Category Archives: DR350

Overland Expo

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This weekend the Howlers Vintage Motorcycle Club made an expedition to the Overland Expo outside of Flagstaff at Mormon Lake.

We started off from Prescott at 8:30am and stopped for lunch in Cottonwood, Az. I highly recommend this place!

After lunch, we decided to traverse Schnebly Hill Trail.

We went two miles up some very rocky terrain and my left leg gave out. We decided to stop for a break. It was hot and one of the guys was on his street bike, so we decided to turn around.

We took a water break once we got back to pavement

and continued on up lovely Oak Creek Canyon road instead.

Once we got to the Expo at Mormon Lake, we set up camp.

I have no idea what this thing is, but someone does some crazy overlanding in it.

This was just one of the interesting vehicles I saw at the Expo. 1940’s Willys (I think that’s the year)
Before I was born, my folks had a Willys pick-up truck that my dad built a camper on the back.

There were a lot of doggies traveling with their people, and plenty of water and treats all over the camp.

My folks were there with their lovely restored Avion cab-over camper and treated us to a dinner of home-made Indian food.

Arizona sunsets are amazing.

In the morning we went searching for coffee. There was a converted ambulance coffee truck close to our campsite! They even had soy milk for me!

We spent some time just hanging out at our campsite.

There were many vendors at the Expo, including a number of well-traveled authors. We had the pleasure of meeting Ted Simon, who wrote “Jupiter’s Travels”

I made some new friends.

This guy and his dog enjoyed the warm afternoon with naps.

There were a number of characters at the Expo, including this fellow who was riding around with his kitten in a tank bag. The kitty was un-phased and seemed to enjoy the ride.

Nested among all the shiny adventure BMW’s, KTM’s, and new Urals, were some fun vintage bikes.

We spent the last evening hanging out at the Mormon Lake Lodge restaurant and bar.

Sorry for the dry update – the camping was great, but I didn’t get much sleep for the few days we were out and I’m still pretty tired. 🙂

slacking

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I’ve been slacking on my pledge to write at least a post a week. I missed last week altogether. Oops. Ah, time flies when you are playing with motorcycles 😉

The DR has been continuously hard starting when cold. The first start of the day usually takes around 10 minutes of aerobic exercise. Yay kick-start only. I replaced the spark plug and noticed it’s running a bit lean. On advice from a friend, ordered a larger pilot jet to hopefully help with the lean cold starting. I’m skeptical, but we’ll see.

The previous owner took out the battery and replaced with a capacitor. I still wonder if the motor wants some extra battery juice in order to start. I think he gave me the original battery box, so I might hook it up and see if that helps if the pilot jet doesn’t.

I haven’t finished my morning coffee yet and my brain is still rather fuzzy, so this is all I am going to post today. On New Years day I promised I’d write each week, and that sometimes it wouldn’t be very good. This is one of those ‘not very good ones’. Sorry for the lame content. I’ll do better next week!

DR350 rear rack

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Got my rear rack mounted yesterday. It’s awesome!

Of course, the process started slowly because a bolt wouldn’t come out.
My friend brought over a breaker bar for that bolt and stayed to help.

Got it fitted up and checked out how it will mount.
The pug was there for moral support and to guard the property.

The turn signal wires on the right side ended up being too short (the rack mounts the signals a little further back) so we spliced some wire in and made em the correct length.

It was too nice a day to roll the bike into the workshop, so set up outside
Pulled out the drill so I could widen the holes in the storage tubes where the signals mounted.

She was a big help

All done! Looks great!


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