DR650...something

[squarefour]

Have the jetting finally dialed. I already killed the freebie battery, so I'm down to the one that came with the DR.

Been doing Photoshop experimentation with "speed holes", oil cooler wing, frame color, and an etched-brass tank plaque based on a vintage Suzuki decal. Thoughts?

(These Photoshop sessions are somewhat useful and help kill the day for us bored desk jockeys.)

[volcomskater77]

damn i cant get enough of that headlight! and that yellow frame is definatly my first pick. but thats just me. i think it pops more without being obnoxious. lol

[Guest]

Awesome. What a great looking bike!

[squarefour]

Thanks guys. I wasn't too sure about the headlight, actually, it's a bit over the top. But I've grown accustomed to it.
So that's one vote for the yellow frame, and one (from the wife) for the wine color.

Anybody notice the dual taillights and the teeny ignition key switch I got from McMaster?

[squarefour]

.

Plated and Insured, and on my third trip out on the open road I've already been Hassled by the Man. His primary complaint was the plate placement, so I may change that a bit. No ticket.

[crawler65]

I don't know that he could have written a ticket for it. I don't know about your area, but here in Oregon there is no law on placement, just that it can be seen from the rear.
Great looking bike man, very unique.

[squarefour]

I'm not going to complain, he could have given me a ticket for no turn signals. He was really just looking for some dirt bike kids that were running around on the street earlier.

[doom]

Im not sure why, but I absolutly love this build.

[squarefour]

Some minor updates-

Drilled holes in stuff (actual ones, not photoshop).
Ditched the headlight grill thing.
Made little lenses for the taillights-much brighter now from behind.
Heel guard for the plastic rear brake reservoir fitting that was leaking because I kept kicking it.
Machined an axle spacer to eliminate the speedo drive.
Quicker throttle using a tube from an '03 R6, and went to the cushy Biltwell grips.
Revised the breather to hold oil in better-longer hose with a little baffling inside.
Modified some SS metric shoulder screws to work in the lever perches.
New front tire. The 2.50-21 trials tire was so narrow and squared off it scared me. No flattrack tires in 21", and the dual sport tires were too wide and clunky, so I bought a D404 and grooved it up to look more "flattracky". I had a groover already, just had to buy a really narrow blade.
Quicky barend mirror made from the stock DR unit.
Fatter pilot and needle jet in the carb. I started it once without the choke on and noticed the header pipe was glowing orange-this tipped me off it might be a a little on the lean side I also machined a sleeve for the carb spigot-thought there might be an air leak.

I need to work on the exhaust-fix some pinhole leaks and paint it.
It still likes to leak some oil-paying homage to the classic British iron?
Still thinking about frame color.

Took it out for a putt up in the mountain roads. Apparently it handles pretty good for a custom, as I was getting into a groove on my favorite road and I came up on a gaggle of sport bikers. They were going fast on the straights and slowing WAY down for the curves. I didn’t quite have the stones to do a corner pass on a big group.

I had to take the freeway for a few miles. That was about long enough.

[captainawesome]

This thing is insane!

[squarefour]

So a couple of cool updates this weekend, and one not so cool.

Installed the one and only gauge this bike will have, an hour meter. This one has a sweep minute hand, which is will serve as my fuel gauge (1.5 sweeps=start looking for gas). Also handy for knowing when to change the oil. This unit is solely activated and powered by vibration, like a self-winding watch, so zero wires added to the bike. The primary function is it fills up that weird notch in the tank (access to oil filler for BSA OIF, I imagine).

Made some tank badges per Kirk's instructions. Styled after a Suzuki fender decal from the 70s. I used very thick (.125") brass so I could have a nice bevel around the edge. This unfortunately meant there was too much thermal mass for the iron to adhere the etch mask on properly. I compounded this problem by etching for two hours, trying to get a deep pattern. Together these factors gave the badges a slightly ragged, "antiqued" appearance which I decided was what I was going for on purpose. To further the antiqueyness, I did not paint or clearcoat them. They are just epoxied to the tank, hope they stay. Eagle eyes will notice one is upside-down in the picture, luckily it was just held in place with blue tack at that point.

Also adapted some nice McMaster thumbscrews for the brake reservoir.

The not-so-cool:
Found the source of my persistent oil leak after a ride Sunday. There is a small crack in the center case caused by shipping damage. (I had to UPS the engine to the frame builder.) I'm going to try to get my hotshot TIG guy to weld it up in-place, otherwise I have a big teardown imminent.

[squarefour]

The TIGing of the crack went well today, so I am stoked!

[ChoppyGee]

bad-fucking-ass. thats an El Diablo machine for sure.

[squarefour]

bad-fucking-ass. thats an El Diablo machine for sure.

You mean the Mexico run that's, like, tomorrow? I'll shoot for next year!

[squarefour]

More stuff.

Clip-ons. (Yamaha R6 forks are the same diameter.) Comfortable but a bit too racy looking. I'm going to try curved bars to get something like Punkscalar's setup but using the clipons.

VHT aluminum exhaust paint. Turns brown at first and you get all pissed, then the brown goes away and it looks nice.

Cool little machined steering head nut that you can't really see in the picture.

Chain guide roller machined out of wife's rollerblades that you definitely can't see.

The tank knee pads are an experiment out of black paper. Not sure how I'm going to make these for real.

Next up:

Something different with the oil cooler.

Big bore kit for more oomph.