Yeah, any extensive mods to the motor can both reduce reliability and leave you stuck for getting replacement parts since overbore kits often use a mix of off the shelf and custom bits. Also, a heavily modded bike like that may well result in an unbalanced overall package which is unpleasant to ride due to vibration or suspension being tuned for hard off road making it wobbly on the road.
If you watch the videos of Itchyboots' "new" bike the mods they made were to improve reliability, not to add power, and they mostly used proven production parts. That's the result of an experienced expert doing the work rather than someone in their garage just going and putting on the biggest of everything.
The DR650 is a proven pack mule when stock (like most of the old Japanese larger dual-sports), it's worth finding one that's stock (or near stock, maybe with luggage racks and a bigger tank) and that has not been thrashed.
In other news, as time goes on the chances are older high-emissions bikes won't be able to go into many European cities. You can't ride a DR650 all the way through Barcelona for instance. That might not affect you, but it's worth being aware.
__________________
FreeBSD fan since before it was cool ...
|