What year are these bikes? How many miles total? And what was the miles
on the bikes when Bedhist bought the two bikes? And what is the history of these bikes before Bedhist got hold of them? My guess is they were BOTH old boilers.

Pretty obvious Bedhist has no clue how to adjust a chain. And what chain is he running? And what sprockets? Cheap aftermarket crap makes a BIG difference here. No chain thrashing here or on my or any DR's I've ever heard about. Sounds like some newbie running a worn out and mis-adjusted chain.

We've had three DR650 test bikes, one in '96, another in '02 and yet another in '05. I have an '06, which I paid for with my own money. We still have the '96. I had the '05 tester for 6 months, we put 5000 very hard miles on this bike. Not one problem or any sign of wear. Lots of very tough dirt use, two sets of tires burned through by some very unforgiving staff who all had their way with that bike. It took it all with a smile.

Of the thousands of posts and ride reports I've read on DR650's, I've never heard of ANY of the complaints Bedhist has listed. Now why is that? I'm not saying they didn't happen...but I know why some happened (ignorance). Others, (worn out parts) still others... I have never heard of. And believe me, if this bike had serious repeat problems I'd be the first to tell the world about them and I would never own such a bike.

I"d like to know the service history of his bikes. Steering head bearings need to be maintained, greased and adjusted about every 20,000 miles. Any bets his were never touched? If the bike was ridden thousands of kms. on dirt roads without service, I could see the bearings giving up. Especially NON Suzuki bearings, ridden in the wet and the bike left outside. Wheelies, also kill head bearing. (BMW's can't really wheelie, so no problem there

Worn cam? Excuse me? Once again...lets hear the history of use of these bikes. Sounds to me like may have been run low on oil or oil was never changed or poor quality car oil was used.

Many BMW riders use car oil. You can't do that on a DR. Quality synthetic or semi syn. makes a big difference. Never heard, ever, of DR cams wearing this way.

Most likely the wear was normal and the mechanic was looking to make a few extra bucks. If this was common place it would be widely known by now...this model is NOT new. Been out since 1996. And by the way....

What year are Bedhist's bikes?

Won't run below 3000 rpm? Obviously, someone has screwed up the jetting, air box, the carb or all three and are too stupid to pull over and fix the problem. I'll bet its water in the float bowl or dirt...or both. These bikes are pretty simple to work on. Any average mechanic could sort out the carb issues in half an hour.

I'm sure some DR650's have some issues, especially ones that have led hard lives or sat outside for months or years or were bodged on by idiot mechanics
who can't even adjust a chain or clean a carb.
Any abused or neglected bike will have problems eventually.

You just can't argue with the experience of Le Cap and his rental fleet of DR's and KLR's used in Africa. This, to me, is the only legitimate and ultimate test. Rental equipment really takes a severe beating. You wanna argue with that Margus?

Far as I've heard, Le Cap's DR's have held up pretty well over a lot of hard miles. Maybe you should ask him ....again....to explain WHY he nearly went broke running BMW F650's? He had a long list of things that failed on a repeat basis. And not just on one bike....but on ALL of them BMV? nien, danke.

Patrick

__________________
Patrick passed Dec 2018. RIP Patrick!