Goodbye DR650
Finally, the DR is gone, and now it is time to reflect on this bike and how it has been.
I brought the DR from Wellington, Sidewinder and I rode down on my GS 500 which is now owned by pathos. We left at 3 am, and got to upper hutt at 11 am, the ride down was great, blasting through fog, getting the bike into a powerslide through unexpected roadworks, sleeping on the back at 100kph…
When the guy showed up on the DR he stood up on the pegs and rode it over a curb, sidewinder said to me “What a n00b, if that was you, you would have 12 o’clocked it over!”
Turns out the guy was in his 40’s and still living at home with his parents- which gave me a bad hunch about the whole thing.
I test rode it up some steep hills, the first thing I did was to wheelie it everywhere, it seemed to be running a bit lean, I must say, it was great fun.
The listed “excellent” condition was a lie, the thing had plenty of rust on the frame, the chain was slack and didn’t have much life left in it, the rear tire was a bit worn too.
The guy claimed he wanted the cash for a BMW road bike, which we never saw… not good.
It took me about 1 hour to take it, I was fucked as, real tired, and fast running out of patience.
Fuck it I thought, il buy it.
On the way out of lower hutt, 10 mins in, I felt bad, real bad, like I had brought a fucked pile of shit, I had doubts as to whether it would make it back!
The rear was way out of balance, with a very noticeable bounce over 80 kph, the bars weren’t quite straight, and were rusty, the engine kept missing and sounded like arse.
I called the guy and asked for my money back, but he said no, the bike ran onto reserve not far out…I was angry.
After gassing up I got sick of taking wrong turns on the motorway, and just cut straight across..once out things got better.
Every set of lights and give way between lower hutt and Wanganui was wheelied through.
We stopped in Wanganui, I had 14 hours sleep almost straight away!
Through the parapara’s the next day, I just thrashed the DR, pushing it hard motard style, feeling the unbalanced rear push the front out, and just booting it to keep it in line, understeer hard.
I blasted road works, and generally caned the thing back to Hamilton.
Once back I thought about motarding it, so a sport demon went on the back.
This wore out in 3000kms due do me backing it in and powersliding it out of corners, and spinning it on gravel, plus big power wheelstands.
A few KB’rs in Hamilton thought I was a bit crazy backing it into roundabouts in the wet, but that’s the whole point.
Once the rear was worn, the beast was fitted with full knobblies-renthal bars, new chain and sprockets.
I had already given the engine new plugs, cleaned the filter, cleaned the carb and changed the oil, so she was running good. It had way more power than a 06 standard DR.
Now the bike was a WRX on gravel, and absolute machine, it was very, very quick, and so was I!
The trick is, don’t slide the bike, keep your feet on the pegs, and keep the speed up.
Just drop it into corners, and cut em nice and deep, feed the power on, don’t boot it.
I also mastered 3rd gear wheelies, starting from 50 k’s and landing at 100 kph!
Top speed I ever did on the road was 170 and on the gravel, 143 kph
Sadly, I got sick of it, so it has been sold, it will be great fun to the next owner!
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Originally Posted by NordieBoy
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