DRZ400 RallyMoto Bike

In reply to mazdeuce:

It's partially your fault that I started doing this anyway, so it works both ways

If you're that close to Magnum Opus you should definitely do it. I always thought it would be fun to bring a really inappropriate bike- there were a bunch of guys on old BMW R75s at BRS 2014 who looked like they were having a blast!

Head is off!

Lots of buildup but I think everything is OK.

Piston:

New cylinder vs old:

It feels like progress at least.

Did some more work on the bike while waiting on RX7 parts.

My new phone takes absolute garbage pictures, I apologize. Had to use a puller to get the kickstarter off:

The timing chain was actually the hardest part of this job. I swapped that, didn't take any good pictures, and got the cylinder on there:

Put cylinder head and clutch back on, and realized I can't use my 1/2" drive torque wrench on any of this, so I'll need an adapter. To be continued:

Went to adjust the valves and found I can't get one of the intake valves within spec- guess it needs valves too

I'm sending the head out for that one, since I figure the seats will need to be cut for the new valves.

Got the head back today:

Bolted it up, everything looks good:

Valve cover back on:

First start will hopefully be in a week or two, depending on my workload, the 318ti, and the rally RX7. Lots of projects!

Awesome project thus far, but your pictures aren't working for the last two posts

This is a terrible idea that I didn't know existed at NASA 30 secs ago but now I can't stop thinking about.

The hammer run is less than an hour from here and a loaner wr250r is sitting in my buddies garage.

This is a really bad idea.

Huckleberry wrote: This is a terrible idea that I didn't know existed at NASA 30 secs ago but now I can't stop thinking about. The hammer run is less than an hour from here and a loaner wr250r is sitting in my buddies garage. This is a really bad idea.

DO IT! Well, do a RallyMoto event anyway. Hyperfest RallySprint has Moto this year if you wanted a taste before you do a full rally.

The Hammer Run is a ROUGH introduction to singletrack riding if you don't have experience doing that sort of thing.

Do the pictures work now? Google changed the way their photo hosting works and its' been messing with all my threads.

In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:

Pics are working.

My single track experience is from 35 years ago on an RM125 in the abandoned strip mine/woods behind my house... so not relevant at all. All my off road riding lately has been on ATV trails with a 600lb GS Adventure so also, not relevant. 47 is probably not a good age to start a motocross rally career - in fact, it's a terrible idea.

But - that does look like a mess of fun. Is there one in the northeast that isn't super technical that I could dabble in as a tourist on a borrowed 250? (borrowed being the issue - must not destroy)

In reply to Huckleberry:

Honestly, I wouldn't hesitate to try Black River Stages on the GSA. The roads are pretty smooth and the navigation isn't too difficult- there was a guy on an HP2 last year who did it as his first rally and had a blast.

It looks like Empire State is an hour away, and Black River is about 3hrs.

In all seriousness - I could probably tow with my E46 wagon and run both a car and a bike. I've already got a NASA comp license and instruct for them (and have for 15yrs) - but never bit on the rallycross stuff. The two worlds apparently don't collide - how did I not know about this!? Now that I've got my road race car for sale and share an endurance car with others... I have plenty of room for another foolhardy endeavor!

This is a terrible idea. This is a terrible idea. This is a terrible idea. This is a terrible idea. This is a terrible idea. This is a terrible idea. This is a terrible idea. This is a terrible idea. This is a terrible idea.

In reply to Huckleberry:

ESPR did not have Moto last year, and I haven't heard anything suggesting that it will this year. I'm not sure how you'd run a car and a bike, you can only pilot one at a time you know

In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:

I guess I just assumed that the cars were run separately from the bikes. The idea that I'd be plodding along at noob speeds on a bike and Ken Block would be blasting by, airborne in a tarted up turbo hatch never really crossed my mind. Maybe I should spectate that first one

It runs as one big rally. The order on a Special Stage looks like this:
-000, 00, 0 all run through to clear the stage
-Bikes run the stage
-Combo car runs the stage to ensure it is clear of bikes
-Cars run the stage
-Sweep runs the stage to clean up any crashed vehicles

The cars don't start until the Combo car has cleared the stage. If you're really slow but get seeded towards the front you will get passed by other bikes, though.

EDIT: If you want to sit it out your first event, I'd strongly recommend volunteering over just spectating. You can learn a lot about how the rally works, and of course they always need more volunteers.

Assembled enough to get pushed up the stairs out of the basement next time I have enough people over:

Then it's just battery, fluids, and fuel and we fire it up!

Unbasemented the bike:

We found that the best way to get it up the stairs with 3 people was to have one at the bars pushing, steering, and braking; one the the front tire rolling it up the steps, and one at the rear tire doing the same.

Installed tank, plastics, seat, battery, filled fluids:

The 2 into 1 fuel fitting broke, so I'm currently only able to use one petcock on the tank. Better that it broke here than in the middle of nowhere!

Then I fired it up, adjusted the cam chain tension, and went for a ride! It definitely picked up some midrange and low end power- it's not exactly a wheelie monster, but a good 20% bump in power is what the butt dyno says. I rode for about half an hour and changed the oil.

Some metal was present in the oil, but nothing really scary. The magnetic drain plug and magnet in the oil filter housing caught some particles too. The only thing that seems off about the bike is that the idle is still sort of funky- it tends to "hang" high and then drop later... but overall, I call this rebuild a success!

Does it have a CV type carb? If so, may try lowering the idle a touch. Biggest improvement I made to my old DR350s was going to a flat slide Mikuni and tossing the CV carb as far as I could.

The carb is a Keihin FCR. Could it be an idle mixture problem?

Maybe some help in this thread?

http://www.thumpertalk.com/topic/956710-unsolvable-hanging-idle-please-help/

I just ran this beast in a RallySprint Duathalon with my RX7 (and it was a muddy nightmare). Check it out over in the RX7 thread!

After HyperFest I decided to investigate the weird idle issue that the bike has had since Sandblast 2015- thinking about it, I had never looked at the actual slide when I cleaned/rejetted the carb. So I took the slide out, and here's what the vacuum plate looks like:

berkeley

So, remember how the bike didn't want to run after our trailer got rearended on the way to Sandblast? I think this is what did it! It then probably ingested the remains of the cracked off portion of the plate over the next 8 months, finally necessitating a rebuild this past winter. Glad I found it before another piece broke off, but holy E36 M3.

PSA: check your damn carbs all the way through when you take them out, don't be a lazy turd like me. I didn't look at this thing before because I couldn't see any damage looking in from the intake/filter sides of the carb.

I ordered a new vacuum plate and seal, hopefully that's all it needs to idle nicely once again. I can't believe how well it ran with this broken thing rattling around in there!