The newest addition - DRZsm

[tt_four]

Haha, I just noticed the bike didn't come with a left grip. What in the world was he doing that he lost a grip within the first 1500 miles?? My only guess is he cut the old one off with a razor and didn't know how to get the new one on and just said 'screw it'. That tail light has got to go too! I'm pretty sure Suzuki was just laughing at the people who bought the bike when they decided to put that thing on it.

[steezin_and_wheezin]

Definitely getting some mx wheels! i've been watching all kind of trail vids and its eating away at my soul. My goal is to get a set of wheels and tires for ~$300. seems plausible, but most people parting bikes out are asking ~$500

Yeah the PO didn't have much interest in keeping this baby in good shape. He dropped the bike, replaced stock bent bars with a set of new Pro Taper bars and clamps. The mirrors don't work well on the new bars, no left grip, and ignition switch is barely hanging on. I have a new set of grips that the PO was nice enough to give me. They just the ends cut off to fit with the handguards.

Have been talking with the other local drz owner, and he's interested in swapping seats! he's got a black/yellow sumo with a black stock seat. Also will get fitting an Edge tail light kit on her. Going to get her back to stock form before heading down the aftermarket path

[tt_four]

I bet you could find some cheap wheels if you keep an eye out. I bought a whole parts bike for $500, motor was leaking coolant into the oil. Straight up dirtbikes are cheaper because there are rarely titles, but between all of the drzs and other bike suzuki makes, I bet there's something else with wheels that'll fit.

The one thing I did think was poor planning, is that Suzuki spaced out the caliper on the fork to be used with a larger brake rotor, instead of putting on an adapter. Even if you get mx wheels you're still gonna be running a huge front rotor. You'll just have to be soft on the brake. I need to learn to stop using my front brake as much anyway, rode riding habit that doesn't really translate to dirt as well.

That's great about the seat. I really want an all black seat for my bike. I can but a cover for about $30, but it might be worth it just to wait and see if I find a good deal on an all black seat on ebay. Trouble is mx seats are usually beat up pretty bad.

[steezin_and_wheezin]

DAMN! all the wheels i was eying on fleabay were snatched up yesterday, quick! Going to hold off for the summer rush eases to get some. I will be keeping an eye out for a drz parts bike though!

I hear you on the front rotor. Not only added pressure, but a huge surface area to thrash up

Going to meet the guy tonight on the seat. I got my tax return yesterday and got a few things. Terrible timing to get the new toy and big check around the same time. Killing me looking at all the new bits i could buy haha

Got the Joe Rocket Hybrid helmet I was talking about earlier. Also got a complete headlight(white shroud, fork mounts, and hardware) off a thumpertalk member, good people over there, he threw in a free set of stock pegs and gas cap. I could have bought a replacement frame cover for the same price as a nearly complete set of fairings so jumped on it! Paint is iffy, but i plan on dabbling this summer



They will go on with my new black tank, and a black left side frame cover to fill the gap. I'll mix match the black/green pieces and white headlight fairing until painting.

[steezin_and_wheezin]

A little progress, new tank and plastics:



She's two toned!!! I'll get better photo's on lunch. The right side looks better since all its plastics are green. Looks good imo, thinking of painting the 1 black piece to match. The green headlight shroud is going to look bad ass, but am going to keep the black sumo fender.

1 complete set will get some paint this summer

Edit: forgot to mention i traded a local sumo rider my yellow seat for a black low profile gripper! i can get some more foot on the ground major plus haha

[tt_four]

looks great, you're lucky there's another bike to swap parts with. I'm so tired of every yamaha yz from 1998 through about 2006 being blue an white. I'd like to change the color of my bike, buy there aren't that many options. I think eventually I'm just gonna buy aftermarket black number plates and rear fender. Wouldn't mind the whole bike being black, but I think it looks bad with the blue frame, plus new gas tanks are expensive even though everything else is pretty reasonable, plus I'd have to buy a hole new headlight. At least there are sticker kits! I need a black seat too.

low profile would be convenient, but i don't like the look. I love the way those step seats look, but I'm all over my seat and I think it might annoy me. If you thought your bike was tall before just wait until you get the 21/18 inch wheels with knobbies on your bike, haha I can barely even get a toe on the ground when it's in offroad mode.

[steezin_and_wheezin]

Black low pro seat is great! I wasn't sure about the low dish when looking at the bike as a whole, but i think it fits pretty well. I agree the stepped seats looks the best.

Still will be putting my lowering links on though. i need more foot down before i go off in the dirt. didn't think about the raise with off road wheel/tires haha should be fun.

Scouring the webs for a drz parts bike, unfortunately they are fun and far between..

A quick shot of the right side:

[tt_four]

Looks great, hope you're enjoying it. I'd definitely be more comfortable with a lower seat and a lowered suspension, but I'm stubborn and don't want to lower the center of gravity and make my bike less prone to wheelie haha. It's definitely tall, but that's worse on the road than it is in the dirt. The tall bike in the dirt doesn't really bug me since you're already bouncing around and climbing over stuff. I guess it helps that I don't really care if this bike falls over, I just pick it up and keep going.

I got out for a 6 hour ride yesterday and had a great time. I found some new trashy roads, spent some time in the dirt, pretty sure I was getting both wheels off the ground on some small jumps, learned how to ride up stairs. I know I got up 7 steps in one spot, I think the next set had 8 or 9 but I didn't count. Need a little practice but that'll be a fun ability to have haha. You're gonna love the DRZ once you get some time to really find out how much it's capable of. I still need to find some local guys to ride with though. Ooh, I also found some old grassed over trails pretty close to my parents house. They'll be getting visit every time I stop by my parents. We used to ride our bmx bikes there when I was younger, although not very well haha. there used to be a ton of trails back there, a lot of it got cleared out when they put a road through the middle of it, but I was riding down the road, looked to the left and saw some faint trails going up the hill and thought...... "wait a minute!" and climbed up. I'd like to get another sportbike eventually, but I feel like when I do it's just gonna kill me every time I pass a random dirt trail off the side of the road and there's nothing I'm gonna be able to do but look at it and move on. To be honest I picture myself on an R1 with a home made metal skid plate and some dirtbike bars that I'm gonna be crashing offroad haha.

[yamahonkawazuki]

So you're advocating adding knobbies to a bike who's existence is based on taking a dirt bike and taking the Knobbies off and adding street tires!?!?!?! It boggles the mind!

almost need to if you want to go deeper into the trails. UNLESS ground is dry. those street tires are useless in mud.

[steezin_and_wheezin]

sounds like a good ride TT!!

Ordered; thumper case savers, oil change necessities, some missing bolts, a jet kit to do 3x3 mod and hopefully cue my leanness. Will pickup locktite and do all the preventative maintenance weekend after next.

Still working on getting the off road setup, have found a couple decently priced, but not willing to ship.. The snowboard seasons is ending this weekend for us, and the drive to get off road is growing rapidly

[tt_four]

Yama's right, street tires are a joke in mud. I assumed they'd do poor, but your back tire just spins as you crawl 1mph and your front tire keeps trying to slide out sideways haha. They work fine offroad otherwise. Definitely keep looking for some offroad wheels, but don't be afraid to go off pavement in the mean time. Find some construction sites/housing developments, random spots of grass, whatever you can to get off pavement. The more you learn to judge what the bike can do, the better you'll get at finding places to take it.

The only thing that still scares me is the worry of picking a random trail in the woods, heading downhill on a slick surface, then realizing the only way out is uphill on a slick surface in each direction. In the wrong situation you could get stuck down there forever, and someday somebody will find your dead body spooning your bike in a little muddy valley haha. Seriously though, you can get through a lot of gross stuff if you hop off the bike and stand next to it and walk it out with the gas, just invest in some good water resistant/proof boots, because you'll come home plenty muddy when you 'though' you were going out for a nice road ride.

[steezin_and_wheezin]

Still no luck on finding decently priced off road wheels/tires. Those suckers get snatched up fast!

I did adjust my compression and rebound on both front and rear suspension. Don't know if its kind of a placebo effect, "I adjusted it, so now it must be better!!" But just a few clicks different and i really feel like its a BIG step in the right direction. Feels like it wanders less, and is really quick to stick on a line.

Ready for some more long summer weekends of 2 wheeled fun!

[steezin_and_wheezin]

 

Just did my daily Craigslist search. Found a 06 drz with a bad engine, and get this, its in MY town!! Hell he's right down the street haha. I'm waiting for a reply on the e-mail and will be going to pick it up asap if its still here

[tt_four]

awesome stuff! hopefully that works out and you can get the wheels on your bike! I've been getting more comfortable on the street wheels in dirt, and there's obviously limits as to what you can accomplish on street tires, i'm more and more satisfied with what I can do with my bike in sumo form. I was out for a few hours on saturday and found a fun dirt/gravel road to play on for a while, and even made it most of the way up a pretty good sized gravel hill before stalling and trying to figure out how I was ever going to get back down haha. Obviously I would've blown up it on dirt tires, but what fun is that?

I ordered all the parts I needed hopefully for a while. New front fender, my new headlight came today, new tail light, regulator to hopefully fix the battery problems I've been having. I blew a fork seal over the weekend too. I need to pull the dust seal and make sure there isn't just some dirt in there causing a leak, but a good bit of oil was running out so I think chances are it's shot. I ordered some replacements. Hopefully I can get it inspected and get the lights running within the next 2 weeks or so and stop being completely paranoid every time I take it out that I'm gonna get pulled over haha.

I've very curious to see how I do once I get another street bike. I highly doubt I'm gonna be able to keep myself on pavement haha.

[yamahonkawazuki]

Yama's right, street tires are a joke in mud. I assumed they'd do poor, but your back tire just spins as you crawl 1mph and your front tire keeps trying to slide out sideways haha. They work fine offroad otherwise. Definitely keep looking for some offroad wheels, but don't be afraid to go off pavement in the mean time. Find some construction sites/housing developments, random spots of grass, whatever you can to get off pavement. The more you learn to judge what the bike can do, the better you'll get at finding places to take it.

The only thing that still scares me is the worry of picking a random trail in the woods, heading downhill on a slick surface, then realizing the only way out is uphill on a slick surface in each direction. In the wrong situation you could get stuck down there forever, and someday somebody will find your dead body spooning your bike in a little muddy valley haha. Seriously though, you can get through a lot of gross stuff if you hop off the bike and stand next to it and walk it out with the gas, just invest in some good water resistant/proof boots, because you'll come home plenty muddy when you 'though' you were going out for a nice road ride.

i used to go to a church which ( pardon the puns) was hell to get to. on my gs. 3.5 miles to the top of a mtn, on a paved road.  then 2.5 miles further along a gravel rd with mudholes lol. to an almost 200yo church running on a generator. but the gs DIDNT like that rd. i never dumped it. but she got dirty often

p.s. you dont need straight up knobbies aka dirtbike tires. but some agressive tires might work. more agressive than street tires, but less than offroad tires
such as these by continental?
around 115 each

[yamahonkawazuki]

the red line is pavement. blue line is gravel.  i live in a fun riding area. im 45 minutes drive/ride from the dragon. and at this location 10 minutes from what is known as the " devils triangle. " which comes out near brushy mtn penitentiary

[yamahonkawazuki]

Yama's right, street tires are a joke in mud. I assumed they'd do poor, but your back tire just spins as you crawl 1mph and your front tire keeps trying to slide out sideways haha. They work fine offroad otherwise. Definitely keep looking for some offroad wheels, but don't be afraid to go off pavement in the mean time. Find some construction sites/housing developments, random spots of grass, whatever you can to get off pavement. The more you learn to judge what the bike can do, the better you'll get at finding places to take it.

The only thing that still scares me is the worry of picking a random trail in the woods, heading downhill on a slick surface, then realizing the only way out is uphill on a slick surface in each direction. In the wrong situation you could get stuck down there forever, and someday somebody will find your dead body spooning your bike in a little muddy valley haha. Seriously though, you can get through a lot of gross stuff if you hop off the bike and stand next to it and walk it out with the gas, just invest in some good water resistant/proof boots, because you'll come home plenty muddy when you 'though' you were going out for a nice road ride.

i had this happen with the gs. ONLY way i got out was this. i got off teh bike and pushed it. BUT also left bike running and clutchwalked it out.

[tt_four]

i had this happen with the gs. ONLY way i got out was this. i got off teh bike and pushed it. BUT also left bike running and clutchwalked it out.

Haha I've become quite familiar with this game.

Those continental tires look cool. They'd look mean on some 17"s. I got the offroad wheels with mine so if I wanna do real offroad I just stick those on, but I have less and less desire for the real offroad tires as I get more comfortable on the street wheels.

[steezin_and_wheezin]

no reply back on the drz parts bike yet

[BaltimoreGS]

Hey Steezin, remember how I said I love riding my street bikes around Pocahontas County, West Virginia??  Check out what they've got coming now!      http://www.trailsheaven.com/trailsystems/detail/pocahontas,11.aspx

-Jessie