My 1993 DR350 Story 2012 - 2025

[Thedktor]

Starting from 2012, after a big rebuild project here what follows in several parts is *some* of what I've been up to on the ol gal.

Well, not so much a story but the bike has been in regular use so here’s lots of pics showing just that. Have to say that I’m very attached to the old DR and enjoy every ride on it, despite having owned much more modern bikes.

Its comfortable, pulls like a train and feels light and easy to ride, what more could you ask for.

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Those pics from the first trail rides back in May. Onto June and helping out at a mountain-bike event near Tidworth:

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So, so, much fun on hilly and varied terrain over quite a few miles, brilliant.

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In July we had another of our Southern-TRF events at a local enduro track, very, very wet but the DR lapped it up.

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Compared to another later in September which was much drier!

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Where the DR proved great fun, and I reckon as quick as a 400-EXC on the smoothish track. But before this in July the old-girl got treated to a new tyre!

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Yay!

Well, when I say “new” I mean “newer” and “free”, but the improvement in grip was quite something compared to the previous, very second-hand, tyre. This was prep for another event - Larkhill horsey thing on Salisbury Plain, in July:

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Note that the wobbly old number-plate/light unit has been removed – makes the bike look so much better.


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Brilliant fun on a wide open grassy track that twisted and turned up and down a shallow valley – a top day. And right in the middle of a huge network of byways:

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Love the ‘Plain, even when having to fight my way along trails to get there:

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Another early-morning start:

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Next pic is from another trip round the Plain, the east side, near Tidworth:

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Some really nice byways round there. Then heading home towards Thruxton Race Track:

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More to come....

[allanmac]

Nice pics thanks for posting them

Cheers Allan

[Brenhden]

Nice to see her in her element :cheer:

[Treadtrader]

Just been out to the shed to check mines still there, twins? :laugh:

[Elle]

lovely looking bike, I have a DR250 & if I could touch the floor, I'd upgrade

[PHILinFRANCE]

Did this on my DR 250 the other day
[video][/video]

[Thedktor]

lovely looking bike, I have a DR250 & if I could touch the floor, I'd upgrade

Um are you referring to Treadtraderr's much shinier one! :cheer:

You must have a later DR250 with the twin-cam head? the Djebel or however its spelt

The earlier DR250 was the same as the 350. Mines not tall compared to a full-on enduro.

[Thedktor]

Just been out to the shed to check mines still there, twins? :laugh:

I am very envious of your sparkly bike

[boatman]

Very good wee bikies spent the afternoon yesterday on mine up at the forest trails around Loch Doon SW Scotland (but it,s more traily treking for me i am not fast like these guys :huh: )

[Thedktor]

Going in the opposite direction to Salisbury Plain, east from my home, eventually ends up here looking down on Chichester, the sea, and the Isle of Wight (just visible on the horizon on the right).

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Hmm, not my usual camera and a bit fuzzy. Anyway this is about a mile from Goodwood, and interestingly the view looks quite similar to another a long way further north on a trail that forks off from the A34 south of Newbury:

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On the horizon is not sea this time but the South Downs which stretch east to where the previous pic was taken from. Continuing along:

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Lovely, long trail, one of my favourites. Continuing west takes you to Combe Gibbet, which you can *just* see on the top of the hill in the distance, centre of the pic:

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.
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See, you really can!

But here it is close:

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Where bizarrely this pheasant came right up to me, tame as you like, odd.

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Won’t last long in the shooting season…

The previous pic gives a nice view of the ridge looking back east, and the curve is natural, not the camera lens. In the same area a crackin slippery chalky hill awaits over the brow here:

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Another second-hand (free!) tyre had to go on recently after a few months use shredded the previous one.

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8mm of mud-ripping tread – a Trelleborg Army Special – a good trail tyre I reckon. That was prep for the next Larkhill horse event on Salisbury Plain, in early Nov. An hour’s ride from home in the most hideous conditions ever - pouring rain and temperatures just above freezing.

Grim and more grim. I was completely frozen but the smooth-running DR remained unfazed by the whole experience making the ride a lot more bearable.

The rain eventually stopped:

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Rainbow yay!


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…and had a great day in the end - the bike was a lot of fun with its punchy pick-up and endless drifts round the damp grassy course. Fantastic.

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Seem to have carried a lot of the grass round with me by the looks:

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Another ride on a much warmer summer’s day has me heading further west on Salisbury Plain to visit Imber Village, open for just a few days each year. This is on the track in, normally out of bounds:

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An adjoining road was named after the American soldiers trained here prior to the D-Day landings, WW2

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And shows the church in the background, the only building untouched by the military. Unlike this:

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And the old manor house:

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The spent-cartridge demonstrates the area’s current function, as does the road out west:

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But home is in the other direction for me where this loose graded beauty awaits:

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(do I need to say “big wheelie”). There are lots of more challenging dirt trails in the area but this one on the perimeter path is entertaining, dropping down and up steeper than it looks:

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And we finish with a vintage-tractor ploughing match on the N edge of the Plain, Westbury-ish. It seems strangely apt:

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Hope you enjoyed.