Wilsons Sandbox

Posted: **Sun May 11, 2003 1:01 pm**

Hi all, I'm new here - moved to Michigan's U.P. last year, and before I moved, I sold my BMW 1150GS because I thought it would be too much of a heavy pig for offroad use here, what with the mud and sand found here. I think that was probably a good move, but it was a cool bike. Just so heavy and top-heavy too. Now I want another bike. Some pavement/highway use expected, with the very-occasional 3000 mile multi-day trip. Mostly I want a bike that I can ride on pavement to the dirt roads here, where I can start exploring dirt and logging roads, with the occasional trail. Modest technical stuff expected. I have lots of road experience, and 2 years with the old BMW GS. I ain't looking to do heavy-duty motocross - just cruise on dirt. I'm guessing 35% pavement, 60% dirt roads/logging roads, 5% trails/doubletrack/singletrack. I'm looking at a barely-used 2001 KLR650, and two other new bikes: Suzuki DR650SE, and Honda XR650L. I weight 210 pounds, 5'10", 33" inseam. I like the gas capacity of the XLR, along with some other features too. It sorta reminds me of a BMW GS "Lite", in a good way. The other bikes seem more oriented towards the dirt - true? Any opinions and info are greatly appreciated. Also, if there is a place I should go and look at already-discussed info, a URL would be great too. Thanks very much, Doug

Posted: **Sun May 11, 2003 8:18 pm**

No I, don't have any before and after photos of the ports. I don't have a digtal camera, plus it would be pretty hard to get good photos. I had a hard time seeing what I was doing with the Dremel tool. I didn't do anything radical except smooth some of the radii, roughen the surface, and remove that little piece of metal sticking up past the valve. If get the head off and look at it you will now what I am talking about. Slack on the chain, 0.015" is a whole lot of nothing. That it what the chain tensioner is for. As far as changing the timing any, I gave up on the math to calculate it because it quickly became clear that it would have very little effect. I don't think I could even measure the difference with a dial gauge. Anything less than 1 degree is nothing to worry about, 0.015" on the chain translates into a small fraction of a degree. As far as polishing the combustion chamber, piston, and valve faces, I used the Dremel tool with one of the those felt wheels and some polishing compound. I also rounded some sharper edges off in the head to prevent hot spots and detonation, but didn't remove to much material since this will drop the compression ratio. I did this just because I could since the head was off. It looked really pretty and shiny when I was done. As for fuel milage, I usually get about 320kms before I hit reserve. I ride pretty aggressive. Last adventure ride I went on empty at 270kms but most of that was ripping down abandoned rail lines where I would hold the bike wide open in fourth on the loose gravel. And then I snapped the clutch cable, but thats another story. Bryan K A14

--- In DSN_klr650@yahoogroups.com, Devon Jarvis wrote: > bkowalca wrote: > > >Everthing I have done has been posted before. See messages: > > > >http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/DSN_klr650/message/80567 > >http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/DSN_klr650/message/74662 > >http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/DSN_klr650/message/70888 > >http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/DSN_klr650/message/70780 > > > >It should be noted that I used the stock exhaust and stock air > >filter. > > > > Did you take any before-and-after photos of the intake ports? > > What, if anything, did you do about the bit of added slack in the camchain? > > How did you polish the valve ends and combustion chamber? > > What fuel mileage are you getting? > > Thanks, > Devon

Wilsons Sandbox

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