Gday all,

I've recently blown my 2010 DR650 engine and am now spending the winter working in Grande Prairie, Canada, before taking off on the next leg of my RTW trip to Alaska, USA and Africa. I've stripped the bike down to nothing to work on it from scratch, and upgrade and repair everything I can while I have the time. The bike has done 55,000 km in the last year and needs a little loving over winter, so....

If your bike were stripped down

- What would you be sure to maintain/repair/replace on the bike itself (including bearings, paintwork, welding etc)

- What would you love to upgrade on your bike right now if you could have it dismantled?

I'm just chasing ideas for things to do to it while it's at its most naked so I don't miss anything. I've started on a bunch of things already, ie, replacing the wiring loom, sanding and repainting, checking for cracks, welding. Bearings soon possibly.

Look forward to hearing everyone's ideas!!

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'10 Suzuki DR650. 2011-12 Sth-Nth Chile-Alaska. Currently in Cairns, Australia. www.followtheakubra.com.au

I'm also looking at upgrading the stator to increase output, as well as change some wiring to increase light output (as suggested in shortwayround.co.uk). I'm going to re-weld and strengthen the frame and replace my bearings.

What other maintenance issues stick out like dog balls?

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'10 Suzuki DR650. 2011-12 Sth-Nth Chile-Alaska. Currently in Cairns, Australia. www.followtheakubra.com.au

Could be obvious, but changing all brake fluids, and cleaning brake pistons & renewing their seals certainly wouldn´t be bad for the brakes. Changing fluid is actually recommended every two years (often neglected, though).... even if your bike is not that old, considering your trip so far, brake components might have sucked in a lot of dust and dirt along the way.

Checking the condition of all bearings (steering head, etc), that you´ll now have access to, might also be worthwile.

hi brian, i suppose halfway round the world aint bad for a small single, but, id hve hoped for more than 30k miles out of it. So heres my 2 cents/pence worth from the uk.

Do more oil and filte changes more often with more oil and filters.

1 ur original post; can i fix it with hand tools. You can take the motor out and strip it down, but it sounds like the crank is well and truly f*ck*d by now. Especially the journal shells, its possible this has caused "whip" in the crank that has eaten the cases. For education purposes buy a "haynes" manual and strip it down to investigate

Youve probly allready done this hence ur second post can i put new internals from a "good" engine into the old cases.

2 NO please dont do this, you may end up making a very short lived engine out of a good one. the crank journals are "line bored" that is each individual crank case is "drilled" (more relevant on multicylinder i guess) an then matched to a crank. if you bung in a diff crank you may well not meet the toleraces and the thing will eat itself. Also whats the point in maing work for yourself

3 Changing engine numbers is no big deal, engines do wear out they are consumable, i appreciate your desire to keep your docs straight. but it may not be sucha problem, you might even be able to change it online and get new docs sent from oz easily ?

4 I dont think you can get higher output stators, the drive gear on them si quite model specific. you can get higher capacity bateries, look for higher rating in Amp Hours, you could even wire up a second battery in parralel. that is switchable so you dont ever flatten your starter circuit using the fag lighter or whatever.

5 Also you can wire the the coils straight from the alternator/stator, keeping the original feed from cdi for the timing, to give you the biggest current your gonna get. run the lights off a relay, rather through the switchgear, again straight from alterator feed to fusebox, keeping wire length to minimum enabling use of thicker wire to get more amps to the bulb.

im no expert and i havent explained this stuff well but mail me if you want. There is a wiring diagram on oldskoolsuzuki.info that will help you if you want to make a new one. Youve probly found it but google thumpers.com or similar for better online tech

good luck

ment to add; maybe fit an oil cooler. im gonna use the oil lines from the old dr800 which have an "inline" stylee cooler, its not very big, on my dr350. Dont know if ur dr6 has one ? not seen overheating coming up a an issue on dr's but its not difficult and would give you more oil capacity, blank it off if the weather gets cold, i'd have thought could be a big advantage around the equator

Had a quick peek at a spareparts picture, and on the DR650 (at least the 2010 Australia-model) the crankcase seems to have roller-bearings all around, as does the connecting rod´s bottom end... so no sliding bearings, as is often common on 4-cyl. bikes, and therefore no need to match the metered tolerances to the colour codes found on the sliding bearings (- - if that is what you´re after)?

But I agree, that even if it all worked in theory, pairing a used crankcase to a different (used) crank, and several other parts, could still be a challenge. Some parts may have worn at a different rate.

I wouldn't go overboard. In my opinion there are no glaring areas that need full strip down and rebuild attention (well, other than your blown engine). More just a whole bunch of small things.

Check/replace all bearings (including headset bearings).
Replace fork and brake fluid.
Rebuild your shock if it needs it.
Check the plastic chain guide on the front end of the swingarm.
Fix up all the little problems which mildly annoyed you over the past year, but weren't bad enough to fix at the time.

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Vladivostok - Denmark 2008... Finished.
Denmark - South Africa 2010-2011... Finished.

I recently removed then re-fitted the 2 socket head cap screws securing the NSU (neutral sender unit) using loctite and locking wire.

Some people have reported cases where one of the screws will work its way out and cause all sorts of problems, resulting in the engine stopping for a long time . One of the screws on my bike was only finger tight.

The NSU is located behind the clutch plates. The screws can be replaced without removing the clutch, it's just a bit 'fiddly'.