Indestructible? Not even close

[ADVGD]

As some of you may know I arranged a programmer to cover for me for a 7 day riding and fishing holiday, planned day 2 and 3 to catch up with and ride/document the Macaulay and Godley with 3 others (on trailer in pic below), then spend 3 days riding and fishing some of the lakes and tarns down south.

So what's wrong with this picture?



All packed up, have only done about 3000 km since forking out $3,500 for a gearbox rebuild, but had to return home early as the unknown noise that was increasing in volume turned out to be a big end. Unbelievable

This is the third major trip in a row that this (18 month old and only 27,000km) bike has let me down, the supposedly indestructible DRZ isn’t really doing its reputation any justice. The original response from both Suzuki Auckland and Japan when trying to ascertain why a gearbox would go at only 24,000 resulted in the comment “You are loading up the bike up with too much gear and riding it too hard, a 250cc is simply not designed for this type of use”. Admittedly it does get a hard time, however I chose this bike due to its renowned indestructible reputation, and with the way I meticulously maintain this bike I honestly thought I would be able to see out 50,000km without having such major issues. It is becoming clear I am simply asking too much of this bike.

Anyway, to cut a bollocks story short, I didn’t ride the trip, I ended up playing 4X4 support for the bikes and shot up for a Thar hunt. A pretty good weekend nonetheless, here are some pics...

2 hour ride in the dark, ktm was the only bike with lights, others making do with 4X4 headlights, river was up, many crossings were deep and/or very swift, the track was hard to reconnect with after many sections being washed away, somewhat of a mission for the bikes is a bit of an understatement

[clint640]

Bugger! I kinda suspect that the reason everybody sez that DRZ250's, XR250's etc are super reliable is that not many people actually do big km's on them.

Nice pics, not sure about those knarly river crossings in the dark however

$3.5K is an expensive gearbox. I've just about finished rebuilding an entire KTM 640 motor for about that. Doing all the work myself though.

Advice on the big end: Check out the prices of a conrod kit vs a whole new crank assembly. Unless the difference is huge get a whole new crank. If you get a rod kit make sure the people know what they're doing with pressing it back together.

Cheers
Clint

[ADVGD]

Bugger! I kinda suspect that the reason everybody sez that DRZ250's, XR250's etc are super reliable is that not many people actually do big km's on them.

You've probably hit the nail on the head there mate, up until the 24,000km mark when the first issues started appearing I have to give it credit for being a faultlessly reliable bike, I had 100% confidence in taking it anywhere. With most feedback saying that anything over 20,000km is high for a 250 it is most likely the case that the majority of these bikes live their lives within that low km reliable threshold that in turn is responsible for these bikes having the reputation for reliability and longevity.

Nice pics, not sure about those knarly river crossings in the dark however

I have to give full credit to the CRF230 rider, one of the most ballsy female riders I have seen to date.

Advice on the big end: Check out the prices of a conrod kit vs a whole new crank assembly. Unless the difference is huge get a whole new crank. If you get a rod kit make sure the people know what they're doing with pressing it back together.

Cheers for that mate

[NordieBoy]

I considered my '79 XR250 to be bullet proof. 6 years of trail riding, classic mx'ing, 2, 3 and 6hr cross country races and it's only just starting to lose a little compression.

But all that adds up to probably 3-4,000km tops.

[Taz]

All my bikes have been faultlessly reliable up until the point they've broken. Then I fix them and they're faultlessly reliable again til they break again.

[Eddieb]

Hurry up and get your license so you can get 650.

[warewolf]

Sorry to hear about yet more troubles ADVGD. I don't think you're pushing the bike too hard at all, that's just a cop-out. It's a small capacity japper... rev the arse off it all day every day won't trouble it. It's an old fashioned low-tech low-stressed trail bike, not a modern hi-rev 4T race bike trying to make 2T-like power at the expense of reliability. I had nearly 20K on my DR-Z250 and it got thrashed on the road, thrashed in the forest doing cross-country races, thrashed in woodhill trying to power through the sand all the time, and commuted during the week. Probably equivalent to 40K of on road only use.

My 1986 Honda CBX250 had an e-start XR250 engine in it. I took it from 39K to 79K in 18 months, lots of that touring moderately loaded, and lots of 500km motorway runs at 120+km/h (in Aussie). Didn't use any oil, ran and started superbly.

So they can do it; however I think you just got a Friday bike. When I was shopping for my KTM 640 I did quite a bit of digging into reliability and easily found many documented examples of grief like yours with various jappers (eg XR650's grenading for no apparent reason). To that end I'm convinced reliability is a lottery not brand related, and where it isn't, the odds aren't strong enough to sway me.

[ADVGD]

Hurry up and get your license so you can get 650.

Counting down the days my friend, just 4 weeks and 4 days to go then I get my shiny new toy

Sorry to hear about yet more troubles ADVGD

Don't be sorry, send cash donations

I had nearly 20K on my DR-Z250 and it got thrashed on the road, thrashed in the forest doing cross-country races, thrashed in woodhill trying to power through the sand all the time, and commuted during the week. Probably equivalent to 40K of on road only use.

My 1986 Honda CBX250 had an e-start XR250 engine in it. I took it from 39K to 79K in 18 months, lots of that touring moderately loaded, and lots of 500km motorway runs at 120+km/h (in Aussie). Didn't use any oil, ran and started superbly.

So they can do it; however I think you just got a Friday bike. When I was shopping for my KTM 640 I did quite a bit of digging into reliability and easily found many documented examples of grief like yours with various jappers (eg XR650's grenading for no apparent reason). To that end I'm convinced reliability is a lottery not brand related, and where it isn't, the odds aren't strong enough to sway me.

Great reply, that info certainly puts a spin on things, that's a lot of K's from 250cc engines, along the lines of what I was anticipating from mine...

[clint640]

Great reply, that info certainly puts a spin on things, that's a lot of K's from 250cc engines, along the lines of what I was anticipating from mine...

Rosie's 250 Sherpa was still purring at 50K km when she sold it. It was starting to smoke a little when cold though. It hadn't been thrashed offroad but certainly saw a lot of gravel, & it did 1000's of km on the throttle stop on road.

Cheers
Clint

[Devil]

Rosie's 250 Sherpa was still purring at 50K km when she sold it. It was starting to smoke a little when cold though. It hadn't been thrashed offroad but certainly saw a lot of gravel, & it did 1000's of km on the throttle stop on road.

Cheers
Clint

It's going to get a new piston, rings and gaskets soon...

[Padmei]

Bugger the license just get a 400- how many cops are in the back of beyond?

[junkmanjoe]

can cut you a deal on a tidy 400.......

JMJ

[JATZ]

Not good to hear.....

FYI... the 250 and the 350 are both doing about 7000 rpm @ 100k's, the Big was doing about 3800 at the same speed. So your little machine is workin pretty hard

[NordieBoy]

Not good to hear.....

FYI... the 250 and the 350 are both doing about 7000 rpm @ 100k's, the Big was doing about 3800 at the same speed. So your little machine is workin pretty hard

The TT with my adv gearing is doing 5,600@100kph and the DR is doing 4,300@100kph.
First gear on both would get them to about the same places.

[warewolf]

FYI... the 250 and the 350 are both doing about 7000 rpm @ 100k's, the Big was doing about 3800 at the same speed. So your little machine is workin pretty hard

Might be spinning faster, but do the maths on the stresses on the mass of the 250cc piston @ 7000 vs the 750/800cc piston @ 3800. Ditto the valves on the tiddler vs the big beastie.