My new ride

[Reserector [Veteran Member]]

I just got back from Birmingham after buying a 2008 Suzuki DR-Z400 dual sport bike. I spent 7 hours on the road, but got a smokin' deal. This thing has several mods already done, that I would have done myself if they weren't already done.

Larger tank, heavier springs and shock/fork valving, billet aluminum rack, and several other really cool reliability mods.

He shaved the seat, and that is the only thing that I will reverse. I like a tall seat. I also need to put the turn signals back on.

[redneck23ms [Veteran Member]]

Looks good. My drz had a Corbin seat and that thing was comfy but they are pretty expensive. Looks like a solid bike and you should have a ton of fun on it. There is a good following for those bikes on advrider and a guy out here in the Denver area that knows how to get the most out of them as well

[mdawg4x4 [Veteran Member]]

Nice bike Mark. I had a dirt bike back years ago. If I were to buy another bike today it would be a dual sport.

[balage [Veteran Member]]

Great bike.
Nice to see the Nissan is working well!

[oO_Rogue_Oo [Veteran Member]]

Very nice addition

[kbwjeep [Veteran Member]]

Nice find. You don't see many used ones for sale

[Reserector [Veteran Member]]

I waited until after church today to unload it. Drove into a ditch to get the tailgate close to the ground. When the rear axle dropped into the ditch the bikes suspension compressed far enough to let the left tie-down come unhooked. The bike was unharmed, but the FM took a nasty hit to the bed rail. My bed rails are double wall, so that will be a tricky repair. I have a plan, though.

So basically, I dropped it before I even got it out of the truck.






After lunch, Doug and I rode around our property for a while. It was fun, but we couldn't resist heading to the forest. There are actually TWO bikes on that trailer. The white XT200 is almost completely obscured by the 400.



We went to the Little Tiger trail, but aside from the fact that they have a $10 fee per operator, they also require that operators have either a drivers license, or proof that they completed some government ATV safety course.
We decided that that was for chumps, and headed over to Camp #1 to explore that area.

We had a good day, but not without mishap. I dropped mine a few times, and he dropped his on a log. Total carnage was a knot on my shin just above the MX boot I was wearing, and the strip of indicator lights on the left of the digital cluster broke away from the cluster went I crashed into a tree in a very stylish way, after taking on three logs at various angles that were all about four feet apart. I would have made it if I had more speed.

But the bottom line is that Doug's riding skills took a considerable leap forward today because I am able to ride along with him and coach him. He did his first donut today.

Yes, today was a good day.

Oh, I added it to my motorcycle insurance policy. I currently pay $75 a year for the YZF. Adding the DRZ will cost me another $20 yr. But since it is already a few months into the policy year, I had to shell out a whopping $16.00 more. Robbery, I tell you!

[redneck23ms [Veteran Member]]

another thing you should look into getting is a set of case savers. the clutch and flywheel cases on these motors are pretty thin and easily cracked in a crash. several companies make case savers for them, the bike may already have some on it but hard to tell in the pics

[Reserector [Veteran Member]]

It does have case savers.

I added foam back to the seat tonight, and covered it in yellow marine vinyl. The PO had shaved (butchred) the seat foam two inches lower than stock. Felt like a military Hummer seat, and was way to low for off-road. All I had was soft foam and it needs to be medium, for me. I will order a tall seat foam in medium, and have some room to shave it if it is too tall.

Got my plate today, and installed the blinkers. I can ride it to work tomorrow.

[Reserector [Veteran Member]]

I've been making little tweaks to dial it in for me. Suspension adjustments, and such.
I just got rid of the carved-up stock seat in favor of this "tall" seat with gripper cover. I am riding tall in the saddle, now.



If I forget to turn off the fuel petcock, the bowl floods. It originally came with a vacuum petcock, but I'm told that they are problematic. Many owners, like the guy before me, replace them with Raptor manual petcocks. That's what this one has.

A new float needle and seat would fix that for awhile, but since this bike has an ignition switch, I ordered a 12 volt fuel shutoff that will close when the key switch is turned off. That peace of mind will set me back about $40. That is cheap when I consider all the work I went through to drain the oil, etc. after it flooded the engine overnight last Friday.