DRZ400 RallyMoto Bike

I've had this for a while, but I've decided it's time it got its' own thread, so let's get caught up:
June 2014, Somewhere in West Virginia
I traded my Rallycross Foxbody to tdrrally in exchange for a DRZ400, because NASA RallySport is awesome and lets you rally on two wheels if you want to, and I couldn't afford to go rallying in a car just yet.

The bike has a nice comfy aftermarket seat, a big aftermarket tank, and some suspension tweaks. More importantly, it's a street legalized "E" model so it has more aggressive cams and a better carb than your average DRZ. It also has both kick and electric start, because redundancy is reliability and reliability is a big berkeleying deal when you're rallying something that can't carry much in the way of tools.

I need to know more about this rallymoto thing.

Black River Stages 2014
Having spent all summer riding the bike, adjusting the suspension to my liking, and riding some more, I was ready for my first rally. I added some LED lights to the front and strapped the required first aid kit and warning triangle to the luggage rack, then threw it all on the back of my Suburban and set off for upstate NY.

The bike passed tech easily and before I knew it I was in line ready to start a rally for the first time in my life!

Make no mistake, bricks are being shat in that picture. I then proceeded to berkeley up the first transit of my life, making a wrong turn and ending up following another competitor to the start of SS1. Oops.

My first special stage was similarly kind of a E36 M3show- I thought I was going super slow, but nearly blew the first real corner I came across (no pace notes on a bike!) and slowed down even more. The Dunlop D606s I had mounted up were a nice robust tire, but they are NOT confidence inspiring on gravel.

Long story short, day 1 was tense and slow (Oh, and also I hadn't thought about how to read my rollchart in the dark- all the Moto guys get for a "roadbook"- and ended up with a flashlight ziptied to the bars.) but day 2 I relaxed a bit and went a little faster. Not enough to keep me from being dead berkeleying last, but enough to get me within 15 seconds of the next-to-last Moto entry. Not bad for my first rally, if I do say so myself! It's worth mentioning that I have very little talent when it comes to motorcycling.

RallyMoto competitors have to be the friendliest group of people I've ever met, I had a great time at my first rally and couldn't wait to do more.

In reply to Nick (LUCAS) Comstock:

No events anywhere near you unfortunately, but there's still time to put knobbies on the Sportster and haul it to SC for Sandblast!

RallyMoto is basically Stage Rally, solo, on a motorcycle. No pace notes, but for transits you get the contents of the road book on a roll chart like they use for enduros:

Very cool. I miss my DRZ.

Hammer Run 2014
No pictures, and not a rally, but an important day in this bike's history. The Hammer Run is a dualsport ride in the woods of NJ, and I thought I was ready for it. I wasn't. I crashed hard, and I crashed a lot. I crashed in every conceivable way- into trees, on flat ground, into mud, front flipped down a hill, you name it. The bike returned with every light broken, but it still ran like a champ!

Winter 2014-15
The bike needed repairs after the Hammer Run, so I tore it down and of course didn't document E36 M3. Basically I replaced all of the broken lights with LEDs, including the headlight, for which I used an LED "flood" tinted yellow for the lowbeam, and an LED "pencil beam" for the high- I was very happy with my auxiliary LEDs but wanted something with more range. Overall, I'm happy with what I ended up with, especially given that the entire arrangement of four lights is less than $100 on Amazon. I can track down exactly what they are if anyone's interested.
I also cleaned the carb, added a used steering damper I snagged on craigslist, did a E36 M3ty paintjob, and mounted up some Shinko soft surface tires. Then I got some more practice:

Sandblast 2015
Having sold my Suburban while gas was still $4 a gallon, we had to come up with a different solution to tow. My GFs Saab and a Harbor Freight trailer were determined to be the answer, and we actually had 2 bikes, since a friend of mine was coming with to volunteer and bringing his Husqvarna as a way to get around.

When it was time to leave, though, we were in the middle of a blizzard. The Saab needed a tow just to pull the trailer out of the garage, but it had snow tires on it and could move the trailer under its' own power once dragged into the snow, so we said berkeley it and went anyway.

Everything actually went fine until...

Somewhere on I-81S, traffic ground to a halt- unsurprising given the amount of accidents we were seeing. I checked the rearview as I stopped, and saw nothing, but about 15 seconds later a van slammed into the back of us at full speed. This jackknifed the trailer and pushed the Saab into the guardrail, spinning us a full rotation before a Semi made a glancing blow to the nose of the car, which eventually came to rest facing the wrong way in the right lane.

The car was totaled, the trailer was totaled, but the bikes seemed mostly OK- both had tail section damage and the DRZ had a bent kickstand. After some drama with competing tow companies and help from some extremely nice State Troopers and Firemen, all our E36 M3 was hauled to a local tow yard. We talked it over, and the decision was made that we weren't going home, we were going to Sandblast dammit!

I eventually, through bribes, threats, and more sweet talking than I thought I was capable of, acquired a crew cab Dodge Ram rental truck in the middle of a blizzard in bumberkeley nowhere PA, and we drove through the night, arriving in Cheraw at 3 AM or so with tech first thing in the morning.

The next morning, the Husky fired up like nothing had happened, but the DRZ wouldn't start- something in the carb had been knocked loose in the crash. Luckily, this beast has kickstart, so we were able to diagnose it and get it fired long after the battery had died from cranking. Tech was fine, although some hasty wiring repairs were made to get the turn signals working again, and at registration Anders (organizer and chair) made sure to swing by and say he was glad to see I made it.

It was cold at the start (Sandblast is one long day, and starts early) and with a ton of bikes we were running on 30 second intervals. Lots of passing. I am also terrible at riding in sand, but had no navigation issues and made it to the first service without a hitch, other than the bike stalling occasionally and being hard to start.

The rest of the rally went equally well, with me being slow but having no nav or timing issues- it felt like I'd actually figured out transits and time cards.

The bike only really gave me trouble once- I was coming into the "spectator hairpin", back end dancing around, hard on the brakes, clutch in, down to first, and... it stalled. In the most photographed and recorded corner of the entire event. Oops.

Anyway, at the end of the day, in a field of 46 Moto competitors, I finished 32nd. Not bad for barely making it to the Rally! I ran into tdrrally at the finish party, along with a number of rallycrossers- Sandblast is a long haul for anyone from the northeast but it seems that many make the trip to volunteer and compete. We loaded up our rental truck and went home, snagging excellent BBQ on the the way.

Black River Stages 2015 Day 1
Having cleaned the carb, ridden all summer, mounted up some Kenda Trakmaster tires, but not really fixed much else, we loaded the DRZ into the Toyota pickup bought with the insurance money from the Saab incident and made our way back to Black River.

The bike went through tech again, but I had somehow lost the first aid manual from my medical kit so I'll need to print another. I was excited to be back, having had a blast last year and feeling much more confident on the bike. All of my favorite Moto competitors were there, but a few were volunteering because they were too injured to race.

I had navigation nailed down, no trouble with transits (except for one incident were I followed another competitor the wrong way, have to stop doing that), and I had my head wrapped around timing. Felt way better on stage too, much more confident, although the bike was definitely down on power compared to last year.

The early part of Day 1 went well, other than having to transit a stage due to spectators driving on it (!). E36 M3ty, but I don't want to meet a car coming the other way at race pace either.

Here, check out this picture of me rockin' the GRM shirt while eating a sandwich in service and looking like a total goober:

Later in the day, things got interesting- we had torrential downpour for the night stages, and because we're not sissies like those Dakar guys, we ran in the rain. I actually put in 3rd place stage time on the last night stage, which is a personal best- here's the video of that special:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/q6p1An36S5g

The water took it's toll on the DRZ's electronics, however. On the last transit, my speedometer read 130, temperature read 380, and the odometer was indexing up at an alarming rate. Even the hour meter suffered, the bike now claims to have 70000 hours.

Black River Stages 2015 Day 2
Having gotten some rest, I came out of the motel to find my bike was dead. The rain had gotten into the ignition switch, and the bike spent all night thinking it was "ON". Kickstarter to the rescue again!

The rest of the day went well, I stayed on course and on (my own slow) pace. Well, except for the last stage, which got delayed by car cleanup until what was supposed to be a daytime stage became a night stage, and I still had my tinted goggles. I tried to run with them, but couldn't see E36 M3 so I ripped them off and ran most of the last special with no goggles.

I pulled up to the finish with my eyes burning and watering, but feeling great. I had completed my 3rd stage rally, didn't get dead last, and didn't die! I don't have a good picture representing this, so here's our crew chief looking the way I felt at the time:

Present Day
After BRS, I tried to sell the bike but nobody wanted it. I got my project KTM running and promptly sold it. So, I need to fix this I guess.

The DRZs problem has always been a lack of power, more so now than ever. It doesn't start easily, doesn't idle well, and hesitates at low rpm. The timing chain is making noise too, and I have no idea how many miles the engine has on it. And the wiring is a mess.

So, I ordered some more solder and heat shrink, a carb rebuild kit, and a big bore kit

Awesome!! Looks like a blast. Although that stage in the rain/dark looked like zero fun. You were hauling ass for not being able to see E36 M3.

I doubt my 250 would have the power to really keep up on the open areas....

Today I got started by draining the oil and coolant, and removing the tank and seat up in the (very cold) garage.

Here's the thing though- I have to work on the cars in the cold. I worked on the KTM in the cold (and drafty!) shed. I'm sick of working in the cold, it sucks, I have arthritis, and bikes have fiddly little fasteners that make wearing gloves an exercise in frustration. But I may have a solution...

That's my basement. It's warm in there, and all that stands in my way is a flight of stairs and a door. I should probably have measured the door, especially when I guesstimated it to be about the same width as the bars, but I'm more of a "try it and find out if it was a terrible idea later" sort of person, so...

The good news is it wasn't that hard to push down there, even without help, the bad news is the bars are, in fact, ever so slightly wider than the door.

A quick yank upwards and a twist of the bars to shimmy through the door, and we have a warm workspace. Easy peasy

Getting it back out will be interesting, but at least for now I can make progress without having to be miserable.

This is one of the things I love about my lower level garage with a door right to the basement. Lots of workspace for motorcycles.

Just about everything else I hate.

Removing the plastics reveals a large amount of "good enough" wiring:

The good news is, embarrassingly, I put a lot of this here so at least I know what it does. I always figured I'd get around to doing it right eventually, and "eventually" is apparently now.

I know this will bite me in the hiney later but where can I find some info about Rally Moto?

Did a search but really couldn't find any info other than this

"RallyMoto™ is NASA Rally Sport's trademarked name for its program that allows motorcycles to compete in a stage rally format."

In reply to GPz11:

http://www.nasarallysport.com/rules-forms/NASA-Rally-Sport-General-Regulations-for-Rallies-Section-4.pdf

In reply to GPz11:

There's also the NRS Rally University Moto Section. If you want more info on anything, ask away- I should be able to answer most of your questions!

Um, there was some conflicting info between the 2 sites or else I can't read. The wife would agree with the second part of that sentence. In the rule book, it states you must have all DOT lights including turn signals and in the university moto part, it just mentions a head light if there is a night section.

Are the moto events held at each NASA rally? I've got a '05 CRF450r with oversize tank, spark arrestor, hand guards and such. However currently not street legal but I can work on that part.

I'm in the Chicagoland area so it looks like there is a few events in Indiana and Michigan kinda nearby.

In reply to GPz11:

The rulebook is the "be-all end-all" and the Rally University stuff is more of a quick reference. Your bike needs to be street legal, insured, and have working head, tail, signal, and brake lights.

Moto events are typically only at certain Eastern rallies. Ohio Winter RallySprint, Sandblast, Magnum Opus, and Black River Stages should all have RallyMoto this year.

EDIT: I believe the Rally University section you're referring to is referencing the lights you need on your body/helmet. These are usually red flashing lights, so that they can find you if you crash in the woods at night and go flying down a ravine or something. You want section 4.9 of the rulebook for specifics.

This is the first time since I've moved out here that I wished I would have stayed in TN. I could have done all of them. There is no way even one event would be feasible from here though

In reply to Nick (LUCAS) Comstock:

I don't know, if you want you could forever be the guy who completed Black River Stages on a Harley, and rode 1500 miles both ways!

The bike is pretty well disassembled:

All the plastics, carb, cams, and a bunch of other little junk removed. BUT I'M STUCK

The compression release is blocking a head bolt and one of the shims. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the berkeleying thing out of there- it clearly needs to come out of the head, but it feels like there's a snap ring or something in there hanging onto it.

In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:

Haha, just kidding, I found the bolt. I'm dumb.

I still really want to do this. Magnum Opus is 35 minutes from my cottage. It would be so easy in theory. I just need a bike and someone to watch the Deucelings for a couple of days.
You're a terrible influence.
And if you ever do Magnum Opus you have a place to stay.