Matt's New Toy!

[mdmead]

I've been wanting a dual sport for awhile, but my slush fund was low and it was going to be awhile before I had enough saved up to afford the cheapest of bikes. Then along comes a friend... a GOOD friend... who offered me this for a sub-$1K price. It is a '05 KLR 650 with 5,300 miles. It isn't perfect. He dropped it once and broke one of the hand guards and the assembly that the left mirror attaches to, and bent the clutch handle pretty good. Worn tires and chain/sprockets. Biggest issue though is it had a dust-ingestion incident early in its life resulting in a need for an over-bore and still suffers from worn valve guides, exhibited with a bit of blue smoke during warm up. But hey, it's a low budget bike so I'm not expecting perfect!

The new chain and sprockets and clutch handle are here. Tires will have to wait until August or September.

[T.Low]

Congrats on the new distraction, I mean dual sport. You'll get plenty of use out of it in your neck of the woods.

[Kidhauler]

You a Shouldn't have any problem getting cheap parts for it they have been making that bike forever. The joke had always been that there will always be a klr in every barn on every side road if you ever break down so you can salvage parts. Years ago I was saving up to buy a klr as a one bike to do everything from dual sporting to comuting to long distance touring kind of idea. Then a smoking deal came along on my bmw so so now years later I still want a dual sport.

[doyoulikeithere]

Very Nice Score ! You should love it ! I can tell ya, they are a lot of fun !
I also recently picked up an 06 with 8201KMs (5099 miles)
That was June 28th oddly enough, Today, July 28th, it has 11236 KMs
Needless to say, I like it Its got some real nice grunt to it
It commutes on the highway pretty good too and gets 4.4 litres per 100 kms! And, my 96 KLR gets about 5/100KMs. A Bit better than our StroFari's eh !?!?
Yours might not get quite that with the engine wear you mentioned, but its super easy to find a non worn head for cheap, down the road.
One of my 3 sons is 16, and has been riding the 96 KLR with me on his new learners license in the evenings and weekends.
You should come for a ride with us this summer...

[doyoulikeithere]

Got a good helmet Matt? Mines a bit sore now.....

110 KM/H, front tire blows out, aims me at oncoming logging trucks on highway,
I leaned hard over to the right, bounced once or twice, landed in grass in the ditch.
got up and walked away, sore, bruised, minor rash on arm thru ballistic nylon, busted up bike, hurt pride, sniff sniff....
Eager to ride my other KLR !!

[mdmead]

Got a good helmet Matt? Mines a bit sore now.....

20140819_214426.jpg

110 KM/H, front tire blows out, aims me at oncoming logging trucks on highway,
I leaned hard over to the right, bounced once or twice, landed in grass in the ditch.
got up and walked away, sore, bruised, minor rash on arm thru ballistic nylon, busted up bike, hurt pride, sniff sniff....
Eager to ride my other KLR !!

Yikes! What did you do and how is the rest of you?

[Wiley]

Yeeeaeh, congrats. 07 KLR here, nothing like the 1st gens. I just got cleared from physical therapy for a low speed accident that left me without use of my left arm/wrist for 3 months, and does it feel good to be back on 2 wheels.....stay safe! Go get some adventure pics for us.

[mdmead]

I've been busy and it has been hot, so only one 80 mile ride. Explored some gravel Forest Service roads near our cabin at Tollgate (OR) but it was hazy so not really picture worthy. Should get out again shortly now that it is cooling down.

[doyoulikeithere]

Had front tire lose all air at over 100 kmph Matt.
I blame the cheapest tubes I could buy, and my neglecting to check the air pressure every hundred miles !!
I've gone over 5000 Kilometers on mine since June 30 when I got it.
Commuting daily, plus exploring the South Island.
Check out Facebook "Kawasaki KLR650 owners group" for pics !
hope this works.. http://www.facebook.com/groups/2242068775/
I Still love my KL-Ahhh, as they say down undahh, lol

[doyoulikeithere]

Hi Matt.
Hows the bike ridin ?
I went for a rip today from Lake Cowichan up to Port Albernie and back just cuz it was raining finally and I wanted to get muddy and test the waterproofness of my new jacket.
My jacket kept me dry and warm and my grip heaters helped out a bunch with wet gloves. The puddles were a blast and the gravel was nice and wet and slushy. Braapp
There was sunshine, rainbows, heavy rain, warm wind, Thunder, Sand, mud, gravel, blacktop, lakes, wildlife, and autumn colors on the forest. It was an awesome ride today.
I Did about 275 kilometers all together. This link shows it on google maps like a map trail...
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9HgiyY ... dxc3M/edit

Happy Thanksgiving !

[1Gary]

Nice Matt.But I will win that race to finish my project first.

[mdmead]

Wow, sounds like a nice ride... well, I'd prefer without any rain... but that's just me!

I've taken it for a few rides in the past couple of weeks. A few Sundays back I left the house and ventured WNW into the Wenas Wildlife area (state lands) and pushed through to the Forest Service (federal) lands. The ride was pavement, becoming rocky road/trail, becoming gravel and then back to pavement for the loop home. Fun ride with some decent views. Only about 50 miles.

Last week I escaped to our cabin in Oregon on Sunday and didn't come back until Wednesday morning. Upon arriving at Tollgate, I texted my friend who sold me the bike and it turned out he was at his cabin with his new dual-sport. He was getting ready to head back to town/home, but we met up and rode together to town by way of Lincton Mtn. Road, a somewhat rough dirt/gravel route. About 40 miles by the time I got back to the cabin.

On Monday I rode from our cabin, out through the Blue Mountains, and eventually ended up in Walla Walla, WA. This route started paved, became gravel, rocky, back to gravel, and then pavement on the trip back. Part way through the trip I ventured down a multi-use trail that heads to the South Fork of the Walla Walla River. I had never been on this upper portion of trail... and after following it a few miles, decided the KLR was not the bike to be riding here. (Got a little dicey with the narrow trail carved into the hillside and a tough recovery if I dropped off. Not to mention injury to me and being solo!)

Since owning the bike, I've only put on about 500 miles. Probably just about done for the season as the temps drop and I bring the ATV and snowmobile back out.

Oh, and I've got to put some new tires on it! The originals are questionable on the street, but I'm more worried about a puncture off-road. Expect to order them in the next few days though.

Pics:

In an effort to save money/gas, I set up our new (to us) Suzuki SX4 to haul the bike. It will be three more trips to Tollgate to pay off the money spent installing the hitch/wiring, but then I'll be saving about $45 (nearly half) compared to taking my F-250.



This is the S. Fork Walla Walla trail. This was after I turned around and was headed back out. If all of the trail had been like this, I wouldn't have turned around!





Up in the Blues. (Looking north towards Walla Walla I think.)



While looking through my pics, I found some from a previous ride in the Tollgate area. These are from September.

This is Jubilee Lake.




This is the Bone Springs Warming Shelter, used by snowmobilers in the winter. (Yes, I've used it.)



Out towards Ruckle Junction, looking south, maybe southwest.

[mdmead]

Had front tire lose all air at over 100 kmph Matt.
I blame the cheapest tubes I could buy, and my neglecting to check the air pressure every hundred miles !!
I've gone over 5000 Kilometers on mine since June 30 when I got it.
Commuting daily, plus exploring the South Island.
Check out Facebook "Kawasaki KLR650 owners group" for pics !
hope this works.. http://www.facebook.com/groups/2242068775/
I Still love my KL-Ahhh, as they say down undahh, lol

I guess I somehow missed this post. Yeah, the flat at speed is a concern of mine.. especially given the shape of my tires. Are you changing them yourself? Seems a lot of people take them to the dealer, but I'm planning on doing my tires myself... assuming I can find my old bike tire irons. (I saw them about a year ago, so I know I still have them somewhere...)

[1Gary]

Nice pixs Matt.

[mdmead]

Nice pixs Matt.

Thanks Gary!

Nice Matt.But I will win that race to finish my project first.

Yeah, I'm not so worried... I haven't seen any significant progress on YOUR van either!