HadesOmega Preps CactusPuncherDR650 for LAB2V 2018

Two years ago I rode LA to Barstow to Vegas (2016). This was the hardest most grueling dual sport event I had ever entered. You pretty had to ride it like a race if you wanted to complete it. I'd say I completed about 30% and bailed out the rest. I also learned that the year I did it was the hardest longest LAB2V in it's history! If you want to learn more about that here is my thread:

http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=507322

In 2017 me and the CactusPuncher embarked on our greatest journey the Trans America Trail and Nevada BDR. After the Nevada BDR the CactusPuncher was worn out. So fastforward to 2018. I not 100% but I may retire the CactusPuncher as my adventure bike. The subframe is bent and seems like no one can fix it. I dont' feel comfortable riding it loaded up with a bent subframe. So we're going on last adventure LAB2V 2018!

So there were many reason we had trouble on LAB2V. One was the suspension. I've have been refining the suspension on the CactusPuncher throughout the years. For the TAT I installed Excalibur the Cogent Dynamics Mojave Pro shock. This transformed the CactusPuncher, it did more work so I didn't have to. That was one problem I had during LAB2V, the suspension couldn't cope with the abuse LAB2V threw at it. The shock would get hot and fade. The killer whoops would kill it. Forcing me to wear myself out to continue on. But now I have Excalibur!

The next problem was weight. The CactusPuncher DR650 is setup like an adventure bike. That's what I designed it to do. But the extra weight made it harder to handle off road. So what I intend to do is shed as much weight as I can from the DR and make it more like a dirt bike setup.

To further aid with the dirtbike setup I am going to gear the DR650 down -1 tooth on the countersprocket. I didn't have trouble going up those hillclimbs because of the DR's tractor power but going down was tough. I wasted so much energy trying to get down one steep hill it wore me out. With tighter gearing I'll be able to ride down the hill more slowly with increased engine braking, that's how I tackle steep downhills. I don't lock the rear and skid it all the way down. It should make it easier to ride off road. If I can get it to 65MPH on the paved sections should be good enough.

The continued posts will be me prepping the bike, it's in battered shape and I've been focusing on riding dirt bikes, supermoto, and drag racing this year so with less than a week to go I gotta get crackin!

EDIT
I would also like to let you know my inspiration for this setup. I rode with a dude from Alameda named Sal, he was a pretty good rider and he rode a DR650. A fully tuned Cogent Dynamics suspensioned DR650 I might add. He even let me take it out for a spin and I remember WOW this is totally different from my DR650 it feels like a dirtbike! All I can say it felt like a cross between a XR400 and a XR650. So that is what I'm basing this setup on. I think since then I raised my bike up, another thing that killed me in LAB2V now that I watch that video was I had the bike in the "lowered" configuration and the rear preload wasn't stiff enough. The bike was too heavy for the spring I was using. But since then I have the Mojave Pro.
[youtube]01MO1HTj34I[/youtube]

Dude is rocking a Ducati Scrambler. I wouldn't mine riding a Desert Sled though it'd do pretty good since that's literally what it's built for =P Also I remember there were some dudes riding scramblers last LAB2V HARDCORE!

the old-guy trick on epic dual-sport rides is to cheat the fast guys by leaving an hour before sunrise ...

are your DR650 days behind you or will you find another frame for the Cactus Puncher?

subscribed.. You got this Merlin! Long live the cactus puncher!

Good luck on the bike prep Merlin!

We will see you out on the trail this year. Drew, Scott, and I will doing the LAB2V as well next week with Dmitriy driving the chase truck.

before giving up on the frame I'd try straightening the subframe yourself

CactusPuncher about a month ago


Time to turn this into a dual sport again


How I know the subframe is bent I can stick my hand between the seat and fender



Side rack bent. I'm not so sure when this happened but I think over time the frame just got more and more bent. After about the 2nd Baja trip I noticed the bike was riding differently. I think what really twisted the frame was when I had a lowside in Mississippi the bike slid about 50feet on wet pavement with me sliding behind it.


Strip side covers off. Look at all the souvenir stickers!


So I noticed my GSXR muffler was kinda loose. Probably because of this. The bolt works itself loose and moves around. I will probably stick a gromet in there so it has some give.

Now we begin to shed some weight! BBQ Rack 2.0 weight about 7lbs with the tools tubes that have 2 cans of chain lube and a tube of slime



Left side rack equipped with cutting board and rotopax mount. Also has a large empty tool tube where I usually keep my MSR fuel bottle. It can also hold a large can of chain lube. Bout 8lbs



Right siderack with HadesOmegaSpec Mechanic bag pannier with miscellaneous stuff in it. 11lbs



More stuff! Crossbrace, windscreen, Rotopax storage, stock DR650 tool tube, and tank panniers. I will probably put some of this back on. Tools I will carry on my back. Weight 27lbs -2lbs crate = 25lbs!



Bye bye dirtracks. If I can fix the subframe later they may go back on if I decide to convert to an adventure bike again. I am planning to reinstall the tail rack for LAB2V just incase I need to carry something and to protect the turn signals. Tail Rack doesn't really weight that much.


NevadaBDR dirt most likely mud from the last section going to Jarbidge. Also one of the wires for my turn signal came off. The stud is too long and causes the wire to chaff on the rear fender. Will fix that soon.



Thar it is CactusPuncherDR650 stripped down.



So I at this point I took the bike over to Evolution Motorcycles and consulted with Rob. He said the frame is bent a weird way. it's like the frame bent on the left really hard and someone tried to straighten it but wound up bending it in another place. What I think is after one of dem crashes I bent the rack and I tried to straighten it by pull it up. One too many drops overtime. Also I think it's because the toolbox weight 15lbs all that repetative whipping action offroad caused this overtime. He said it might not be worth it to fix so I took the bike back. I will try and see if I can fix it later. My uncle said we can try to fix it with an oxyacetylene torch and a press of some kind. Rob said it won't looks pretty but it is perfectly fine to ride it like this and I agree, especially if I remove the side racks.

Rewind to or fastforward to last week. Been so busy with my KLX140 and Wednesday Night drags I haven't been really working on this but LAB2V is coming fast gotta knock this out! So the #1 problem with the DR650 is it has worn notchy steering stem beerings. If you turn the handle bar it will get stuck in a knotch and you have to give it more force to get it out. No bueno. So I tackle this first. So what I believe happened was that I installed newer bearings with old outer races when I swapped in a newer front end. It accelerated the wear on them and notched them. I noticed this about halfway through the NevadaBDR. It's very err insteresting riding the bike like this. Also noticed I have a new countersprocket my secret weapon 13tooth countersprocket!



Whoops the bike is so light in the rear now that the bike just falls forward when I took the rear wheel off and down it goes. Good thing it didn't hit anything.


Ok back on track wheels off. I would also like to say the bike is so light I can prop the bike up on it side stand and lean it enough to get the centerstand down and then prop it up on the centerstand now

Front end bits



Forks off, headlight off



Ahh there's a good way to use that tire changing stand use it to hold up all the wires and handlebar stuffs. So I did this without removing the handlebar I have to much stuff attached to it =P



Old upper cup / race


All balls steering headbearing kit


Got the triple tree out, I greased the crap out of it last time!

Are you keeping the center stand on for LAB2V? Can save some additional weight there and you can easily change a flat with a simple trail stand or piece of wood.

Ok so here's the problem. I've never installed a full set of steering head bearings and races before. I watched a buncha video and they make it looks SOOOO easy to just punch the old lower bearing out. Well this is what happened. The lip broke off This is after I cut the bearing cage and took all the needle bearings out also. The DR650 is no joke the press that sucker in there and its super hard to get out.


I'm literally trying for hours to get this out. So frustrating. So I damaged the lower clamp trying to press the stem out with the bearing. I left the upper clamp nut on there when pressing and it destroyed the threads. But luckily I have my older lower clamp so I get that out and what finally works is AIR HAMMER! If you air hammer it from the bottom where the seal is it comes right out! $10 harbor freight air hammer saved me!


managed to not nick it up too bad



There's that little bastard! Notice the notches no bueno.


The old cages and bearings


These are the threads I mentioned I damaged on the press.


Pack them bearings good! I hate doing this stuff so messy.




So I used the trick where you drive your new bearing in with your old bearing. To make it easier to remove once you have the new one seated you cut a notch in it.



Got it in! I used the bearing trick and the air hammer to lightly tap it into place!




Best $10 investment ever!

I didn't get picture of removing the cups but that was frustrating too. The bottom one was easy I hit with a pipe and it came out. The bottom was hard because I had all the junk hanging from the bike. But I managed to get it out. I used the old cups to install the new ones. It's hard to tell when it properly seated.

Also I have video of everything I'm doing don't have time to edit that stuff right now though =P Gotta go work on the bike!

OH BTW I got the email with the info of both days of the ride. It's literally 200 miles a day! I think it was more last time like 450 miles! So i think they made it easier maybe. I wanted to say I had a bad start the 1st day because registration took so long and I had problem with the hills and the sand. The 2nd day I got up before the sun came up and rode and rode and rode. I thought I rode better too! I tried my best to do better and I wound up doing worse. The 2nd day had SOOOO much sand, it was sand wash central! Not to mention it was longer than the 1st day. It's go down this dirt road, make a right turn on the WASH!!! hahah I heard there were dunes too but I skipped that portion. I well tell you this before I broke CactusPuncher on the BDR it was in it's finished Adventure Riding form. We tackled Mojave Road and Death Valley very well. Lots of sand so I feel confident once the CactusPuncher is ready again we're ready for that nasty nasty Mojave sand!

And the forks back on the bike


So got everything buttoned back up now I install BBQ Rack 2.0 back on. First I remove the tool tubes. My strategy for LAB2V will be to carry all my tools and spares in my trail backpack. That way I have less to worry about stuff coming loose from the bike like last time my crossbar came loose and the bike is will be less burdened. Of course my back will be more burdened ' The main reason I want to put the rack back on is to protect the turn signals in an event of a crash. Also as I have no chase vehicle I will be riding back to Palmdale via the slab, I will have to be able to get my gear back to my van so i can strap my wolfman duffel to the rack for the return trip. Last time I did have a route 66 adventure going back home but this time I will just take the boring way.

Next thing to work on the chain. So i bought this chain from MSP cycles in Georgia before I hit up the Dragon and TAT. They assured me it was a good chain. Well it sure didn't last long. Probably have around 8k on this chain and it looks like it needs to be replaced already. But I figure if I give it a good cleaning and lube it'll be fine for LAB2V


Yuck Nevada dirt and rust


Yay clean now. So this time I opted to clean it with WD40. I sprayed and wiped it first with a rag. Then spray and scrubbed it with a chain brush. Then I sprayed and wiped it with WD40 again. Then I use Motorex Chain clean to kind flush out the WD40 a bit. Here's the results looks like a brand new chain or so I thought...



Hey look I can see the sprocket again. There's the part number for a 41 tooth DR650 sprocket if anyone is interested.

Next thing to tackle is changing the front countersprocket. I am going from a 14Tooth Sprocket to 13Tooth sprocket so I can better tackle those steep downhill sections. And so I climb those hills with ease not that the DR has any problem climbing the hills with it tractor power.


So I take the B&B Offroad countersprocket cover off and I see something alarming. It's an O-Ring. Presumably from the chain!



So time to inspect the O-Rings on the chain and it's no bueno the chain is missing MULTIPLE O-Rings not just that one. So my chain has been flinging O-Rings for who knows how long. Some are cracked and pieces missing also. Check it out. So hard to tell they're missing though wish they made pink or lime green O-rings =P





14T vs 13T sprockets



There it is all pretty now. Before vs After

Cabrito said:

Are you keeping the center stand on for LAB2V? Can save some additional weight there and you can easily change a flat with a simple trail stand or piece of wood.

Click to expand...

I will be keeping the centerstand on. Should help with fixing flats. The weight is down low so I think it'll be fine. But yeah it hits stuff. The bike has pretty good ground clearance. I learned how to put it on the centerstand without the racks for a grab handle. I lean the bike on the sidestand and extend the centerstand and then rock the bike back onto the centerstand. It's so light now

Looks like your work space has changed Merlin. Nice.

is that a new chain or are you running it even with all the missing O rings?

before I got to that part I noticed all the kinks in it

when you replace it, I'd strongly recommend going to a larger rear instead of the smaller front. I'm not a fan of running anything smaller than 14, it wears the chain out faster.

Junkie said:

is that a new chain or are you running it even with all the missing O rings?

before I got to that part I noticed all the kinks in it

when you replace it, I'd strongly recommend going to a larger rear instead of the smaller front. I'm not a fan of running anything smaller than 14, it wears the chain out faster.

Click to expand...

I am running 14-41 for my adventure bike setup, stock is 15-42. I've run it for a long time and it's tight enough for dirt riding but will still zip on the freeway at 70. But I am going with a 13 for LAB2V there were some really steep hills and the 13 should make it easier. That's not a new chain also, that's the one I got from a shop in Georgia. WD40 really worked good. I figure the chain will get me through LAB2V and back to Palmdale and going to chuck it when I get back. The rear sprocket looks like it's seen better days also but should last... I will take the 14T sprocket with me for the return trip. It would suck riding with the 13T on the freeway for extended period.


Yep new setting no more working in a driveway. My mom retired so we all moved back to our other house.

the smaller the front sprocket is, the faster the chain wears out

instead of 13-41 I'd recommend 14-44, fairly similar gearing but not as hard on the chain

Junkie said:

the smaller the front sprocket is, the faster the chain wears out

instead of 13-41 I'd recommend 14-44, fairly similar gearing but not as hard on the chain

Click to expand...

Yep I know because it spins faster and has to go through a tighter bend. I've never tried the 13 out before someone I met at Horizons Unlimited use a 13T and he said he liked it but rode slow with it. Plus I am cheap front sprocket was $15 rear is like $50. I think no matter what my chain is going to wear out fast on this bike. It get's abused a lot. I lube it every night when I was on the TAT it's still messed up. Also I can swap out a front sprocket in like 10 minutes on a trail and mark the chain adjusters for each sprocket.