DRZ 400 S (modded) or Dakar
 

Hi, First post here. My brother and I are taking a long trip through the US, Canada, Europe, Middle east, and across north africa. We hope to do a lot of off road.

I currently have a modded DRZ 400 (FCR Carb, Big Gas Tank, all the protection mods, corbin seat, new pipe, etc. No internal engine mods). Runs great, easy to work on, great off road. Can carry what I want. But vibes a lot at more than 60 mph.

I think I can swing buying a used BMW Dakar 650. But no experience with them. Will this be a better bike for the trip? Doesn't look that off-road capable, even though it's more so than the regular 650. It also doesn't have any bigger fuel tank, still only has five gears, and only 9 more HP than my modded DRZ. To me the main selling point is that it looks more comfortable.

Anyone care to weigh in to help me make this decision?

thanks!

n

Comfort and offroad don't really mix mate. You'll have to find out where you want to make the compromise. The Dakar is a travel buddy that will take you everywhere in comfort and warmth while having a blast and in the right hands can handle itself offroad. Providing it's still a road of some sort. Fire trails are probably the last bastion which it will handle well, but you won't break any records. Too heavy for horse and single trails. It'll be tough going in the sand, but that goes for most adventure bikes.

That's where the DRZ will shine. I've got both but haven't taken the DRZ (E) out yet, but want to do tight trails on it. You can kit it out for adventure rides easily.

Check out my blog (click on the signature) for Dakar mods. Some are must, some are not. Just took it to southern South America. Had a blast in Ruta 40 (dirt) and Bolivia. Although my luggage setup was too heavy for these conditions. I'm going soft now. Luggage that is.

DRZ or Dackar
 

I took a friend of mine along for a 10000 miles in central america and his DRZ did really well on and off road, now the dackar will be better for the HWY but for the trip you are planning HWY will not be the priority. You could carry a spare set of sproket while doing HWY and change for the rough stuff, learning and equiping a use 650 doesn't seems to be the best choice to me.

Good luck

Thanks
 

Thanks for the input. Nice website and photos by the way!

Yes, it is not comfortable at speed, but you don't have to go fast. What bike your brother takes? I nicknamed my DRZ400S "Pain of ass". ;) If you know it's limitations then it is OK and on rough stuff you'll be glad you have smaller bike.

However, one thing is that are you sure you are off-roading "a lot"? I have noticed tendency that even if I would like to drive smallest tracks when travelling abroad, I often don't. Reasons are that there are usually no detailed maps available or I don't have them or as I'm usually alone I don't want to take too big risks in remote areas or I'm just "tired" and keep away from rough stuff. This is a bit different to the driving I like to do at home.


Ahto

Hi there, I'm new too.


I'm thankful for this thread as I'm also planning to travel to around the whole of Europe on my DRZ-400sm (2007). My target is to take as many of the smaller roads and really take my time around the continent (I hope to go no more than 40mph whenever I can help it). Can someone confirm if the DRZ would do the job as I've got an 'experienced' Harley driver telling me I need something bigger?

I haven't started modding it yet like griffnova here so I'd like to ask him and any other owners a question - how long will the big gas tank last (I've read it's about 13 litres?) I'm looking to buy one myself.

Following on from what Rebaseonu has said about going off-road, I certainly do plan to go offroad on mine. With a bigger tank, would it be worth carrying a jerrycan still?

Thanks again for reading guys.

You can basically drive DRZ anywhere bigger bike goes. People go around the world on mopeds and bicycles, so why can't we on DRZ? It is just that driving fast is not comfortable. Slow down, stop now and then, and you are fine.

I have Aqualine 28l tank, it gives ~600 km range. In most of Europe something like 17l will perhaps be more practical. BTW, if my 28l tank is full then the bike is much more stable at speed, with small stock tank wind blast from big lorry may really cause some stability problems, but with big tank it is much more solid. ;)

About off-road. What is off-road? I think people have different ideas when they say they like to go off-road. For some, gravel is also off-road. When I say off-road I mean rough 4x4 tracks, something like that:

http://www.rebaseonu.net/uploads/mototrip/p1000611.jpg

And some really mean off-road is single-track or no track at all.

That’s good point what is offroad to you and how big part of the trip will be offroad? 1%, 2%, 5%?
The 650 uses 20% less petrol, it’s more comfortable, carries luggage better and I would also say that it’s more likely that it will last the trip without problems (other people will tell you the opposite).

The DRZ is better for hardcore offroad, but do you need it? The 650GS is pretty good, took this picture of a friend last year:

http://www.actiontouring.com/pic/t1.jpg

http://www.actiontouring.com/pic/t2.jpg

http://www.actiontouring.com/pic/t3.jpg

http://www.actiontouring.com/pic/t4.jpg

But you have a DRZ now, and if you are satisfied with it that’s a very strong argument. For a test you can run 1000 km two days in a row and see…

Exactly! And even if you imagine doing a lot of hardcore off-road, it may turn out otherwise on different reasons.

These 4 were all downhill, lets now see how he went back up! :hammer:

Well, that is somehting I really would like to avoid on DRZ S as much as possible. My longest day so far with 14/44 gearing has been 800+ km in EU transit and that was really memorable. :cursing:

People who are aiming to ride long distances per day should not consider DRZ, for sure.

But biggest issue with high speed, besides pain in the ass, is that going fast on highway with DRZ S is just plain dangerous, because of high center of gravity and relative light weight of the bike. It is not stable. I find 75 km/h to be reasonable. But that is of course my personal opinion.

Why should he go back up? Did he forget something?
We are focused, we don’t drive in circles :cool4:

A DRZ will do anything you ask of it off-road. One finished the Dakar Rally this year. They are bloody good trail bikes but without the fragility of more modern enduro bikes. On tarmac however, not that great. If you are happy to toddle along at 60mph with an odd blast up to 80 to overtake then it'll be fine. Fuel consumption isn't that great and the seat will have you doing the cheek-to-cheek shuffle pretty quickly. Best bet, do a trial run for a few days and see how you get on.

We went to South America with the same view of taking in as much off road as possible. How much did we end up doing? Maybe 10%, and only dirt roads good enough for truck. Ruta 40 (parts off), Carreterra and Bolivian Altiplano National Park. Reality is that for the real off road there is never enough time, because on anything more challenging than than a 4WD track, you might only cover 200km when camping.

The Dakar can certainly do. This is a picture of a 66kg girl going up a rocky/ rutty trail.

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...r/100_6892.jpg

It is going up, but you can never get the grade on the photo. A husky struggled with this one.

Drz400
 

Thanks for all the responses. Definitely food for thought... I think I'm leaning toward the DRZ at the moment (though I'm going to look at a dakar tomorrow).

The reason is that I already have it, know it, and know how to work on it. Plus, by taking what I have, I can save the money I'd spend on the dakar, and use it for the trip. I've done all the fixes and upgrades to make it adventure-worthy (Loctite Fixes, MCCT, Main Nut Fix, etc.) I've added case protection and bash guards and rad guards.

Really, the only drawback I see is comfort. Ouch. I DO have the corbin saddle, which is more comfortable and wider (and lower) than the stock saddle. Any input from anyone on what specifically makes the bike uncomfortable? I added a windscreen to keep the wind off my chest on road.

I have the FCR carb and FMF full system Q pipe, so going 65/70mph isn't really a problem. I've done 350 mile days, mostly on highway. I could do more, as long as I could take breaks. I also am deciding between the IMS 4 gal (17l) and Clarke 3.9 gal tanks. I think I'm going to go with the IMS because it carries the fuel lower, and provides better radiator protection.

As for WHAT we'll be doing. Well, we say we want to do 'a lot' of 'off road', and those are good observations about what 'off road' is. We are seeking to do as much difficult 4x4 track as we can. Like you showed in the pic. Of course we will be doing highways sometimes, but we are planning our route around smaller roads.

I know the dakar can handle it, i'm just not convinced that the gain in comfort is worth the extra cash, when I could use that cash to travel farther/longer, and possibly buy a new camera :-)

Here's a pic of the bike (before new headpipe and heatshield)
http://gallery.mac.com/nishgriff/100...9_4268/web.jpg

Awesome looking bike. :thumbup1::thumbup1:

Sounds like you know where you are taking it. Thing is if you don't that if you do a lot of off-road on a trip more applicable to this site rather than ADVrider and compare it to your normal 3 day rides, you have to really plan it. Often people give themselves a certain amount of months and an A and B and those are usually from one end to a continent to another. And in that time you ofter spend ages on reatively short sections of open dirt roads (compared to the overall distance) and don't do enough miles and thus end up on the paved roads. 4WD tracks take a lot of planning to get anywhere and usually result in a much shorter trip.

If you want to go hard take nothing and use hotels. That way you can ride more of the day. Finding a camp spot in the dark sucks big time and can easily end you up in a lot of trouble when you find yourself in someones garden the next morning.
If you don't camp you will probably find more challenging terrain in your planning stage than if you don't. Try and find the countries state forrest maps.

In my area a lot of National parks are off limits, and the dirt roads are usually farm roads and fire trails. I'm just coming into the single trail type of riding, and in my area I struggle to find places for that. So if I'm going long distance, I'd take the comfortable bike because it flies on that stuff. But only because I have one. Probably won't if I'd only have the DRZ.

Comfort and stock seat seem to be problem only when going on flat paved roads at speed. Not too bad when going on gravel or just on bad potholed road, where your a** will get some massage.

Main contributors to comfort issue at high speed in my view are vibration at high revs, missing fairing, seat, stability (due to high center of gravity and relative light weight) -- these combined will force you to drive in quite cramped position that is very tiring and dangerous.

In practice I think this will not work very well. Many nice 4x4 routes worth riding go to less populated places where you need to have some camping gear with you to enjoy the place and remoteness. If you only stay in hotels you need to be sure that certain leg is ridable in a day and every day need to push it to the hotel and curse it. So your freedom you gained without taking much luggage is lost right here with your big schedule and limited day range. But yes, this is another choice, although probably more suitable for a 2 week holiday in Namibia with friends than for longer overland trip. ;)

You just summarized what I was trying to say. Camping takes up much more time, and restricts you to daylight but more offroadability. Hotels means more time to ride on the dirt roads when you find them, but needs heaps of planning to find accomodation where you will be all worn out from stressing and riding hard to get there. This is why I reckon that riding a lot of dirt (+30%) on a big trip is near impossible. IF you want to cover a lot of ground.

Haven't seen a ride report that shows otherwise.

I agree but again it depends on the definition of offroad.
My favorite routes usually take 2-7 days through isolated places. Beds, water, food and petrol are rarely available.
It might be hard to know how far you can get in a day, numerous things can slow you down (mud, rivers, accidents, navigation, punctures ++).

Freedom is heavy!

350 km since last petrol station, a few km to the next but they had no petrol. 190 kms later we found petrol. No hotel along the route,
http://www.actiontouring.com/pic/fideles.jpg

Again, all good input... We don't have a set travel time, and are leaving it open-ended. We are going to plan the route to some extent by looking for areas/things we want to see. We want to camp often. If we can find the maps we will do more off-road. We're both adventuresome, explorative people, and don't mind going where we feel like going.

Our general route is from Colorado to Halifax Nova Scotia, freighter to Southhampton England, then through France, Germany, Slovakia, and down through southestern Europe. We'd love to find some 4x4 roads in Hungary, Bulgary, Romania. Then we're looking at Turkey to Georgia, Armenia, and Iran. We have a contact in Iraq, but not sure whether we'd go in there or not.
Then Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and from there either a northern route across africa, or head south through cameroon... In any case, we're looking at finding less populated areas, small villages, off the beaten track type places where there aren't highways. We've both been to mexico, indonesia, thailand and been to places where you had to take either smaller roads through populated/rural areas, no highways, or dirt tracks.

I remember being on a scooter in Lombok, and having to go around a mountain range through some muddy roads because another road was washed out. Mud and scooters don't mix... Anyway, that's they type of places we're looking to go. We know we'll have to connect with other roads, but will avoid autobahn/major highways 95% of the time.

Great picture, where is that? those are the types of places we want to go...

The picture is from the Djanet-Tamanrasset route, a short while before Ideles (Algeria). There are a few more here: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...sset-2-a-27343

But Algeria (and most of North Africa) is not easy this days because a guide is compulsory in Libya and Algeria. More info about this on the Hubb.

drz400
 

I ride arround Algeria with my old BMW900s and got lost close to Saida and Mascara, great riding but make sure to carry water and extra fuel . I hope that during my RTW Algeria will be open to us traveller ( without guide).

Awesome picture.

I think you should try and gear up you DRZ for a weekend and take it onto some really rough stuff with all the gear to see how it performs. It has an ali subframe, so when distance comes into play, water and fuel take priority over anything else. Need to find some room for food as well. Sounds like a light sleeping bag in comb with a bivi bag and 3 pairs of undies type of trip.

This bloke is doing a fair trip on a Husky. May give you some ideas. He doesn't seem to be camping though.

Three Months on a Husky TE610 - ADVrider

If you buy a BMW, you might want to carry extra forks in case this happens:


BMW Recovery Team (BMW Owners cover your eyes) - Page 5 - Stromtrooper.com

Not too well informed I gather.....

Check your F650GS or Dakar Forks - ADVrider

Personally, I think he should stick with the Suzi; not 'cause the forks on old BMW's might turn to mush, but because he already owns it and knows it--the BMW thread is only to throw gasoline on the fire :funmeteryes:

Yes Algeria is one of the best! I’ll go back as soon as things normalize.
http://www.actiontouring.com/pic/alg_speed.jpg

Going with a BMW900S must have been hard from time to time. When was it? Here is a video from Algeria, 1986. I think it’s great! YouTube - riding motorcycle to CAMEROON - per Motorrad bis KAMERUN

It’s not bad; we managed almost two pages before the BMW-bashing started.

Drz400
 

You are right on this one , it was a handfull but the BMW was my first big bike so I didn't know better , I left from France and went across Africa with it and back without any major issue .But off road the beast was riding me. It was almost 20 year ago ,ignorance is bless ,I think sometime we know too much and worry way more than necessary.

There is not a right or wrong, it’s whatever works for ya.

I have had both the BMW and DRZ.

I personally am leaning to smaller and slower bikes. I even question a 400 at times. When you see bigger bikes you normally see foreigners or you’re in a developed country. The DRZ can comfortably go 60mph, do you really need a bike that can go faster? Are you on a timeline, if not why go faster in areas that you are not familiar with in 3rd world?

Your DRZ is worth what $3k ish. How much would a modded BMW set you back? Which is cheaper to repair, insure, etc? DRZ has 2 dealers as well which may help at times but very little. This money is what gets you down the rode. Chris Scott said something along the lines of distance = gas and time = water. I say money = both.

I find that the DRZ is a lot easier to work on as well. It’s just a simpler bike plan and simple.

Travelers are stereotyped, we all are and we all do it at times. It’s presumed the couple riding a bike has less money than the couple on motorcycles and less than couple pulling up in their 4x4. Which looks like you have money the dirt bike or a BMW?

Either bike will work and it is all irrelevant. Only thing that maters, is what works for you and you are the only one that can decide that.

Wish you the best and GL with your decision.
EW

On that note, does anyone know somewhere in the UK that would meet the rough requirements you're suggesting? Somewhere in Scotland, Ireland or Wales perhaps?

Not sure mate. You'd wanna find some heavily rutted and corrugated dirt roads and run those for 500km at 80-100kph. Don't think there is much of that in Northwestern Europe. May have to jump on the ferry to Spain. Nice mid week trip that.

Thanks for the input people. I have found a few nice Dakars in the $5800-$6600 range, complete with racks/panniers. They handle WAY different than the DRZ, probably not as good in serious dirt, but far more comfortable.

I thought a lot about it, and no matter what, we're going to spend at least 70% of our time on road getting to dirt areas. I'm leaning toward the Dakar simply for that. We're not going to be doing 'trailriding' like you might do for a weekend here in Colorado. We're going to be travelling for a long distance, and some of that distance will be on fire/gravel roads, some of it on 4x4 tracks, and a very small amount on something more difficult.

The thought of going so far on the DRZ after riding it several thousand miles makes my ass hurt, even with an aftermarket saddle. I love the bike, it handles great, and is wonderful for what I do off road. But pretty much anything I do you can do on the Dakar (I'm not a hardcore trail rider).

Also, with the airbox, exhaust, and carb mods, the DRZ isn't quite as good on gas as it used to be. Maybe because it's WAY more fun to twist that throttle now. Great for fun around town, or in the mountains, but not great for a long trip.

So with that in mind, anyone (tmotten) got any tips on what to look for in a Dakar with 12-18k miles on it? What are the parts of the Dakar that wear out fastest or fail most often? Any benefit to replacing bars? And what's with the flimsy handguards? Any problems in replacing with acerbis guards? How's the electrical system? Easy to wire in a socket?

TMotten, I see you have a DRZ now, what have you done with it? Just interested :-)

Exactly the conclusion so many of us draw. It's unfortunate if you really want to go hard offroad, but doesn't mean it won't be an adventure regardless.

What year are the Dakar's your looking at? You want one with the new forks.

There is a Dakar thread on Advrider at the moment that asked me a similar question. Bit more on mods though.

ADVrider - View Single Post - The 650 Dakar Thread

I would personally go with soft luggage now. A lot lighter means you can ride a lot more sporty on the dirt. Hard luggage is rigid which can only cause fatigue failures. I've had the little rear bracket break due to that.
Handle bars are crap, but most bikes have that problem. Reason is their handling of the heated grip wires. You want heated grips by the way. But they are available everywhere.
The hand guards are useless. Really just weather guards. Definately get rid of them or bring heaps of levers.

Things that go are:

waterpump (replace before you leave to know how to change. Mine lasted 18k km.)
SHB (lube them every 10k km and they'll be fine though. Most don't lube them at all.)
rear suspension bearings (see SHB)
fork seals (if the stanchions are pitted, rechrome and fit neoprene fork gaiters. I'm still on the originals.)

and that's about it I think. On mine only the aftermarket shock and waterpump went. Shock was due to volcanic ash getting past the seal at Chaiten in Chile.
I've modded the crap out of it, so click on my blog and find the pages about it. If you need help beyond that PM me.

So far I've only done protective mods on the DRZ. B&B bashplate, Force rad guard, cheapo hand guards (untill they brake), TT case savers. re-route vent hoses, removed side stand switch, ground gear selectors edges off, lubed SHB and swingarm bearings. Still need to make some mirrors and indicators.
It's only really for trail riding though.

I'm looking at a really nice '02 with 18k miles. Mint, with many TT aftermarket accessories. But still with stock bars and handguards.

Also a nice '05 with 12k miles. Mostly stock.

The 02 is cheap enough I could probably replace the forks if PO hasn't already done it. WIll check on SHB/fork seals. Both owners claim to have had recent BMW service.

Any benefit to having the newer engine? I'm leaning toward the '02 because with the money I save on it I can do some upgrades. It already has all the protection (bashguard, crash bars, fairing protection) and fog lights. Plus racks.

I'm leaning to hard cases for security.

Also, what's the deal with the exhaust mod where you replace one of cans with storage? Can you just plug it and remove/drill the cat?

I love my DRZ, fun bike. But I'm more into the long distance thing at the moment. So I'm selling my DRZ. Sad to see her go. But you can always buy a new DRZ. Next time I'll get an SM. Definately recommend the FCR carb (properly jetted) with the 3x3 plus full exhaust. It really adds HP and throttle response. I'd say that bike is the most fun bike i've ever been on. But not great on long distances...

Tyres make a huge difference with the weight of the F650. I ran Pirelli MT60's which were great on sand but lethal on wet tarmac (and were never going to wear out). The usual TCK's etc. work, just don't even try dirt with the knobbed-up road tyres a lot of owners fit.

You'll need to carry a water pump kit and know how to use it IMHO. If the oil turns chocolate brown it needs sorting same day or you'll risk cooking the head. I don't want to talk about how I know, lets just say I was close (like 50 miles) to taking up Desert hiking and havn't bought a watercooled bike or a BMW since :thumbdown:

Personally, I'd stick to the DRZ and work on the seat.

Andy

Hey Griff, I hate to throw a wrench in the spokes!
Have you thought about a DR650?
Comfortable ,highway or dirt.
Good range with aftermarket tank.
Simple
Reliable
No water pump , radiator
Cheap

JMO

The later versions are definately better than the earlier versions. Keeping in mind that FI was relatively new on DS bikes back than. I think only BM really did them as a rule. The earlier ones has stalling and surging issues. Search for that in the faq.f650.com section of the chain gang.

Also, sounds like the owners haven't serviced their own bike. To me this is a negative. There is no way the bearings would have been lubed.... ever, unless it's done by themselves. Others might correct me, but I don't see how it would take me all day to service the bike and they could do it in a few hours (based on the charged cost).
It's definately a bike you want to ALL your own work on. There is really no excuse for not to as F650.com has all the info you'll ever need including videos on DVD.

For a second hander change all the wearable parts before you leave. So definately the waterpump. When you do it yourself, clean out your bleedhole, and you oil shouldn't turn to a mochachino.

I'm going to be looking into the exhaust when I'm getting my bike back.

You going for hard luggage makes me think you're abandoning the initial requirement for riding a lot of dirt. Here in Australia is seems like there is a big devide between people hitting the outback with soft luggage and road riders with hard luggage. Could be just the piccies I'm seeing though, but that's what I reckon myself.
Security is really personal. Depends what you bring, and you could always go harf hard harf soft. I'll be going soft panniers and soft dry bag plus a little pelican right at the back for electricals etc. Besides camping gear everything could get nicked without me caring as much. The dry bag could easily be put inside a pacsafe.
We hardly ever left our bike out of our sight. Must be paranoia, but we had full hard luggage.

The DR seems to be a good bike. Needs mods as well, and in the end of the day is an old design that will depreciate. Plus is probably because it's simple less goes wrong, but looking after your bike means itll look after you with all bikes. Not any more show stoppers on the DR than the F. They are cheaper though.

There is no right or wrong answer to any bike. It's what you want out of it and feel most comfortable with.

I would definately do the bearings. If they are bad and have not been lubed, is it a simple replacement? Or could there be more damage? Both with steering head and swingarm. Definately will check the waterpump, and carry a spare.

We have always had hard luggage in mind. I guess I never really considered soft. The more I've thought about it, the type of riding we'll be doing isn't what people would call 'hardcore', but is as much off road as possible. Security is pretty important, and I like the thought of locking the hard panniers. I'll go with a top duffel though, not hard case.


I looked at the DR. It's a great bike, but if I'm leaving the DRZ, I'm going to a bmw or such-like, rather than to another suzuki dirt-oriented thumper. Also, I'm really interested in FI. After finally getting the FCR on my DRZ jetted properly, I don't want to have to change it when I change altitude, or feel the performance loss/change. I have it jetted to 5500ft, and when I ride to 9-10k it really doesn't do as well. FI would solve that...

So... I'll let you know what I find. Thanks again for all the input. Where are you now? Travelling or home?

Can I add my 2 pence? I know you have been looking at the bmw dakar, which my friend is riding with me RTW and is great on and offroad. Maybe if you want to do more offroad but want the comfort why not look at the KTM 640 adv. Easily the best of both worlds, I ride a 990 adv s and its a heavey beast but I can easily take it anywhere, road the 640 and its just a lighter version.

My 2 pence worth.
1. Go with the bike you've got. I made a huge mistake before my big trip. Sold my Honda (Af Twin) and bought a Beemer (R100gs). I believed the marketing hype. Did meet lots of nice people though, who helped when it broke down.

2. Go on the DRZ. I've done lots of trips on mine and they do everything. As suggested, sort the seat.

3. Don't drive 60mph or more if you want to see the sights, meet the people. If you have little time, aim to travel less distances or fly there.

4. You're v. unlikely to have any mechanic problems on a DRZ.

Enjoy
Chris

It's not as easy as changing a tyre. Plenty of info on it though. Cant check the pump though. You either change it or you don't.

You'll love FI. I know I did. Now that I have a bike with a carby it feels like Flinstones technology. Hate having to fiddle with it. With FI you turn the key on, you go, turn it off, and walk away.

Looked at the 640 which was my first choice ,but the Mrs couldn't touch the ground so that was the end of that. Glad she couldn't in the end, because the vibes and carby etc would drive me nuts. Would be a better dirt rider on it though. Amazing to see what some of the other guys I know can do on it. But they don't use it for touring though.

Which ever choise you make, don't do what I did and think that a long Saturday's ride should be enough to test it out. Take yourself a week and leave enough time to make changes. But than again, maybe you're not as much of a princes as I am that likes to have everything ideal. :rolleyes2:

We've been back for a few weeks now. Still having trouble to adjust. But I guess you could gather that from my activity on here. Made the mistake to leave the gear on the bike which is now shipped via Hamburg instead of Hong Kong which was the initial route which it missed.

What did you do for a seat? I bought a corbin, and honestly, it vibrates more than the stocker, though I definately fit better on it. I know there's another company that makes a more KLR-like seat, but I can't seem to find it.

I've had the DRZ for a while now, and I really like it. No problems. Change oil and filters. Put on all the guards, and did the loctite fixes and mcct. Don't have to worry about anything really.

I haven't. Because I mostly ride offroad, I stand.
Chris

Seems to me everyone? wants to travel at warp speed.....take the DRZ, slow down and take the chance to smell the roses, 'great bikes are small and small bikes are great'. With all the minimilist gear around (camping etc) I can pack the TTR for weekends away or weeks away and likely months away. The difference between the two is a mindset. If you had to abandon the bike (heaven forbid) halfway through the journey what would you rather leave behind.

Bought the Dakar
 

Thanks everyone (especially Taco) for your input. I decided to sell the DRZ and go with the Dakar, and I'm happy I did. I put about 800 miles on the thing the last two days and I would have been hard-pressed to do that on th DRZ. That's not how I wan to do this trip, but it's nice to be able to :-)

Haven't taken it off road too much yet, but it's obviously bigger and heavier than the DRZ, so I anticipate it being much different. If you're interested, I got an '02, came with BMW cases (POS), and some TT bling. I have done some work on it since I got it. Here's a pic after mods and paint

http://gallery.mac.com/nishgriff/100...12399547590001

Noice...... :thumbup1:

Amazing how much more clearance that TT centre stand over the SW Motech one. Makes me feel like I've got the wrong one. Than again, it's good at surviving rocks flying at it. :rolleyes2:

The stand is almost TOO high, takes quite an effort to get it up on the stand when loaded. But makes working on the bike very easy, so not complaining.

Here's a pic of us getting stranded in a small town in colorado yesterday in a major snowstorm. My bro rode from California on his 800, we met in southern colorado, and 40 miles before Denver (where we were headed) we got absolutely blinded by fog and snow, could barely see my instrument cluster. Was sure we were gonna get run over by a semi, so we got off the highway and found some random small town with ONE pub. They took us in, got us food, and stored our bikes for us til the snow melts (a few days). A friend came and drove us the rest of the way.
http://gallery.mac.com/nishgriff/100...12399849640001

The bike handled well in the snow on TKC80's. The BMW cases actually were waterproof, heated grips (wired on Pro taper bars with acerbis guards) were nice. Bike handles nice on highway, and on dirt/gravel roads is a dream. It sits significantly higher than my brother's 800 (with lower seat). And my bike really is buffetted by wind way more than the 800. I'm thinking it's the weight difference.

Here's a 'before' pic. I had a friend paint it in exchange for photography. The skid plate is coated with truck bedliner, and the fairing panels are painted, then sealed with something called 'clear bra' which is supposed to be the most durable stuff out there, no scratching or dinging.

Oh yeah, the bike runs smoother, and shifts smoother running 20W50 oil as opposed to 10w40. No problems starting or anything, even in the cold. I like running heavier oil, makes me feel like I'm protecting the bike better.

http://gallery.mac.com/nishgriff/100...12399859070001

If you have early type of front forks then keep your eye on axle mounts. There have been some cases of mounts breaking off the tubes during riding. See this for more info.

I have the old style ones, and am aware of the issue, thanks, will inspect there regularly...

Clean looking Dakar! I rode both bikes: did rtw on the DRZ, and spent a week on the 650. Both are fine machines, and as many pointed out, the 650 is not as off-roadable. The DRZ400 - with aluminum handle bars and a 41T rear sprocket, vibes were a non-issue, could go 70mph all day long, did a few 600 mile days. Having said that, you won't see a whole lot at that pace. If you intend to ride mostly on tarmac, the 650 is better. For anyone using the DRZ for long distance: red Loctite on the countershaft sprocket helps! (don't ask me how I know). Perhaps another advantage of the DRZ is that your tires will last longer, since its a lighter bike (I put 12k on Avon Distanzias and there was still some meat left when I replaced them - they could have lasted probably around 15k). Quite frankly, I think you cannot go wrong with either bike! Have fun!

What exactly happened to your bike? Did you use lock washer there as required (and new one each time you change sprocket, otherwise if may come loose)? I see this loctite fix is common in TT forum but so far I'm not understanding why it is needed unless you have ruined splines of your shaft by using some poorly made out of tolerance sprockets that have too loose fit.

Which front screen do you have on that and how effective is it?