I just bought a dual-sport bike a week ago, because I love dirt bikes and how they are indestructable and capable of anything. It is basically a dirtbike that has all lights and vin numbers and a license tag so that it is street legal, but at any whim I can tear off the road and fly over a ditch. I also wanted economical transportation and the DR650SE was very comfortable and had a lot of power for the weight and also because I am nineteen and I am a male with 6 points on my license in the state of florida so for me to insure any car at the minimum required by law I would have to pay 320 dollars a month. So as a result I wanted to buy a bike to save money on gas, insurance, and car payments, but it looks as though it won’t be as cheap as I thought due to the valves needing to be readjusted every 4,000 miles at a cost of four hours of labor at eighty dollars an hour by the dealer, plus tires every four thousand miles. Is there any way that I can lower my dollar per mile cost through doing the valves myself and finding a really cheap tire that is hard and that will last longer that will fit my rim even though it may compromise traction? Also can yoiu put amzoil in motorcycles with wet clutches. If so, where is the cheapest easiet way to obtain this rare commodity?
Boy is it going to rain on this thread.
Remember folks this is IMHO.
Wow! It seemed like only last May, you were 23 years old 
Hmm, I’d change dealer rather rapidly.
How many valves, four at most since its a single pot and 4 hours, like wow!!
Its air cooled, with an oil cooler, couldn’t be much more simple to do, this can only be at most a half hour job, and to include an oil and plug change plus a full service, two hours at absolute most.
Trial bikes are made for easy maintenance, much more so than say plastic covered sports machines.
You are being screwed royally.
Traillies tend to have higher insurance as they are targeted by thieves, and your age is against you.
You should look into getting some block tread tyres(catspaw tread), these last forever and work fairly well on the road at the expense of off road performance.
Large single cylinder machines tend to be heavy on chains, sprockets and it isnt worth getting cheaper stuff as it lasts much less and works out more expensivem hoever the very expensive stuff made for race enduro machines is not a good idea as it doesn’t last either.
If you have a wet clutch, you need to be a little careful about the additives in the oil as they can cause the clutch to slip, stick with the manufacturers spec, good mineral oil will be best for a thumper like this.
You seem to be really concerned about money Hauss. How many jobs do you have?
Oh and can you fit a baby seat on that Bike?
that is my brother he is 23 and i am 19 sorry about that my bad
what do you mean “single cylinder” hard on the chain and sprocket
is that because of the jerkiness of the motor?
and why not amzoil this oil is supposed to be the oil where you can go 10’s of thousands of miles before a change all you have to do is change filter and top off
You know, the chain and sprocket, the thing that makes the round thing in the back go round? The more powerful the engine the more wear you put on them.
Looks like you’ll be learning how to do your own valve adjustments as well, though they are not that hard, I do them on my concours which is a real PITA because of the plasic. You’ll also be learning how to remove wheels and then taking them to the shop. Though I have never really heard of tires that last only 4k unless they were sport bike tires. Then again I don’t own a dual sport.
As for the oil, you do know that for the most part when you would change the filter most of the oil comes out right? The filters are usually at the bottom of the engine so you go pulling that and it all comes out. You can though not change your oil every 3k and changing it every 6-10k like I do, then again I put a lot more miles on my bike then most people.
You’re better off sticking with a car though, the tires are more expensive, don’t forget all the gear you’ll need unless you really like road rash. In the end you’ll not save any money.
Excuse the hijack, but hauss, will you please get your butt over to the Pit? There’s a thread that was originally addressed to you, though it’s long since gone off the tracks. Some people, myself included, are curious about your dilemma.
Dude, I live here. Not much places you can safely off road without fear of running into illegal dumps of hazardous material. This is Broward county. It’s flat. There isn’t anything here, man. I’ve lived here and near Hollywood for a long long time. Trust me. You’d have to drive north onto private property or illegally ride around in protected lands to get anything vaguely “off road”.
However, if you bought it from Rick Case Suz, I’d try taking it to another dealer. They will charge you up the yazoo for everything. I used to live near there, so by default when I had a ‘dealer’ problem, well, I rolled it over there.
If you are looking for an honest mechanic, find Prime Tune in Pompano. It’s the other side of the county, but they are damn straight with me, always, and probably know someone just as good you can get your bike work done at.
But as others have pointed out, there aren’t a whole lot of savings for you on that bike when you add it all up - you might be better off with a moped or a small car considering how much it rains around here (especially this morning, yeesh what it did to the commute!).
That’s Prime Tune - used to be in Lighthouse Pt, now in Pompano off of Sample, I think? I haven’t been to their new place yet (touch wood). I thought they were going to move into that shop off of Commercial that was closed for a while (great property, right near the Child Support Enforcement agency) but they didn’t. Too bad, would have been handy for me.
Its parlty because the motor is jerky, but its really because your particular machine has a large capacity for a single cylinder.
Thumpers like this are known for having lots and lots of low rev pulling power, or grunt, and this tends to stretch chains and wear sprockets, add to this that it’s a dirt bike, where you will get muck and grit in the chain an sprockets, and the wear rate is guarunteed to be high.
Unless you are pretty good off road rider, a 650cc machine is rather large, most off roaders are plenty happy with around 400cc at most, and maybe you should consider something like a 2stroke 250 which will be plenty good enough for the job, but the insurance costs will be much lower, and the tyre wear will be less, as will the wear on chain and sprockets.
I would not take anything above 250cc off road, too much power for someone not regular in such conditions, and many folk find 125s adequate.
While the bike comes with costs of maintenance, it would still be cheaper than a car.
Certainly you can learn to manage the valves or find a local shop, as the $ quoted is high.
And with all the money you save, you’ll be able to support “it”. You’ll also be ablt to enjoy what you love.
(Note: In a previous thread, hauss describes his future baby as “it”. After getting some people ticked, he pops in to talk about his dirt bike as “love”. Good move, sport.)