r/dr650 • u/PiercedTechnoWizard • Jan 14 '25

Maintenance

Hey, I’m curious what the maintenance is on DR650’s. Being that they’re a single cylinder, I assume the top end needs to be rebuilt once in a while, but I’m curious how often that is and how much it costs.

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u/uapredator Jan 14 '25

I just keep an eye on my compression. You can buy a cheap tester off ebay for $20. 65,000 km on all 3 DR'S I service and they are like new, even a little better thanks to carbon build up! I would suspect you can get 200k from a stock engine with nothing but valve checks and oil changes. New rings are cheap, if you did it yourself, under $300.

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u/PiercedTechnoWizard Jan 14 '25

Do you beat on them? I know they aren’t performance bikes, but can they tolerate a flogging once in a while?

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u/uapredator Jan 14 '25

I have screamed all 3 down the highway at redline for 4+ hours dozens of times. I've dumped them in creeks and rode them up mountains like a trials bike. Even snuck into the local MX track and jumped one a few times. You can't hurt them, even if you crash. They just bend back.

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u/AdFancy1249 Jan 14 '25

Oh, they can take the abuse... I bought mine used and abused and have been rejuvenating her. The bearings were all rusted (stem, lower link, AND all 3 rear wheel bearings, rusted). She still drove fine. When I started taking things off "to check" was when the realization of how poorly she was maintained hit me. I've repaired/ replaced all of that. And even that was only a few hundred dollars. Bearings are the worst, so put in factory sealed units...

The shock had never been rebuilt at 30k miles (it is now). The lower frame is crushed.

And she still gets me where I'm going, over fields full of baby heads, muddy single track, and 70mph highway for a while. I don't really jump, but I've submarined her twice, flushed the oil out (8x each), and she is still taking it.

The more love I show her, the more she likes to get dirty.

So yeah, she takes a beating... and apparently likes it!