5 USEFUL tips for the AMAZING Suzuki DR 650 RS / RSE

Thanks, exactly what I needed to see tonight. Tomorrow I'm buying a '91 650 RSE.

[@coastrider8881]

You're a Lucky guy, enjoy it!

[@kosapatryk3588]

Hey! Please tell me how is going with the bike now? I have also one since 2 months. Its amazing! Gotta love the '90.. mine is from 92

​@@kosapatryk3588 not really good. It had some issues with excessive wear on camshaft and valve rocker which I found only after I bought it. Lucily I found a somewhat good engine and bought that too. The cylinder head on the second engine is impeccable but I'm not 100% on the bottom end. Good part is that the bottom end on my first engine is in good condition. So, I should be able to end up with a good engine if I combine the two. And after that I'll have to sort the cosmetics. All the parts are there but not in best shape. But this will need to wait, I lost my interest because I bough another DR - a '98 SE, and I'm in the process of converting the carburettor to a TM40 flatside pumper. Afther the SE project will be finished I'll get back to the RSE. Probably it will be completed this winter if I don't get another more interesting project until then :)

​@@kosapatryk3588 Not great. After I bought the bike I found some issues with camshaft and valve rockers excessive wear. I managed to find a somewhat good engine with the cylinder head in perfect shape and bought it. But I'm not 100% sure how good the bottom end is on this engine. The good part is that the bottom end is fine on my original engine. Now I need to strip both engines and make a good one. But this is a project for the winter, for now I got distracted with another purchase - a '98 DR650 SE. This one is in the process of converting the stock carburetor to a TM40 flat side pumper. If I don't get another project ideas until the winter probably I'll strip completely the RSE, clean and paint the frame, fairing and rebuild the engine with new timing and balancing chains and tensioners. The compression seems fine but if I open it, probably I'll put in a new cylinder and rebuilt head.

[@kosapatryk3588]

Thank You for answering me. I bought mine after complety engine repair. But small things needed to be fixed like speedometer or blinkers.. now everything works great and I have feeling that I own bike that can bring me to the end od the world and even more further. Also I'am very happy with electric starter:) I never want to sell my DR

[@johnkauppi7078]

Australia here. No more DR's for us here. Stupid Government passed a law saying they have to have ABS braking.Suzuki said Fuck that.I bought a new 2012 DR 650 SE. Best damn bike I've ever owned. As good as my '96 Honda Goldwing.

[@coastrider8881]

You're got two fine bikes there. In Europe we lost the DR's a long time ago due to emissions laws. Cheers mate!

[@Claymireko]

I love Suzuki's "answer" xD

[@leandrorohner780]

Nice tipps, thanks. I'm rebuilding an old RSE right now 👍🏻

[@coastrider8881]

You are going to have a lot of fun with it, cheers!

[@BRaff-hl4ip]

Very good to know. I've always wanted to use a wiseco piston on something. I'm strongly considering buying a low mileage but tatty RS.

[@coastrider8881]

An amazing bike, and the Wiseco piston definitely improves it. Cheers!

[@lonstar78]

Thanks for answer i try to fit Acerbis 1992-1995

[@coastrider8881]

If you already have the tank you can try it. I thing the fixing points on the frame are the same, but not sure how the seat will fit. If not, a RS tank with close to 21 liters is plenty. My bike had a consumption of around 4l/100km, so the tank gave 500kms range, but I usually put the RSE tank with 17 liters to make the bike lighter. That's over 400kms of range, more than enough for a full day of offroad travel. Nowadays there's not many places whithout a fuel station.

[@lonstar78]

@@coastrider8881 you are right we dont life on desert but my fuel tank is bent and ,ugly as hell that's way thinking about change it

[@dominichayes9808]

Nice tips, especially about the exhaust weight and piston. Been running my 91 RSE for three years. Test rode an 800DE to see it would be a good replacement, but there's too much high frequency engine vibration/buzz at higher rpm. Would deaden my feet and hands quickly on a motorway. The DR stays!

[@coastrider8881]

Enjoy your amazing bike!

[@MusicisLoveADZ]

I also bought a 91 RS. I really love the build quality and design. It's timeless and still looks cool today! The early nineties was the pinnacle of quality for many machines, including some cars but they dialed it back in the name of "planned obsolescence". A ridiculous marketing strategy. The DR650RS stands put as a masterpiece. I would like to know if you have souced suspension upgrade and if so, where from? Thankyou for the great video!

[@coastrider8881]

Definitely! I've had both, the RS and RSE, but always prefered the RS for the lighter weight, mechanical simplicity and 5mm more of suspension travel. Mines always started very easily with the kickstarter. One kick in summer and when hot, two kicks early in the morning in winter, that's it.

[@MusicisLoveADZ]

@@coastrider8881 Thanks for replying. Once I refresh the carb and get an extended idle mixture screw mine will do the same. I've never had a problem kicking over big singles and starter clutches and batteries are always delicate. Not the kind of bike to easily bump start! 😆 I've convinced my two best friends to buy one also. Life is good 🙏

[@coastrider8881]

@@MusicisLoveADZ Nice, you're going to have a lot of fun! Maybe someday I'll publish a video about how I adapted a full front from a Husqvarna 450 with a nice Marzocchi Shiver fork. 300mm of suspension travel baby!

[@MusicisLoveADZ]

@@coastrider8881 Good morning. Please publish that video! Good suspension is everything and would make the big DR so versatile...

[@ernestozilberberg257]

Suzuki is just asleep at the wheel. They NEED to give a little refresh to the trusty DR 650.

[@coastrider8881]

Definitely! Cheers!

[@SigmaSheepdog]

As a prior DR650 owner, I wouldn't mind seeing Suzuki do something like add fuel injection, LED headlight, and a little better suspesion, kind of the way Kawasaki went with the KLR.

[@AK.599]

Sooo i have one in mid condicion , and it has a mild valve clanking sound , i changed the time chain and adjusted the valves and it still doing it , soo it probebly needs a top end rebuild

[@coastrider8881]

Like all the big single cylinder bikes of that era, if one of the previous owners have run the bike with low level of oil, or oil in bad condition, the seats of the camshaft on the cylinder head get too much wear. Unfortunately it's usually very expensive to repair, and it's very difficult to find a used cylinder head in good condition because it's a very common problem. Ask a machining shop how much it would cost to rebuild the cylinder head. They probably need to sleeve the seats. Thanks for watching!

[@AK.599]

Thx for the respones , thought as much , it was cheap for a reasen (700euro) ,it is very expensive to get anny parts for this particular bike if u can even find them 😢 I probably gonna dissasamble the thing and put some more elbow greas intoit😂

[@coastrider8881]

@@AK.599 In fact, most used parts are pretty cheap. I just bought two wheels with new tires, an ECU and a fuel tank for peanuts. The problem is with the most demanded parts, which are the ones that usually fail and are not available new anymore. We are talking about 30+ years old bikes. If you can find a good complete engine, or complete bike for parts, that would be nice. Parts difficult to find are cylinder heads, starter clutch on RSE's, and gearbox pinions.

[@lonstar78]

Is it posible chnage fuel tank from Dr 650 sp41?

[@coastrider8881]

I don't know, but the seat, rear fender and side panels are also different, so maybe you'll have to replace a lot of things to make it fit. The RSE tank have the same capacity has the R, 17 liters, and the RS have close to 21 liters. So not worth putting a R tank.

[@darren-james-88]

Do you use stock exhaust header with the Arrow Dakar muffler?

[@coastrider8881]

Yep, stock header. Cheers!

[@darren-james-88]

@@coastrider8881 Okay so I bought a '91 RSE (SP43B) the other day... It has twin exhaust!? Is this normal? Can I just put 2 arrow exhaust mufflers on, will that help it to breathe? It starts with no choke and isn't smooth running at all. Main jets 150, pilot jet 47.5 and NO AIRBOX OR FILTER lol! I've ordered an airbox...

[@coastrider8881]

All RS and RSE come with twin mufflers. I replaced mine with a single Arrow muffler, huge loss of weight ! I think it's shown in the video.