Kestrel
Well-known member
Below is a long winded bike report / ride report / first time on a supermoto report... ! (tl;dr? I have been freed from the mortal coil of an inferior motorcycling experience, and have ascended to a higher realm of existence. :cool)
So as I hinted at in a few other posts, I've been working on putting a GS500 wheel on the front of my dirt-suspended 98-99 DR350. tl;dr - a little machine shop work later, everything was good to go. Since I had a make a caliper relocation bracket either way for the new wheel & 310mm rotor, I said why not go bigger, and put on a good used GSXR600/750 4 pot Tokico caliper with whatever brand sintered pads came with it.
Semi-motard, as I was just converting the front wheel for the time being. Rear may come later, but if I use the GS500 wheel, it requires more complicated mill work. (Fabricating everything for the front just required a little work on the lathe, drill press, and band saw.)
Installed a Bridgestone S20 EVO 110/70-17 up front, and BT45 110/90-18 in the rear, hence the semi-motard name. Crazy to run the same width up front as the rear? I thought so, too... Couldn't believe how skinny it looked, but... this dirt-converted DR only weighs 280 and can't have more than 25hp at the rear wheel, so I figured it would suffice. I was right.
So... Off I went this weekend for 500 miles of butt-abuse, sitting on what felt like a 2x4 by the end of it. Day 1 was some back roads to get out of the Charlotte area, then up through NC-80 to the parkway. 80 is one of the first... very twisty road of this trip. There are always new kinks to work out on a new bike, and I'd been coming to grips with those during the backroads leading up to this point. The DR350 wasn't bad with street oriented dual sport tires, but changing to the 17" wheel significantly contributed to the agility of this bike.
Halfway up 80, there was somewhat of a moment of realization. This bike?... it does not operate on the same playing field as other bikes... The rules are different. I started on a Ninja 250, have owned an SV, VFR, an XR, ridden a few BMWs (old and new), CBR1KRR, Superhawk, Goldwing / ST1100, older CB650 etc etc etc. I didn't quite understand what was happening at the time, but that would change....
At the top of NC-80 is an intersection with the Blue Ridge Parkway. My two day ride plan was to do a little bit of riding on Friday afternoon, head to Asheville to sleep overnight at my brother's place, and then hit up western NC twisties before heading back on Saturday night. I hit the parkway southbound, and headed up toward Mt. Mitchell. 6684ft, highest point in the USA east of the Mississippi. I've literally spent a few months of my life backpacking in this area, and it's always refreshingly cool and dry on top.
DR350(S)M was now playing on the parkway at a little higher speeds... And a rather strange notion crossed my mind...
The DR didn't give a shit. About anything.
Huh?
Lean angle? Don't care. Late braking... or just no braking? Don't care. Too much speed for a given corner? Don't care. Terrible exaggerated mid corner brake/throttle corrections? Still don't care... It was puzzling. How can this bike do these things? How is this allowed?
I didn't dwell on that for too long, and ended up being distracted by some killer scenery and a great sunset in the making.
youtu.be/yEeW2dl0vco
Continued southbound toward Asheville, and after exiting the parkway, I made my way to my brother's place. Chatted with him for a bit, and reflected on the day before crashing for the night.
Tomorrow would be a long day in the saddle...
So as I hinted at in a few other posts, I've been working on putting a GS500 wheel on the front of my dirt-suspended 98-99 DR350. tl;dr - a little machine shop work later, everything was good to go. Since I had a make a caliper relocation bracket either way for the new wheel & 310mm rotor, I said why not go bigger, and put on a good used GSXR600/750 4 pot Tokico caliper with whatever brand sintered pads came with it.
Semi-motard, as I was just converting the front wheel for the time being. Rear may come later, but if I use the GS500 wheel, it requires more complicated mill work. (Fabricating everything for the front just required a little work on the lathe, drill press, and band saw.)
Installed a Bridgestone S20 EVO 110/70-17 up front, and BT45 110/90-18 in the rear, hence the semi-motard name. Crazy to run the same width up front as the rear? I thought so, too... Couldn't believe how skinny it looked, but... this dirt-converted DR only weighs 280 and can't have more than 25hp at the rear wheel, so I figured it would suffice. I was right.
So... Off I went this weekend for 500 miles of butt-abuse, sitting on what felt like a 2x4 by the end of it. Day 1 was some back roads to get out of the Charlotte area, then up through NC-80 to the parkway. 80 is one of the first... very twisty road of this trip. There are always new kinks to work out on a new bike, and I'd been coming to grips with those during the backroads leading up to this point. The DR350 wasn't bad with street oriented dual sport tires, but changing to the 17" wheel significantly contributed to the agility of this bike.
Halfway up 80, there was somewhat of a moment of realization. This bike?... it does not operate on the same playing field as other bikes... The rules are different. I started on a Ninja 250, have owned an SV, VFR, an XR, ridden a few BMWs (old and new), CBR1KRR, Superhawk, Goldwing / ST1100, older CB650 etc etc etc. I didn't quite understand what was happening at the time, but that would change....
At the top of NC-80 is an intersection with the Blue Ridge Parkway. My two day ride plan was to do a little bit of riding on Friday afternoon, head to Asheville to sleep overnight at my brother's place, and then hit up western NC twisties before heading back on Saturday night. I hit the parkway southbound, and headed up toward Mt. Mitchell. 6684ft, highest point in the USA east of the Mississippi. I've literally spent a few months of my life backpacking in this area, and it's always refreshingly cool and dry on top.
DR350(S)M was now playing on the parkway at a little higher speeds... And a rather strange notion crossed my mind...
The DR didn't give a shit. About anything.
Huh?
Lean angle? Don't care. Late braking... or just no braking? Don't care. Too much speed for a given corner? Don't care. Terrible exaggerated mid corner brake/throttle corrections? Still don't care... It was puzzling. How can this bike do these things? How is this allowed?
I didn't dwell on that for too long, and ended up being distracted by some killer scenery and a great sunset in the making.
youtu.be/yEeW2dl0vco
Continued southbound toward Asheville, and after exiting the parkway, I made my way to my brother's place. Chatted with him for a bit, and reflected on the day before crashing for the night.
Tomorrow would be a long day in the saddle...
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