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fish_antlers

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posted October 08, 2004 07:47 AM

Help to Motard a DRZ400S

Anyone here done this? I;ve seen several around the streets... I see that I can buy the new model, but since I own my own 400S, I am wondering what bits fit it suspension wise, from what years etc etc etc
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squidlydiddly

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Posts: 247

posted October 08, 2004 08:58 AM

Good idea since you never seem to ride yours off road anyway.

Excel rims & gold talon hubs. Pm or braking rotor / caliper kit with braided lines. This gets you onto asphalt with an easy 'switch back to dirt' like what ATK/CCM have been offering. Under $US1500. Maxxis makes some great tires, but your options are really limitless.

If you mod the suspension to better perform on asphalt, then you usually limit your options for 'returning it to dirt'. LE offers fork & shock mods (springs & revalving) that will improve asphalt handling while still leaving the long travel, etc. for trails. Under $US800 Not good enough for asphalt racing, but that shouldn't affect you.

Gearing remains a difficult trade-off, with stock likely being the best choice to offer highway speeds and modest bottom-end if you've done the airbox/carb & pipe mods.

That's all you need, although the UFO or Acerbis motard front fender looks better on the street.
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fish_antlers

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posted October 08, 2004 09:14 AM

hey.. I ride mine offroad! It's not my fault work keeps interfering with us hooking up! Talk to my boss!

So.. just so I understand (this is new fer me so be patien)... a partial motard conversion replaces the wheels/ tires and brakes... and complete conversion would included the revalving of the suspension?

Im a little confused as I thought that the motard's I'd seen had had the forks switched out etc for streetbike forks... or am I mistaken..

please continue to enlighten...
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squidlydiddly

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posted October 08, 2004 09:33 AM

Some guys are switching out the forks. Don't know why other than for ease of converting back to dirt since it's not done on the bikes being raced.

I think it would be tough to find street forks in the right diameter, etc. Maybe some of what you've seen are rebuilds that had front end damage, and a jobber replaced the triples as well. This opens a fresh can of worms for dealing with the head tube, gauges, etc. I've been using Lindeman for suspension work since '95 & would recommend going that route. Progressive & Race Tech might offer some sort of compromise as well, but I recall that they'll only offer up a 'strictly asphalt' solution. That can be done rather inexpensively by installing shorter & stiffer springs front & rear, and adding spring spacers as well as a spacer in the rear shock. Good luck converting back though.

I forgot to mention that a steering damper is a 'must have'. Due to the steering geometry.

The partial conversion generally satisfies most people and their 'hooligan' intentions for the bike. The suspension work only becomes obviously necessary if you're really thrashing the bike at speed; because the soft dampening and long travel, likens the experience to riding a pogo stick.
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fish_antlers

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posted October 08, 2004 09:47 AM

so partial conversion involves brakes and wheels, relatively easy to switch back to dirt... are there any crossovers for the wheels from the OEMs? In otherwords can I go down to Mspeed and pick up whatever wheels off of whatever crashed bike and simply bolt them on or is it strictly aftermarket?
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frEEk

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ummm... yeah
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posted October 08, 2004 10:02 AM

fish, it sounds liek you're thinking u grab wheels off a crashed sportbike. if so, that's incorrect. i'v only ever seen wire-spoke wheels used on a motard, and i'm not sure that you could fit a standard sportbike rear wheel on that bike. for that matter, what tire sizes to motarsds usually run?

squidlydiddly

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posted October 08, 2004 09:59 PM

They usually run 17's. 160 & up for the rear & 120 in the front.

Wire spoked wheels are best because of their weight & strength. The only downside is that you need tubes.

The problem with standard sportbike wheels is that you'll end up spending a lot of money or time on machining the hubs (down) to fit, as well as deal with sprocket carriers / cush and rotor mounting. Oh, and the axles are usually smaller diameter on dirtybikes, so you'd have to monkey with more spacers / bushings in order to use the stock axles rather than overbore the fork legs & swingarm holes.

My experience has been that if the wheels & rotors are given to you for free, then by the time you're done you should have spent only 75% of the Excel / Talon setup, which is superior. May be feasible if you can do the machining yourself for free...

KLR's came with 17" rears, and plenty of minibikes came with 17" fronts, so if you want to fuck around / experiment...
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swft

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posted October 09, 2004 05:07 AM

Just buy the SM!

fish_antlers

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posted October 09, 2004 06:38 AM

swft I never figured you for a thread skimmer... READ my first post.
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swft

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posted October 09, 2004 07:29 PM

And my comment still holds. Just buy the SM! the SM has the good forks, etc...

Dirtybill

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posted October 10, 2004 10:58 AM

quote:
Good idea since you never seem to ride yours off road anyway.

Exactly! There would have been major whining if he rode with us yesterday.

So Fish_Poser, how many kms are on your ZX-10, excluding the trips to Starbucks?

swft

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posted October 10, 2004 01:19 PM

You know, I can say that I've ridden my 10R harder and farther than I ever did ride my 12R. 87 laps on the racetrack...Man, if that's posing, I'm a fewkin statue!