<Why did I buy a DR350?>
In 2006 I went on a long ride with the KLR650 that included three days of off-road-group-riding in Colorado. On this ride, I realized that my skills off the road weren't much up to snuff. Still, it was lots of fun, and I met a lot of great people. And I learned a little bit about riding on dirt and gravel. Notably, I learned the concept of incomplete traction.
Now, regular offroad riders will laugh. Spinning tires and roosting and floating around corners and curves are easy to watch on television or a video. But, for me, I've always liked to feel the tire gripping the road when I go around a corner. Riding some of the mountain passes in Colorado, following along with some very experienced riders, I became less uncomfortable with the rear tire slipping. By the end of the third day, I was actualy enjoying a little "slippage" going around corners. As I understand the concept, the tire has incomplete traction but the bike is still moving and under control (less control to be sure). The bottom line is that just because the tire slips a little, this doesn't mean you are doomed to a low-side. You just keep riding.
So I came back to Florida, with 3,700 more miles on the KLR and lots of smiles... and a hankering to get a smaller bike and play in the sand a little bit. After some research, and some time on the Maximum Suzuki website reading and asking stupid questions, I found this bike on ebay. I'd just spruce it up a little bit and it's be ready to go.
<And now a year and a half later...>The bike is for sale. Not because it's a bad bike, it isn't. My Dixie Dual Sport packet came, and the DR350 is highly respected. The Maximum Suzuki folks love theirs. I love mine, too, as far as I have ridden it. I'd just as soon keep it and finish the project... and get some reward for all that hard work and long wait. But now I have a KLX250 that I'm very happy with. It's a pain in the butt to get 3 bikes in the garage and still move around. (It's that there's more other stuff keeping the 3 bikes company...) So even though I don't need the money, I need the space. Here she goes, back into the world, hopefully better off. And the money will be nice to have around because if the stock market keeps going down I plan to buy some more nice stocks at bargain prices. Coke. Kraft Foods. General Electric. Warren Buffet type stocks.
<Some of the stuff I did:>
I replaced the gasket under the clutch cover. She leaked oil like a Harley when I got her.
I bought the Conti TKC 80 for the back and put a used Kenda on the front so she'd have some DOT tires.
She got a new chain and sprockets. The prior owner had some nice yellow gaiters he'd picked up on ebay and some progressive springs. I replaced the springs, fork oil, and gaiters. There are PVC spacers in the top, if I remember right. Wish I'd taken pics 'cause my memory gets worse every year. (My story is that the brain is like a giant Cray computer, and the more information it has stored, the longer a search takes. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.)
We had to have nice, new, clean brake fluid front and rear. I'm a firm believer in the Mityvac brake bleeder. If you look closely at the photos, that's a new front brake hose, too.
She also ran rich. I took the carb apart and cleaned it. I ordered parts from Jesse at Kientech, including a jet and the extended, knurled idle circuit screw. I opened up the airbox like Jesse recommends on his website. Then the bike wouldn't start at all. I kicked and kicked and kicked until I couldn't kick no more.
Surrendering in disgust, I called Jesse and sent the carb to him for cleaning and got it back working but it was still too rich. A bike mechanic nearby, Mike Bianchi of Motorcycle Specialties, was kind enough to ride her around a bit and confirm that yes, she was running too rich. He gave me some jets, and I bought other jets, and I kept putting smaller jets in until, last October, I finally got the jetting right, I think. Mike told me something really important: just because you make a bike breathe easier by opening up the airbox and having a free-flowing muffler, that doesn't always mean you need bigger jets in the carb. Sometimes, and individual bikes are different, the efficiency created will mean that you need a leaner jet. This is contrary to what you read on lots of websites and forums, and it was particularly true for this DR350. Also, you can't tell jack from the spark plug because of today's cleaner-burning fuel. What you're always looking for is a stoichiometric mixture--whatever it takes to get there. If the jetting isn't right, it's a dang sight closer than it was, and I think it's about right.
This is, by the way, a Mikuni pumper carb. That was always one of the reasons that the folks on MaxSuzi said to look for a dirt 350 that was titled for the street because you got the pumper instead of the constant velocity carb.
Did I mention the decomp lever? Nah, I forget that. I have all the parts for the decomp new from the Suzuki dealer. Jesse thought they were important. Folks on MaxSuzi have varied thoughts. I was going to install it when I did the first valve adjustment, which I was going to do once I got all the street-legal stuff fixed. So the parts for the decomp are included but not installed.
Then, in order to be legal on the street, I began the task of fixing the lights so they'd work. You wouldn't think that would be too hard, right? Right?? Right??? In between getting stuff finished up on the house that I promised to get done by Christmas, getting all the vehicles' oil changed before tax season began, helping my bride get a business started, the next thing I knew I was just too busy. Every year it's the same thing. Anyway, here are photos.
