Adventure Bike Rider Forum

Fancy a "goose" cheers Spud

boboneleg wrote:I was out on mine yesterday, misty at first in the Wylie valley....

Ah! now I understand why the throttle cable shouldn't go there, thats where the map goes!

Brenhden wrote:
Ah! now I understand why the throttle cable shouldn't go there, thats where the map goes!

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Chasing the last few bits and pieces on mine

cheers Spud

Thedktor wrote: Starting is normally fine with mine, with the odd hiccup. Good jetting is essential but ultimately an electric starter is definitely better!

Mine has always been 1st kick or lots of kicks.

Steve

bowber wrote:

Thedktor wrote: Starting is normally fine with mine, with the odd hiccup. Good jetting is essential but ultimately an electric starter is definitely better!

Mine has always been 1st kick or lots of kicks.

Steve

Had a women like that once, I was always black and blue :whistle:

cheers Spud

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I hope it's not too self indulgent if I resurrect this old thread and continue with the story from where we left off. Just to recap, 13 years ago in 2012, I picked up a cheap and very neglected DR350 which needed quite a bit of work shown on another thread: here.

It was soon up and running again, and has had a lot of use since. A LOT of use!

During these 13 years life has, at times, taken some dramatic twists and turns, but the DR has always been there for me, a steady and dependable companion amongst all the turbulence.

Now, I'm not one to get emotionally attached to vehicles, but this old and rusty DR350 certainly means a lot to me. When I ride it my stresses and problems ease away and I always return home feeling refreshed. People often talk about how motorcycling helps their mental well-being, and well, this is exactly it, what I am posting about. My DR, what a bike.



We've picked up the story in 2014 when life was starting to head in a more positive direction from the previous few years where work and personal life had all gone a bit, um, pear-shaped.....

2014 was a new start, things were going ok and all would be fine, yes? Well! - we will see.

Now, I have posted this before in another thread but here it is again in context:
"When life throws some challenges at you what's the best thing to? - buy another bike of course! "
I needed to take the DR out of action for a bit but I also really needed to continue my biking fix each weekend

Now, the only problem was I had very little money, but by chance this Honda XLR-125 popped up locally for about 500-quid, and importantly, needed very little more spent on it.



Quite a fun bike off road, it was so light and low you felt invincible, but..... even for a 125cc this engine from Honda is pretty weedy and performance very modest.

However, it served its purpose well for a couple of months and then got moved on due to .... something more DR relevant - the subject of the next post

March 2014, and following the previous post on the XLR-125, it was replaced by a “new” bike, a DR250, which I think was £750, for a mechanically perfect machine. About half the price of an equivalent 350, pre covid tax of course, ha. The earlier DR250 shares many things with the 350, but the later 250 is a completely different design.

What a lovely bike, electric start (luxury!) and smooth as you like, a real pleasure to ride. Way more power than the XLR-125, no surprise, but definitely not as torquey as the 350. It was ok though, and when required could move along quite briskly with a healthy amount of power at higher revs coupled with the usual nicely-spaced DR 6-spd box.

I had some great rides on the 250 for a few months and then something came along which changed things completely. Well, it was already there actually as that something was my very own DR350 - it was back up and running again after an extensive service.

The 350 posing on Salisbury Plain:

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I had planned to freshen up the top-end on the 350 but with life being complicated it was put on hold. So I just sorted out all the other worn-out bits and put it back into action after a few months off, April 2014.

Back to a kick-starter but its easy enough, and just pulling away was enough to remind me why I love this bike so much. It reall does go, growling angrily through its metal Vortex airbox and just pulls like a crazy-thing through the gears like an old 350 really shouldn’t. A superb engine, and completely stock, apart from the bits letting the air in and the gasses out.....



Damn it was good to be back on the old DR, even with its soft and flexy chassis it is just so much fun to hoon around on. And simply no comparison to the 250 - it might as well be a different make. Though still Suzuki-smooth my 350 has a harsher sound and feel with great gobs more power.

And a reminder to me yet another time that anything less than a well sorted 350/400 just isn’t for me…..

April 2014 and a quick mileage check - around 6,000 miles over the last two years. Now, it may come as no surprise to hear that the miles do rack up as we follow the bike through the next decade, yes decade. Sounds weird that....




One or two times a year I pass a group of tractors out for a run, presumably a charity event - I should find out what it is really! This wasn't the biggest group I've seen but its always nice to see, and luckily I had my camera with me with its zoom lens. May 2014, the bike is running great, and other things in life not going too bad either.