DR 650RS? Any good?

[JamesC]

Ok so I live in the south of Portugal and while visiting a out of town dodgy mechanic who was repairing a friends car I was board and looking about all the overgrown vehicles in the yard (Imagining my friends car there one day lol) and came across a very sorry looking bike, but one I didnt recognise. Im already the owner of a old Super Tenere and a XT600 (and other quad bikes and such toys) and being attracted to the retro look and sad to see a bike in such a state found out after 30mins on google its a DR 650RS, never heard of it!
So my question is............is it worth rescuing it?
Would I be wasting money? I dont even know if it is for sale!
Should I just forget it and have fun with my other bikes?
I would love to hear what peoples thoughts are on these bikes as it seems to me they were not a popular machine.

[Gipper]

Hi James, actually it was quite a popular bike on mainland Europe, but Suzuki never sold as many as Yamaha sold XT's, I had a '93 DR650RSE in the fetching black with purple colour scheme and racked up quite a few KM's on it before it was stolen
They are not a bad bike, but nowhere near as good as the '96 onwards DR650, which has a much better designed and built engine. The RSE has a mini fairing and screen which are ok and they have a 20 litre fuel tank which gives a reasonable range for a stock bike, the stock suspension is too soft and the seat is too hard.
Personally I would put my money into a different project, if you want a bike that will be used more on road, which is what the RSE was designed for, then a multi cylinder bike will be much better over a longer distance, but it really depends on what you are looking for, how much money you want to spend and if that DR is free

[Mezo]

Originally Posted by JamesC

Should I just forget it and have fun with my other bikes

Forget it, parts are hard to find for the older model.

Mezo.

[mollydog]

Agree, give RS DR a big miss.
You are lucky you already own two excellent bike in your old Tenere' and XT600.
Both worth maintaining.

And, as mentioned above, the '96 and onward DR650SE is the only DR650 worth owning or fixing up. It's still in production but has not been sold in EU for maybe 15 years. DR650SE is still sold new in USA, Canada, Australia, NZ and a few other places. Plenty cheap, low km used ones in USA.

An excellent bike with TONS of aftermarket support. The perfect Adventure Travel bike once properly set up! ... But your Yams aren't bad either!

[JamesC]

Thanks for the replies, I did have a feeling it was a no go. just a shame to see some of these older bikes in such a bad way.