Well, since my pic is posted on this website, I better give my 2 cents worth. I traded an XRL for this bike at Fay Meyers a few weeks ago and have had the priviledge of doing an epic ride with the grand master of this site on the Colorado/UT border this past week.
If it hadn't been for the magic button, I probably would have been content with the old bike. Little did I know what I was getting when I placed my deposit several months ago. This bike rocks!
In full stock mode it is pretty damn fast. Ask Bryan about our drag race... I plan to modify with a Yoshi slip-on (if it ever arrives) and will need to rework the rear suspension to work with the high-speed riding we seem to find in Colorado. Right now my only performance mods have been to rip the snorkel spot off the top of the airbox and a handlebar/bark-buster upgrade.
It is important for me to make this bike street legal. Mostly, because I would like to use this bike to run down the road to rent a movie, drop off a Fed Ex package, or wheely by the Taco Bell where the white trash girls hang out. Here's what I had to do:
1) Title the bike at the license branch. Just bring your paperwork and a wad of cash.
2) Sign my life away by swearing to the State of Colorado that this bike is street legal. They told me exactly what I had to have:
a) a horn
a mirrorc) a brakelight
d) a headlight, tailight
e) dot legal tires
3) I completed each of the above the following ways:
a) mounted a airhorn (the type officials use at soccer, basketball, etc.). I went to KMart and spent $5. I have a cool adaptor that I picked up at Performance Bike Shop that allows me to mount it directly to my handlebars unobtrusely. Unfortunatley, if the canister is not vertical, it doesn't work very well. I will figure this one out later.
picked up a cool adapter that replaces part of the clamp of the clutch lever perch. Screwed in a neat articulating mirror that I had on my XRL. Really clean - thanks to Kerry for hooking me up on this doohicky.c) the hardest part. Ordered a hydraulic switch from Baja Designs. Originally, they sent me a Brembo unit. Wrong thread pitch. Needed and finally got the Nissin (sp?) bango bolt/switch from them. It is the same model as used on the WR but there is one huge difference. It has to be mounted on the front brake. I needed to graft an extension to the wiring harness to reach to the "hot wires" under the seat, as well as, bleed the brakes. I also purchased a dual filament tail-light, license plated holder assembly. I had to ditch the super-cool LED taillight that came with the DRZ - too bad.
d) already had it.
e) well....
additional - picked up a speedo/odo/trip from Baja Designs. Super easy setup by mounting the speedo with the bracket provided directly to the handlebar clamp. A little grinding was necessary to make it work but actually quite simple.
Now I have the killer dual sport bike. It's friggin cool and the chicks dig it...
Next steps - beefing up the rear shock and getting even more power so as to humiliate all those WR's. And did I mention the magic button... Hot damn!
