Suzuki DR250 Cafe Racer? Scrambler? Just a fun city bike...

Coming along. Still need to clean up a few things and mount + wire the rear brake light.
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Notice the starting fluid. Ran out of gas, and had a no start situation. Flooded it bad trying to start it. Tried starting fluid. Pulled plug and saw very weak/no spark. My mind spiraled and I figured this was the end, I'd need to re-wire it, to get an impossible to find CDI box, etc. But then I thought "Hey, might as well try a new spark plug". Fired up strait away, first kick... So yeah, apparently I suck at working on motorcycles ;)

Finally got the front caliper mount done. It's pretty ugly as of now, this is hopefully temporary. Would like to make something a little prettier again now that I know this works. I ended up getting a front brake from a Ninja, and found a stainless steel brake line on clearance. Was easy enough to bleed and set it all up, the front end stiffness and braking has definitely improved!

Also found some cheap fork guards. Not 100% sure if I love the look, but we'll see. They were cheap! Just gotta get some hardware.
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Here is the mounting for the front axle. That bolt is threaded onto the axle and preloads the bearings in the wheel. Again, wicked ugly. But it was the only washer and bolt I had at the moment. Will work fine for testing and making sure I have it all put together correctly!
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Mounted the license plate. It's in a bit sneakier of a location this time... we'll see if the feds approve. I didn't see any specifics in the code/law website I looked at, and I've got a buddy with it mounted in the same location. He's been fine for 2 years, and even got pulled over once, they didn't mention it. I do have some mini led license plate lights on order to help legal it up a bit. Anyone in Minnesota have any experience with a plate mounted there?
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I [dont] promise to keep the mud off it ;)
 
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Welp, between the rats nest of wires and only getting 5v to my head and tail light, I decided to re-wire the thing. I'm never going to get around to riding it this summer! Glad I have a daily driver moto or this would get frustrating, fast. Ordered up some heat-resistant wire-loom type housing. It's pretty neat stuff actually. So that is mostly ran and done, just gotta figure out how to mount a little electrical box/fuses and figure out why in the world I'm only getting 5v out of my brand new regulator. Both wires from the coil test w/in spec as per the service manual, so I'm not totally sure the culprit yet.
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What a weekend! I decided that on Saturday, I was going to spend the entire day and see how far I could get. Definitely stoked on the progress. I’m a tall drink of water, so any gains in stand over are welcome. I cut the sub frame and welded it 3 1/2 inches higher.
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I know the welds aren’t the prettiest, but it was my second time ever with a stick welder. I’ve got a friend who will TIG it next week. I’ll call it “aggressively tacked”

Before/what-have-I-done:
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After/this-just-might-work:
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Cut some stainless steel shapes for a little electronics box. I want all the wiring to be a little more contained. So this is my attempt at that. I don't trust myself to stick weld it, but I think I'm making the trek down to my friends later this week to get all this and the subframe Tig'd up.
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Electrical box welded and mostly cleaned up. Still needs a coat of paint, just to rust-proof it.
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In location, but not mounted:
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Got the rest of the frame welded! Huge step, I feel like. Crazy stoked how it turned out.

Shortlist:
– Finish electrical box (clean up welds + paint
– Finish wiring (mainly headlight + taillight + brake light)
– mount brake light
– mount electrical components in box

Longer list:
– seat (...frick...)
– new tank mounting tabs
 
Getting the electrical box mounted like a big step! I'm really happy with how it turned out.
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And here it is, after removal and painting:
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The little red circuitboard with blue relays is for the turn signals. Got a little fusebox too. I also have a micro mini relay (not pictured, but will go in the center-ish) for a horn.

I also put a little side key and switch. Key is for safety, switch is for high beams. I want the handlebars to have very minimal controls, probably just blinker buttons and a horn. I may add another side switch too or a USB port.
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The frame below the on/off switch is looking pretty ghastly, I still need to grind that down and paint over it.
 
Still at it. Been living out of a Sprinter van with my wife (yes its by choice... #vanlife, right?) and we finally got back home for a few weeks. I spent some time working on the old motorcycle and I just totally forgot how fun it is to mess around with this thing. We'll be in town for another 2 weeks so I've got a little more time. Luckily, the bike still runs EXCELLENT. Been sitting in under a tarp, basically outside for the past 9 months. Fired up 3rd kick. I did throw some Seafoam in there last fall.

I hope to finish the bike and get a rear hitch rack of some sort to bring it with us. We'll see how that goes. Here's the bike as it sits: (the little headlight looks so sad!)
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I'm still loving the general shape of it, ideally the forks would be a few inches lower. Lots of electrical work to do as you can see. Main objective is to get some killer bright LED blinkers front and back, and a good tail light/brake light. And make a seat. And maybe repaint the tank. We'll see how far I get in the next 2 weeks. Wiring is going well!

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Got this tight little switch mount and replaced the switches with latching buttons (for the blinkers). I like how I can hit both of them at the same time to get 4 ways. Never had that on a motorcycle before. I do love how simple and clean the left side of the bars look. Also got new grips. $8 on Amazon, LETS go.

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Unfortunately that meant two 5/16" holes in the bars. Taking bets as to how long until they break. Hopefully never—pretty thick wall steel bars. And I think they'd bend before they fail catastrophically.
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Will take pics of the rear blinkers themselves later, I liked them so much I bought the same set in amber for the front! For the front I'm going to have the little bullet blinkers (same as the rear) and also bar end blinkers. Always thought those were cool and $35 is a cheap spot at that table!

The flasher relay is pretty neat, it's a solid state relay so no clicking noise. I actually kind of hate that part, was thinking of adding a solenoid just to get some feedback or something! Anyway its a standard 2 pin. It has a little potentiometer that you can turn to adjust the speed of the blink which I thought was pretty cool.

Also made a little bracket to mount the license plate. Still need something for a light, shouldn't be too hard.

As you can see by the renewed tabs, I'm optimistic that I'll be able to get it finished and that it'll come with us when we hit the road again :)

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Unclear about the legality of mounting the plate in the swingarm area there. It just looks so gooooood there! The frame is pretty open on the sides so I think it has enough visibility. We'll see.

Up next—making a seat:

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Seat came along nicely. I'd call it "done". In air quotes because I need to find a stapler strong enough to staple the fabric to the seatpan. I started with 1/8 (maybe 3/16?) plastic that I found as scrap from a local plastic distributor and heated it with a propane torch to this shape:

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Little lip on the back there looks kinda neat I think :)

Then, I used Super 77 (wish I could have used High Strength 90—that stuff is wicked!) to glue 2 layers of foam to the pan. I used a more dense foam for the bottom, and a lighter density for the top. Upper was around a 1 lb density (which was fairly soft, I'd have preferred something closer to 1.3 or 1.5lb or so density. For reference I weigh 200 lbs) and the lower was 2.2 lbs/cu ft. They glued together nicely. I made it a few inches larger and used an exacto knife to trim the excess. The seat is pretty comfy, but I havent spent more than about 5 mins on it. This isnt meant as a bike to do any sort of super long rides, but if I could be comfortable for 1.5 - 2 hours I'd be stoked.

(this is the bottom)
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Trimming excess:
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Then, I had to make a fabric cover. I chose a really cool canvas pattern, got the fabric from Amazon. I think it's gunna look dope. Here is the fabric:
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I cut the rough shape of the seat top and sewed pleating into the top for some texture. I used a 1/16" foam thing that I found at a fabric store. It gave a nice texture finish to the top of the seat.

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Texture/result:
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After making a simple (seriously, so simple) profile pattern of the side of the seat, I sewed the wrong sides together, cut of the excess, and folded it inside out. Fit on the seat really nice!

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On the sides, I needed a small 90º bracket to attach to the subframe of the bike. I heated and bent some pieces of plastic and screwed the to the bottom of the seatpan. Got this one a little too hot; you can see a little bit of burn on it! ;)

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Here it is on the bike. Loving how it looks!!! As you can see I also got a lot of the wiring put together. But that seat, with the tank, its a little crazy town. Soooo...... I'm going to de-sticker the tank. Oh well. I think I'm going to do a dark dark dark purple or something else understated? It would have to match the fabric, even just a little bit. I want the tank to be understated so the seat is the main focal point. Open to suggestions.

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