Andy, just wondering, but what was the engine issue on the DL that you had?
The first thing I noticed with the DL1000 was a light shudder when the engine went through 2900 to 3000 RPM in 1st and 2nd gear at about 1/4 throttle when accelerating out of corners are away from stops. Didn't bother me too much down here in the flatslands of Louisiana and I was still learning the bike. 11 years and 130,000 miles on BMW twins before this bike. Also a few other bikes in the stable at the same time with the BMW's > DR350SEs, DRZ400SE, KLR650 < ( which I still have and love to death )
The other was the not to clean shifting between 1st and 2nd gears. I had the same issue on the DRZ400SE I had for awhile. Crunch unless you were shifting at a very low rpm or high rpm. I was generally shifting in the 3 to 4K rpm range about town.
My big eye opener was in California when coming out of hairpin turns and it being a bit too fast for 1st gear and in the 2500 rpm range in 2nd gear. A few time the engine shuddered so much I thought the engine was going to quit on me. So , to complete my trip I started just slipping the clutch in situations as such.
When I got home I bought a PCIII and Leo Vince pipes and hooked that up, plus checking sync and everything thing else on the engine. All was good in that department. The PCIII was able to dampen some of the shudder but you could tell it was still there. What was strange about this was it was just in 1st and 2nd gear.
Next I did the valves which everyone was on the lowered end so changed shims in all 8 of them, re-sync on the TB, Check the STB's to make sure they were together. Checked for anything kind to a vacuum leak from the heads to the airfilter.
Tried several maps from the web and played with my own maps , even activating the Accelerator Pump function. Still there.
A few thousand miles later the engine started developing a surge on hard throttle noticable especially in the lower gears. I was thinking, Gotta be a vacuum leak. So back down to the heads and checking and coating everything with silicone just to be sure. Still there. Pulled all the PCIII stuff off incase it was going bad. No help.
About the only thing I didn't do ( which may have cured all my engine problems ) was to pull the secondary butterflies out.
So that , plus two drops in my yard due to height plus my legs put the finale " Need to change bike now " implant firmly into my brain.
So now, very happy with the Bandit 1250S and it's lower chassis and beautiful engine transmission package. I almost bought this bike when I picked up the DL1000 while in Ohio at that time. But, wanted to give the DL a shot. So did. It just didn't work out to what I wanted it to do. But a great bike none the less. Liked it better than the BMW GS in ways, in some ways not. But such is the thing with any bike.