Got it !!

[Gizzit]

And its a bloody ripper !!!!
I went down to Auckland after lunch yesterday with my son Alan, and we go to Colemans Suzuki and drooled over all the bikes n stuff!
Picked up the new 07 DR650SE - in "Bad Boy Black" and off we went !

I found that it's great for filtering through motorway traffic, and I got to the northern motorway BP station south of Silverdale for a coffee well before Alan arrived there in the car!

The screen works pretty well, but I need to tinker with it to get it set just right for me. It made it much more comfortable at speeds in excess of the limit (well I can only imagine that it would ... on a closed circuit ... ociffer)

What was a supprise to me, was that the seat actually wasn't that bad !! I didn't have "monkey butt" by the time I got home, and thats 160K of riding, admittedly with a stop for coffee.
I'm still going to get a McDonalds' 'Rider' seat as soon as i can get down to Tauranga. That will put the icing on the cake, and make full day rides comfortable, especially for my wife when she is riding pillion.

One thing I noticed when I stopped for the coffee was that the bike was standing "straight upright" on it's side stand!
I had asked to have the suspension lowered the 40mm on the shock/spring dogbone arrangment, which they had done, but the forks hadn't been lowered, and now I know why! If they had, it would not have been able to stand on it's stand at all!! I'm a bit miffed about that, but will get back to Colemans to order the short sidestand, and then lower the forks accordingly. I guess they realised that they couldn't lower the forks because they didn't have a sidestand in stock, and left it like that. However it still handled very well on the ride home, but I'm keen to get that sorted.

When we got home, my son asked for a ride on it, and off he went! Well I thought he wouldn't be too long, but he was !! He came back with a big grin on his face saying "this bike is so much FUN" !! I guess that sums up the kind of bike the DR is.

(Pictures to follow shortly)

[SlowHand]

Congrats! That sounds awesome. I'm making the switch from road bikes too, and real keen to explore this side of motorbikes and scenery!

Have muchos funnos.

[dino3310]

gotta love those DRs

[NordieBoy]

Good one!

[98tls]

Congrats and enjoy,a mate in thats in Aussie just bought one (see pic) and seems impressed.Not short of a bob he looked at many options ie the Buell,KTM 950 but decided on the DR.

[kevfromcoro]

Congrats! That sounds awesome. I'm making the switch from road bikes too, and real keen to explore this side of motorbikes and scenery!

Have muchos funnos.

Good onya..i wont go back to a sportsbike again.
love the XT660.
never riden a DR. might have to give one a go..

[Gizzit]

Well I had a bit of a hoon on it this arvo around a 30k loop with lots of nice twisties, and little traffic. This is more fun than my CB1300S in the tight twists, as it is so easy to throw around, nice and light, hangs on like the proverbial to a blanket, and is just a real buzz to ride.
It seems to sit ok at 140K, but cruises easily at 120K very comfortably. I found the brakes to be adequate to scrub off enough speed for ever tightening corners, and you can just drop it down further with more counter steer, and not have to worry about ground clearance! Bloody awesome!!
I think this bike will cover so many basis. A really good 'multi purpose' bike.

Here's a few pics I just managed to take before my ride this afternoon. I find the Givi screen is a real bonus at 'just above' the open road limit !!

[Gizzit]

Congrats! That sounds awesome. I'm making the switch from road bikes too, and real keen to explore this side of motorbikes and scenery!

Have muchos funnos.

Like you intend to do .... I made the switch from Road to Dual Purpose, and I certainly won't be going back. This DR is so much fun, and it can do the stuff you do on a road bike (and lots more), as long as you don't want to go at warp factor 9. It's very good for a 650 single though, and you could still go fast enough to loose your licence no problem !!
I don't think you'll regret changing over to the dark side !!!

[NordieBoy]

Nice.
Looks like it's a US spec one like CooneyR's.

[cooneyr]

Interesting that it came with the "high" tail light. Does it have a electronic switch on the side of the carbie (same side as the throttle cables) and what diameter is the hole in the tail pipe. It seems it is more like the model I have (97 reg) than the other more typical NZ model with is slightly different (most noticeable diff is the high vs low profile tail light).

Glad you like it. Now go find some gravel roads and let the real fun begin. Its far to shiny at the moment

Cheers R

Edit - Nordie bet me too it. One other give away is that you have a bolts on the underside of the exhaust can which are for cleaning out the spark arrestors.

[Gizzit]

There's another pic of the bike on my profile .... now the Honda has gone. Just the scoot and the DR in the stable now ....

[revvinkevin]

Good onya..i wont go back to a sportsbike again.
love the XT660.
never riden a DR. might have to give one a go..

Had one prior to my ST1300. I suffer from poor circulation in my hands so the single's vibes had me in agony in a very short time. I still covered over 6000miles (10000km) in around 7 months and enjoyed the lightness and flickability. Build quality on Yams ain't that good and the front pipes start to dissolve quite quickly but it was a fun machine.

They do two versions in the UK, I had the 660R but the supermotard style X would probably be the better choice. I kicked out the knobbly tyres in 3000miles (5000km) and they were very twitchy in the wet. Super-sticky semi slicks on the X would make it an absolute hoot to ride hard.

Fuel consumption was never any lower than 65mpg ( dunno the l/km conversion) however hard I rode it.

[revvinkevin]

Oh, another thing with an XT (and most Yams with digital clocks) you can adjust the fuel mixture via the clocks. Yamaha set them very lean and pick up from light throttle can be snatchy making filtering through traffic a pain.

There is a dedicated XT site (google it) full of great tips to get the best out of them.