de tour 2006 with jeff and steve intro part 1 of 2

[Walter Bell]

Hay all! I've run into something I havn't seen here yet. I have an A-16 w/12K smiles on her. A few months back I noticed a sort of banging coming from the front end as I went over say railroad tracks or jumped up onto curb-like things or rocks, ect...Well, I'm pretty good at making sure everything has either blue or red locktight so it doesn't fling off or vibrate out. A lesson learned when my right radiator shroud came off in the first 40mi! Anyway, coming to the point. I look this thing over all the time to see if anythings fallen off. And so far, after the shroud, nothing has. Cool, rite? Well, I took her for a ride today -10f. I was thinking if that guy can ride across Canada, well, you get the idea. I noticed the banging or subdued thuds again. I decided to put her up on the rack and pulled the wheel to the front. thud thud thud thud, crap! Steering head bearings are out! How could that happen? I got on the fone with a riding buddy and began telling him the story and as I was looking at the bike, there under the handlebar between the 2 places that mount the handlebar to the tripleclamp, the (I'm guessing here) bolt that goes down through the center of the steering head bearings has backed out(up)and stopped when it turned out enuf to touch the bottom of the handle bar! Holy crap! So, what do I do now? Just tighten it back down and watch it or pull the whole front end off and replace everything needed? Anyone have this happen before? I need guidance as to what to do from you pros! Thanks, Walt

[teamster1997]

It for some reason seems to be a common thing with the KLR. It's happened to me twice so far in 27,000 miles and I periodically check it. Personnely, I would tighten it back up and check the steering for a smooth feel from right to left and keep a close eye on it from now on. Just my two cents, Tim.........

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "Walter Bell" wrote: > > Hay all! I've run into something I havn't seen here yet. I have an > A-16 w/12K smiles on her. A few months back I noticed a sort of > banging coming from the front end as I went over say railroad tracks > or jumped up onto curb-like things or rocks, ect...Well, I'm pretty > good at making sure everything has either blue or red locktight so it > doesn't fling off or vibrate out. A lesson learned when my right > radiator shroud came off in the first 40mi! Anyway, coming to the > point. I look this thing over all the time to see if anythings fallen > off. And so far, after the shroud, nothing has. Cool, rite? Well, I > took her for a ride today -10f. I was thinking if that guy can ride > across Canada, well, you get the idea. I noticed the banging or > subdued thuds again. I decided to put her up on the rack and pulled > the wheel to the front. thud thud thud thud, crap! Steering head > bearings are out! How could that happen? I got on the fone with a > riding buddy and began telling him the story and as I was looking at > the bike, there under the handlebar between the 2 places that mount > the handlebar to the tripleclamp, the (I'm guessing here) bolt that > goes down through the center of the steering head bearings has backed > out(up)and stopped when it turned out enuf to touch the bottom of the > handle bar! Holy crap! So, what do I do now? Just tighten it back down > and watch it or pull the whole front end off and replace everything > needed? Anyone have this happen before? I need guidance as to what to > do from you pros! Thanks, Walt >

[Robert Chay]

There's a nut under the triple clamp that will need to be tighten first before the top nut. Use a spanner wrench or a flat-head screwdriver and a small hammer. Or you can take the top triple clamp off, lower the fork/wheel assembly to check the bearing and repack or just grease the bearings (top and bottom). I usually put a drop of blue loctite on the top nut. -Bobby

> -----Original Message----- > From: teamster1997 > > It for some reason seems to be a common thing with the KLR. > It's happened to me twice so far in 27,000 miles and I > periodically check it. Personnely, I would tighten it back up > and check the steering for a smooth feel from right to left > and keep a close eye on it from now on. > > Just my two cents, Tim.........

[dooden]

Take handlebars off (4 bolts) loosen top triple bolts (on fork), back off large jam nut on stem head, use a punch/screwdriver to snug the slotted nut to tighten the steering head bearings, put jam nut back on and snug down, torque top triple bolts, reinstall handlebars, make sure you play with handlebar position so its the most comfy position (I find pushed slightly forward really was way better) Go for a ride. Shortly after getting my bike I also noticed the clunking/thuds, brought bike back and thats all it was. Odds of being bad bearings are very little IMHO, just loose I am guessing, now if you were taking it all apart I would have said grease them at the same time, but to just snug them is a pretty short order job. Thats my story and I am sticking to it. Dooden A15 Green Ape

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "Walter Bell" wrote: > > Hay all! I've run into something I havn't seen here yet. I have an > A-16 w/12K smiles on her. A few months back I noticed a sort of > banging coming from the front end as I went over say railroad tracks > or jumped up onto curb-like things or rocks, ect...Well, I'm pretty > good at making sure everything has either blue or red locktight so it > doesn't fling off or vibrate out. A lesson learned when my right > radiator shroud came off in the first 40mi! Anyway, coming to the > point. I look this thing over all the time to see if anythings fallen > off. And so far, after the shroud, nothing has. Cool, rite? Well, I > took her for a ride today -10f. I was thinking if that guy can ride > across Canada, well, you get the idea. I noticed the banging or > subdued thuds again. I decided to put her up on the rack and pulled > the wheel to the front. thud thud thud thud, crap! Steering head > bearings are out! How could that happen? I got on the fone with a > riding buddy and began telling him the story and as I was looking at > the bike, there under the handlebar between the 2 places that mount > the handlebar to the tripleclamp, the (I'm guessing here) bolt that > goes down through the center of the steering head bearings has backed > out(up)and stopped when it turned out enuf to touch the bottom of the > handle bar! Holy crap! So, what do I do now? Just tighten it back down > and watch it or pull the whole front end off and replace everything > needed? Anyone have this happen before? I need guidance as to what to > do from you pros! Thanks, Walt >

[Jeff Saline]

On Sun, 14 Jan 2007 02:10:51 -0000 "Walter Bell" writes:

> Hay all! I've run into something I havn't seen here yet. I have an > A-16 w/12K smiles on her. A few months back I noticed a sort of > banging coming from the front end as I went over say railroad > tracks > or jumped up onto curb-like things or rocks, ect...Well, I'm pretty > good at making sure everything has either blue or red locktight so > it > doesn't fling off or vibrate out. A lesson learned when my right > radiator shroud came off in the first 40mi! Anyway, coming to the > point. I look this thing over all the time to see if anythings > fallen > off. And so far, after the shroud, nothing has. Cool, rite? Well, I > took her for a ride today -10f. I was thinking if that guy can ride > across Canada, well, you get the idea. I noticed the banging or > subdued thuds again. I decided to put her up on the rack and pulled > the wheel to the front. thud thud thud thud, crap! Steering head > bearings are out! How could that happen? I got on the fone with a > riding buddy and began telling him the story and as I was looking > at > the bike, there under the handlebar between the 2 places that mount > the handlebar to the tripleclamp, the (I'm guessing here) bolt that > goes down through the center of the steering head bearings has > backed > out(up)and stopped when it turned out enuf to touch the bottom of > the > handle bar! Holy crap! So, what do I do now? Just tighten it back > down > and watch it or pull the whole front end off and replace everything > needed? Anyone have this happen before? I need guidance as to what > to > do from you pros! Thanks, Walt

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[Walter Bell]

Hay all! THanks for the emails and replies to my dilema. Unfortunatly I tightened down the nut at the top of the steering head and when tryng to pull the front tire out away from the bike, it still moved. I'm grabbing at straws here before tearing down the frontend. Any other things I can do? Thanks, Walt

[Jeff Saline]

KLR Listers, I've been unsuccessful at posting this to the list in 6 tries in the last 5 days. Here's another try. Sorry if this is a duplicate. I've now broken this message into two posts. Here's the first part. Jeff <><><><><><><> Below is the first trip report about De Tour, taken by myself and Steve Rankin from 30 May though 15 June 2006. You may have seen the trip reports when they were first posted last summer. But I'm thinking with winter finally upon many of us, a few riders may find the reports a fun way to escape from winter for a few minutes at a time. If you don't care to follow Steve and me on this journey please feel free to press your delete key. For Airheads... this trip was taken by two airheads and we met a couple of airheads along the way, but we were riding Kawasaki KLR650s. I've checked with the airlist admin and got the go ahead to post these trip reports to the airlist. I hope you enjoy. Trip reports like this always seem to be a bit better if photos are available too. KLR Lister Greg McKinney in Tennessee has graciously offered to host the photos on his server for a while. What originally began as an idea to just have images available has snowballed into a small De Tour site. Greg has spent quite a few hours setting up pages for each day, showing images, and also making the narrative available. So if you'd like to see some photos from the trip, or just can't wait for the next days trip report, go to Greg's site at: http://70.60.188.86/de_tour.htm and cruise along with us. I'll never be able to thank Greg enough for is generous offer to host the De Tour reports and photos for a while, and also for his hard work in making this available in a nice format. THANK YOU Greg! Finally, all the grammatical and punctuation errors and misspellings are mine, and mine alone. All the trip reports, like seen BELOW, are the same as were posted last summer. I'm just forwarding them for your reading pleasure and plan to forward one each day or so to the list and those friends that have requested being added to the list. Hope you enjoy our ride. We sure had a fun time on it. Best, Jeff Jeff Saline ABC # 4412 South Dakota Airmarshal Airheads Beemer Club www.airheads.org The Beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota 75 R90/6, 03 KLR650, 79 R100RT