**&^%$%% grips, but great brakes!

[Dennis Shell]

I cut wheat one summer from the Texas border to the Canadian border and I remember a section of road in South Dakota that had no gas station for 243 miles. It was through the badlands and a roadsign warned travelers of the lack of services. Being curious, I kept track of my odometer and they were right. Sure was a pretty area of South Dakota if you're into that type of desolation. Always wanted to go back on a bike.

----- Original Message ----- From: revmaaatin To: DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2006 9:17 AM Subject: [DSN_KLR650] Re: Gas in the right side of the tank --- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, wrote: > > > What a bunch of yahoos. Try this, consider 200 miles > dead empty. You are never more then 200 miles from a > gas station unless your in Alaska. > --- revmaaatin wrote: > att, Those sneaky Alaskan's, they stole the idea of fewer gas stations from South Dakota. Seems to me the gas stations here on the North Central and NW prairie are only 100 miles apart in some places. On the other hand, most ranchers will sell you some gas...some might even give it to you if you will just go away.... One of my friends, Earl P. ranches cattle just South of the Cheyenne River Reservation (the Native American's at one time received deeds and were able to sell land inside the reservation. A lot of land was sold before the tribes revoked the private ownership of land--the simplistic explanation.) He also cash-rents a good deal of the tribal land on the reservation for additional pasture. One day, a p/u truck with a horse trailer showed up with several members of the local tribe. "Can we have a cow [to eat--b-b-q] for our annual pow-wow." A request like this is one that is hard to refuse. Earl went out and picked a 'cull' cow, (also known as a 'pound-cow' ie sold to butcher-by-the-pound or 'hamburger-cow'; usually older, very lean, but still very much edible) the tribe was satisfied, and they loaded the party-animal (SIDEBAR COMMENT: this is where that phrase -party animal- originates, right here on an Indian Reservation in South Dakota)--and every one seemed satisfied. The tribe got a cow, Earl P. got to pick the cull cow, figuring if he said 'No' that most likely he would be missing a cow, and not one of his choice by sunup--tomorrow. Pleasantries were exchanged; much gratitude was shown by both parties and the final words from the tribe? "Can we get some gas? We don't have enough to get back to the pow-wow." When it rains, it pours. He gave them the gas needed to get back to the rez before they asked to be adopted. What a deal, a free party animal and gas to boot. revmaaatin. KLR Methodist Circuit Rider--Sioux Empire. Any way [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Stuart Mumford]

> -----Original Message----- > Another problem with the KLR tank design is that the two forward > low "points" never get cleared out. My buddy's, older KLR, had the > points of his tank rust out because the water laid in there forever. > Might be a good idea to add dry-gas periodically. > > Don R100, A6F >

If your bike spends as much time on its side or upside down as mine does, that's not really an issue. The only real solution if you are too dumb to know your bike's range is to pack a spare jug of fuel with you. Thanks CA Stu

[Bill Watson]

(I know I won't be able to successfully write this as tounge-in-cheek as the Rev can)... Rev, yes a curb is a modern convenience provided by many local cities where, at the edges of the road, a concrete step up of appx. 6" provides a channel for water to flow parallel to and at the edges of the street when it rains. Usually the sidewalk (another convience for city-folk allowing them to walk near the road but not on it, and not in weeds and grass) is poured at the curb level to be above said water when it rains. Key difference: I don't know what "running it off into the ditch" means, and you don't know what "hitting the curb" means. If the KLR tire contact patches are placed on the curb (ie edge of sidewalk, and 6" above the road bed) and then leaned over towards the road, the first part of the motorcycle to contact the ground will be the handlebar tip, not the shift lever. All this moaning that we can't get the last 0.1 gallons out is silly - this is a HUGE fuel tank on these bikes. I grew up with 2 gallon tanks, and the 3.2 gallon tank on my old XL600 was monstrous to me, going over 200 miles on every tank. Now 5.5 gallons of capacity on the KLR, sheesh. If these were 9 gallon tanks, we would find posts where people are upset they can get only 8.9 gallons out of them. I understand the unusable fuel angle of course, and thus I'm thrilled to find it's "ONLY" 0.1 gallon. If it was .75 gallon, I would be more upset. Bill Watson Phoenix ------------------------------ The Rev wrote: I understood everything in this post, except the 'curb' suggestion. Coming from KY and now living in the last US frontier, is a 'curb' a cultural thing, perhaps indirectly related to electricity, indoor toilets and running water? Let me know if you can...sorry, got to go, I believe I can hear the goats eating the grass off the sod roof again.... Just curious. I hate to be left out of the information loop. revmaaatin. --------------------------------- Yahoo! Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs.Try it free. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Ronald Criswell]

Sounds like the time my wife and her sisters first experience with a gas oven. They turned it on and then went looking for a match. Not good. Or when I light the firecracker and threw away the match. BANG! Criswell

On Jul 20, 2006, at 12:09 PM, Matt Knowles wrote: > > On Jul 20, 2006, at 9:41 AM, Spike55 wrote: > > > Might be a good idea to add dry-gas periodically. > > I tried to make some dry-gas one time. Put a bowl of high octane in > the > oven to dry it out. Don't recommend this approach. > > Matt Knowles - Ferndale, CA - > http://www.knowlesville.com/matt/motorcycles > '99 Sprint ST - for going fast and far (2CZUSA) > '01 KLR650 (A15) - for exploring the North Coast backroads > '97 KLX300 & '01 Lakota - for playing in the dirt > '79 KZ400 - just because it was the first vehicle I ever owned > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Doug Herr]

On Thu, 20 Jul 2006, Bill Watson wrote:

> All this moaning that we can't get the last 0.1 gallons out is > silly - this is a HUGE fuel tank on these bikes.

Yup, I find that one rather amusing. I don't hit reserve that often. I just get gas once I am over 200. If you hit reserve often then it could get easy to forget you switched over. In that case you need to create some sort of "red flag" that you switch into place after switching to reserve. -- Doug Herr doug@...

[ckhaun@juno.com]

Very true rev!! Amusement and amazement duly noted...here's one for you--:) The Pastors Ass The pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won. The pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again, and it won again. The local paper read: PASTOR'S ASS OUT FRONT The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the pastor not to enter the donkey in another race. The next day, the local paper headline read: BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR'S ASS. This was too much for the bishop, so he ordered the pastor to get rid of the donkey. The pastor decided to give it to a nun in a nearby convent. The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day: NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN. The bishop fainted. He informed the nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey, so she sold it to a farmer for $10. The next day the paper read: NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10 This was too much for the bishop, so he ordered the nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild. The next day the headlines read: NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE The bishop was buried the next day. The moral of the story is....being concerned about public opinion can bring you much grief and misery...and even shorten your life. So be yourself and enjoy life... Stop worrying about everyone else's ass and you'll be a lot happier and live longer! Have a nice day! [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Greg Schmidt]

Reading through this thread, I thought I'd wiehg in with my .02. Never had to use the extra reserve. I thought I might a few times (canyonlands in Utah does not have gas too many places after 5pm). My main comment on this thread is to avoid going on reserve if at all possible. I read someone say filling up before 200 miles and that works for me. The KLR doesn't give much warning about ready to switch to reserve. If running at highway speeds, usually it just shuts down and can be at the least opportune time - like passing a line of semi's, being buffeted around and a cage right on your tail. There are times it can border on outright dangerous. While touring, my rule of thumb was if to get gas if I stopped with anything over 80 miles on the clock, and start looking to stop at about 170. Camo Greg

[Douglas Bouley]

Nobody else has mentioned this, afaict, so it might be worth adding that running close to dry seems like a good way to get whatever grunge --if any-- might be in the bottom of the tank into the carb. Then you can clean your carb after you push the 5-6 miles to get gas. ;-^ At least it seemed to work that way for me... -d Greg Schmidt wrote:

> Reading through this thread, I thought I'd wiehg in with my .02. > Never had to use the extra reserve. I thought I might a few times > (canyonlands in Utah does not have gas too many places after 5pm). > > My main comment on this thread is to avoid going on reserve if at all > possible. I read someone say filling up before 200 miles and that > works for me. The KLR doesn't give much warning about ready to switch > to reserve. If running at highway speeds, usually it just shuts down > and can be at the least opportune time - like passing a line of > semi's, being buffeted around and a cage right on your tail. There > are times it can border on outright dangerous. > > While touring, my rule of thumb was if to get gas if I stopped with > anything over 80 miles on the clock, and start looking to stop at > about 170. > > Camo Greg > > > > > > > > > Archive Quicksearch at: http://www.angelfire.com/ut/moab/klr650_data_search.html > List sponsored by Dual Sport News at: www.dualsportnews.com > List FAQ courtesy of Chris Krok at: www.bigcee.com/klr650faq.html > Member Map at: http://www.frappr.com/dsnklr650 > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > >

[E.L. Green]

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "theoneandonlyhoppy" wrote:

> --- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, geobas wrote: > > Most of the time I just cut off the ends and push a Phillips screw > > driver up between the grip and the bar. > > That's been my routine in the past, but there was no part of this > grip that would allow even my smallest screwdriver to get between > the grip and bar. The whole grip was bonded to the bar. After I > peeled it with a razor the remaining adhesive just laughed at WD40 > and even brake cleaner.

Yeah, if only they used that same adhesive to hold in all the screws and bolts that jump ship off of the bike, that #$%@ is almost impossible to get off. I resorted to using a drill-driven steel brush wheel to smooth it enough to get my new grips to slide on reasonably well, that stuff just laughed at carb cleaner too (*NOTHING* laughs at carb cleaner, but that stuff sure did!). I also resorted to slicing with a carpet knife and peeling pieces off in order to get even to that point. But it was worth it to have nice soft gel grips on my bike... -E

[michael95453]

There has been much made of "never riding your KLR far enough to even use reserve". The theory being if you are always on the main tank and are prudent about your mileage, you won't have all these problems. Well, if you never use reserve, then you are only drawing fuel from a level about an inch from the bottom of the tank. Any accumulated moisture (water) will sink to the bottom of the gasoline, as well as other crud. If you don't use reserve for months or years, you never flush this area of the tank, and can get a large buildup, which may be all that's available as "fuel" when you get around to having to use reserve some time in the future. This year, I purchased a KLR from someone who apparently "never used reserve". I usually don't get gas until I hit reserve (obviously within logistical reasonableness). Well, the first time I went to reserve on this bike, nothing happened...no fuel. I could see it in the tank, but it wouldn't come out! And I was 15 miles from the nearest town and alone. After I got myself out of this predicament, I took the petcock apart and found that the reserve circuit was entirely blocked by crud, and wouldn't flow fuel at all. I cleaned the petcock and decided to remove the sealing o-ring on the vacuum valve, which turns the petcock into a purely manually- operated device. I did this because of the difficulty I had (during my emergency) getting fuel to flow from the tank with empty float bowls (and a weak battery). I try to make it a habit of running my bike on reserve as soon as I leave a gas station with a full tank, then later putting it back on the main tank (or shutting it off when I get home). That way I periodically flush the reserve, and if the gas I just bought was "bad" (had water in it?) I would know immediately, and would be able to switch back to the main tank to temporarily solve the problem (hopefully). Obviously, you need to be careful and remember to go back to the main tank at some time before you use everything in the tank. Since I don't do too many "tank-torching" rides on my KLR, and I turn off the tap when I get home, I can usually avoid this problem. On the subject of getting to the gas on the right side...I have discovered that instead of laying the bike on its left side, I leave the sidestand down and pull back on the right handlebar and lever the bike over and back onto the sidestand and rear wheel until it is almost horizontal. This is a lot less strain on your back, doesn't expose bodywork to the ground, and has the added benefit that the low point in the tank becomes the left rear portion where the petcock is, which allows you to even access the gas in the left front "lobe". If you have a manually operated petcock, you can do this several times to re-fill the float bowls, and with a decent battery, can hopefully make it to the next gas station. At least you will use up every drop of gas in the tank trying. HTH Michael http://michael-byrne.home.mchsi.com/