oil seal question

[zrod73026]

Wingman, the load cap of the KLR is 400lbs. The wife and I do well 2up even in the dirt. Just watch the sand, mud and single track! Ride safe and enjoy havin your biscuit ride with you. Pay attention for bicyclers and hikers when you and your chicky are havin fun in the woods though, they can slip up on you. Cheers, Zrod

--- In DSN_klr650@yahoogroups.com, WingRJ@a... wrote: > > In a message dated 03/27/03 03:39:04, ridlej@h... writes: > > >Considering buying a KLR 650.....Does anyone know what the weight > >capacity is of a klr 650? I realize this is not the perfect bike for 2 > >up riding, but if anyone has any experience 2 up riding on this bike I > >would appreciate any comments or advice.... good or bad. > > I live in San Jose, CA. A local club used to host a ride called the Ridge > Runner 250. > It was a day run through Watsonville, Hollister Hills, Clear Creak and the > surrounding areas. > It started off in the early years at about 50/50 street and dirt, then as > time progressed > that dwindeled to about 10% dirt and the rest street. > I used to ride these events with my wife on the back. > I'm 200 lbs and she is just under 100lbs. > > I could tell you some stories, like climbing up Stage Coach road 2 up, or > racing a 400 single - he was 1 up, > or how we would argue as to what trail to take. I wanted the rough stuff, > she wanted the easy stuff. > > Anyway, the bike did great. I loved the way we could run with the best of > them 2 up on the dirt, yet jump > on the freeway and cruise around 65 mph. > > One comment my wife made that I will always remember, 'The bushes rubbed > right up against our legs'. > > A word of advice, make sure your passenger is dirt worthy, getting out once a > year on the dirt just > isn't a good idea. > > Good Luck > > Viewed best > in the text font > 'Courier' > ___ > /___\ > (!* *!) > __\^-^/__ > / ___ \ > _/ |___| \_ > (__\=/ \=/__) > O=|_[ ]_|=O > \.---./ > | = = | > | =.-.= | > !_|| ||_! > =|| ||= > > | | > | | > _____`-'_____ > > Wish I could go through life > like I go through traffic

[Lujo Bauer]

Between my, my girlfriend, and top and side cases we also weigh about 350 lbs. I've found that with a Progressive shock spring the rear end seems to hold up just fine under any conditions I've encountered (which is bad roads, some gravel, lots of potholes, and a few curbs, and occasional two-track). With the stock spring just me plus luggage seemed to be too much. -Lujo Tom Lippe wrote:

> My wife and I ride together often. Total passenger weight around 350. We lightly load the rack. Planning an overnighter (motel, just an overnight bag on rack) on the Oregon coast this summer (a couple hundred miles). Often ride gravel logging roads, with a good passenger (holds on tight, leans into hills when stopped) no problem. Hit rough stuff offroad every now and then and the KLR bottoms out front and back, unless you go real slow. > > Summary: On street works great, gravel roads fine, rough stuff only in small quantities and very slow.

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[Mark Tullis]

My wife enjoys riding two up on the KLR. My recommendations for riding two up are: get a better saddle. I like the corbin. My wife likes leaning up against the Givi E45 with the backrest. She can lean back on long rides and feel some support back there for road riding. I don't recommend using the givi for offroad, if you can help it. The passenger needs to have room to move around and not be "boxed" in. Note: the givi adaptor plate from Happy Trails is a good idea. It will give your passenger a few extra inches, and gives you access to the little tool compartment. And as others have mentioned, do the rear sub-frame upgrade. After riding with a passenger for 3 years or so (on borrowed time) I finally got around to doing this mod at the Oregon tech session last weekend. It is a low cost mod that is easy to do. My stock bolts were okay, but the new upgrade kit, (I used Kroc's kit) is much beefier and will no doubt handle stress better than the stock hardware. Also, be careful about where you position luggage. My Chase Harper soft panniers ride a little more forward than aluminum boxes typically do. For weight distribution, I like this set up when riding solo, but it doesn't give the passenger much room for her feet. The progressive spring for the rear shock seems like a good idea too, but I haven't replaced mine yet. The stock spring at the firmest setting has been working fine for me so far. Mark Tullis A-12 Portland Lujo wrote: Between my, my girlfriend, and top and side cases we also weigh about 350 lbs. I've found that with a Progressive shock spring the rear end seems to hold up just fine under any conditions I've encountered (which is bad roads, some gravel, lots of potholes, and a few curbs, and occasional two-track). With the stock spring just me plus luggage seemed to be too much. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[RM]

On Sat, 29 Mar 2003, Mark Tullis wrote:

>And as others have mentioned, do the rear sub-frame upgrade. After >riding with a passenger for 3 years or so (on borrowed time) I finally >got around to doing this mod at the Oregon tech session last weekend. >It is a low cost mod that is easy to do. My stock bolts were okay, but >the new upgrade kit, (I used Kroc's kit) is much beefier and will no >doubt handle stress better than the stock hardware.

I second this advice. I broke my subframe bolts with a passenger on the back and it wasn't pretty.

>The progressive spring for the rear shock seems like a good idea too, but >I haven't replaced mine yet. The stock spring at the firmest setting has >been working fine for me so far.

I and a passenger spent about six hours today torture-testing a 500/560 Progressive on a stock shock (combined weight around 340lbs). I had the preload maxed out which yielded just about the right amount of sag. This spring is The Bomb for aggressive two-up off-roading. I've come to the conclusion that if you bottom out the rear suspension with this setup, you're probably exceeding the design limits of the KLR and you need to slow your ass down. Of course, I bottomed it out 4-5 times today. I guess I should keep an eye out for a replacement frame on eBay? RM

[Devon Jarvis]

RM wrote:

>I and a passenger spent about six hours today torture-testing a 500/560 >Progressive on a stock shock ....... > > I've come to the >conclusion that if you bottom out the rear suspension with this setup, >you're probably exceeding the design limits of the KLR and you need to >slow your ass down. > >Of course, I bottomed it out 4-5 times today. I guess I should keep an >eye out for a replacement frame on eBay? > >RM >

No, you should get a real shock. Bottoming is solved by damping, sag is set by the spring and preload. There's nothing wrong with using a larger spring as a damping band-aid as long as the ride is OK ($89 vs $500, why not?) but you are going beyond what the stock shock was designed to do. For that matter, I could bottom the rear suspension (500-560 over stock shock) while offroading, no passenger, I weigh maybe 175 in full riding gear. When I got the progressive 420 shock I had to go to the lighter 350-450 spring, because the big spring was too much once I had better damping. In retrospect, look at your other options- the 420 shock is decent, but I'm thinking a "heart transplant" on the stock shock might get you the best setup for the money. Devon A15

[Zachariah Mully]

On Mon, 2003-03-31 at 12:33, runstrom2003 wrote:

> Hello, > > I'm in the process of replacing my front-fork oil seal's on my A-13. > Any opinoin's as to what are best to use i.e factory type or > aftermarket.

Are they leaking, or are you just replacing them as a bit of PM? If they're not leaking, then leave them, the factory seals are pretty robust and if your fork tubes are in good shape, they'll probably last longer then most of the bike. I had installed Leak-Proof's, but they leaked, I put in my old factory seals and they didn't... The tubes were brand new. Devon thought that the LP seals had far too much stiction in comparsion to the OEM's. YMMV, of course. I think the prices are compariable if you order your OEM seals from RA. Z DC A5X A12X

[RM]

On Mon, 31 Mar 2003, Devon Jarvis wrote:

>Bottoming is solved by damping, sag is set by the spring and preload. >There's nothing wrong with using a larger spring as a damping band-aid as

I've always felt that compression damping was a band-aid for not-enough-spring. It's toe-MAY-toh, not toe-MAH-toe.

>In retrospect, look at your other options- the 420 shock is decent, but >I'm thinking a "heart transplant" on the stock shock might get you the >best setup for the money.

OR... I could crank my shock up to position 4. I just realized that I had it on 2. RM

[Devon Jarvis]

RM wrote:

> > On Mon, 31 Mar 2003, Devon Jarvis wrote: > > >Bottoming is solved by damping, sag is set by the spring and preload. > >There's nothing wrong with using a larger spring as a damping band-aid as > > I've always felt that compression damping was a band-aid for > not-enough-spring. >

Either one could cover for the other I guess. As I understand it, the correct spring is one that is not quite topped out when the rider is off the bike (ie 5-10% static sag) AND gives about 30-33% sag with the bike loaded for riding (rider, gear, stuff). It's only there to suspend the bike at the proper ride height. Dissipating the energy of the compressing suspension is the job of the damping. If you rely on the spring to do this, it will do a pretty good job of handing back all that energy on the rebound. If you have to crank up the preload to get the 30% sag, so that you have zero static sag, then you are using a spring that's too weak. I got this with the stock spring on the stock shock. If you have a lot of static sag, and can only get the right dynamic sag with the preload backed off all the way, then you are using a spring that's too strong. I had this with the 500-560 progressive spring. It just so happens that the stock shock with the big progressive spring, is a very rideable combination of underdamped and oversprung. With the 420 shock, it was properly damped and way oversprung, which wasn't good. The 350-450 progressive spring works better for my weight on the 420 shock. Devon A15