Buying a dual-purpose!

[pete376403]

... for the sort of riding I am doing at the moment. Ride to uni, work, motorway and occasional open road ride.

Preferably with a rear rack so I can carry shit ...

The KLR is a better road bike than the DR. The DR is a better trail bike than the KLR. Your sort of riding appears to be more road than trail. The KLR has a bigger rack and a much bigger tank than a DR - sure you can add both to the DR but thats an extra cost.
The stuff that DR riders seem to hate so much about the KLR - water cooling, big fairing and windscreen, really excellent dual headlights (talking about the 08 and later) big tank, pretty good seat, etc are the things that make them a better roadie for pretty much the same price as a DR in stock trim.
Or you can get the DR and spend quite a bit to get it to the same state as a standard KLR. Your money, your call.

[HungusMaximist]

Cheers to Ian aka Crisis Management, I had a good yarn with him today at this work and he had the same points to make as you Pete, about the DR Vs KLR.

Unfortunately I can't afford an 08 KLR but you're right they're more comfy and road orientated than the DR, however it's gonna come down to what's the best price and value at the time of purchase.

I am gonna go test ride a few bike at the dealership on Thursday and Friday.

Do like the whole idea of having a kick start aye. I just want to ask, do the electric start bikes come with kick start also? Like as safety feature you can fall back on, in case your starter is stuffed.

[warewolf]

I just want to ask, do the electric start bikes come with kick start also? Like as safety feature you can fall back on, in case your starter is stuffed.

Less and less often, and not usually in the larger capacity or more roadie end of the dual purpose market. The DR-Z250 had both, as does my KTM 640. The DR650, KLR650 and DR200SE are electric only.

Flat battery from a neglected bike is the most common cause of e-start failures. I'd rather buy a battery tender once (for use at home) than buy a kickstart and carry it on each bike.

[NordieBoy]

my old xr600r man i spent nearly 20min one morn kicking the shit out of it, it did start and i was late for work,

Wonder if anyone else is imagining you walking around the bike kicking the shit out of it and swearing away

[frewi]

Flick out abit of coin and buy an xr650r. Seats abit hard but you can get a gel seat. Pretty thirsty too, so a larger tank if your'e going into no mans land. Heaps of grunt and then some. I havn't found mine to be too heavy to handle, infact I had an xl250 the exact same as the white one on the thread and weight wise feels much the same. Bit higher, but I'm only 5,9 and its no worries. Test a few bikes and see what you like

[buggsubique]

Less and less often, and not usually in the larger capacity or more roadie end of the dual purpose market. The DR-Z250 had both, as does my KTM 640. The DR650, KLR650 and DR200SE are electric only.

Flat battery from a neglected bike is the most common cause of e-start failures. I'd rather buy a battery tender once (for use at home) than buy a kickstart and carry it on each bike.

on my DR-Z for example, I swapped out the "7S" battery for a "10S". Same dimensions except a bit deeper. Battery box mod and now I have a battery with a higher CCA and capacity to keep turning over a wet engine...no kicker just means you have to think about what you're doing and how you might get home if you make the wrong D or cock it up.

[Mystic13]

Well, I chose the 250. I looked at bigger bikes (400's etc), but Im not the biggest and the 250 can be chucked around a bit over 3-4 hours without too much strain. This is older, but looks pretty good for age, and the guy looks like he's treated it well (work, receipts etc):
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...-204797387.htm

DRZ250 Weight 120kg

DRZ400 Weight 119kg

DRZ650 Weight 147kg (from memory) 30 kgs more is half an adult pillion. Or imagine riding around off road with a 12 year old on the back.

I'm in the DRZ400 camp and you know you made the right choice on adventure bike when you get off road for two reasons.

1/ the harder you ride it the better it goes.

2/ when you drop it on the off road stuff, usually, nothing breaks.

And the thing motors on road.

DRZ400 and KLX400 (Kawasaki) are the same bike.

And the power difference between the 250 and 400 is "@*$^#%" unbelievable.

[HungusMaximist]

Less and less often, and not usually in the larger capacity or more roadie end of the dual purpose market. The DR-Z250 had both, as does my KTM 640. The DR650, KLR650 and DR200SE are electric only.

Always loved the whole idea about kicking your bike into life!

Flick out abit of coin and buy an xr650r. Seats abit hard but you can get a gel seat. Pretty thirsty too, so a larger tank if your'e going into no mans land. Heaps of grunt and then some. I havn't found mine to be too heavy to handle, infact I had an xl250 the exact same as the white one on the thread and weight wise feels much the same. Bit higher, but I'm only 5,9 and its no worries. Test a few bikes and see what you like

Saw this XL650R http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/List...x?id=205330992 on the net. Will have to check it out aye.

DRZ250 Weight 120kg

DRZ400 Weight 119kg

DRZ650 Weight 147kg (from memory) 30 kgs more is half an adult pillion. Or imagine riding around off road with a 12 year old on the back.

No idea there was a DRZ650, just read that most of them were bit older as newer DRZ400 took over.

[BMWST?]

waht about that klr500?? kawi that was on trademe a while back...

[nallac]

there is no DRZ650 only th Dr650...
which is the one you should get, perfect for what you are after..

the novelty of kick starting wears off after a while...found that with my old Xr250.. the elecky start on the DR650 was bliss..

[warewolf]

DRZ250 Weight 120kg

DRZ400 Weight 119kg

DRZ650 Weight 147kg (from memory

Almost; from www.suzuki.co.nz, dry weights as follows:

DR200SE Street legal: 113kg seat 810mm tank 13.0L
DR-Z250 Street legal: 118kg seat 890mm tank 12.5L
DR-Z400E Street legal: 127kg seat 935mm tank 10.0L (the only bike here to require coolant, a further wet weight penalty vs the 250)
DR650SE: 147kg seat 845-885mm tank 12.0L

The 400 has probably the best power-to-weight, but it's also the tallest with the least comfortable seat and smallest tank. Those three factors are all negatives for a novice/first-time adventurer. Great bike for lots of reasons, just perhaps not for the OP's purposes.

No idea there was a DRZ650, just read that most of them were bit older as newer DRZ400 took over.

Effectively there is no DR-Z250, either. It's just a same old, same old DR250 with new marketing. So there's no reason Suzuki couldn't do similar and re-sticker the equally aging 650 as a DR-Z650!

[pete376403]

Do like the whole idea of having a kick start aye. I just want to ask, do the electric start bikes come with kick start also? Like as safety feature you can fall back on, in case your starter is stuffed.

No, for the same reason modern cars don't come with a crank handle.

At least the bike has manual trans, you could bump start it (as long as the battery has enough juice to make a spark.) OTOH, if the bike is fuel injected you can more or less forget it. I recall that BMW twins required the engine to be spinning at around 3K rpm to generate enough volts to run the EFI (with a totally flat battery) Thats a helluva bump start.

[NordieBoy]

No, for the same reason modern cars don't come with a crank handle.

At least the bike has manual trans, you could bump start it (as long as the battery has enough juice to make a spark.) OTOH, if the bike is fuel injected you can more or less forget it. I recall that BMW twins required the engine to be spinning at around 3K rpm to generate enough volts to run the EFI (with a totally flat battery) Thats a helluva bump start.

Some of the injected MX bikes are powered up by the 2nd turn of the crank when kicking.

[clint640]

the novelty of kick starting wears off after a while...found that with my old Xr250.. the elecky start on the DR650 was bliss..

Kicking an XR 250? luxury!

After about 12 months of kicking over 625cc's of high compression Austrian goodness due to a worn out starter clutch (fixed eventually) & now a worn out battery (fixed soon) I'm getting pretty good at it.
However when you're learning to ride offroad on a big bike the last thing you need after picking the thing up for the 10th time on some snotty trail is to have to kick the bitch for 10 minutes. That's what ruled out the XR650R for me when I was shopping for an adv bike.

Cheers
Clint

[NordieBoy]

Kicking an XR 250? luxury!

After about 12 months of kicking over 625cc's of high compression Austrian goodness due to a worn out starter clutch (fixed eventually) & now a worn out battery (fixed soon) I'm getting pretty good at it.

Yep. When the starter clutch on the Nordie died I got a kickstart conversion and learned how to kick it successfully over the next 3 months before I got a decompression cable and lever fitted

Good old "1/4 past tdc and a good full long kick" seemed to do the job.