DirtTwister's Bikes (VStrom 1000 and KLR 650)

[DirtTwister]

I currently have two bikes.  A 2012 Suzuki VStrom DL-1000 and a 2006 KLR 650.  I love the VStrom.  It is way better at riding on the twisty roads in the mountains than I thought it would be and it is quite comfortable on dirt roads.  I'm pretty much completely bored with the roads immediately around where I live (30 mile radius or so), so I bought the KLR.  It has been quite fun exploring the local roads and trails with it.  I am planning to take the KLR on the Trans America Trail in 2 years.  I will probably try to do some of it next year and do the tougher part (western) the following year.

I don't have many pictures of my past bikes, but I do have a web page that shows a few of them:

http://bruceatkinson.com/mc

[BPh]

The DL vstrom  is a good motorbike, we have 2 members with that model inside our club.
The Kawie should be funny on trail roads.
Have fun in 2 years 

I have a 2008 Honda Varadero 1000 and I had an old XL 600 R till the last year,
that one was great for what I did with it (trail roads).

Click on this : www.rando-moto.be and check Photos & Videos if you want to see something different lol (I mean something different than your region).
What I have more enjoyed till now is my trip of last year, Norway ! http://youtu.be/ckJicfzluD8
In 10 days I'm away in the french Pyrenees, I hope the weather will be nice (not wet).

See you 

[DirtTwister]

The Varadero looks like a nice bike.  I can't believe they don't sell it in the US.

[mcm2boys]

So have you started on the mods you were going to do on the KLR before attacking the trans America trail..?

[DirtTwister]

While it was still under warranty I just made cosmetic changes.  I was also fairly lucky that the bike I found had several mods already done.  I replaced the front fender with a new OEM fender.  I purchased a 2011 header pipe off of eBay (Gen 1's rust and Gen 2's are stainless).  I put crash bars and hand guards on.  I replaced the subframe bolts with Eagle Mike's bolts.

The bike already had a Top Gun spring on the rear shock and it has mods on the front fork, but I don't know what they are.  The sag was fine for me, just a little stiff on the front.  It has a larger front brake rotor, braided steel brake lines, Pro-taper handlebars,  SW-Motech on/off road foot pegs, and a 16 tooth front sprocket.  The 16 tooth is good for getting you down the highway and then you can swap to a 14 tooth for off-road.  15 tooth is standard.  I have a 14 tooth to put on.  It also had a muffler mod to get rid of the tweet and make it sound better.

I've been riding it, getting familiar with it and deciding what I want to do.  Now that the warranty is over I'm going to open it up and check the DooHickey, and valve timing.  There are some tweaks you do for throttle response that I will do at that time.  You advance the exhaust cam timing and I'll put in the KLX carb mods that are fairly standard for KLR's.   I do think that I will be replacing the exhaust just to sound/look better.  I'll also will replace the battery with one of the light weight LIthium batteries. 

I'm good with the suspension the way it is, except I do want to go into the forks to see what is there, change the fork oil and maybe put smaller spacers in to get the sag where it should be.   I'll also get a fork brace.  I need to decide what tires to get.  The tires on it are almost brand new and fine for pavement and dirt roads.  As soon as any mud happens they are junk.

I have purchased a 2008 KLR luggage rack that I need to put on and I need to decide what side rack/guard I should get to assist with using soft luggage.  I need to decide between these two:

http://www.dirtracks.com/1987-2014-Kawasaki-KLR650-Saddlebag-Support-Rack-0004.htm
http://www.happy-trail.com/KLR650/OSR-Side-Racks-87-07-KLR650.aspx

Click on the image to get full size.

[mcm2boys]

It looks in great condition how many miles has it got on it? ..er what's a doohickey.. i can't find it in the manual?

How do you advance the cam timing on the exhaust, sound like a new cam or is there adjustment on these things nowadays?

[DirtTwister]

Just over 20,000 miles.

A doohickey is the adjusting lever for the balancer shaft chain.  It's known for failing and leaving little metal parts to flow around in your oil.

http://www.klrworld.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=144&Itemid=227

You just advance the exhaust cam one tooth.  You have to remove the cams to adjust the valves.  When you put them back in just put the exhaust cam one tooth advanced before you put the chain back on.

Eagle Mike is a KLR guru and sells some great upgrades including a fix for the DooHickey problem.  He posted this about the free horsepower:

"We ran a 2009 (this will be the test mule for many projects) on the dyno. Stock except for Uni filter and KLX jet kit. It's also an oil user. We got our baseline numbers. Without doing anything else to the bike (or even taking it off the dyno) we advanced the exhaust cam 1 tooth. This is 7.5 cam timing degrees. We picked up 7 to 10 percent torque and horsepower from just above 2500 rpm to 6500 rpm. No loss of power anywhere. That's all we did. We'll do more fine tuning with adjustable cam sprockets to see if there is more to be had with finer/different settings. We did 3 pulls in each configuration, stock and altered timing."

[mcm2boys]

Well what do you know - it really is a DooHickey, i wonder what that is in Japanese..

Can't believe how rough that original part is - it looks like it would drop to bits pretty quickly. I've never played with valve timing, doing it that way i'd be worried about having the valve hit the piston but they obviously know way more than i do about it. 7.5-10% increase in power is a big step, i guess Kawasaki de-tuned the engine to make it last longer. What is the std peak hp form the KLR?

[DirtTwister]

The KLR doesn't put out a lot of power and you can't really extract a lot of power without getting into head work.  Even then the best you might get is 45 hp or so.  The stock KLR 650 putsout less than 35hp.  With some some tweaks and a pipe you can get 37-38 and then if you do the exhaust mod you can knock on the door of 40 hp.

It's main attraction is the fact that it doesn't have exotic parts and you don't have to worry about electronics or repariing it in remote areas.  The fact that it has a carb and minimal electronics is a plus for that, but not for performance.

[DirtTwister]

Went for a ride on Sunday on a road that I had never been on before.  I missed a stop ahead sign.  The stop sign is in the middle of a curve and the edge of a narrow one lane underpass under railroad tracks.  Pretty much invisible from the road until you are right there.  I was paying too much attention to the bumps/cracks in the pavement and didn't see the two important yellow warning signs.

http://youtu.be/2jp9xTqSiYI

[BPh]

OMG ! good job with the brakes !

that's me ...

Me vs Bicycles lol : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CELfcDhhiH8
(in slow motion : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDsX5DK4j0o )

Me vs a small Deer (female ?) Not LOL : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-E3d1XSxLs

Be care on the roads ! 

[DirtTwister]

I don't understand those bicylist?  What are they thinking?

Lucky with the deer.  I had a deer hit me many years ago.  It came from the right and hit right in front of my right leg.  My leg went straight back.  I managed to not fall, but my knee sure hurt and there wasn't any damage to the bike.  I was going much slower than you were when it happened.

[BPh]

The byciclists were sprinting like if the road was closed to the others vehicles, maybe a game for them, I was really surprised lol.
For the 2 videos, I had the luck the camera was recording, I don't record all the day.

Yours is very good too, damn just imagine if you hitted that wall ...

[BPh]

I received a mail who said someone replied here, but I see nothing new lol.

So, I add another funny video from last week-end, it's not an UFO, it's just my TopCase ... https://youtu.be/ppekY-j6N18 
Imagine how I was surprised at that moment lmao, it hitted my helmet too.



Here is the full video : https://youtu.be/sh5S0IQNT4M

End of the OFF-TOPIC, sorry.

[BPh]

Cheers all 

[DirtTwister]

How did your top case go towards the front?

Bruce

[BPh]

With the shock of the small bump, it's the second time I have this problem,
another day it was on a gravel road in the french alps near the Parpaillon's tunnel (check this epic pass on Google),
I ride my by big RoadTrail bike like an enduro bike I think ... and the frame doesn't support efforts like this.
Next bike will be an Africa Twin for sure.
Phil.

[VRT_RIDEBLUE]

I have recently picked up a Yamaha Super Tenere, What a fun ride for the wife and myself!

Bruce, How are you?

[DirtTwister]

That's a great bike.  I upgraded my 2012 VStrom to a 2014 VStrom 1000 two years ago. 

I'm keeping an eye out for some new bikes that are rumored.  KTM has a 790 and Yamaha a 700.  I would like a bike that is between my VStrom and KLR.  Enough power to have fun on the mountain twisties, comfortable enough to cruise on the highway some, and one I'm not afraid to take on some rough dual track with rocks.  I only take the VStrom up to where the dirt gets rough or muddy.  Those are the places I ride the KLR.  I'm ready to only have fuel injection on my bikes.

We've been very busy working on our house this year, so I haven't had has much time to ride as I would like.  We bought a house last year.  It's on a pond.  This summer we replaced the deck and currently adding  an under deck deckdrain roof.

2014 Vstrom:



Deck - Before and After:



View From Deck:

[VRT_RIDEBLUE]

Wow thats an amazing place you have! I moved to Southern Oregon in 2015 (Got tired of all the rate race in Cali) Loving it up here, There is so many places to ride up here. I still do some iracing but not as much as my DSL is only average. I am still doing dirt only on my YZ450 and the wife and I are enjoying the adventure bike. It is a bit big but I couldnt talk her into a smaller one. So we only do fire roads at best, Mostly pavement, Sill very fun. I will post a pic for ya..
https://ibb.co/i6BTUb[/url