'06 KLR650 .. Toxic Green Adventure Bike ..

.. so here we are set up for the trip ..





.. I did add some Agri-tubes to the bottom of the Ammo Panniers .. worked awesome for some cans of oil and I'll be keeping them around like that for a while .. didn't snap a pic of that .. but I'll get some later ..

.. here we are ready for the road trip home .. sold this truck to my cousin about twelve years and 300,000 miles ago .. she still runs like a top and only needs some cosmetic and very little mechanical attention .. I still love this truck .. '96 Ford Ranger Sport XL Custom .. 346,000 miles ..



.. got home and noticed this when she was up on the trailer .. a much greater angle than normal .. bad news ..



.. looking up from under the bike it became pretty obvious where the damage occurred .. both ends of the square tube were crushed where they hit the stops/mount for the center stand .. here's some shots after take-off ..



.. looking at the last two shots you can see where each end has been crushed by the weight of the bike as it bounced down the road on the trailer .. I'm upset with myself, and with the construction of this thing .. call me silly, but for a $150.00 it should have held up .. I guess if I were to re-design this thing I would either fill in the ends of the tube or weld on a small flat rest to each side to better distribute the weight of the stops on the ends of the bar .. or do both and make it about as bullet-proof as it could be made ..

.. I may or may not replace this thing .. or I may get our the welder and some tools and re-build it with both of my above suggestions and make the thing as bullet-proof as I can .. maybe add a skid plate to it too .. and cut the legs and drill them and add a sleeve to make it adjustable .. all possibilities .. we'll see ..

.. one of my better days of late .. got in some riding with some buddies and then some wrenching with my favorite mechanics to solve some problems ..

Met up with my buddy J-Rod (Ninja500) and his buddy Michael (KLX250) .. that KLX250 is a sweet bike and he handles it like the ex-motocross rider he is .. we had a blast on the local twisties and then I scooted over to J-Rod's for a beer and some dirt .. and to make a quick repair as I suddenly noticed all the back-firing my bike was doing .. exhaust leak due to one lost and one nearly-lost header nut ..





.. one of my favorite mechanics was just up from his afternoon nap and came out to give me a hand .. little tip .. the KLR650 engine mount bolts/nuts have the same thread as the exhaust studs/nuts .. so save your old engine mount nuts .. good thing I did .. made for a fast repair ..



.. and got the 1" lift links installed and reset the sag on the rear shock .. something I have been meaning to do since I put the thing on a while back .. and re-mounted the ammo panniers ..



.. here is where the problem was .. and why I miss that center stand I tore up last week .. the new(er) mil-spec shock was shorter and without the sag set correctly was squatting terribly .. causing two tip-overs ..

.. with the links and the sag set correctly .. presto .. "Baby got her lean back" .. perfectly actually .. with the foot-pad installed and the links/sag all set up the foot pad is now perfectly flat on the pavement ..


.. pretty stinkin good day all-in-all .. with some new sneakers I'll be all set for the Fall Fireball Rally in a few weeks .. scha-weet ..

Hey Bill, still looking good.

Funny, or maybe not, I lost those header nuts too. I think both of them before I realized it. Thought I had the replacements loc-tited on well enough. Sorry you had the problem.

I hate to see bikes trailered the way yours was there if you'll excuse me saying so. If that's your trailer, I would at the very least screw down some two-by's to run the tires between. What I did was put two pair of two-by-fours with a strap under each pair that I could cinch down both wheels with. If the bike's wheels can't get off the deck you're not likely to lose her and with those open trailers it's just a worry to me...

Also that means you don't have to crank down so hard on the suspension or the stand, which I also don't like to see or do.

Anyway, just still looking after my old girl.

Happy Trails,
HFG

Hi Bill,
my name is DutchJohn, I have enjoyed your posts and your excitement for your new adventure bike, where did you pick up that rear shock? do you have a link for that? I know I am going to blow mine soon, all though I have put some heavy miles on my KLR. that is my weight for me and all my junk on the bike! you can see my bike loaded in pics of this summers trips, in the links below. Take care and enjoy , DutchJohn

.. my apologies for the slow reply .. just got caught up to my own thread .. yeesh, I am slow ..

.. just sent you a PM with a copy of the first e-mail I got from the inmate here on ADV who has some .. give him a ring or send him and e-mail and I am sure he can help you out .. at least I hope he can ..

.. I have had no issues with the shock and man it REALLY got the bike more manageable .. now all I need to do is get the front end sorted out and I will be well on my way to having her about where I think I want her ..

.. until something better comes along and I save up enough pennies to buy it .. like that new IMS 10 gallon tank .. lol .. that'll be going on sometime in the Spring of '12 I am betting (at just over $500.00 US it'll take me that long to hide enough loose change to afford it) ..

..

.. lol .. I carry spare header nuts now .. go figure .. I should have thought of it before it happened as I had the same thing happen to me on another bike I own ..

.. got in a hurry on the trailer .. my bad choice .. should have loaded her the same way I did bringing her home .. that strap across the bottom wrapping the wheels has always worked for me with no losses (and I hope that continues too) .. I like the 2x4 idea too though ..

.. sadly, I got the idea of using the center stand from reading about some of the guys transporting theirs that way while on Ferries .. of course, much smoother action with rolling waves .. yeesh .. lesson learned and hopefully won't be repeated (at least by me) ..

.. I have actually not been missing the center stand as much as I thought I might, but I have not had a roadside issue that has left me needing or wanting it yet either .. I do have an old crutch laying about and am thinking about fabbing up one of those "legs" for using in an emergency and just not putting the center stand back on at all ..

Ride Blessed man .. hope to see you at one of the meets/rallies or maybe when I'm up your way we can go grab lunch ..

Bill

So the cooler months are approaching .. and the number of candles on my B-day cake are increasing .. and the combination over the past few years has had me whimping out for some added warmth .. so a few years back I got some heated clothing .. well .. a vest and gloves .. and man do I love these things or what? (.. hint .. the answer is an absolute "YES") ..

.. problem is .. there is a noted lack of surplus power on a KLR to provide the required energy for these things (and all the other crap I am adding) .. so part of the solution is to trim off some of the excess power consumption that came with the bike .. namely .. adding LED lights wherever possible (and eventually swapping out the headlight for an HID set .. (thanks Joe for pointing me to that one too) ..

.. the tail light and tag lamp have been taken care of .. and the HID parts are on order .. and the LED dash lamps arrived a while back, but I had forgotten that I already had them until a few days ago ..

.. I am sure there are other sources, but I got mine from superbrightleds.com .. found them on e-bay actually .. if you go with them it's part number WLED-RHP5 (194/168) wedge base .. the "R" in that part number is for the "Red" lamps .. there are other colors available too ..

.. these have 5 red high power LED lamps built into them .. so far I have had no issues with them over-heating .. time will tell .. they work as plug-and-play on 12V with no additional mods or power changes/wiring needed ..

This is absolutely one of the easiest Farkles/Mods you can do .. and you can do it "in place" ..

Step one .. get a helper .. you won't need any help, but the company is always nice .. here's mine, my son Joseph .. always ready to work on the bike ..


Step two .. remove the rain cover under your dash/console .. easily done "in-place" without removing the windshield or fairing .. rotate the front to get to each side .. one left .. one right .. two phillip head screws and lift/slide the plastic housing out ..


Step three .. remove the two nuts holding the housing in place .. again .. one left and one right .. easily gotten to with a small open-end wrench .. CAUTION .. there are small washers on there that you can easily lose if you are not careful .. not critical, but I'm kinda a geek when it comes to not losing washers and spacers .. ymmv ..


Step four .. loosen and remove the odometer cable .. also easily done without removing anything else .. just turn the front "left" and you're there ..


(EDIT) ... I just noticed I have my "steps" in reverse order in my pics .. I removed the odometer cable before taking off the nuts .. darn the luck .. and I'm not changing it either .. this one is pretty hard to screw up no matter which order you do these two step in .. (end EDIT)

Step five .. slide the housing up and out .. there are two "stems" that mount through the rubber bushings where you took out the small nuts .. only minimal force is needed to slide the housing up and out .. presto .. you are at the bottom of your dash and ready to swap out the lamps .. easy-peasy .. the lamps are across the front mounted in rubber bushings that are easily pulled out of the housing .. then pull out the lamp and plug in the new one .. here's the middle one "hanging" after I pulled it out and prior to putting in the LEDs ..


Step six .. button it all back up and get a large blanket or beach towel and throw it over your head and turn the key to see it all light up in glowing red harmony .. or just wait until evening to check them out .. gotta love it .. (I don't have a man-castle to close the door on and create a dark space to gloat over my fresh work .. ymmv) ..

.. on a side note .. I like the red lamps .. you may want to go for white or any color you think would look great on yours .. green .. yellow .. blue .. whatever .. I chose red because I do find it easier on the eyes at night, so it's my pick for dash lighting .. again and as always .. ymmv ..

Ride Blessed ..

Edit on 11-24-2011 - There are a couple of things I should have mentioned or clarified ..

1 - The LED lamps I used to replace the incandescent lamps are "polar" .. meaning they have a positive and negative and to work correctly you need to plug them in correctly .. you won't blow them up if you put them in backwards .. just make sure you turn the key and check them BEFORE you button everything up .. note - if for some reason you need to pull a lamp, these particualr LEDs are actually short enough to pull back out without removing the console .. simply pull the rain cover and carefully pry out the bushings/lamps and replace .. you can't do that with the OEM/Stock lamps as they are physically longer ..

2 - I mentioned I like the red as it's easier on the eyes .. using red lamps all of the white light that bleeds out around the odometer and other spaces is red instead of white .. looks awesome and in the dark of night it really allows you to see ahead (until some car comes along and kills your night vision) ..

(another edit) .. here are some pics .. not great .. but they give you an idea of how it looks .. no white light around the ODO and other nooks and crannies .. enough light to easily see the gauges by ..

.. the old USPS guy stopped by this morning with a few doo-dads for the KLR .. just waiting on a few more little items and it'll be time to start with some more wrenching and tweeking .. next stop .. the Carb ..

:eek1

Kidding.

I enjoy your thread, Bill.

Go Bill! I'm on my 2nd KLR and have modi-farkalized both but still enjoy seeing another inmate do the same! Keep going--we're behind you all the way!

.. lol .. thanks guys .. I am really enjoying this bike .. but being sidelined right now with a foot injury is costing me money .. lol .. more time to shop for the next farkle ..

.. I have been meaning to eventually tune the carb, but now I am waiting on parts that are on back-order .. arghhh .. can't whine to loud though, she runs just fine as she is .. just needs a few tweeks to get closer to "perfect-for-me" ..

(.. edit .. I should add a reason why I had not immediately jumped on that exhaust leak .. the short story is I had been laid up with a foot injury and unable to ride anyway .. regardless though, I now carry a spare exhaust gasket .. no more delay if that ever becomes an issue again .. end edit)

Spent some time this past week getting a couple of Farkles and some repairs done .. I'll post up some pics over the Thanksgiving weekend ..

I knew I had an exhaust leak up at the header due to losing the nuts a while back .. finally got that taken care of .. the old cruch gasket was an absolute disaster .. man she runs now that the new one is in there and all sealed up ..

I'll get a pic put up of the blown one .. I just got stupid-lucky I didn't cause any damage ..

(edit) .. here's the blown gasket from front and back .. it's a mess ..




.. got some electrical work done also .. fuse replacement kit and installed the fan over ride kit also .. I ended up putting the fuse relocation kit in a completely different place than I have seen anyone else use .. it's actually clipped to the rear fender liner where it's accessible without any tools at all .. and hidden back behind the left pannier so you really have to look close to find it ..

(edit) .. pics of where I stuck the fuse relocator .. we'll see if it holds up back there, or if it's going to suffer .. I have already planned to put a "sheath" over it made from an old innertube .. that may be enough protection .. or not .. we'll see how it works out .. I just wanted it somewhere where there were/are no tools needed or parts to be removed to access the fuses ..



.. the fan override kit is pretty slick .. the switch looks a little cheap, but it works perfectly and does everything it needs to do .. of course, I got it installed just in time for winter .. lol .. just perfect ..


.. pulled the sport dash to get it finished and check the fitment for a "Whitehorse" dash also .. have not made up my mind which dash I'm going with .. and I may go with both .. that sport dash sits low enough under the big aluminum Whitehorse dash (also called a Duschine Dash .. I think) that is makes a perfect shelf for mounting relays and aux fuses .. it's really a near-perfect fitment with the combination, and the sport dash fits perfectly between the TCI Braces .. I'll edit this post with some pics of that setup .. It looks like it was made to work together though ..

.. got the TCI front rack and brace installed .. just awesome .. though I do notice a nice "shimmy" and rattle on "transition" now when starting out from a standstill and then on shifting up to second .. it's just noise though .. and reminds me of the old Sikorsky "shuffle" found in some of their helos .. good stuff really .. have been up to speed on the highway and around truck traffic and in high winds to see if there was any serious problem with all that rack up front .. nothing of any note .. it's a great place to lash down some extra gear though .. I'll edit this post with some pics of that too ..

(edit) .. here are some pics of the front rack .. this thing rattles way to much though .. I'll end up welding it is place if I keep it .. it also gets in the way of the new dash I have (Duchin/Studebaker) so there will be some trimming of that new dash as well ..



.. still waiting on the back ordered carb parts .. which is starting to bum me out ... I'm about tired of rolling on the throttle and hearing the noise from lack of fuel .. lol .. just got to get those jets bumped up a smidge and it'd be perfect ..

.. all-in-all a pretty good week last week .. and I got some more farkles sitting on my desk awaiting their install .. heh heh ..

.. more soon ..

Sounds like a lot of positive progress. Now you need to head out for a test run. Maybe somewhere with some elevation changes......

I agree completely ..

.. and don't think I ain't been watching that NCTOR either .. heh heh ..

.. and I need the obligatory Mt Mitchell shot with this bike too (since I have one with my other scooter) ..

Started on another project I have been not getting done .. some Mermite Can Panniers .. I really dig the way these look on the KLR .. and I am going for that whole "Post-Apocalyptic-Zombie-Survival" looking "thing" .. well .. sorta .. I'm not really into the whole sub-culture of it .. but I think it's a pretty kewl "look" .. I kinda like the whole Steam-Punk-Pseudo-Victorian look too, but that's a tad demanding and I'm not into having to polish and keep everything "neat" .. anyway .. here we go ..

First you need a pair of victims .. erm .. some material to work with .. in this case, Mermite Cans .. old US Mil-Spec food delivery "coolers/warmers" that were in use from somewhere around or just after WWII until recently .. they also used to be dirt-cheap and found just about everywhere there was a military surplus store .. they ain't cheap anymore, and they are getting harder to find .. the gaskets for these things are still around too, though they are getting tougher to locate .. fortunately, with even minimal care the cans and the gaskets should last you for decades .. seriously ..

Mermites .. notice that one of them has some moisture around the edge where the gasket normally sits .. I left this one out in the weather for the past five or six months .. not one drop of moisture got inside .. awesome ..


Side-by-side .. the one on the left is without the gasket and the one on the right has the gasket sitting in place .. these gaskets do not glue down and sit in a flat channel .. they are extremely tough and are about as bullet-proof a weather seal as you can get .. my goal is to keep the gaskets and that channel they sit in intact for strength as well as weather resistance .. I "modularize" all of my gear into individual bags anyway, so I have no need for a huge opening to remove large packages ..


Here are the two power tools I considered using .. I opted for the Roto-Zip as it's lighter and smaller and the rpms that cuttoff wheel turn at are easier to manage than the heavier DeWalt angle grinder .. though you will note I have removed the safety guard .. you do so at your own risk .. I also ended up removing the handle on the frame of the roto-zip as well .. it really is an easily managed tool .. if you are taking notes, I used three cutoff wheels to remove the main liners ..


.. a little sloppy on the cutting, but this won't matter much when I am done and have gone back in and used a grinder to finish the edges .. it makes the job relatively easy to cut around the top and down both sides and across the bottom .. in this pic I have not yet cut across the bottom ..


.. here I had already started peeling the liners out before I went across the bottom with the roto-zip .. I should have been more patient, but I just had to start playing with it ..


.. here is what you end up removing .. two large pieces of the metal liner/insert .. it's a little messy, but not very difficult really .. if you use the right tools .. I was still experimenting a little .. I found it works best to cut around the top, down the sides and across the bottom and then first curl the ends on one side into the center and then pry our the panel with the tire tool .. using the screw driver to "start" the edges .. make very quick work with minimal effort ..


.. tools .. these are the ones that make the job up to this point messy but not impossible .. rubber mallet, flat bladed screwdriver, roto-zip, long tire tool (though any medium pry-bar would work), and some pliers (those are electricians pliers, commonly called "Kliens") .. one the deck you see some more screw drivers, a insulator's knife (used by insulation installers and is handy for all sorts of projects), and the handle of the roto-zip .. in this shot you can also see the foam insulation still inside the can after the removal of the metal liner parts I had cut loose ..


.. here's a shot of them with the majority of the foam insulation "chipped" out .. one lesson I learned was that using the tire tool/bar was easier and faster than using the insulator's knife .. and it also removed more materials .. a putty knife was pretty much useless until the bulk of the materials was removed .. ymmv .. I plan on using some chemicals to melt/remove the remaining insulation and also prep the interior before painting it down with some rustoleum ..

.. you may note that in the bottom can, even though the bottom is virtually clear of insulation due to the foam not having been fully injected into the can during manufacture, it has more foam left along the walls .. this is the one I used the insulation knife on .. the top can is the one I used the tire tool to remove the insulation as well .. though it may not look like it, it has far less insulation still inside .. the tire tool took out larger chunks and was much easier on the hands (because you can use both hands at the same time) .. I'd recommend this method to remove the bulk of the insulation before going after the finishing clean out with a putty knife or chemicals ..

.. more to follow .. I called it a night as it was getting dark and the kids had just got up from their nap and were wanting some "dad-time" .. all good .. the Mermite Pannier Project will continue .. later ..

(edit - a note on safety .. I didn't mention it earlier .. but eye protection and at least one of those el-cheapo dusk masks are a must .. I also recommend a long sleeved shirt to keep you from opening up your arms on those can edges and a pair of decent gloves for the same reason .. )

.. will edit in the rest of the project here .. more to come ..

.. just in case I need the space ..

Hey Vik .. just had the chance to check out your blog .. good stuff and some great links .. I posted up a couple of remarks (Alcan Fairing and Center Stand) ..

.. hope I have the chance to spend some time riding with you one day .. or at least we have a chance to cross paths and have a beverage ..

Ride Blessed ..

Great looking KLR! Have you weighed it lately?

I've never heard it called Toxic Green, but I agree that is the best color.

.. once I get all the bolt-ons done I'll take her over to get weighed .. with and without all the camping gear .. she's probably not far off her weight now as I don't think the weight difference between the Ammo Cans and the Mermites is really going to be earth-shattering ..

.. but at least I'll have a better idea of where I need to have that rear shock dialed in .. right now she handles fantastic for all the extra weight and then my fat fanny added to the pile ..

.. if I can ever swing one of those Alcan Fairings it will be interesting to see the weight difference since I would end up stripping everything up front back off to fit that fairing .. if you run into Craig Vetter out there in CA tell him I WANT one .. lol .. preferably before he goes to Alaska with his ..