Dear fellow KLR nutjobs,
Thought I would pass along what I learned on my trip to Alaska. Lots
I am sure will be old news/repition but maybe some will be useful.
I went from Ms to Calgary, Hyder, Teslin, Whitehorse, Dawson City,
Inuvik, Dawson City, Chicken, Fairbanks, Wiseman, Deadhorse, Wiseman,
Fairbanks, Whitehorse, Fort Nelson, Grand Prairie, Fort McCloud,
Coeur D Alene, Idaho Falls, Laramie and back home. 12000 GPS miles,
13000 ODO miles. 34 days. Did lots of tourist stuff enroute but also
did a lot of 600 mile days. It was a great trip.
Things I learned/would do different:
Do not get hurt. Well yeh everybody knows that even me but I did it
anyway. Pulled the end near off one of my fingers in Stewart BC in
one of the more stupid moves in my life. Just happened to be a small
hospital 4 blocks down the street. An hour and a half of putting it
back together and 700 bucks lighter I walk out. Thay won't take
insurance in CA(even tho my BCBS policy is international coverage)
and the emergency room was a flat 700 charge. Take your checkbook.
Get Medjet. I didn't have it and wished I did. Most places up there
the nearest medical care is hundreds of miles away. Do not get hurt.
Do not go down. Be conservative. Think. Even minor injuries are major
when you are trying to keep a KLR running and make 500 or 600
miles/day in all kinds of weather.
I would equip for a long term rain event/terrible weather of all
sorts with the best possible gear...like maybe the Aerostich Darien
stuff. We ran in rain for 5 solid days from Grand Island to Calgary.
Lashing rain. Near zero visibility in fog/heavy rain. 30 gusting 50.
Just nasty as hell. For days and days. Went thru the Black Hills and
never saw anything but fog. 28 degrees and freezing rain/snow in
Montana. Got snowed on 4 different days. 8 inches on the ground in
Haines Junction. Went to Wal Mart several times scrounging up all
kinds of rain gear, rubber dairy farmer looking knee boots, all kinds
of getby stuff. The Frog Tog bottoms lasted about 3 days. The top
lasted the whole trip. Everything I had got wet. The aluminum
sideboxes and top box sweated inside. Like has been said here before
buy the best gear you possibly can. I didn't have electric gear and
got by ok but dealing with all those layers for a month gets wearing.
I am completely rerigging, including electric jacket.
KLR issues: Jackass did have some problems. In all the rain he
started having water problems. Started missing and running ragged.
Steaming out the tailpipe. Would finally quit. Drain the carb bowl
and go a while longer. Do it all again. And again. Checked the tee
mod first. Wish my plumbing was in as gooda shape. Pulled the
airfilter box and it was wet inside. Pulled the airfilter and it was
wet inside. I was running w/o the sidepanels and believe water was
entering the intake on the left side and finally getting into the
carb and gradually filling the bowl. Could have been some carb ice
too, don't really know but the KLR will run on a lowoctane water/gas
mix for a long time. Like days. I made a shield over the intake with
ductape but was plagued with this every time it rained. Leave the
sidepanels on. My fuel mileage was bad...mostly because of relentless
headwinds. Amazing. Almost everyday. Up and back. Headwinds,
headwinds, headwinds. On the tailwind days I got 50+mpg, on the
tailwind days 34-38 mpg. Overall for the trip was 40.05 GPS mpg. The
big sideboxes just killed the mileage cause of drag. Contributing was
the 16 tooth front sprocket, I think. With that gearing and a heavy
load, high drag panniers, mountains and headwinds Jackass was
overgeared and struggled badly til I shipped the sideboxes and a
bunch on no longer needed crap home from Coeur d Alene. Keep the
luggage as streamlines as possible and maybe this won't be as big an
issue for you. I am going back to the 15 tooth front sprocket.
Out of time will send more.
Have a great day all
Joe and Jackass