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PhilDAS
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@pdlouche
Part 2:
Looks like tests won’t resume until middle of July at the earliest. DVSA email updates just confirmed theory tests won’t recommence earlier than 3rd July. Getting very antsy. Worried my confidence on big-boy bikes has evaporated. Keen to get riding the Bandit again and get the test over with. Accepted that a road bike would be too tempting to go fast, and an enduro would be a better option all around.
Been beating myself up since March looking at all the non-bargains sell online. I’d watched the prices of Beta Alp, Suzuki DR/DR-Z, even KLR. For the reduced weight I also looked at the KTM 4T’s and they were more expensive than importing a new Suzuki. Prices are rising not dropping! So much for an economic slump!
My shortlist was basically Suzuki DR. Djebel 250 if cheap, post-95 DR350 if I ever saw one, and DR-Z400 if it wasn’t a kidney.
Heart was kinda set on the 350. Resigned to all the post-‘95 DR350’s being far away or too much money I thought, if it takes all year, maybe get a DR-Z400SM on finance from a dealer, get the enduro wheels extra, and learn to love swapping wheels. But then I realised that £2000 bike was going for £3000-4000 privately, and dealer bikes were not hanging around.
Joined the GLASS and TET facebook groups. Punishment watching people post their adventures.
Sunday evening, a few days after not bidding on a nice DR350 down the road in Bristol, someone uploaded to the TET page...
Low mileage, relatively clean, MOT’d in January, 140 miles away north of Derby. Begged dad to drive me up 2 1/2 to view and put a deposit down.
Idled fine, looked fine, chap seemed honest. He’d laid out the V5 and MOT certificates, original manual, Clymer manual, spare pair of inner tubes, half a box of Lucas 10W40, original welded-brace bars and a few random bits, and had just replaced the rear rotor that had been an advisory.
Welds looked okay, wiring looked pretty standard give or take a little electrical tape, plastics crack-free, tank dent-free, no obvious missing bolts, suspension plush but positive, tyres practically new, seat undamaged, two steering lock keys but only one ignition, and so on.
Had to have it.
By chance his night shift cancelled so yesterday evening the guy (who took me on that trial by fire over Salisbury Plain) and his dog, drove us up in his T5 to collect it.
I’m now the proud owner of a quite unmolested low mileage 1998 DR350SE (in the best colourway) registered 1999, sitting waiting for me to be legally entitled to drive it.
They’re practically the same size
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