u/zappyguy111

I didn't know about these wear items until I had problems with the middle of my throttle.

Slide has worn through the wear marks, needle jet has a decent wear mark half way down the bore, explains the bogging I was getting at mid throttle.

A friendly reminder to the new mechanics to check these when you clean your carb, before it wears into the needle jet.

The gap between the tappet nut and the rocker arm was how much I had to loosen the tappet screw to release the valve.

Is this a normal amount of adjustment after 15,000km?

Hi all,

No time lurker, first time poster.

I was hoping to get someone to look over my trouble shooting process for tuning my BST-40 for my DR650.

Everything appears to be stock, except for the slide valve, which has been drilled out (I'm thinking of setting it back to stock).

I'm going to list (P)roblem (H)ypothesis and (A)ction to fixes to speed things up.

P: The bike has been bucking aggressively at high speed and RPM. H: dirty filter. A:Cleaned filter.

P: Bucking continues. H: Poor fuel flow. A: Bled air from fuel line

P: Bucking gets worse. H: Over rich mixture. A: Lean needle.

P: Bucking gets better, poor transition from idle. H: Rich idle A: Lean idle circuit

P: Weak idle. H: Lean idle A: No action taken yet

Next actions are to purchase a jetting kit with multiple main jets to lean out the top end, as leaning the needle reduced the bucking. I'll also enrich the idle circuit to strengthen my idle and match the needle to smooth the transition.

I also suspect my needle jet is also worn, but I'm going to see what I can achieve with the main jet before deciding if I need a new one.

Went with the 20L Acerbis, lighter than a Safari 30L and 25L variant. Next: to make it go 500km with a high comp piston, new head pipe, exhaust and re-jetting... In 3 months time.

I ended up leaving out the top clip as it made the gap between the tank and rear rack too small for the seat.

And I had to use the lathe to make a plug for the vacuum line.

First ride, no incident, but it feels weird riding with splayed legs...

5°C this morning. DR wouldn't go over 60°C on back roads. Took a tip from TwistedNoble and slipped a sheet of cardboard in the radiator.

It ended up staying there for the whole trip. The bike still wouldn't warm up even after the day warmed up to 15°C.

Thanks for the tip, TwistedNoble!

4 sets of rotors and pads, torque wrench, 2 impacts and a pack of sockets, plus my work wear. Not sure how many other bikes could haul this much stuff. 😝

The new oil cooler is in from Isicar, and it works a dream, who'd've thought removing a critical component would make a bike run sub-par?

So the numbers, it is 14°C (55°F) foggy (high humidity) and late at night, a little cooler than last time, but a good enough comparison for guess work. After 10 minutes of spirited riding at 70kph (40mph) and 10 minutes highway at 90kph (55mph), the bike came off the motorway at 62°C! (145°F). This was almost exactly 30°C (50°F) cooler than without the cooler.

The bike did warm up to 75°C (165°F) on the back roads and peaked at 80°C (175°F) when paused in the driveway, but nothing like the 95/110°C (205/230°F) seen while running it coolerless.

Moral of the story, if your oil cooler springs a leak, and you're forced to bypass it, your DR should be able to limp you out on a cold day. But if you're unlucky enough to get caught on a hot day, you may have to keep a close eye on your temperature and take near incessant breaks to keep the heat down.

Frankly, I was not expecting 30°C (50°F) temperature drops. Next project is a DIY cooler fan to mount on the back, given summer can be 25°C warmer (75°F) than winter, keeping my bike under 100°C (210°F) will be a challenge on slow roads and dirt tracks.

I thought I should share the results of my little jaunt around town on my DR with the bypassed cooler.

The main purpose is to give people a yard stick for if they have to bypass their cooler on the trails or mid adventure.

I've also fully removed my cooler, so I do have better airflow over the engine, so results may vary if you're merely bypassing it. Temperatures were gathered from the outlet of the header, measured temperatures may be greater than the actual engine temperature.

60kph (40mph) Main road riding is what I would consider a safe minimum speed for an uncooled DR. Stop-start traffic risks overheating. I regularly saw temperatures exceeding 100°C (210°F) when stopped, but slowly went down when moving again.

50kph (30mph) side roads are when I saw temperatures stabilising around 106°C (220°F) and climbing over 110°C (230°F) whenever I paused or slowed for intersections. I would consider this an absolute minimum speed. If your bike is already warmed up, I would suggest stopping for 30 minutes before attempting and stopping whenever you can feel it warming up.

70kph-100kph (45mph-60mph) are the ideal speeds. Temperatures quickly stabilise between 90°C-100°C (190-210°C). I would hazard to say, you could theoretically ride indefinitely at these speeds.

110kph (70mph) will lead to temperatures climbing over 100°C, do not exceed this speed.

So id-est, speeds between 60-100kph (40-60mph) you're golden, anything faster or slower requires observation and precaution.

I forked out and bought a $35 thermometer kit from Jaycar and spent 1.5 hrs fabbing a holder.

I think this is the outlet for the oil pump, is this a good spot to stick it?

Made a neoprene gasket out of some spare rubber I had lying around.

Removed the oil cooler and guard, swapped the top and bottom hoses 2 nuts, 2 bolts, a gasket and voila! Oil cooler bypassed!

Hi everyone,

First post here and I thought I'd reach out for some feedback from real people instead of an AI for once.

I've been drafting up a build for my 80,000km 17yr old DR650. I've had it for 1.5 yrs and bought it at 48,000km. I've ridden the life out of it; the wiring harness is going, gaskets and oil cooler are failing and the time feels right to give the old girl a rebuild.

Planned upgrades:

Wossner HC Piston

Mikuni TM40-6

Acerbis 20L tank

DG Performance V2 exhaust + quiet insert

Teknik suspension upgrade kit

Nova 3rd Gear

#190 Procycle Cam

At home upgrades:

Lower foot pegs

Open airbox

Tidy exhaust welds

DIY oil cooler fan

I am aiming for economy, range and off-road performance, and I feel this list of parts gives me a good balance.

Plan of attack:

0.1: Find a mevhanic

1.0: Engine rebuild, Engine upgrades, tidy exhaust

1.1: New wire harness

1.2: Frame, bearing service, open air box

1.3: Suspension upgrade

1.4: New oil cooler (has a leak after it briefly cosplayed as a plough)

2: Lower pegs, baggage, DIY oil cooler kit &etc

All items in section 1 are to be done by a mechanic, I am time poor and would like to be back on the road asap. Everything else will be DIY'd as they don't keep me off the road.

My expectation is I'll get a bike that out performs a DR-Z4S across the board, except for weight, and with all the accessories for about the same price. This includes post mechanic upgrades.

I'm keen for your feedback regarding this build.

PS. I will not be adding a rally tower, I've had a few instances where the windshield has aggressively tickled with my Adam's Apple on hill climbs. Most likely I'll engineer a quick connect removable windshield for highway stretches.

PPS. It already has a tall comfort seat and spotties installed, I will consider a power rail and a separate switch for the spotties when the wiring is redone. The topbox is likely going to be used exclusively for grocery shopping and daily commuting.

Hi all,

I'm having a lot of problems starting my bike, I've confirmed all the wiring from V+ to CDI are good and CDI to relay coils are good. I've also isolated and checked the relay, and it fires reliably. This lead me to the relay's connector.

The relay and plug were sprayed down with contact cleaner, which has greatly improved reliability and also exposed some leakages on the plug. I've since dripped some high viscosity thread seal around the wires to help seal the leaks, but I'm still not getting 99% reliability.

Has anyone else experience this problem before? Or does anyone have further suggestions on how to fix it? Is it possible to rebuild the stock DR plug?

Any and all advice is welcomed, I'm out of ideas other than buying new parts or going aftermarket.

Edit, the bike runs well, but it's not turning over sometimes.

Temporary fix, mate with a 3D printer has the new case on the way.

Just for that day somebody wants to ride pillion. Like my riding buddy's little brother.

The cost was about $400, considering I've been looking for 18 months, I thought I should just go to the supplier.

I'm happy I got to play bush mechanic in the local parking lot. I will say, these bikes are very serviceable, even in the wild with minimal tooling.

I've learned over inflating to 35psi with dishwashing water helps, but it's still a 50/50. What's your hack for making the bead seat?