Building DRZ125L motard, 19" or 16" front rim?

[DelLaSol]

Building a mini motard out of my DRZ125L. The 16" rear wheel should be great but I was thinking, would it be better to use the stock 19" front set up with disc brake, or swap out for the 16" standard DRZ rim with a drum brake so the front and rear are the same size?

Or can anyone think of an alternative where I could keep the disc brake set up but maybe lace the drz-L hub up to a 16" rim with a different spoke set.

[w00ht]

I'm building my DRZ for SM also. Pro Cycle sells a "lace your own" setup with 2.5x17 front and 3.5x17 rear excel rims and Buchanan spokes to lace to your stock hubs. That kit is 435.00, they also sell fully built 17" wheels with stock hubs for 900.00. The latter would let you keep your stock rims for dirt and the 17's for SM.

What I would do is run a set of Dunlop GT501 front tires on your stock rims until you can save the cash for the 17's. 17's will give you an much much broader tire selection as most sport bikes roll on 17" wheels (hence the reason SM guys run 17's). The Dunlop GT501 tire was the spec tire for the now defunct Honda supermoto challenge run on CFR150's with stock wheels. The sizes are 100/90-19 and 110/90-16. Both of those are front tires, not that it will really matter the "rears" are just wider. You can find a set on ebay for 180.00 shipped.

Good luck! I'm working on putting together a parking lot series for fun and cheesy trophies in Virginia. Check out the mini tard section on supermotojunkie.com. There is also a track day for mini's in Richmond this weekend at the G force indoor kart track. PM wbatta on SMJ for info, he had a few spots left as of Tuesday.

[norcalklx]

17's are the way to go the bike will turn and handle much better. I did use brigestones on the stock wheels before a got the 17's and they worked pretty good. good luck with your build the suz/kaw is a very good bike.

[DelLaSol]

hey wooht, I'd love to go to the gforce thing, two of the guys from work built a make shift drz125 motard yesterday for saturday out of a used bike we got on trade, they are going to be there but I have to leave early to pick up a scooter so can't come in late to go as much as i want to

thanks for the info on the 17" set up, thats not too bad of a price, but I think i'll try some tires on my stock wheels just to see how i like the bike as a motard before i get a dedicated set of wheels... do you have a website or contact for Pro Cycles though if I decide I want to go that route?

[w00ht]

The link to procycle is here. I haven't actually ordered anything from them but haven't heard any bad feedback about them either. They also have a DRZ125 section. Their big bore kit is about 40 bucks cheaper if you pick up the requisite pats from ebay.

I decided to save up the cash and re-lace my stock hubs to the 17's. Being a play bike I imagine a set of 17" dirt tires would be fine on the SM wheels for chasing the kids around the kiddie course down in Morgans corner. ?

[DelLaSol]

One of the guys at work just called G-Force and they said they are absolutely certain there is nothing happening there tomorrow.

[w00ht]

Thats odd. Here is the thread from over at SMJ. It would definatley suck to drive up there for nothing.

Link

[w00ht]

Confirmed with the organizer, its on for 9-11 tomorrow. Fee's are $20 a rider and there should be room for a few more as there were some cancellations.

[DelLaSol]

must have been some dumb ass part time guy that didn't know about it when we called

[ProCycle]

norcalklx is right. There are much better tire choices for 17" rims.

That said, you can still have a lot of fun with the stock rims.

We have had much better results with Bridgestone Trail Wings than

whit hte GT501s. The TWs seem to work pretty well no matter what

the conditions. The 501s maybe stick better when the pavement is warm

and dry. The TWs are a bit more forgiving. Letting you know before they

want to start sliding. The TWs will be generally better in the dirt sections

unless it it pretty smooth and hard packed. For unbelievable traction put

on a set of 17" roadrace rains.

[wbatta]

Hey Guys,

Sorry it's late; just got in.

You are correct... the guys that work there must either not be working tomorrow or just not know. Actually, when I first approached them about the idea the general concensus was "no way," but when I talked with the owner he was all for it.

Anyway, we will be riding tomorrow from 9am til 11am. Cost is $20. Depending on how well things go, we will look into bringing a larger group for a longer period of time. For more info check here:

http://www.supermotojunkie.com/showthread.php?t=11088&page=1&pp=10

Email me if you would like to be kept informed about future dates.

wbatta AT comcast DOT net

[DelLaSol]

Whats your email adress? Two guys from work are up there right now with a drz125, I decided to stay and work today since I'm still working on my motard, but if I know about it next time more in advance I can almost guarantee you probably 6-10 more guys regularly myself that would really be into this. If we can run it every few months or something I'm sure it would be successful.

[w00ht]

It was fun running with them today, had a ball! We are going to start doing some organizing so we can break up into groups etc. Todays session went real well.

I'm h00k3dup at gmail dot com