blasts from the past

[Johnny]

Hi, My 1st post here , I just bought a brand new 2004 KLR650 on Saturday . Love the bike , but i'm not too fond of Red , is there any way to maybe paint the plastic ? I don't mind the red on the tank , just the bike being red as a whole bothers me . Any suggestions would be great . and another question does anyone know if the KLR650 has a fuse box that allows auxiliary wiring ? I'm considering adding an LED light kit to the engine . Thanks, Bobby - Ottawa, On Canada

[Eric L. Green]

On Tue, 21 Jun 2005, Johnny wrote:

> My 1st post here , I just bought a brand new 2004 KLR650 on Saturday . > > Love the bike , but i'm not too fond of Red , is there any way to > maybe paint the plastic ? I don't mind the red on the tank , just the > bike being red as a whole bothers me . Any suggestions would be great .

I just painted a small part of my front fender with Krylon Fusion out of a rattlecan. It appears to work as advertised, though I'm trying to decide whether the color I scored at Wal-mart (a brilliant grass-green) is what I want my KLR to be. Note that surface preparation is very important. While the Krylon folks say you don't need to sand and prep your plastic in order to use their product, my own experience says that you need to first give it a good washing with a good detergent then rinse and dry, then you need to at least give it a light sanding to get rid of any rough areas, then wipe it down with alcohol (the denatured kind is cheap but drugstore isopropyl works too) and once that's done, go over it with a sticky cloth to get any sanding residue off. On the small area of the fender I painted, I followed the directions on the can (except I rinsed the area with alcohol first) and you can see some rough areas where the plastic had eroded more than the Krylon will fill, and there's a place where a speck of sand or dirt caused a bump. So surface prep is important. Tomorrow I'm going to go out and look at my fender again in the light of day and decide whether I'm going to paint all my plastic that bright green color, or go find a more subdued green in the Krylon pallete.

> and another question does anyone know if the KLR650 has a fuse box > that allows auxiliary wiring ? I'm considering adding an LED light kit > to the engine .

The KLR has no "fuse box" as such, just random fuse holders in random places (two under the seat, and one under the right front shroud). However, Tammy at http://www.totallywiredcycle.com has a kit that adds one. Also, Radio Shack has ATO-type fuse holders. I added a cigarette outlet to my KLR by getting a weathertight outlet from Wal-Mart, some 16ga wire, some weatherproof crimp-on connectors, and one of these fuse holders wired straight to the battery. I use this to drive my air pump thus did not want to have it switched by the ignition switch. -E

[Jim]

If you are looking for just a basic color, any of the consumer or professional automotive "flexible bumper paints" may be a good choice; plasti-kote, Dupli-Color, SEM Products, etc; they are available in spray cans. Also, see Mark's KLR650 Pages. Jim A17

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "Johnny" wrote: > Hi, > > My 1st post here , I just bought a brand new 2004 KLR650 on Saturday . > > Love the bike , but i'm not too fond of Red , is there any way to > maybe paint the plastic ? I don't mind the red on the tank , just the > bike being red as a whole bothers me . Any suggestions would be great . > > and another question does anyone know if the KLR650 has a fuse box > that allows auxiliary wiring ? I'm considering adding an LED light kit > to the engine . > > Thanks, > Bobby - Ottawa, On Canada

[Alan L Henderson]

Fred Hink wrote:

> > >>Punky and Lew Waterman > > > Lew is writing a book about his expedition. >

And is riding a 650 vstrom!

> >>Sara from the Wedding Channel ? > > > Married with a kid? Guess that must be perks of her business........ >

And is a moderator on mcadv_touring@yahoogroups.com.

> >>Bogdan Swider > > > Still alive and very much kickin. Was at the last CMC. >

I talked to him at Moab and he said he would be inactive for a bit due to his schedule at school. Busy time of year. Alan Henderson A13 Iowa