasn't designed to do and the bike might be less functional than a regular offroad wheel and tire setup.

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I remember seeing folks that did this when the SMs were first popular.

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Still looking at putting wide knobbies the supermoto version of the DRZ 400 or KLX 300 for use as a trail bike.

Pros is a lower seat hight, more tire contacting the ground.

Cons: Makes the bike heavier, might see more vibration on the highway than normal setup, less ground clearance and more rolling resistance. Probably go slower, get less gas mileage / less range, and get slightly less front suspension due to the inverted fork on SM models.

Biggest con from what I can tell is that it's harder to roll over an obstacle with a smaller 17" front wheel vs the traditional 21" wheel. See a few videos on this. Turns out the larger diameter front wheel is there for a reason. Smaller front wheel makes it less functional as trail bike.

Conclusion is it would probably work, but ultimately you trying to do something that it wasn't designed to do and the bike might be less functional than a regular offroad wheel and tire setup.

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If you're not doing hard trails it'll be fine. Gravel and dirt roads would be made much better by having knobbies. Even nice fast trails are fine. It's when you get to rocky, holey, rut-filled, tree-rooted type terrain is when you want a 21" front and 18" rear.

Tim Weaver said:

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Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Anybody know anything about the Suzuki DR-650 and / or the DRZ-400S?

The oil cooled DR 650 seems like the simpler design.

The 400 has higher compression, is higher revving and liquid cooled. It also has some kind of design with oil running through the frame.

The 400 is lighter, taller and with better suspension.

The 650 is supposed to be rock solid. Built since 1990.

Both still assembled in Japan.

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I basically breaks down like this: The 400 is better in the rough stuff, deep sand, rocks, whatever, but suffers on the open road. The 650 can do highway at 80 for 100's of miles, and still be respectable off road, but is heavier and with less sophisticated suspension.

The 400 is what you ride if you can't trailer your bike to the trails. The 650 is what you ride around the world.

FWIW, I ride a DR650. An older, 94 model with the rad 90's graphics.

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Watching some guys on YouTube doing a part of the Wyoming BDR on big adventure bikes. Shows them going through mud, river crossings and negotiating bigger rocks in the road.

Almost all of them are on heavier bikes like the Africa twin, KTM 1190, and 790 and a Ducati scrambler. One guy is on a smaller KTM enduro bike. But the rest or on heavier bikes over 500l+ lbs.

You could see them struggling with the weight and size of the bike. It didn't look like a whole lot of fun to struggle with that big of a bike. Bigger bikes seemed like a pain in the ass.

Then you watch these guys on DR650s that weigh 150lbs less and they run through anything with relative ease.

Design unchanged since 1990. Minimal electronics. Parts available on every continent. With a bigger tank the range of the DR can be stretched to 400+ miles.

Looking at all the dual sport and adventure bikes of sale right now the DR650 has got to be the superior product and the superior value.

So you right, the DR650 is the bike you take around the world. That's clear to me now.

Glad to see an adventure bike thread on TexAgs!

No love though for for the Honda 650L?

Yea, it's basically a lawnmower engine that will do 70mph but I'll admit I'm partial to it.

I think the Honda is a great bike. The 650R was the go-to choice in this segment in the early 'aughts.with the 650R being truly dirt worthy.

The 650L was geared much more towards street duty and as such if you took it off road it would blow fork seals, and typically beat you to death off road. The L could be upgraded to R-spec, but then it was more expensive than the KLR650 or DR650 which were both fairly usable off road in stock form.


The reason you see so many more DR's and KLR's is that Honda discontinued the 650R in '07.

XR650R was a legit Baja big red pig and kick start only likely turned some off. Beast of a 4 stroke.

Yea -- the R version was likely superior in overall performance, but it didn't have turn signals

I am very much a neophyte in the adventure bike realm.....the 650L was my middle age crazy purchase as it reminded me of my 100cc Honda in my teens. Wife still gripes I bought it but I remind her it could have been a convertible Porche at 20x the price!

I drive it mostly to the gym and back....unlikely to blow a fork seal.

I'll admit for casual use around town a KLR 650 is likely a better choice. I do like the simplicity of the Honda design though.

Greendale 87 said:

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Yea -- the R version was likely superior in overall performance, but it didn't have turn signals

I am very much a neophyte in the adventure bike realm.....the 650L was my middle age crazy purchase as it reminded me of my 100cc Honda in my teens. Wife still gripes I bought it but I remind her it could have been a convertible Porche at 20x the price!

I drive it mostly to the gym and back....unlikely to blow a fork seal.

I'll admit for casual use around town a KLR 650 is likely a better choice. I do like the simplicity of the Honda design though.

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Like you, I ride my dr650 90% on the street. The 650L is still an awesome bike.

Ran the DRZ400 about 90 miles this afternoon to get a better idea of MPG and range. Bike is stock from the factory with Mikuni BSR36 carb. No changes to factory jetting. No airbox mod. Brand new air filter. Brand new plug. Fresh oil change with Suzuki's full synthetic.

Ran with 87 non-ethanol. 30% of miles were on blacktop at 50-60mph the rest on gravel and hard pack dirt at 30-40mph.

Calculated 61 MPG over this stretch.

Range of 2024 DRZ as tested is ~150 miles including reserve.

Conclusion is that a stock DRZ will get you 60 miles and back on one tank with 20 miles to spare.

I'm not inclined to mess with the stock jetting on this carb or mess with the airbox.

Overall the bike runs better with 700 break-in miles than it did out the crate from Japan. Also found that running lower octane 87 fuel also makes a difference.

Seen on reddit. Vice grips seem like an essential ad to the emergency tool kit.

Speculation that Suzuki may have discontinued the DRZ400.

They showing a 2025 model for the DR650 and other models but not the DRZ.

Picked this up today. 2023 KTM 390 Adventure with a whopping 195 miles on it. Think I paid $6180 before taxes and fees. The new ones are like $7600.

So far I really like it. I rode about 50 miles today and hadn't been on a motorcycle in 13 years.

You got a deal. Range on this bike is 200+ so it hadn't even had a full tank run through it. Also the engine might be limited until 650 miles until break miles complete. Close as you can get to a brand new bike and saved a couple grand.

Thanks, it would have been close to $2k more for a brand new one. The engine is limited to about 6,000 rpm for the first 600 miles. Pretty responsive though below that.

Did a bunch of research on these at one time. 15lbs lighter than the competitor 650s with more range on the stock tank. This and the CRF300L are the longest range stock you can get. CRF max range is 300 miles stock. A good compromise between medium and lightweight adventure bikes. Looks way more comfortable on highway than the DRZ, KLX or CRF. Saw a guy with a Canada license plate on one at the gas station the other day loaded down with gear.

I just rode from Aurora to Colorado Springs. Pretty solid and comfortable at 60 or so most of the way. I too considered those other bikes.