The DR650 is a reliable sturdy bike as stock. All it needs is a large capacity tank from Aceabis and a complete Devil exaust system. Little else. Ive owned one for ten years and racked up 80,000 miles trouble free all over Europe. I was that impressed I'm now giving the DR350 a good road test out here in Cyprus for the next two years.
I would also recommend fitting rim lock to stop your tires from spinning on the rims if you take it onto the mud. Apart from those changes, this bike is ready for anything and you'll soon master the art of kick starting a 650 single cylinder.
Good Luck
Geordie.

Hello Vukko and the others,
I find the original manual they sell for the Suzuki mechanics excellent - I'd even say the best handbook I ever had. And I had a few --for our XT 500's and for my BMW R80G/S-- Haynes, Clymer, the french but I forgot the name right now (quite good too actually).
The original manual is A4 size and thin (at least the one for the DR650SE is), and unfortunately VERY expensive. Some 60 euro. It can be ordered in a few languages from any Suzuki dealer. Make sure you get the right year for your bike.

As for the kick or electric starter: we sold our XTs for this reason only. I broke my right leg in three places, and kicking has become too unreliable.
On our last journey, stuck on a steep gradient of big loose rocks on which the engine had just died, it was a MARVEL to have the button... Or when getting stuck in sand at noon in a Baluchi desert. Or --as Nicki McCormick writes in Chris Scott's book-- if you're in trouble, that's the fastest way to get out.
As soon as you start doing things in the dirt or in the hottest weather, you'll be VERY happy with a button and not-so-happy with a kick. I've seen grown-up huge guys weeping in the middle of the night on a Dakar race because they couldn't get their bike kicked due to sheer exhaustion. Well... I admit, that's a bit of an extreme situation, but.
Kickstarting can consume much-needed energy, but then all depends on where and how you ride.
The only reason you could opt for a kickstarter is for weight reasons. In the British "Trail Bike Magazine" all the journalists are begging for electrical starters since years. They can't understand why Honda still sticks with kick-only bikes for instance. KTM has electrical starters on all bikes now, to name but htis one. The weight advantage seems to be so little compared to the advantage in energy-saving.

BUT of course the very very best would be to have both. So that with flat a battery you can still get moving. Or just to save your battery life for some reason.

It does look very macho of course, and even more so as a woman, but if you can choose... I wouldn't doubt at all.

Well guys, 'talk' to you later :-)
Trui

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Iris and Trui
2 belgian women, often travelling on motorbikes (now on DR650SE's)
2nd overland from home to Northern India and back, April-October 2002

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Iris and Trui
2 belgian women, often travelling on motorbikes (now on DR650SE\'s)
2nd overland from home to Northern India and back, April-October 2002