Location St. Joe State park in near ledington missouri
20 thousand acres of flat sand and "mountain" single track
Two KLRs and Two XR 650 L
Richard, and Bryce on the KLRs
Doug and Greg on the XRs,
My KLR
93 KLR, all safety switches bypassed (ESSENTIAL) Carb rejetted,
airbox modified, laser pro exhaust, resettable fuses, fan switch,
progressive suspension, stock gearing which I am happy with, heavy
duty clutch, dual star gear shifter, kendas 270 (I liked Bryces new
dunlop 606 really aggressive tread!) probably other stuff that I
have forgotten about.
We started off the morning gassing up at the shell thanks bryce for
the gallon for the KLR, went to the park, started setting up and the
park ranger comes over and tells us that there is warrants out for
all four of our arrests turns out the credit card swipe on the gas
pump was broken and proceeded to fill us anyway even though the card
swipe did not work, so we were considered drive aways, LESSON # 1
MAKE SURE YOU GET A RECEIPT FOR GAS EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!!! The cop
was pretty pissed at first then once he realized it was an honest
error became pretty buddy buddy and even let us take our pic with
him and then showed us pictures of his ride. Nice guy,
We went back to the park.
The single track was amazing, got into second gear quite a bit, lots
of steep climbs, the KLR was as at home on this type of environment
as the XRs. We spent close to three hours on the single track we
were smiling ear to ear, I am glad though that I can turn my fan on
with the switch that I made. The flats were really a blast the KLR
can really open up and eat up the sand, stay on the trottle and the
KLR can really tear it up. Handles fine, I wish I could have rode
one of the XRL though to see how much different they are, they weigh
in about the same if the KLR only has a couple gallons of gas in the
tank.
I got a chance to look at some of the dual star guards Bryce has on
his machine, I will definately get the skid plate but I definately
can duplicate the rad guard.
Some lessons that I learned about the KLR while riding a few hours
of low rpm single track,
1) The KLR uses a lot of juice for the battery and fan in long
sessions of low rpm riding I found this out after I stalled the bike
going through a three foot deep 60 foot long mud pit and the battery
would not turn the enginge over. The battery is good and took a good
charge once I got it going again. LESSON #2 PUT A SWITCH ON THE
HEADLIGHT SO YOU CAN TURN IT OFF WHEN YOU DONT NEED IT AND SAVE THE
BATTERY.
2) The battery access under the seat is a pain in the ass, the XR
guys have much easier access LESSON #3 CARRY SMALL SET OF BOOSTER
CABLES AND MAKE A BOOST AREA ON THE BIKE WITH ONE POST ON A SWITCH
SO YOU DONT HAVE TO REMOVE THE SEAT TO GET AT THE BATTERY AND THE
POSTS DONT GROUND OUT .
3) The clutch cable is really close to the exhaust on the engine and
consequently mine melted and would not work. I had a spare at home
but opted not to bring it as mine was brand new. I rode 85 miles
home with no clutch, getting gears is easy at the right rpm but
finding neutral was a tad difficult thanks Greg for following me
home, LESSON #4 IF YOU STALL THE STARTER WILL ROLL THE BIKE AND
START IT IN THIRD OR FOURTH ENABLING YOU TO GET IT HOME, I HAVE THE
SAFE GUARDS BYPASSED AND THIS IS ESSENTIAL, ALSO CARRY ANY SPARES
YOU THINK YOU WONT NEED SUCH AS SAID CLUTCH CABLE.
Even though with the problems I encountered it is by far the best
day of dual sport riding I have ever had, I am more than ecstatic
with my KLR and can't wait to head out again. With these extra mods
that I do I will be a lot more self sufficient and time efficient
with any future incident involving my trusty KLR
LONG LIVE THE KLR
Richard Hayward
ST. Peters Missouri
