san diego to alaska trip

[Jim Hyman]

Steven van Twuyver stopped by today on his way to Alaska.  The good news is that his electrical system is working fine after doing an in-the-field replacement with the stock stator and regulator/rectifier after his Electrex units failed to charge his brand new battery.  When I asked to inspect the failed units, he replied that he didn't want to carry any excess garbage with him.  I burst out laughing at what he said & he laughed too.  No harm done other than losing the better part of a day on his odyssey. I helped him replace his worn Avon AV34 Gripster rear tire with a new AM24 Gripster.  He was suitably impressed when I mounted the new tire on the rim without using any tire irons or other tools.  What wasn't quite as impressive was when we could not get the tire bead to properly seat on the rim, no matter how hard we tried.  We learned a valuable lesson, don't use WD-40 lube AFTER you have 1st tried using soapy water.  The bead seating results were much worse using this combination, it was almost like glue.  Our solution, bring the mounted tire to a local tire store & let them fuss with it for 10 minutes.  I think that they were using very high inflation pressure on their numerous attempts. Steven said that the AV34 was a superb road tire, but was sadly lacking in all off road riding, except for well paved gravel roads.  However, with only 10" of rain per year in San Diego, he couldn't vouch for it's wet weather performance.

After Steven installed the rear wheel on his KLR and adjusted the chain, with his bike on the center stand.  I told him that the chain was too tight, having only 2" of travel (measured at the chain's mid-point).  He said that his chain is fine when adjusted this way, so I let him finish & then we measured the chain slack with the bike off the stand & Steven sitting in the saddle.  The chain had no slack!  The look on his face was priceless.  I told him that I felt that 2 1/2" (65 mm) would be better so he readjusted the chain to the new setting and we ended up with 3/4" slack when he was in the saddle.  Great for road riding, but it may still be a bit too tight for KLR-serious off road work.  With Steven seated & his full load of gear installed (rear shock pre load set to '5'), the swinger pivot was 14" from the road and the rear axle was 12 5/8" from the road.  The position of the swinger was still not at the point where the chain would be at its tightest.  Kawi's chain spec of 50-55 mm (2 - 2.1") is clearly wrong.  Please ignore my previous posts about chain slack set at the low 2" range.

Steven will be crossing the border at the Peace Arch in Blaine, Wa. about 10:00 pm tonite (friday) & will be off to Alaska.  He will email me an update soon & I'll forward it to the list.

Steven's seat is the same one that Elden Carl uses, it's a sharp looking unit & is completely flat on the top.  I asked him to post information about the seat, along with a photo when he gets back from his trip.

Thanks for bearing with me on this, who knows, I may even eclipse Dash in the writing department [G!].

Professor    A9    Federal Way, WA. [USA]