Hi Phil
Good setup, here's a few comments....
You have a similar setup to my first DRZ pictured below, main difference is yours has SM suspension.
Dirt wheels are pretty easy to source, you can use your SM hubs and just lace 21" & 18" rims, or buy a complete set of dirt wheels for around 15,000 bht.
Good idea, much cheaper than buying new set of dirt wheels plus any possible import tax.
I've put a Clarke 3.9 gallon (14.7 litre) plastic fuel tank on this bike. The standard fuel tank is 2.64 gallons, so this is a 44% increase in capacity. Trail riding you can use an estimate of around 170-180 km of riding range from a standard DRZ 400 fuel tank, the larger tank should then bring the range up to around 265km under inefficient riding conditions. (NOTE THE KICK START LEVER JUST UNDER THE FUEL TANK)
Clarke 3.9gal is a good value for money tank. I had to grind a bit off my kickstart for it to fit under the tank. It still slightly touches so I just run a piece of yellow duc tape under the tank.
I have an IMS 3.2 on my other DRZ which is thicker plastic and looks a bit better, but less capacity than the Clarke.
Agree, its better to have the shrouds absorb any falls rather than the tank itself like the Safari and 4gal IMS.
I also prefer not to have too much fuel/weight fwd as the DRZ already feels a bit front heavy.
After the last jungle trip to Laos, getting caught in the dark, it was found that the DRZ 400's headlight was terrible, so a HID headlight has been installed. I want to test this to make sure the change does not result in a charging issue with the additional current draw.
My Japanese delivery S model came stock with non halogen 35W bulb, and plastic lens.
I bought a new lens assembly with 55W halogen bulb from baja designs and fitted it to the Suzuki shroud.
Huge improvement.
My US delivery S came with a glass lens and 55W Halogen, but its not as bright as the Baja Designs reflector.
Never tried HID. It would be great for offroad but I also use my bike for everyday use so not sure if its appropriate for around town.
Is it possible to have halogen and HID, without adding too much weight ?
The total stator output is 200W
Kick start has been added - being stuck in the mud through restarting the bike continually from falls & flattening the battery is pretty dumb. Interestingly the DRZ 400SM model cylinder head casting is not drilled to accept the decompression lever to aid kick starting. We installed this without the decompression aiding arrangement and it is not hard to kick start at all so not needed.
I've never
had to use the kickstart but nice to know its there. DRZ's are notorious for stators burning out. They run in an oil bath and the oil eventually breaks down the coating on the copper windings.
Frequent oil changes (every 500miles) and good quality oil will reduce failures. My old DRZ stator failed at ~30,000km, and my newer DRZ is still going strong at 35,000km. Fortunately its cheap to rewind them.
Sprocket gearing has been changed to 13T front keeping the 41T rear. Going down 2 teeth on the front equates roughly to adding 8 teeth on the back. I'm told reducing the front sprocket will reduce the chain life as its turning over a much smaller radius, so this will need to be monitored.
Its a good idea to loctite the splines on the front sprocket. Apparently the back and fwd rocking of the sprocket on the splines eventually wears out the second gear bushing inside the gearbox. The physics are explained on T/Talk.
I wanted to change to a manual cam chain tensioner, Lan at C&P talked me out of it. I still think its good to have, if the auto hydralically driven cam chain tensioner fails, you could have some serious problems. It seems the cam chain tensioner problem was only on the very early DRZ 400 models and was rectified.
Yes, only a problem on pre 2003 models. The post 2003 ones are a springloaded pawl and ratchet.
There's a little play in the pawl/ratchet setup which allows the chain tension to change slightly as the valve springs are loaded/unloaded. Because of that, I reckon the camchain runs quieter with manual tensioner .
