Tuning:

Chassis:

stage1

• steelcoated Braketube, best plastic-coated. For road operation absolutely recommendable. (approx. $70)
• Kouba links: 8mm longer links for the back suspension. DR typical hopping of the rear wheel with associated lateral hopping out (sideways-kick) is prevented. (80 US dollar).
• Harder spring for original shock against bottoming. (approx. $80 Eibach/White Power)
• stronger fork springs (approx. $85)

stage2:

• Rear-Shock from Oehlins or White Power. (approx. $ 600)
• Renthal or Pro Taper aluminum handle bar ($40-100)
• Race-Tech Cartridge Emulators ($139) and new springs for plusher operation.
  

stage3:

• Quite wild people need a better fork (RM Crosser fits) and a rigid rocker e.g. Thumper Racing

Engine:

stage1:

• T-Vent: This modification for the CV-carb vent will help the bogging/cutting out/flooding symptoms when riding on whoops/doing small jumps.
  The carb is vented on the right side, where the forward hose runs to the vacuum petcock and the backward hose runs up into the frame. Pull the backward hose off, cut a 1" piece of line the same size (use clear so you can see when gas is overflowing), attach one end back on the carb, and the other end put a T-connector. Run the same lengt of line back up into the frame tube that was originally there, run another line off the other end of the T connector straight down and ziptie it somewhere low on the frame where the dripping gas won't pose a problem. ($5)
• for the stock carb you can order smaller JX Needle and spring from Thumper Racing. This is reported to have great results with an opened airbox and the stock carb
• pull the snorkel out and/or cut the top of the Airbox (s.Pic), Mainjet two or three Numbers bigger -> 137.5, Pilot one bigger ->40. If you don't want to open it completely, you could bore some 1" holes into the airbox instead and use 1" filter-vents
• Twinair filter
• Thumper Racing sells a t-handle for the pilot-screw adjustment. Just if you don't want to tear the carb out every time you play with the idle-mix.

stage2:

• Oil-Cooler: Orig. Suzuki with all hoses is about 400$. there is a cheaper one availiable from Jagg, but you will have to fit it yourself.
• aftermarket camshaft (decreasing life-span)
• aftermarket stainless steel Headpipe ($ 100)

stage3:

• FMF Megamax/Yoshimura/... aftermarket exhaust (200-300$), relatively small powerincrease (2-3HP)
• Airbox from Jesse Kientz , www.kientech.com ($280) should bring about 7 hp and good sound because of better flow. Jesse is very helpful with tips for jetting and engine things. For some more pictures click here

stage 4:

• bigger piston/bore:
  • a 385 cc kit will give siginficant boost, but any piston with added compression will do just the same. I cannot recommend this solution, since the sleeve is weakend from 4mm to 2mm. You can see the results of 2000 miles in the picture on the right.
  • The Cycle Gear 400 cc kit seems ok, but takes as much trouble (new sleeve) as the 441 &435 cc kits.
  • Thumper Racings 435 kit works very good. (230 US$)
  • White Bros sells a 441 kit.
  • all bigger pistons put the the e-start under a little more stress. so keep your battery fit.
• Mikuni TM 36 Flatslidecarb ($ 250) or TM33 pumper carb of US dirt-odel.
  

DR-Power-chart:

Contents

Other Tips and Tricks:

• Scott-Oiler: doubles the lifetime of your chain
• If you plan on not using the bike for a long period of time (over a month) drive the bike until the carb is empty or drain it. It will start a lot better afterwards.
• Acerbis Tank 15.5l for bigger range
• Acerbis brushguards with Spoilers keep you from being injured in the woods. The lifetime of clutch and brakelevers is increased and spoilers protect from cold winds.
• Acerbis sells frame-Protectors to prevent losing of your finish over the pegs
• powdercoating of the frame, aluminiumoxide on the Exhaust keeps these parts from corrosion
• on SP or N Models the generator can be changed with the stronger generator of an S or SE model
• use rim/sprocket 15/41 for street, or 13/45 for offroad use
• Racimex Oilthermometer
• warm up your bike carefully. Keep the revs between 3500 and 5500 rpm until you get at least 50degrees Celsius oil-temperature
• use synthetic oil for offroad or winter use (eventually you need to get stronger clutchsprings)
• get an enduro-stand. maintanance will be a lot easier
• get the clymer suzuki dr350 service manual (ISBN 0-89287-602-6)
  Contents

Tips for offroad use

• stock flashers and mirrors are very expensive -> dismount them and use aftermarket parts
• dismount the toolbox, or you will lose the rubber-cover
• dismount the rear fender and the metal-holder, wich tends to break (weight about 5 kg with rear foot-pegs)
• use rim-locks if you plan to use lower tirepressures, or you will tear your tire-valves of (tires need to be re-matched)
• offroad tirepressure: on sand 0.7/0.8 bar, in rocky conditions 1 bar (only with rimlocks)
  don't screw the tire-valve nut against the rim. put it against the cover. so you can see, if the tire is moving before the valve is torn out
• use reinforced tubes, rimlocks and knob-tires with good profile
• bore your levers in the outer third. so they wont break in the inner side leaving you "dead in the woods"
• You can tie the footbrake lever to the front of the engine-protector with an old clutch- or gas-cable to prevent bending it backwards when touching branches or rocks. Just remember to keep the thing loose enough, or your back-brake won't work well

used-buying tips, typical weaknesses

• the clutch-hub runs on a spacer with two thrust washers on each side, wich tend to wear. If this happens, the bike will creep forward in first gear and you will have trouble with finding idle-position. Just replace the washers and be happy again!
• if the screw of the gear-shaft is loose, the bike will shift up or down by itself occasionaly. you will have to fix the screw with loctite. If you don't, you will loose your gearbox sooner or later...
• check the clutchcover-sealing beneath the peg/kickstart area
• brakedisks tend to wear out or get concave (must be thicker than 3mm)
  
• the holder of the rear fender tends to break
• Instrumental-panel broken at the bottom, where it is screwed to the mounting-plate
• corrosion at exhaustsystem
• if the frame finish is worn over the pegs, the bike has been ridden offroad
• check for play of the rear-suspension rocker-arm
• Bearings, fork sealings ok?
• corrosions like this mean usually damage by crash
• the chain should not leave the sprocket too much. Max. about 5mm.

starting:

cold:

• Choke full pulled
• kick 5 times with full choke (don't use deko)
• progress to highest point without deko, then kick with full power
• if nothing happens after five minutes, push the bike up a hill, run down with active deko in third gear, release deko, if she has enough rpm.

warm:

• do not use the deko at all. just kick fast from the highest point .
  

stalled or gone out:

• keep the deco pulled
• kick 10 times to get air inside
• continue like warm

Electic-Start:

• hold coffee in left hand and push magic button with your right, until she runs :-)

If she will not start at all when warm, and your ignition and fuel is ok, you should check your pilot screw adjustment and jetting.
if she is to too lean (commonly after carb/airbox mods), screw the pilotscrew out (not more than 2-3 turns, if that is not enough, you need a bigger pilot-jet).
if too rich (spark plug wet, exhaust smells of fuel) pilotscrow in.
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Wheelies:

• disassemble rear fender :)
• 2. Gear, about 4000 rpm, weight to front, when the fork comes back out, full throttle!
• keep your foot on the rear brake!
• stabilize with throttle,
• 3. 4. 5. 6. Gear, as long as your balance goes. :-))
  Content

tires

Size:

with older bikes the only legal tires are 80/100-21 and 110/90-18. (You can use 90/90-21 und 120/80-18 too)

Offroad:

• Sand: Michelin Desert (for 140 rear you must cut it)
• Mud: Michelin Sixdays
• Pirelli MT81
• Pirelli MT17 Barum Stone King
• Metzeler Karoo
• Chen Shin trail on the back are reported to be good and durable

Street and Offroad:

• Michelin T63 (good durability, good dual-sport tire, not so good in mud)
• Pirelli MT 21 (like T63, front some more profile)

Street:

• Michelin Sirac rear (durable)
• Conti TKC 80 (cheap and good)
• Dunlop K560 (stock in germany, rubbish offroad)

Content

mechanics tips:

• mount the kickstarterscrew with Loctite
• use puller for kickstarter
• bolt Numberplate on Aluminium-plate (vibrations)
• Flywheel can be pulled with nut M35x1.5

Clutch

• 1st make shure your clutch cable is adjusted correctly (2-3mm play)
• the thrust-washers (Pos 2) tend to wear out at the sleeve which holds the basket on the gear-shaft. If this happens, the basket and hub can get into contact.
• replace the thrust washers or turn them to the other side and put an additional thin washer 0.2-0.5mm in to clear the two baskets. (I got some of the thin washers in my cellar).
• Beware: The washers are hardened to 480HV.
• My bike had this disease right out of the factory. The dealer (Motothek) was not able to find the Problem within the warranty of 12 month :-((
• check clutch-basket for grooves which can hold the plates in axial position and file away the grooves until you get a plain surface.
  

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Differences of '96 DR 350SE and '91 DR350S:

• no rubbers in the rear chain, therefore smaller Chain-sprockets
• transmission 15/43 (DR350S 14/45)
• Electric-Start. starts better :-)), considerable weight :-(
• bigger exhaust, some less power :-(
• the carb is equipped with a little switch at the throttle. the ignition is set to late, if you accellerate full at about 50km/h (30mph). This is disgusting, if you just wanted to overtake some lazy cars. Just unplug the switch or bend the little clamp away!

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DR 350 Links:

Kouba Links	Norm Koubas excellent rear links (USA) suspension-tuning
Kientech Engineering	Jesse Kientz excellent engine tuning shop
Albrecht Giancarlo	private bike-page (german)
Motorsports Network	(USA) nice test-summary
www.maximum-suzuki.com	(USA) good Forum!
www.dr350.fslife.co.uk	Phil Antoniou's private Site
Phil Herzog	Heat-grips and flashers
Renthal	Aluminumbars, sprockets etc.
Race-Tech	(USA) manufacturer of suspensiontuningparts (Cartridgeemulators)
Acerbis	Plastic parts
Horizonsunlimited	Links for long distance travellers
Baja Designs	nice site with offroad tuning and aftermarket parts (USA)
http://www.egroups.com/group/DSN_DR	Mailinglist DR350 (english)

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