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A Tale of Woe

By Tim Saunders ( tsaundm1n01398@KIADROCH.KIAD.AC.UK )

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Back in Jaunary 1999 my last bike (a Kawasaki KMX) was stolen from the drive-way of the house that i was living in, in the Kent countryside. I was understandably pissed off, as i had only left it for ten minutes. But the bike was passed it, and i will probably get more from the insurance than i would if i had sold it (although seven months later i am still haggleing with them). Making the most of a bad thing i decided to buy the bike of my dreams, A Suzuki DR350. Everyone i spoke to, and every review i read said it was probably one of the best dual sport bikes money could buy. So i was able to justify the cost to myself (i am usually reluctant to spend over £1000 on anything) as i would be using it for commuting into college and back, and unlike the KMX it would be far more reliable. So i looked around and found a good and well maintained example with only 12000 genuine miles on the clock. I fretted about it and finally settled on a price and bought it. I am not rich and the money came from my student loan (that was supposed to be furthering my education and drinking abilities). But it was the bike i had always wanted and i was happy.

But the problems started on the very night that i bought it. The exhaust pipe burnt a hole in my jeans, i was a little pissed about it but put it down to experience. Starting it was also a bit of a bugger at first, but i soon learned with experience. A couple of flat tyres later the front wheel lost it on the ice, the DR falling on top of me and spraining my ankle. But again i put this down to experience, and the trials type tyres that were on it at the time but now replaced (at a cost).

After a 1000 miles or so the real problems started. First the decompressor cable snapped, a new one was bought and fitted. Then the clutch started dragging, so a new clutch cable was fitted (£25!), this seemed to cure the problem, but it would soon be back to haunt me. Later the regulator failed and shot most of my electrics out. A new regulator cost my £130! add this to the price of a new rev counter, indicator relay, battery and tons of new bulbs, it mounted to over £200. So far i was not impressed with the DR's reliability, but far worse was to come.

The clutch started dragging again, at first it was fairly minor, but in the space of an afternoons mild road use it became totally unuseable. Clutch-less gear changes were no problem but the only way to stop or to get neutral was to turn the engine off. This made all journeys almost impossible and very dangerous. It was while i was in Maidstone town centre trying to fix the clutch cable to stop it dragging that some thug tryed to steal the bike while i was on it! If i had known all of the trouble that the DR would cause me in the future i would have let him have it. But in the event the frustration of having the last bike stolen and the problems with this one led to the potential thief getting a broken nose when i head-butted him with my helmet on! It was also at this time that i had moved house so i could now walk to college. The DR had become so unreliable that i was missing far too much college time and had to move to a more expensive house. Despite my part time job i was soon going to go broke if things kept going the way they were.

So i stripped the clutch down. The rack release bearings had eaten into the outer pressure plate, there was not much left of each. So i bought the replacements and fitted them according to the clymer manual that i had bought. 200 miles later it happened again, again i replaced the parts and it happened again. It was costing me about £35 every time, not including the oil that needed changing each time. So this time i rebuilt the whole clutch (new thrust washers, plates, springs, rack bearing and pressure plate) and started talking to people about the problems. The only thing that the dealer could come up with was that there was another bearing in the engine that was worn out and this was putting excess pressure on the clutch. Now thinking about it i thought that i might have the answer. The release bearing is one sided, eg rollers on one side and a washer on the other. Now the manual, and the garage told me that the bearing side ran against the alloy pressure plate, and not the steel release rack. I didn't think that the alloy was up to the job, which was why it was getting eaten away. I figured that i had nothing to lose putting the bearing in aroud the other way so that the rollers ran on the steel rack and the washer on the alloy. It went back together and problen solved. The moral of the story don't always trust your manual or garage.

So it was running again, and despite having spent a huge amount of money on it (i have now lost track) i was happy with it, and reluctant to sell it even thought i needed the money. After 1000 miles there was still only one minor problem, the horn wouldn't work unless the bike was turning left, but a big air-horn solved this. I was contemplating spending about £150 on it to get it looking real good with some trick bits. But i would soon discover that the DR was lulling me into a false sense of security. Coming home from London one night the engine seemed really sluggish and was reluctant to rev freely, it would also start making a funny rattling noise above 7000 rpm. I thought that it might be something loose on the frame, so i decided to go home via the back roads and take it easy. About 10 miles from home going up a hill in fourth the engine siezed without warning. I always ride with two fingers on the clutch and it was only for this reason that i avoided getting thrown off. I looked the bike over there was nothing obviously wrong with it on the outside, but turning the engine over with the kick-start i could tell that there was something seriously wrong with it. It felt as if the cylinder was catching on something. Caution told me not to try and start it again, and i called the AA to haul me home. I had to wait 3 hours in the rain, and was picked up by the world's worst and slowest AA man. I got the DR home and waited a couple of days before looking at it (the mood i was in i would have probably taken an angle grinder to it).

When i finally stripped it down i was horrifyed at what had happened. One of the exhaust valves had snapped in half on it's shaft. The valve head had fallen into the combustion chamber causing the seizure. What was worse the loose valve had damaged the piston, cylinder head, spark plug and other valves beyond repair. Even worse the released exhaust valve spring had pushed the rocker arms onto the cams and had ruined both. I worked out that rebuilding the top end would cost about £750 ( a new cylinder head costs £420 alone). I was not prepared to spend this kind of money on the unfaithfull DR. So i started hunting around breakers yards for a second hand head or even engine. I phoned around nearly 400 yards and had very little luck. The one yard that said they might have one wanted £150 ' if it's any good' for a cylinder head, but it didn't sound very promising. I had given up hope when at about 5pm i got a call from a bloke called Chris. "I hear you are looking for a trial bike engine" he went on to explain that he had a stolen and recovered trial bike, he didn't know what it was but he described it and the engine number seemed to be from a DR350. I got the engine number and called the police to check whether or not it was still 'hot', it wasn't. By coincidence the yard was also fairly close to me (Ashford), it coud have been anywhere in the country. I went down the next day and had a look at it. The engine looked a bit rough, but looking at what was left of the old bike i could see that it had been well cared for, but there was no way of telling the mileage of the engine as the speedo was missing. Even so i decided that this was probably my only chance to get the DR working again. £164 later the engine was mine. I got it home and looked it over, the oil that was left in it seemed clean, so i changed the filter and decided rather than strip it down and rebuild it i would just swop engines to save time. I could see no reason that the new one wouldn't work, worth a shot at least. So i swapped them around in a day, but now another problem. Despite a new spark plug and good electrics on the old frame i can no longer get a spark. i have checked the obvious, but electrics are not my strong point and i have run out of money. I don't know how to fix it myself and can no longer afford to pay someone else to fix it. I have also been made redundant and am finding it hard to feed myself, let alone fork out more money on the DR.

The problem that i am faced with now is that i need money to fix the DR so i can sell it, but i cannot afford to fix it until i have sold it . Catch 22, it sucks.

So DR's aren't all they are cracked up to be, or at least not in my opinion.
I am now left with probably one of the most expensive and time consuming garden ornaments in the world. I would have thought that this amount of stress and mechanical failure is totally unacceptable from a bike that has only done about 13500 miles.

If anyone has any help, advice and opinions, or better still the address of Suzuki in Japan so i can write them an angry letter, or if you want to simply give me lots of money. You can contact me at;

Tim Saaunders,
7 Walkhurst cottages,
Walkhurst RD,
Benenden, Kent,
TN 17 4DS.

TEL 01580 241 656 or 01622 664313 (daytime)

Cheers for taking the time to hear my story of woe