back from alaska - part 5

[Renn]

I have not had any, or heard of any. 2500 miles since mid July. ------Original Message------ From: halvor.dan.jon@... To: DSN_klr650@egroups.com Sent: August 27, 2000 1:37:37 PM GMT Subject: [DSN_klr650] 2001 klr Has anyone experienced or heard of any specific problems with the 2001 KLR. Does it differ from the earlier models in any positive or negative ways? Dan Visit the KLR650 archives at http://www.listquest.com/lq/search.html?ln=klr650 Support Dual Sport News... dsneditor@... Let's keep this list SPAM free! Visit our site at http://www.egroups.com/group/DSN_klr650 To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: DSN_klr650-unsubscribe@egroups.com Renn A15 ( Rocinante )

[Steven van Twuyver]

The three of us decided skip breakfast at Watson Lake. The student got packed early to change oil but told us to go ahead and he would catch up. The pilot and I gas up and I downed a power bar. It had rained all night but it is actually dry. We're 500 miles further south and the temperature is more forgiving. We head towards Fort Nelson and the pilot determines a reasonable destination from the MilePost book which will make for 387 miles. I notice my neutral light isn't working and I've feared problems with this. When I bumped started the bike on the third day, I inadvertently hit the mirror twisting the clutch lever around. Somehow this screwed-up the 'start in gear' switch in the clutch lever and I can only start the bike in neutral. As a matter of fact, the bike would not turn over in neutral with the clutch pulled in. It was one of those PM things I read about many times and should have bypassed just like the kick stand lockout switch. Our student friend was now back with us and the three of us were eating up miles when the pilot pulls over and asked me why am I blinking my headlight. Of course, I was just riding and not doing anything with the headlight. As we were discussing it, the headlight goes out completely and I loose all my electrics. The bike is still running and I decide to deal with it in the evening - it's probably just a fuse. We move on. Now I'm a little concerned that there is no load on the electrical system and that the rectifier/regulator may get toasted. I load down the system with my electric vest which is wired directly to the battery with its own inline fuse. Mentally as we're riding along, I'm trying to diagnose the problem envisioning serious stator problems and all kinds of trip ending scenarios. Fifty miles down the road there is a delay for road construction. I have to shutdown and see if it will start again but I'm dead in the water. We pull over and I unstrap everything. I'm getting faster at this drill. The road is muddy and I lay my gear on the other two bikes. I check the fuses under the seat with a DVM and the main 20amp fuse is blown. Long ago I replaced the Buss fuses with bladed types. I'm thinking this will be a piece of cake, and grab my spare 20 amp fuse and plug it in. It blew like a flash cube before it was even seated. The key is off and there is nothing that should be drawing current. I'm down to two spares and I've learned nothing -- this game could be over real soon. I'm sacrificing lower amp fuses like popcorn but I have more of these than the 20 amp ones. With the key off nothing should be hot. After eating 6 fuses, I remember that the fan is always hot and I unplugged it. Bingo! I'm 3 for 3 as the roadside electrical trouble shooter. I plug in the second 20 amp fuse minus the fan and we're good to go. A hundred yards later the bike poops out again but I realized immediately that I had forgotten to hook the gas line up. Without a fan, I have to keep moving to stay cool but that won't be an issue for a while. We ate a huge Italian meal in Fort Nelson and visited an ATM for more worthless Canadian money. The merchants love US dollars but hose you over with the exchange rate. The military has long since moved out of Ft. Nelson and it now produces natural gas. We're on paved roads and head for a car wash to blow off the corrosive calcium chloride build up and for me, it's a chance to really clear my radiator. It is the first night in four that we were able to camp. In the morning we down a cinnamon bun and head towards Dawson Creek. We ride over the highest and lowest section of the Al-Can Highway and it's a good day. We never really go as far as Dawson Creek and opt instead for a stunning road that heads south about 20 miles before Dawson. Lots of elk and reindeer, which are a real concern because my rear brake has been grabby since its dirt bath on the Dempster. I periodically use the rear brake with low pressure at high speed in an attempt to smooth them out but they remained grabby. At Grizzly Lake we decide to camp again but as a group the decision was difficult. Two people want showers, one has no food or cooking gear and as we deliberate, black clouds move in. We head from a provincial campground to a private one with showers and a restaurant all for the same price. Our tents are set up but it starts raining as hard as ever. The lady that took our money initially offered us the bunkhouse for $5Cn more and we now beg for an upgrade. These bunkhouses are quite common and are essentially two or more mobile homes tied together with lots of tiny rooms used mostly by loggers. They have common bathrooms, showers with individual rooms not much bigger than a twin bed and a TV. We're the only ones in the 30 room facility and we commandeered the common room to dry our tents. The next morning we hit Prince George for breakfast and we split off. The Beemer guys head towards Jasper. I head to the Kawasaki dealer for an oil change and new rear brake pads which are completely gone, running metal to metal. The EBC pads were installed just prior to the my trip and they did not last 5000 miles. I periodically checked to see if the pads were still there, but I never expect this kind of shitty mileage from these pads. My rear rotor is scored. Action Motorsports had replacement EBshitty pads for $44Cn but they were too busy to change my oil. Just as well, I can do it myself in 10 minutes. I swapped pads and did an oil change and I was on my way. I'm in the middle of nowhere and not a single person in the world knows my exact whereabouts. At the Williams Lake Chevron station I met a fellow DSN list member. When we introduced each other he said he just read about me on this list that morning. Apparently, the Professor posted some of my dilemmas after I had called the night before. It is indeed a very small world! The rest of the way out of Canada, I drove the Trans Canada Highway. It's well worth it and solved the objective of no stop and go. To prevent overheating I pushed a quarter mile through the border and this took about and hour. From Seattle I made a beeline on I-5 keeping my speeds up to avoid overheating. My great gas mileage ended with my first tank of California gas. It was a little touch-and-go in the desert but the needle never really went much past the mid point. It took me four more days to get home from the border. The End. -svt-