DAMN Riders - No rules, Just ride!

juddspaintballs wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 9:29 am I know KLRs have it. I would have thought DRZs did. I can't imagine a DR-650 not having it.

Junior's DR no longer has one. He made a solid hub 18" wheel for his. He had a few cush drive failures at inopportune times/ places.

My Honda XRL650 dosen't have one.

Wingfixer wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 10:09 am Junior's DR no longer has one. He made a solid hub 18" wheel for his. He had a few cush drive failures at inopportune times/ places.

Huh, what actually fails? All of them that I've had were great big chunks of rubber so I wouldn't expect the rubber pieces to fail. Did the metal plates between the rubber dampers break?

Marylander wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 1:47 pm

Wingfixer wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 10:09 am Junior's DR no longer has one. He made a solid hub 18" wheel for his. He had a few cush drive failures at inopportune times/ places.

Huh, what actually fails? All of them that I've had were great big chunks of rubber so I wouldn't expect the rubber pieces to fail. Did the metal plates between the rubber dampers break?

I believe it was the rubber blocks that failed. It's been a while ago. Maybe Junior will fill in my memory.

Sold.

Yeah, I did a little googling for curiosity and it seems the rubber cush dampers can become compressed, worn, or dried up over time. Maybe this is a function of age more than mileage as I've had several bikes over 60k miles and never had an issue with the rubbers. That's about where I've gotten bored with a bike so I'll get rid of it after 4-5 years, maybe not long enough to have them worn out.

Congrats on getting rid of the wheels Jed. This reminds me that I want to put a smaller front sprocket on the 690 as I softened it up too much in going to a big one... I haven't ridden a proper dirt bike turned into a supermoto though. The 690 weighs a bunch more.

I've replaced the cush rubbers on a couple bikes. They're usually not that expensive and quite easy to replace.

Skinny-J wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 1:13 pm My Honda XRL650 dosen't have one.

Honda rally bikes don't either but ktms do

you can fit the dr250/350 cush wheel onto the ktm bikes with minor fiddling if you are a cheapskate like me. I'm running one of these on my 300 with a trials tire for no apparent reason

Yeah, they are typ pretty cheap to replace. I also agree they just seem to get old w/ age (as all rubber parts do.)

An interesting point is that the Beta Rev3 trials bikes have the dampers in the clutch basket. I know some KTM enduros (like the 500EXC) have similar since at least the 2012-ish generation. Cars all have something similar like a spring-centered clutch (or dual-mass flywheel) to minimize transmission noise via reducing cylinder firing shock loads into the gearbox.