Great weekend in the Bay including riding with Zukin

[merv]

Fazer did you decide on a dirt bike? I'm sure Zukin will go riding with you and I get up to the Bay to ride with my Bro' a bit so maybe we can catch up sometime. I've written a lot about what I saw as the flaws of the 250 Suzuki none of which can be said about the 250 Honda and the same doesn't apply to the DR650 which we have also at home. To ride well on gravel you need a smooth responsive bike so that one problem is taken out of the equation, then you can concentrate on riding fast attacking the unpredictable terrain. I had ridden on gravel so long on smooth responsive bikes I was nothing short of totally disappointed when I had my Suzuki it made me feel like I'd slowed down badly with age. Truth was as soon as I got my WR and later the XR250L as well, I was back up to speed again and feeling young and that's what you will need too as you are close to my age.

[fazer]

Anything to keep young!!!! Weighing up the pros and cons, rightly or wrongly, have decided on the DR650. Only time (and scrapes and bruises) will tell. Ta, would like to meet up sometime.

[merv]

OK we are happy with our DR650 as it was good bang for the buck as we bought it back when they were discounted an extra $1,000. For us smaller people I don't count it as a hard out trail bike (too heavy) but its great on a mix of tar and gravel even two up. We have ours set on the lower seat height and suspension soft, the only hassle then if two of us ride it the chain runs on the top roller a lot as you hit bumps spraying chain grease everywhere. Mrs doesn't mind as she leaves me to do all the bike cleaning.

The 650 has a different type of carb and relatively much heavier flywheel effect in the engine than the Suz 250 so is an altogether nicer machine to ride. However, for smoothness and quietness it doesn't match the Honda XR250L and ours sounds like a right bucket of bolts since we fitted the alloy bashplate to it reflecting all the engine noise upwards. The DR650 is way too overgeared stock so go for at least one tooth less on the front sprocket as a minimum change.

[Zukin]

Anything to keep young!!!! Weighing up the pros and cons, rightly or wrongly, have decided on the DR650. Only time (and scrapes and bruises) will tell. Ta, would like to meet up sometime.

Anyone that likes Pink Floyd is welcome to ride with me

Seriously I am more than happy to go on rides with yourself, keep me posted when you get your bike.

Cheers

[fazer]

Thanks both for that, as I have only ridden road bikes, the gravel stuff is a different kettle of fish, so will be a steep learning curve. Hope you are good at first aid!!!!!

[Motu]

I had ridden on gravel so long on smooth responsive bikes I was nothing short of totally disappointed when I had my Suzuki it made me feel like I'd slowed down badly with age.

I've had that happen too Merv,it's a bit off putting.You can ride anybike off road...it's nice to have a perfect bike,but you can have a shit load of fun on an ER185 with worn tyres too.Not so on gravel,you don't have any fun on the wrong bike,and you don't get up from a crash laughing,you need a well set up bike to enjoy it.When I have a good bike under me I don't even think,I know what I can do...know what the bike can do,it's all instinctive from years of practise.But on the wrong bike I feel as skilled as the doddery old man I look like.

It doesn't have to be a dirt bike either,a traditionaly style bike is well suited to gravel work - the Triumph Scrambler is testomy to the worth of the basic layout.I was following Big Dave on the Scramber on sunday - anyone who thinks these things are not able to be ridden in these conditions had better be prepard to eat their words,he had me working pretty hard to keep up.