quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
At about the third tick I just say "Yes, Dear" and STFU.

Showed her - you got the last word in!

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
We have our finances set up as "Our Money" which pays all the usual household expenses, "Her Money" which is hers to do with as she pleases without consultation, and "My Money" likewise mine to spend as I see fit.

The bike will be coming out of "My Money", but that won't stop her from giving me the stink eye. She won't seriously object, but she'll express her disapproval.

Her logic is "you can only shoot one gun at a time" and "you can only ride one bike at a time" so there's no need for multiples.

Yes, there are loopholes in that logic, but 44 years of marriage has taught me not to jump through them...

When she says that, tell her that she can only use one purse at a time or one set of heels at a time, AND RUN. heehhehee

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:SWMBO is NOT going to be impressed if I pull into the drive with another motorcycle in the back of the truck...

Just bring it in when she's out shopping or something! The more bikes you have, the easier it is to add to the collection. My wife periodically asks me how many bikes I have. They all look the same to her, so replacing a bike is easy too.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
As long as stuffs paid for, what business is it of hers?

Nunya, IMO.

The key is to get so many bikes that you and your wife both lose track of how many there are total. At some point she won’t even recognize a new bike in the garage.

Yer gon die on that thing. Old guy on a dirt bike, what could happen?

Speaking from experience

Just buy a good helmet, and protective riding suit and wear them around the house so when she pounds the living shit out of you it won’t hurt as much!

Just make sure she knows that she is more important than the bike. Works with my toy collection with my wife.

To borrow from the meme I've seen, have the guy give you a duplicate receipt which shows a tolerable $$ amount for his "broken" bike which you KNEW how to fix.

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
Yer gon die on that thing. Old guy on a dirt bike, what could happen?

Speaking from experience

I somewhat agree with this. Probably not die but as we age it doesn't take much to turn a once minor injury into a fairly serious injury. Don't be afraid to spend some serious cash on protective gear. I gave up dirt bikes years ago just because I couldn't take the spills.

I went ahead and grabbed it. Needs a little more love than I had hoped for, but it's pretty much all the sort of things you would expect on a dual purpose bike. Plastic is a little rough, turn signals need repair, headlight is out, it'll need a set of levers and some new rubber.

On the plus side, suspension is tight, wheels are true, starts and runs well, clutch feels good, shifts well, brakes are good and it already has the case guards on it.

I'll look it over a little closer in the morning and take some pictures.

And I'll even be allowed to sleep in the house tonight! She didn't say WHERE in the house, but it didn't seem like a good time to ask questions.

Just kidding, her response was exactly as I expected. Giant eye-roll and "Don't expect me to wait on you when you stave yourself all to hell!"

I have no intention of pushing it. I know exactly how old I am and how easily what would be a minor mishap 30 or 40 years ago can become a life changing event. Just something smaller and lighter to play on the fire roads with.

Congrats man! That’s going to be a FUN bike.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
The key is to get so many bikes that you and your wife both lose track of how many there are total. At some point she won’t even recognize a new bike in the garage.

You may but that's my method for guns.

And it's worked so far. As long as she doesn't see everything together at once, it's all good.

Too late now, but you can always show her a Polaris RZR and let her decide. It worked for me... sort of. I didn’t get a bike, but I do have a fun RZR 4 seater in the garage.

I owned a 2007 DRZ400SM for a little over a year. The closest I ever came to going to jail on a bike. More fun than a third nipple.

Let me know if you end up with it. I've still got some factory Suzuki spares from those days - oil filters, neutral safety switch, etc. - that'd I'd be happy to karma your way.

Those are great little motors. Everything from mild to wild with mods, and basically the same power plant they put in their LT400 series quads, which equals a never ending stream of parts - both factory and aftermarket. Depending on what you want from it, there's a ton of room for improvement. Without getting crazy or expensive with cams and big bore kits, you can do a simple gearing swap, the 3x3 mod, full FMF exhaust, and a JD Jet Kit for a 10-15% increase in power. And with regular oil changes, occasional valve adjustments, and the TT manual cam chain tensioner, you can make it pretty much bullet proof. Mine had 18,000 miles on the factory piston set, and it and ran like a top when I sold it.

I think they're the near perfect size enduro or supermoto style bike. Not as porky and undersprung as the 650s, but not as anemic and buzzy as the 250s.

Good luck with the wife stuff.

Slight thread drift but this is a good place to post it. Do you think Suzuki will ever update/redesign the DRZ400?

A solid design can withstand the test of time and there is a big benefit to having a bike that’s been in production for a long time but at some point it would be nice to see a design refresh.

I have no idea if they will or not, stickman, but I WILL say I was a bit surprised to find out that a 2008 model bike still had a carburetor.

I don't believe the DRZ400 ever came with FI, but I could be wrong about that. If not, an FI update would be well received I should think.

It was never offered with FI. The 450 motor in their racing quad had FI but the poor DRZ was left on the back burner as far as updates go.

Honda and KTM have fuel injected bikes in the same displacement category. On one hand I like how long the DRZ400 has been in production without any major changes. This makes sourcing parts pretty easy. But on the other hand it would be neat if they eventually updated the bike.

Due to euro regs Suzuki has stopped manufacturing two bikes I really like, the GSX-R750 and Hayabusa. I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope Suzuki can refresh and redesign the DRZ with FI and shave some weight rather than eventually discontinue the bike.

Here's some (no so...) pretty pictures for ya:





It's filthy (a dirty dirt bike...the horror!)

So far the main thing is the wiring:





Headlight and front turn signal wiring completely butchered. Somebody spliced in those stupid little mini-led turn signals that snap off if you look at them crosseyed and did a really shitty job of it. One side completely missing, other side crimped with a bare metal ferrule. Headlight connector installed with "twist 'em and tape it" method, bulb missing.

Rear fender chopped and another set of those toy turn signals and a crappy LED taillight sheet metal screwed to what was left of the fender.

Both ends benefited from about 80 feet of WalMart's Finest Vinyl Electrical Tape.

Battery cover missing, held in with bungee cord. About half the bolts for the plastic and seat missing.

Haven't discovered anything seriously amiss yet, mostly just shoddy work easily fixed. Fortunately, I have a crap-ton of experience fixing other peoples wiring and most of the connectors and tools required.

Bionic, I'd love to have any spare parts you may have on hand, and I'd be more than happy to pay the shipping. My email is in my profile.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:

.......Her logic is "you can only shoot one gun at a time" and "you can only ride one bike at a time" so there's no need for multiples....

You need an assortment because Motorcycles are like golf clubs they all do different things.

DRZ is a nice, if somewhat dated, motorcycle as others have stated. It just seems like Suzuki is letting some of their bikes die a slow death just like Kawasaki did with the KLR650 and Honda with the old XR650L. Remember back in the day when the Japanese manufacturers were bringing out new improved models every 2-3 years and European manufacturers were so conservative at bringing out anything new? How times change.

I've never ridden a DRZ but my friend had one for some years and enjoyed it's relative light weight and beefy suspension compared to the 650's while being at least equal in power. As I recall his only gripes were wishing it had FI and got better mpg, he had his rejected with a pipe which lowered his mpg. And a 6-speed feeling the 5 gears were a little too close with first a bit too tall. He went down a tooth which made it a lot better crawling through the woods but then it was a little buzzy out on the highway in 5th. I don't recall him ever having a problem with it over the years he rode it.