My ride to Nor-Cal tech days

  To those that do not know, I like to ride my Kawasaki KLR 650, which is a dual sport motorcycle, that means that I can go just about anywhere I choose, dirt roads to interstates. That being said, last week I went down to northern California for what we call a tech day. People from all over the west coast showed up. About 50 guys came for the weekend. It was hosted by a guy and his family.



The Mighty KLR

Getting ready for "THE RIDE"



   The cool thing about this kind of event is that most everyone that comes contributes to the overall collective of knowledge and ability's for working on the KLR's. Everyone learns what and how to do certain mechanical fixes and mods, or whatever they want to do on their bikes, free of charge and a lot of fun to boot.

 

Just some of the bikes for the "Group shot" mine is the 6th on from the right, they
were lined up acording to year from right to left

   The KLR has been around for about 20+ years and only changed the style in 2008. The parts are interchangeable with almost all years, which make one of the most popular bikes in the world. There are known problems with the klr but if a person gets involved with the various forums on the Internet and other sources, you can learn any thing that you want.


 

Moded kickstand


   One of the mods that I was able to do was, with the help of Tim (bug) who was the host of the TD, was to make and weld on a base plate to my kickstand, so that when I am at home in the high desert (AKA Sandville) the bike will not sink down into the ground and tip over, that would be BAD because the bike weights about 400 lbs and is very difficult to pick up without the help of another person. I was also able to adjust what you call the SAG, when you set on the bike, it will sag or settle down with the weight of the rider, and it needs to be equal both front and back, mine was fine in the rear but needed to be adjusted in the front, so that was remedied. and the last thing was to lube my clutch cable, now it is nice and smooth thanks to Les.
  
   I did not do as much as other people did because I do so much of my own work on the bike at home, so not much else to report on this subject.

   These bikes are so simple to work on just about ANYBODY can work on them so until next time.......