- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
I picked up another dual-sport bike over the weekend and I'm quite excited about it. I have really regretted selling the yellow '05 DR650 over the winter, but after getting laid-off, it was the smart thing to do. I've been back to work for about 6 weeks now and the itch to get another bike was getting stronger as the work days went by.
My riding preference has been changing since I owned my DRZ, I've been getting into Adventure riding and needed the ideal bike for doing such. I had been thinking about a few different bikes; An older KTM 640 Adventure, Honda XR650R and Honda XR650L. Each bike has its strengths and weaknesses and depending on what you want, one of those bikes should do the job.
After outfitting my old DR650 with a Corbin seat, larger gas tank, skid plate, etc, etc, it killed me to sell it at book value. I decided if I was going to buy another bike, I wanted to buy one that was already outfitted for Adventure riding, so I didn't have that expense again. So I knew what I wanted and how I wanted it to be put together.
I didn't mind my DR650, but was really interested in owning a KTM Adventure... IMO that's the ideal Adventure bike! Almost an 8 gallon tank, large fairing, decent sized seat and all the quality parts KTM's are put together with. I looked at a couple and was pretty excited about them, but ended up finding something different... I found a '07 DR650 on ADVRider.com that was put together quite well. Here's the list of mods-
- FMF pipe and Q2 muffler
- Dynojet kit with carb screws, extended fuel screw
- Keintech choke conversion
- Rack, chain rollers, Emgo handguards, UFO fender, alum. skid plate
- Keintech front and rear springs, Superbrace fork brace, Seal Savers
- Koubalink lowered suspension
- Corbin seat
- Aqualine Safari 32 liter tank (actual capacity almost 9 gallons)
- Slipstreamer Spitfire S06 windscreen
- Almost new Avon Gripsters
It's setup for a bit more road riding than I'm looking to do, but I think I will keep the road tires and windscreen for those big pavement rides. It does need some minor mods to make it mine, knobbies, different bars with a taller rise, gear it down for dirt, raise the suspension back up, etc. The carb mods and exhaust make a big difference, it runs much better than my stock-engine'd '05 DR650. It gets up to 80 MPH effortlessly and still has power to pass at that point.
The gas tank is the first thing people see, it's massive! It holds just over 8 gallons, meaning I will have around 400 miles of riding range!
Pics don't do justice to the size of the tank, but the good thing is that the width of the tank also acts as a fairing, keeping wind off the rider. Speaking of fairings, the windscreen is a bit odd looking on a 'dirtbike', but it's really nice at freeway speeds. It keeps the wind off my body, reducing fatigue over long rides. It will get pulled off for big dirt rides, but is a nice option.
Anywho, here's pics of the DR Supertanker...
My riding preference has been changing since I owned my DRZ, I've been getting into Adventure riding and needed the ideal bike for doing such. I had been thinking about a few different bikes; An older KTM 640 Adventure, Honda XR650R and Honda XR650L. Each bike has its strengths and weaknesses and depending on what you want, one of those bikes should do the job.
After outfitting my old DR650 with a Corbin seat, larger gas tank, skid plate, etc, etc, it killed me to sell it at book value. I decided if I was going to buy another bike, I wanted to buy one that was already outfitted for Adventure riding, so I didn't have that expense again. So I knew what I wanted and how I wanted it to be put together.
I didn't mind my DR650, but was really interested in owning a KTM Adventure... IMO that's the ideal Adventure bike! Almost an 8 gallon tank, large fairing, decent sized seat and all the quality parts KTM's are put together with. I looked at a couple and was pretty excited about them, but ended up finding something different... I found a '07 DR650 on ADVRider.com that was put together quite well. Here's the list of mods-
- FMF pipe and Q2 muffler
- Dynojet kit with carb screws, extended fuel screw
- Keintech choke conversion
- Rack, chain rollers, Emgo handguards, UFO fender, alum. skid plate
- Keintech front and rear springs, Superbrace fork brace, Seal Savers
- Koubalink lowered suspension
- Corbin seat
- Aqualine Safari 32 liter tank (actual capacity almost 9 gallons)
- Slipstreamer Spitfire S06 windscreen
- Almost new Avon Gripsters
It's setup for a bit more road riding than I'm looking to do, but I think I will keep the road tires and windscreen for those big pavement rides. It does need some minor mods to make it mine, knobbies, different bars with a taller rise, gear it down for dirt, raise the suspension back up, etc. The carb mods and exhaust make a big difference, it runs much better than my stock-engine'd '05 DR650. It gets up to 80 MPH effortlessly and still has power to pass at that point.
The gas tank is the first thing people see, it's massive! It holds just over 8 gallons, meaning I will have around 400 miles of riding range!
Pics don't do justice to the size of the tank, but the good thing is that the width of the tank also acts as a fairing, keeping wind off the rider. Speaking of fairings, the windscreen is a bit odd looking on a 'dirtbike', but it's really nice at freeway speeds. It keeps the wind off my body, reducing fatigue over long rides. It will get pulled off for big dirt rides, but is a nice option. Anywho, here's pics of the DR Supertanker...
