The adventures of Captain Custard and I

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blauth

Race Dog
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
3,031
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168
Location
Johannesburg
Bike
AJS (all models)
Sunday, 4th June 2017

If you're wondering who Captain Custard is......what's yellow and is spelled DRZ?

So after some toiling to find a DRZ in vaguely neat condition, I eventually found one. Not quite to my standards but a reasonable platform to work from. Spent the last three weeks (in between a crazy work schedule) getting a speedo, jetting sorted, suspension setup, wheels balanced, new clutch, locktight fixes common on these DRZ's in the stator, indicators working and so forth. It's now finally ready for roadworthy and for a decent test ride.

Its been a long time since I've been on anything resembling a dirt bike. My last was a KTM525 so my expectations were low for this DRZ, afterall, apart from the new gen KTM500 (and obviously new gen 450's), what else could live up to that?

Started heading out on Sunday morning on my lonesome along my cycling routes. I love riding on my own, you can do things at your own pace and go where you want. I was a little nervous because this was a recky ride on my new-to-me DRZ so who knew what could fall apart....especially since I had my fingers in there last..... :pot:

My cycling route consist of single track and jeep track mainly but some roads inbetween. Things were going rather well. My new clutch was nice and smooth and not grabbing and dragging anymore. Suspension in the back is spot on, front suspension fast speed compression damping is shit but overall damping is actually very effective. The combo between the D606 (pumped hard) and the front suspension, despite being hard as hell, really sticks to the ground affording good grip. It wasn't long before I got to a point on my cycle route where I always wonder "where does that path go?" So with HP instead of leg power, I legged it up the route, heading into the mountains.

What an awesome path! A short while after I decided to do some single track in the mountains again. I didn't really anticipate the single track becoming serious dirt bike climbing. Lets just say, my new clutch took some serious abuse (my DRZ is geared 15/44 ....very long for road use). At one point I thought I killed the clutch because it wouldn't release anymore, thankfully pretty close to the top of the climb. After I let it cool down again and adjusted it again, it's working ok again.....shew.....almost the shortest life span of a clutch in history....less than 24 hours old.

I realized when I was at the top that I was uncomfortably close to a khaya (on the side of the mountain, go figure) with a number of unsavoury looking dweller heading in my direction. This was a good opportunity to refresh my decending skills.

Thereafter, the ride was faster flowing riding along the canals past Harties and then home for a beer with a mate. All in all, I'm more than a little impressed with this bike. It's pretty quick, handles well and can do tar ok as well. I'm seriously unimpressed with the close ratio box but this is something I knew and didn't come as a surprise. As for the seat, ja well......we'll need to do something about that.

Here are some pics.



The rest of the ride was sed
 

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