As the title. Ive been looking at some bikes for my touring fun next year,Choosing which bike to take has been alot harder than i expected.

Im down to 2.

Yamaha xtz 660 Tenere.(Round about 95/99 model)

Suzuki DR750 Big. (88/89 model)

My 1st major problem is my inside leg measurments. 30" ive heard the DR is a pretty big bike and maybee not a great choice for the short arse that is myself? Especially if ladened with gear and off road.

Secondly what's it actually like as a bike to take on my first real bit of touring, Is it easy to work on at the side of road etc (Im not to bad when it comes to spannering) So just after some general info.

Id also like to here views on any week points that the bike has,Before i make my final decision, and does anyone know if there's an availability of aftermarket parts for it.ie touring screens and the like?
as it's now nearly a 20 year old bike.

Or just some general info of some one who's running one at the moment and perhaps any pointers to look for when viewing.


Any advice would be much appreciated and warmly welcomed.

Kind Regards and Best Wishes.

Darren.

Die-hard Suzuki fan that I am (I presently own about 20!!), I have to say the DR750 has never had close to the wide regard that the Yamaha XT600/660 has had. You get good and bad bikes in every model, but of the 100+ travelers that have stayed with me over the last 10 years, the XT riders have had the least hard-luck mechanical breakdown stories. Add to that, you are dealing with a bike 20 years old from a marque that has only an average reputation for supporting old models (there are worse!), and I say, of the two, go with the Yamaha.
Now, having offended legions of DR Big riders all over the world, I shall go and make some lunch....

Kind regards

Nigel in NZ

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The mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with . -- 2200 BC Egyptian inscription

I must say the age of the bike was/is a concern for me,There's a few places over here that still do aftermarket parts for them,As ive just found out. But price wise im not sure it's worth putting that kind of money into an older bike. Seeing as it'll be my first touring type bike(Sports bike for the past 5 years or so) im sure id like to try a few out before settling into anything longterm.

My first instinct was the xtz tenere, And from what ive read on here and other boards they seem to have a decent rep,Like you say though there's always acceptions to that rule.And horses for courses and all that.

I must admit though the DR does look the dogs dangly's, Which is probably which drew me to it in the first place,For a bike thats comming on 20 years old.It seems to still look semi modern.

I suppose my next step would be to view/test ride each bike and see whats what.

Thanks for the reply Nigel.

Keep em comming guys Im still undecided and really could do with views from as many peeps as possible.

Thanks again.

Regards. Darren.

Hi Darren,
You don't say what budget you are working with, but I guess it does not run to a new bike.

The problem I have found over the years when buying second-hand is that the right bike that you want may simply never come to the market (right model/condition/mileage etc etc ); in the case of the DR750, there do not seem to be very many on the likes of ebay --- therefore, you are "artificially" restricting yourself straight away by having a short list of what you would prefer to own. It sounds obvious, but when you can buy new, then the approach to what to own is quite different.

Anyway, you could post a similar question into the "which bike" forum and you would get a wider range of answers.

Don't forget that you can tour OK on a sports bike - lots of people do!!

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Dave

unfortunatly my budget doesnt come close to new bike level, I've £2000 for the bike and hopefully i'll get some extra's within that money margin aswell, Perhaps panniers, Ive another £1000 set aside for the like's of GPS and the more expensive things.

Id planned on buying the bike between now and January, And building up a spare parts catalouge between then and when i leave.So this wouldnt effect my overall budget much as, i plan on puting in some overtime at work and using this for the smaller things that i'll need.


Im only planning on beeing away for between 2-4 months and not heading to far from the beaten track, Planing on going from Scotland to Togo, Then in this time span i'll have a bit of time to play inbetween. My overall budget is £10,000,Not including any extra money i can make between now and going away.

Id actually thought picking the bike would be the easy part, Hhmmm, I seem to have been wrong in that department.

Although winters comming so my hopes are high that something will crop up.
In comparison to sports bikes though there doesnt seem to be anywhere near as many second hand enduro/touring type bikes on the market.

Anyway's thanks for the advice Dave.

I'll have a post in the which bike section and see how things go.


Regards. Darren.

Sounds a good plan overall Darren; you have thought about issues at least.

I am not sure that I would spend the ratio of 2000:1000 on the bike Vs the accessories! I would prefer to put more into the bike and use cheaper bits and pieces, including maps in place of GPS.

I reckon you will find a suitable bike between now and January; I suggest you take a look at the KLE500 on here - loads of information about it in threads in here and there are dealers in the UK selling them brand new for about £2800 or thereabouts -- second hand they are not much cheaper, presumably because they are such good value new.

Also, your overall budget sounds like plenty for your travel timeframe (I am assuming you will use cheap accommodation) so maybe you could put a bit more towards buying the bike.

What I was getting at in that last post was to look for a type of bike rather than a particular model; don't limit your choice. Do a search in, say, ebay for "trial bike" and see what is up for sale + check out other places such as Autotrader for every type of bike, not necessarily a trail bike, and keep watching the for sale section in here.
Another guy on here is travelling on a Honda cbf600 for example and there are lots of them on the market; no problem because you don't intend to get off the beaten tracks.

Good luck with your plans,

ps There are more DR650s for sale than there are DR750s, have you noticed?!

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Dave

From someone who knows absolutely nothing about the 750 except having gone round the block on one (disclaimer) I would definety suggest you look at the DR600 or DR650 instead of the 750.

There are oodles of spares available for the 650s and many more 650s for sale. And many more people enthusiastic about them (so lots of info floating about) and I can't really see what you gain by buying the bigger bike. Especially since you're saying you're not the tallest/biggest.

Having owned an old faired XT Tenere for quite some time (at the same time as an old DR600) I would say that (girly speak warning) the Tenere is a very 'docile' bike, compared to the DR and rides very smoothly and comfortably and goes and goes. Its also much lower than the DRs, so you feel quite 'grounded'. And it is very reliable, but not very exciting. Like a drey horse.

I don't think you have to make up your mind between these two. I would buy either - whichever comes on the market, at a good price, in good condition.

I would sell you mine... but I'm still in the process of saying goodbye to it. It has taken about 18 months now, but each time I push it out, it looks at me all lovingly... and then I procrastinate the sale.

Sigh. Maybe next month.

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I had a quick look on biketrader and ebay -- and in the UK, you will definitely get more bang for your buck with a yamaha. (not least because unlike the XTs the newer DRs were not released in the UK)

2002 Model for £1400

Autotrader - YAMAHA XT600, 2002, 52 reg.=

A 2002 XT with less than 5,000 miles. (IMPOSSIBLE ON A DR! : ) for £1,700

2002 YAMAHA XT 600 E BLACK xt600 xt600e - eBay Other Motorcycles, Motorcycles Scooters, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 05-Oct-07 13:36:54 BST)


Compared to a DR 1992 (10 years older!) model for £1200

Autotrader - SUZUKI DR 650cc=


and another 1992 (10 years older) model for £1200

Autotrader - SUZUKI DR650 RSE-M 650cc=

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I am interested to find out a bit more about the DR 750 too, i return from south america in 3 weeks after spending 7 months with an absoloute lemon of a yamaha tenere - great bike unfortunately not mine. There is an 89 DR 750 with 40k kms for sale in my home city. The guy imports them from germany where they are used mostly in summer months and garaged (good germans ). It appears mint condition. Possible to buy for 2 - 2500 dollars.

Question - i would love to have an old single cylinder that would be able to keep up with the 2 cylinder enduros on the boring asphalt bits. My old tenere maxed out at 125kph.With the extra size of the 750 could I feasibly do 145kph ?

Also spares, if I were to travel with it as hoped, maybe dublin to India, are they expensive? obtainable? do suzuki still stock for such an old model or is everything an 'order in' wait 2 weeks?

Any info much appreciated - anybody out there own one? Will search the dr650 threads as i presume much is similar

thanks

I am not really traveller on my DR yet, so far I travel only in Europe - so very much novice, but I got big DR and I ride and maintain it.
I must say that for many many cases when people had dissapointments with Big is down to simply looking after it, it is extremely reliable bike if you know what you doing. If you read stories of travellers it is often amazing how incompetent some bike dealers is when traveller checks in for maintenance or repairs - for example I read that one US dealer was not able to get engine out of frame on Big so filed off some cooling fins when I saw photo I noticed they tried to do it with carbs and airbox still in frame!

However, I would not recommend DR750. I would recommend DR800, and if possible SR43 (post 1992) and some quite simple mods that transform that bike. Few very serious reasons for dr800 vs. 750.
1. SR43 front forks 43 mm vs. 41 on 750 and slightly beefer swingarm
2. First DR bigs (750) had drum brake at rear.
3. SR43 got 300 mm front disk vs. I think 280 on 750.
4. The most important - DR800 has back torque limiter, e.g. device eliminating biggest problem of DR750 - when stopping engine in case piston has not gone over top point it might go back when stopped, getting engagement with starter gear and heavily banging engaged gears on run back. That causing those engage gears to crush each other gradually leading to total deistruction of starter gear. On DR800 it is resolved by back-torque limitter integrated in intermediate gear and differently made starter gears.
So far My DR800 have 70 000 km on the clock (no, I done only fraction of it as I got it second-hand with 60 k on the clock), was maintained horribly except that good oil and regular filter change was done and had not a single problem in engine apart from regular things - valves adjustment, balancer chain adjustment, decompressor seal replacement. Problems
1. Original exhaust collector box rusted to bits.
2. Some rust on the frame (bike was mostly kept outside),
3. Owner never ever adjusted balancers chain as should be done every 12000km (15 min work), never replaced decompressor shaft seal (15 min work) or head cover sealant (that took couple of hours), ran bike for few years on one of 2 spark plugs and used chains for so long that they ate through chain guide on swingarm AND swingarm (took one evening).
I done some work on it to tune it to my needs, and I can confirm that changing stock exhaust to something like Laser Produro completely transforms it - stock exhaust is whooping 12,5 kg of weight and very restrictive. With cut-out top of airfilter, 132.5 main jets and self-adapted cheap exhaust from eBay it runs sweet and 8 kg lighter.

It does 165 kmph, stock supposed to do 167 but I never really tried above 165. 140 is very comfortable speed.

Speedo is terribly accurate, which I can't explain at all (verified with GPS).

Stock tank is a bit smaller on SR43 - 24 liter, but I cover 400 km to reserve in mixed riding no probs.

Few simple cheap mods can further reduce weight making it overall 20 kg lighter than stock without sacrificing any reliability - this bike really built with too much redundancy.

Bike is unbeleivably comfortable, even 2-up, but coming from sport-ish bikes I am bad judge. Way more conmfortable then DR650 thou, guaranteed.

Suspension suprisingly well mannered on paved roads and bike is very easy to ride.

Front brake caliper sucks big time IMO, but then I am coming from sporty bikes, so I replaced caliper on my DR800 with 4-piston narrow caliper from Gilera Nordwest and made adapter plate myself. Did cost me 15 Euro and brakes really good now.

Crashbars I made from cheap damaged eBay item by changing way they fixed on the bike, same for luggage rack. Bike seem to ignore presence of passenger and 3 panniers set and handles-performs just same as 1-up.

Engine a bit lazy and torque is everywhere, but I've been told that with 36mm Mikuni TMs it amazingly less inert to fast throttle action, so it's down to 2 33 mm stock CV carbs. Economy is better stock.

If you travel far and remote - take spare CDI with you and do some job to lose automatic decompressor. This bike have separate ignition coil and in one event I involuntary tested recommendations I found on Inet about bump-starting it with practicaly dead battery and suprisingly it worked just like on some MX bike.

If you keep oil change schedule and other maintenance schedule this bike will not dissapoint you.

XT660 is great bike too, it's just a bit different class - more like DR650 or KLR kind, DR 800 is more like Africa or Supertenere.

My apologies for long post.

Yes, sorry - forgot some other questions.
Parts for DR800 is easily available both from Suzuki dealers and from eBay in Germany and second-hand spares online German sites, and from bike breakers in Europe etc. etc. and I also heard that quite easily you can get spares in LA. But that I can't confirm.
Aftermarket parts is available in Europe easily - anything from sintered brake pads to complete makeovers and high-tech stuff.
Yes, and I am mere 5.6 and since removed that dead weight of stock exhaust from under seat location I feel quite confident on my DR800 despite I can not really touch groun with "flat feet" when i am on DR on my own. With luggage and passenger - different story.

Great information bluesman!!

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Dave

cheers bluesman - exactly what I was looking for - will search out a dr800 post 92 if possible. Its unfortunate about the back torque limiter not being available for the DR750 - if I cant find a dr800 do you know if there is a fix available for this problem on the dr750?

thanks again - super post

f

Thank you for all your good words guys.
I know how difficult to find info on DR800, so please do not hesitate to contact me - I will help as much as I can, but of course there is million things about Big and bike tech that I still learn every day. I have seen on German DR site that it is somehow possible to install back troque limiter from 800 onto 750. I will search more.
I have batch of links I have collected since buying DR and I will post them here - perhaps it will be useful.
German
DR-Big Interessengemeinschaft Deutschland - Home
English
Suzuki Owners Club DB's: Off Road and Dual Purpose
English and German (excellent information from owner, tech stuff)
DR-800 Schrauberei
French
DR MANIA - le site des DR
English - parts list and possible to order parts
suzuki partsmanual fiche dr800 1994 sur partslist
German, excellent info on dual-front brake conversion and tech stuff
Spooky´s Homepage
Great story from the guy how did some mods and did ride it to Mongolia
My Winter Project - DR800 - ADVrider
Hessler Rallye Team - Stephan Hessler owns, race and makes/sell some stuff for big DR.
Hessler Rallye Team - HRT

I went for an xtz 750 s10, Id looked at many bikes over the past couple of months,and had initially bought it to get me through the long dark winter months.But finding it so comfy and it looks easy enough to work on,It's tall YES and HEAVY too!!!!

But Out of all the bikes ive owned in the past ( s-10 beeing one of the oldest on an M plate) Ive never had sooo much fun with my clothes on at minus 1 in the winter. .

Only concern is ive read that the frames a bit weedy and needs moded abit if the bikes going to be taken of road.

Anyway's just thought id conclude what my choice was (Sorry i know it's a yamaha)


Thanks again for all the info.Darren