Articles - Featured Riders

This month, we’re riding along with Daniel Byers from Ohio who owns a heavily-modified 2011 Suzuki DR650 with a striking yellow and white color scheme that he has named “Thousand Sunny” or just “Sunny” for short.

Daniel has replaced “everything imaginable, except the motor, carb, and airbox” with the “entire ProCycle catalog!” Some of the more notable bits include a Yenkro Rally fairing, a translucent Safari tank, a wheel set from Woody’s Wheel Works, and Acerbis frame guards.

This month, we’re excited to feature ProCycle customer Han Kim from Utah who rides a 2007 Suzuki DR650 and a 2023 Ducati Monster.

Han has meticulously re-engineered his DR from the ground up. Starting from the powertrain, he has upgraded his motorcycle with a Mikuni TM40 carburetor, ProCycle SS Pro-Flow headpipe, DG RST muffler, and a high-output stator. He added suspension upgrades front and rear from Cogent, a Warp 9 fork brace, and a GPR V5 steering stabilizer.

This month, we’d like to share something a little different. ProCycle customer Raynor Vandeven from Arizona owns a 1996 Suzuki DR650… with a custom-built sidecar!

While Raynor loves riding his DR650, he loves his dog, Nancy, even more. His motivation for building the sidecar was to be able bring Nancy along on his local adventures. Since she already loved hanging out the car window and the back of Raynor’s truck, getting her on the DR seemed like a no-brainer!

This month, we’re featuring Jeff Elliott from Texas who rides a 2020 Suzuki DR650 which he affectionately calls his “Desert Donkey.”

Jeff has been a long-time ProCycle customer and has made extensive modifications to his DR. When we asked what modifications he’s made, his response was “all of them.”

If you’ve watched the FortNine YouTube channel, you would probably be familiar with Ryan’s clone mechanics. This month, we are featuring Mechanic #45, who owns a 1997 Suzuki DR650 (which he recently released an epic video on) as well a ‘97 DR350, an ‘82 Kawasaki KL250, and a ‘75 Suzuki RV125.

The modifications 45 has done to his fleet of bikes are extensive.

This month, we are excited to feature Joey Pons, who is based in Louisiana and is the proud owner of a 2020 Suzuki DR650 and a 2021 Yamaha FJR1300. While the FJR is undoubtedly a cool ride, the one we’re really interested in his DR, so let’s dive in!

Visually, the most obvious upgrades to the DR are the 4.9 gallon IMS fuel tank in natural, a Seat Concepts seat, a ProCycle skid plate, a rear top rack, Wolfman saddlebags, and a ProCycle tool tube. Joey also upgraded the suspension, both front and rear, with a Cogent shock and Cogent Dynamic Drop-in Cartridges (DDCs).

This month, we are featuring John Rice, who has been riding for 60 years! Through his travels, he has managed to ride in 49 states (all except Hawaii) and 16 foreign countries (above and below the equator and in the eastern and western hemispheres). Over his riding career, John has been an Observed Trials rider, had a brief stint in motocross, and has spent a lot of time wandering around in the woods on various old bikes.

This month's Featured Rider is John Fairrington, who is based in Southern Oregon. John runs a company called I Ride Rogue, which organizes backcountry excursion (BXR) events for dual sport riders.

This past April, one of our faithful XR650L customers made a solo adventure riding from Elko, Nevada all the way to Lake Havasu, Arizona. Paul's 750-mile journey consisted of 600+ miles of dirt tracks  and took him 4 days to complete.