Hardey
Pack Dog
Word of advice to all the WD Members with 650 Dakars.
Since this bike is a glorified Thumper with a Microlight engine, after every serious (and not so serious) dirt road trip and on a regular basis check all nuts and bolts for tightness. Do not trust the establishment or person that service your bike to do it.
Some of the things that happen to me (or rather the bike)
· It develope a high pitch vibration on the steering (and front forks). Could not find the reason for it and besides on dirt you do not feel it and the bike is anyway a glorified Thumper, so I ignore it. This later turn out that the two bolts on the frame, beneath the radiator that keep the two frame sections together were loose. The frame actually starting to cut slots into the bolts so loose it was.
· Another vibration and metal scraping noise turn out to be the bottom mounting bolts of the engine broken in half.
· Then it started to make a funny clunking sound every time I hit a speed bump in the road This turned out to be the bolt connecting the rear shock to the Z-linkage, broken in two pieces. With no load on the rear suspension, I was able to remove these broken sections by hand.
Hereby I must confess that this machine has done 132 000km including a serious stupid accident that may have contribute to these loose and broken bolts through the years.
Since this bike is a glorified Thumper with a Microlight engine, after every serious (and not so serious) dirt road trip and on a regular basis check all nuts and bolts for tightness. Do not trust the establishment or person that service your bike to do it.
Some of the things that happen to me (or rather the bike)
· It develope a high pitch vibration on the steering (and front forks). Could not find the reason for it and besides on dirt you do not feel it and the bike is anyway a glorified Thumper, so I ignore it. This later turn out that the two bolts on the frame, beneath the radiator that keep the two frame sections together were loose. The frame actually starting to cut slots into the bolts so loose it was.
· Another vibration and metal scraping noise turn out to be the bottom mounting bolts of the engine broken in half.
· Then it started to make a funny clunking sound every time I hit a speed bump in the road This turned out to be the bolt connecting the rear shock to the Z-linkage, broken in two pieces. With no load on the rear suspension, I was able to remove these broken sections by hand.
Hereby I must confess that this machine has done 132 000km including a serious stupid accident that may have contribute to these loose and broken bolts through the years.
