Well, my E is still dead. After getting my other 3 bikes going by charging the battery, I tried putting the battery from my 2003 DRZ-E on the charger. Turns out the battery was totally dead – my charger wouldn’t even try to put a charge on it. So I went down and got a new battery, installed it, and the bike fired right up. Woo-hoo!!! Well, not so fast… I took it on a short ride just b/c it’s so much fun, shut it down, and then tried to start it again “just to be sure”. Dead as a doornail again. I know it sounds like an amazing coincidence, but I guess my old battery went dead at almost the exact same time it developed a wiring problem. So the E still isn’t running. I finally made room in the garage for it, so at least it won’t get rained or snowed on until I can get it figured out. I almost have the new graphics ready to put on, which I’ll do as soon as I take it down and get the for seals replaced. Also, tonight I ordered a set of DRZ-SM headlight brackets. I hope they work or can be made to work. Supposedly the DRZ-SM forks are the same diameter as the RMZ450 forks I’m running, but when I measured the forks on both bikes to compare, the ones on my SM are 1mm less in diameter. Oh well, I’m rambling b/c I’m pissed b/c ALL of my WordPress sites got hacked this week. Don’t know how, don’t know why, and don’t know how to prevent it from happening again. GoDaddy CS isn’t being much help either.

Well, I took the month of October off to… go back to work. Got a temp job driving a tractor on a farm for five weeks, four days a week. Because of that, didn’t have time to do any riding or work on the bikes. In the mean time, my DRZ-400 E got rained on for about 20 hours straight (no room in the garage). Went out to take it for a ride yesterday and it won’t start. I think the problem is an electrical connection (it happened once before) so hopefully I’ll have some time this week to chase it down and get it running again. Then take it down and get the fork seals replaced, then I can throw on the new tank, new plastics, and put on my new seat cover.

I’m rethinking my handlebar cleanup. I thought I could get away without ordering any new parts. Not just to save money, but I also really liked the “beater bike” vibe. I care about looks, but how well it works is a lot more important. The issue I’m running into is being able to access some of the controls with my hands on the grips. Like the start button…

I’ve found that starting this bike requires 3 things to happen, all at the same time: keep the choke pulled out about half way, press the starter button, and as soon as it fires twist the throttle to keep it going. Otherwise, NO START and no bueno. OK, so my left hand runs the choke, no problem there. My right hand runs the start button and throttle. Also no problem, except… the start switch sits just inboard of the right grip. Which works great, but it puts the front master cylinder (FMC) along with the front brake lever further in on the handle bar. It works for now, but the brake lever is about at the limit of how much farther in I can put it and still be able to use it. Which brings us to mirrors. If the right side mirror is mounted inboard of the FMC, it’s too far in to be useful. If I mount the mirror first with the FMC inboard of that, I can’t reach the front brake lever (at least not with my hand on the grip). You may disagree, but i.m.o. not being able to use the front brake without taking your hand off the grip is a really, REALLY bad idea. But then, so is riding in traffic without useable mirrors. What to do?

OK, I caved… I bought a Suzuki OEM FMC for a DRZ S model. This solves the problem nicely by having the mirror mount built into the FMC assembly. It was spendy, I’m not gonna lie about that. It also kind of wrecks the retro vibe of the bike. Well, maybe just a little but still… but with the new parts in place I’ll be able to get the thing started AND ride it safely.

I made a little progress with cleaning up the handlebar setup on my DRZ400E. I got my Doubletake Adventure mirrors mounted and got rid of the cell phone holder. The new mirrors actually make the bike safe to ride on the street and the phone holder was wasted space. The mirrors did cause a new worry that I didn’t think about when I installed them though. I have an idea on how to address that, but not 100% sure if it will work…

New Mirrors

When I bought this bike, it had a miss-matched pair of cheap “enduro mirrors” on it. You know, the crappy little ones that come on “street legal kits” you can buy to make a dirt bike street legal so you can put a plate on it. One was an Acerbis and the other was some off brand I’d never heard of. The problem with both of them is they weren’t rigid enough – they both shook so bad that I could barely see out of them when the bike was running. Besides that, whoever installed then put the to far in AND backwards, so even if I could use them, all I’d see was my shoulders – not the traffic behind me. When I tried to reposition them, the first one broke while I was tightening it to the handlebars. No worries, just meant it was time to get a decent set of mirrors.

Doubletake Enduro Mirrors

I decided to go with a set of Doubletake Enduro mirrors. I’ve read good things about them online, so I figured the expense might be worth the price. They definitely are, at least imo. They mount really solid to the handlebar and the RAM leg and mirror are also really solid, so there is almost no shake when the bike is running. Besides that, the reach (???) is longer so they sit closer to the ends of the bar. Now I can actually use them to check traffic around and behind me – a HUGE safety improvement when I’m riding. They install with just a common wrench which is nice, but can also be a problem if you park in a bike where shitty people can access it…

Like last Saturday. A friend was having a get together at a downtown bar and I decided to ride the DRZ (perfect excuse to not drink). It’s in kind of a sketchy neighborhood, so I parked near a window so I could keep an eye on the bike. Sure enough, about a half hour after dark I noticed a car parked behind my bike with the headlights on and passenger door open. Didn’t see anyone standing next to the bike, but I decided to walk outside and check it out. Decided to stand about 15 feet away and pretend to not notice the car. The two occupants watched me (it was pretty obvious) for about 5 minutes before the passenger closed his door and they drove away. Didn’t think too much about it until I started riding home…

I got about a block when the mirrors started moving around. I KNOW they were tight because (1) I’d installed them myself and (2) I’d ridden a few times with no loosening issues. My theory is the two dudes in the car were messing with the mirrors. My quick fix will be to put Loctite on the mounts. That won’t stop someone from taking off the RAM mounts and mirrors, but replacing just the RAMs and mirrors is cheaper than replacing everything. Or maybe just not take my bike to sketchy areas, but I can’t always avoid that.

So this is my beater bike – a 2003 DRZ400E. I think I mentioned it an earlier post. My adventure bike build is on hold while I get the tools and parts for it, so this will be my current project bike. It’s also my daily rider, so I’m not getting too crazy with stuff that will take it out of action for more than a day or so. Even though it runs, it does need a lot of work. It’s an E model, so it had to be converted to street legal status in order to get a street title and license plates. Unfortunately, whoever did the conversion kind of half-assed it, at least in my opinion.

Here is a full pic of the handlebars. How many things do you see that need to be fixed? There is a lot… from left to right, I’ve got a headlight/turn signal control, left side mirror, kill switch, bracket (or whatever) that serves no apparent purpose, cell phone mount, key switch, key switch, USB/power port (just to the right of the handlebar clamp – sorry for the blurry photo), right side mirror, another unused bracket, and starter button. Tucked under the headlight shroud (not visible in the photo) is a turn signal/headlight indicator. The handguards attach at the clutch and front brake pivots. Way too much junk, and it’s a mess. Looks even worse in real life than it does in the photo.

I’ll start with the worst thing – the mirrors. They’re mounted too far in, so they’re completely useless. The only thing I can see with them when I’m riding is my shoulders or my face. From the way I understand folding mirrors to work, I also think they’re mounted wrong. I could just switch sides and mount them further out, but I decided to splurge and get a pair of Double Take Adventure mirrors. With those, I’ll be able to check my backside, and lane changes will once again be safe.

The second thing I’m changing is the headlight/turn signal control. The one on the bike right now is cheap and doesn’t reliably turn off the blinkers once they’re on. Plus it’s a major distraction trying to see the indicator hidden under the headlight shroud. So I’m replacing it with a control unit from Sicass Racing. The Sicass controller has actual push buttons, and the indicator lights for high beam and turn signals are on the control unit where they’re easy to see.

Next, I’m replacing the separate kill switch and starter buttons with a single controller. The one I bought is for a KTM, but it should work fine on my DRZ and free up some space on the handlebar. And finally I’m getting rid of the USB thingy, the cell phone mount, and the two unused brackets. This will drop the number of things mounted on the handlebar from 9 to 4. The free space is what will let me move the mirrors to where they’re actually useful, and also make room to mount a pair of Cycra Pro Curve hand guards.

Some of the parts might not make sense for a beater bike (the pricey mirrors and hand guards), but I have Cycra hand guards on my SWM and I really like them. Also, I’m planning on running Double Take mirrors on my adventure bike, so I wanted to try a pair before committing to them on that build. There’s a lot more to do on this bike, but this should keep me busy (and broke) for now.