I been reading on this forum about some of you getting your DS under 400lbs. I was wondering how you all did it,and how easy or hard it is to do.
Thanks for the help.

 

It takes alot of money first off. The first 30 to 40lbs can be free.

Front brakes, head light, tail light, front and rear bumpers, front plastics with brackets, heel gaurds with brackets, and trimmed rear plastics can be removed for free.

The next 60 lbs will cost you.

Aftermarket swingarm(stocker is heavy), drag a-arms, light weight wheels and tires, chromoly axle, light weight chain and sprockets, chromoly swingarm, chromoly steering stem, light weight battery, and drag shocks.

That should get you 100lbs or more.

But if thats not enough.

Aftermarket light radiator, new lighter oil tank, new light gas tank, new chassis, drag handle bars, and cutting on the stock frame.

 

ondunes has THE biggest selection available. I think the most savings and best for rotating mass is the drag axle, The drag light spindle mount front end and the subframe. The bike seems to feel much more powerfull the lighter I go.. Pic #5, 10 and 19 is what you need to go lighter than 400. I dont know my exact weight but it might be lighter than 400lbs..

 

look at the subframe it is 15 pounds it's easy to lose 10 there, maybe 9 by trimming your stock one , on dunes has a after market one i think it is less than $300. the brakes actually come in on the scales at about 8 pounds, you can sand and polish your calipers and drill your rotors for more savings there, and keep your brakes. the swing arm is about 26 pounds, after market is about 13 or less, but that is lotsa money. stock handle bars are heavy. stock foot pegs can be sanded and drilled and almost save a pound each(baja style) stock shocks are about 9 pounds each up front. the front head light is 1 pound 5 oz. but a lot of safety comes with it, if you have the old one it's heavy. good luck its a lot of work

 

Very good ideas....its very expensive when you start getting serious......just ask me, [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

 

Sandman said something about the rear sub frame. How have you trimmed yours? I've already took off the front fenders, heel guards, replaced the stock exhaust,replaced the handle bars, trimmed the rear fenders. Right now I don't know what it weighs, but it is lighter than my buddy's 03 baja.

 

Theres an over kill of brackets and bolt holes on the Ds frame and subframe. Bombardier built a tank out of the Ds. Once you start removing items from the Ds, you will notice alot of extra weight on the frame. Get out cutting wheel or a torch and take the excess off.

For some hints, do a search for a DS owner named FORCEFED. He has a couple of picks of his frame before and after the chop shop.

 

Man he's not kidding. Forcefed chopped the **** out of that frame... there's nothing left. He must have saved some serious weight with a chop like that!

 

I checked out Forcefed's photo's, WOW!! I see what you mean by chopping off a lot of weight. I don't want to get that extreme but I can definatly see there's a lot of extra weight.

 

You know this conversation has come up quite a bit within the last year or so. People want to know how to save weight on a DS but when it comes right down to it they really dont want to save as much weight as the average guy can save with just merely unbolting this and unbolting that. But when you want to get serious with weight savings it takes all the necessary steps that 1bigsdsrider just mentioned and of course that means cutting on the frame. But if you just want to act like your saving weight just take of the fenders and heel guards and go riding. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] Have a nice day, [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

PS: I'll just keep riding my little ole 300lb bolt-on bike out into the sunset......[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]