Next up is the Side Stand Switch. This is a danger but only when jumping the bike. Sometimes when you land it can make the side stand flip down and open the circuit and kill the motor. I don't ride aggressively enough that this is a problem for me but that switch is hanging down awfully close to the ground for my taste so I decided to remove it too. It would suck to be stuck in the middle of nowhere because of a small switch that got broken in a fall. This is another easy operation but it requires a butt connector. pull off the seat, trace the wires up the frame to where they go into the loom. cut off the connector and butt the green and white wire to the black and white wire. Tuck it all back into the loom, pull the wire and sensor out of the bike frame, unscrew the side stand switch and toss it into the garbage. Done. If only it was all this easy.
I found a solution to the tire changing issue: buy another wheel. i found a guy who has a DR350 rear wheel for sale for $150. This is cool because it is an older wheel from when the DR350's still had the cush drive on the sprocket so i should be able to just put my sprocket right on it. this will be a little bigger than the 17" that came on the bike but 18" rears are the enduro standard and they must know what they are doing. Another search on Thumpertalk and i found a couple guys who have already done this to their bikes. it seems pretty straight forward but we'll see how it works out. From what i have read it is just a matter of flipping the standard DR650 brake disc around and bolting it on. I am sick of swapping the brakes on my wheels so I am going to order a front and rear disc plus the bolts to go with them and then i will have 2 complete sets of wheels. The only pain in the ass is that i just bought a dunlop 606 for the rear in 17" size and i will have to sell it off. not a big deal but it is just one more thing to take care of. HOLY SHIT! i just called the local parts store for the brake discs, the front is $288! and the rear is $200! What the hell? that is an amazing amount of money for 2 pieces of metal. holy god. Now i am thinking that maybe removing the brake discs isn't that hard after all. It certainly isn't $500 hard. Man, Motorcycles are expensive!
Next up is a seat. After the ride back from the pine barrens i knew that i needed a new seat. Corbin is kind of what everybody goes for and they seem good but i have been reading lots of stuff about how they don't fit the bike as well as they should (especially for a $350 seat!) and they are breaking off the tab on the gas tank. This doesn't seem like a good way to spend my money and I was looking for something cooler. Enter Renazco Racing ( http://www.renazco.com/default.cfm ). This is a small company that makes custom seats for Dual Sport bikes. their website has a great ordering form that you list percentages of riding and also a short essay section where you tell them exactly what you are looking for. They got back to me very quickly but with kind of bad news. They said that the soonest that i could get an appointment to "build" my seat was next February! I still signed up but was dreading the wait, and then magically they sent another email saying that they could get me in in December and that my seat would be the last one they build this year!
They sent this along as a guide to how it will look when finished. I am going with the Black Vinyl top, Black smooth Vinyl sides, Black Stitching and no logo. I don't want the bike to look fancy so i don't need a custom seat logo on it. The guys at Renazco are calling it the "stealth seat". Ha. Here is the ultimate kicker, their hand-made-custom-built-only-for-me seat is going to be $25 CHEAPER than a Corbin seat! That just plain rocks and I can't wait to send it off to them. If you are looking at a Corbin seat make sure that you talk to the guys at Renazco first. It might take a little longer to get your sweet new custom seat, but it will be a much better item and it will be made just for you.
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