PerversePolisher's DR350 SuperMotard

This was never supposed to be a project bike. I'd first seen this bike in a box when I collected it for the now defunct Motorcycle Recycling Centre (MRC) and I asked how much they had bought it in for - just out of curiousity.

They had asked me to design them a basic website and sort out things like domain names, hosting, etc. However, they couldn't afford to pay me for my time. So I agreed to do the site in exchange for all the parts for the bike that they had.

My original intention was simply to assemble the bike and use it for a "Winter hack"....these things never go to plan do they?

After literally just bolting everything together to see if any parts were missing, I went down the pub, where a mate said he had a set of Upside-Down forks from an Aprilia that he'd planned to use in his DR750 but never got round to it. He said I could have them if I wanted them.

I collected the forks, yokes and front wheel later that week. I thought if nothing else, they'll make the front look trick.

When I offered them up against the frame, they were about the same length as the DR's forks and the steering-stem was similarly sized. They went in but didn't tighten up properly as the thread on the stem was 5mm shorter.

The only choice was to get the stem pressed out and press the stem from the DR's yokes in it's place. I also didn't like the front wheel, which was a rather ugly 21" spoked wheel, which wouldn't look out of place on a pedal bike. There was also a rather ugly Brembo 1-pot brake caliper So they went straight onto ebay.

As luck would have it, I was told about a guy who had a pair of wheels from a Kawasaki KR1 for sale. A price was agreed, and I figured it wouldn't be too much work to make them fit. The front wheel spindle was exactly the same diameter, although I only had 1 caliper mounting point on the fork legs and the wheel usually had 2 disks. TES made up a hub and a spacer to allow the wheel to run in the centre of the forks and an adapter to take the Bandit 1200 Nissin 4-pot brake caliper.

Whilst TES were working on the bike they also made a sleeve for the rear wheel spindle, as simply changing the bearings was not possible, as none are made in an appropriate size. They also made a bracket to mount the rear brake caliper (also from a Bandit 1200) onto the swingarm.

The engine turned out to be quite badly worn, so a rebuild was needed. A local mechanic offered to do it for me, he'd previously worked for Suzuki's off-road team, so I agreed to let him undertake the work. Naturally, this included fitting a Wiseco 385cc big-bore kit.

While the engine was away, I stripped the bike right down and sent the frame off for painting. A mate, who runs a car-body repair shop said he'd do it during one evening for the price of a beer. I wanted something that would stand-out from the crowd, so I chose "Tango Orange"! I also gave him all the bodywork and asked for a matt-black finish. He told me this wasn't a good idea, but would do a satin-black instead.

The swingarm was sent off to Steelheart Engineering to underbrace it as I now wanted something completely different that no-one else had done before (at least to a DR350).

All the parts started to come back and assembly began immediately, although I was still waiting for the engine. The bike really started take shape, although I hit a problem, when I realised that the DR's front mudguard would not fit onto the Aprilia's yokes, no matter how much I tried to modify it. I needed to find out exactly what model Aprilia these forks came from.....

I took the forks to several Aprilia dealer who were all totally stumped. Aprilia forks are quite unusual as they have compression in one leg and damping in the other. I had to take the forks apart and try to find something with an identifiable part number. I was able to find out the forks came from a 650 Tuareg, which is very rare in the UK (no wonder that the main dealers had been stumped!)

So as a precaution, the forks were rebuilt using new seals, but not before they had been polished to within an inch of their life, along with the swingarm.

It'd taken over 6 months trying to trace a front mudguard, but a chance conversation with Steve at Bikes of Brighton, when I thought a KTM duke mudguard would fit, proved very rewarding. He'd had a Tuareg mudguard on a shelf gathering dust for over 5 years. A couple of beers later and it was mine. It's a pretty nasty shape as standard, and I'm currently modifying it to look a bit better, it's a little worrying because if I get it wrong it'll take ages to find another one.

Currently... The bike still isn't finished, mostly due to finding a few other parts that were missing. The wiring still needs to be completed, along with sorting out a dashboard. But are these things ever truly finished?

So much for a quick rebuild and a Winter hack!!