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- Joined
- Feb 28, 2003
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- Location
- Huntsville
- First Name
- Scott
- Last Name
- Friday
Seriously... did anyone really think I was talking about ME losing weight!? 
With a new kid on the way and crazy insurance issues, Beth and I decided we had to trim down the budget. This means the sale of my beloved R1150GS 
All is not lost though, we have decided that I can stick with a smaller and cheaper DS. For months I have been agonizing about which 650 to get. Many great deals came and went here on TWT to add to my torture. Finally, the practical side of me took over and I had to settle for the KLR 650. It excels at not excelling at anything and doing everything adequately. Bang for the buck, it is just a hard bike to beat! So the decision made, I get serious about looking around.
I have been watching KLR's come and go on various forums so I have a pretty good idea what I am looking for. Out of no where I get an email from Pete "Txcpl" Russo about an 01 KLR for sale. A quick glance over the ad shows the bike to be well outfitted and pretty much exactly what I want. Pete assures me the owner is a top notch guy and maintains his bike well. I contact the owner to get a few pics of the bike and to confirm all the mods and accessories. Then I make an offer, he counters with an even better offer, and the next thing I know, Beth and I are heading up to DFW Friday evening to meet the owner. He is trailering the bike down to DFW from St. Louis! That was part of his better counter offer 
We goof off with some long time friends in Cedar Hill (South of DFW on US 67) until getting the call that the owner is almost to Pete's. We load Sarah into the minivan and get on the road. Not long after, we meet Courtney, the owner, at Pete's house. Pete is not home as he has to play sailor this weekend in the Navy Reserve. I look the bike over and it is pretty much as advertised. It is quite dirty which is a bit annoying but not a deal breaker. Courtney also has extra tires and other goodies he is throwing into the deal so all is well. As an added bonus, the bike is really an 02 and not the 01! The 02 color scheme is the one I really wanted! While I am getting my gear on, He mentions that he has put some tire slime in the rear tire because it had a slow leak around the valve stem. It seems to be holding air so I make a note of it and then we take off.
There is very little gas in the bike so I plan to stop at the first gas station and fill up. However, all the way from Pete's house to US 75, and for quite a ways down US 75, there is not a single gas station!! I'm not sweating it because I know the KLR's get pretty good gas mileage... and then the bike starts to sputter in heavy traffic 
It has been a LONG time since I have been on a bike with a reserve switch. Fortunately, I had checked it before getting on the bike and manage to get it switched before the motor dies on me 
I get on and off at several exits hoping to find gas and still nothing! Finally, we find a station five or six exits later.
We get back on the road as day light starts to dwindle. The KLR gets buffeted by the turbulence in the traffic much worse than the GS. Riding the GS in heavy traffic inspires condfidence. The KLR just makes me want to get off the freeway and head for backroads. However, time is of the essence because I want to get back to Cedar Hill before dark and I can't lose Beth because she has no idea how to get back.
Just after US 67 splits off of I35E, I get into the HOV lane. A mile or so up the road from the entrance, people start swerving all over the place and some are swerving into the HOV lane! I start braking hard and then see a wheel bouncing and rolling across several lanes into the right side wall. Just up the road a short way is a car on the right shoulder sitting kind of funny... Has to be scary losing a front wheel at 70mph in traffic! Amazingly, even with all the swerving and freaking out, no one hit anyone else and we all went our merry way with a few more grey hairs.
Just before dark, we are nearing the exit on 67. The wind has been blowing pretty good and the KLR like to wiggle a little. That does not really bother me, but I notice the wiggle seems more pronounced than I recall being normal. Then it starts getting worse 
Gotta be a flat 
The front looks good so I guess the leak in the rear tire got worse... I manage to wiggle my way off the highway and into the little neighborhood we cut through to get to our friend's house. The first house on the right has a few bikes parked in the garage so I stop hoping they'll put some air in my tire and I can limp the bike the last mile or so. As soon as the guy starts pumping air, I see slime oozing out around the spokes... No good. He pumps it up and I take off. I make it a few blocks and the tire is flat again. Beth goes on ahead to get help. Rather than wait, I poke along at about 5mph.
I get back to my friend's house and he has gone out to get dinner. So I just pull in the garage and wait for dinner. Afterwards I got out to see what I can do about the tire. I don't have a spare tube and odds are, a patch won't do. Once of the nice mods on the bike is the addition of a centerstand 
I have the back tire off in a matter of a few minutes. Unfortunately, my friend has no tire tools... A quick call to Wasabi confirms that he is home, has the tools, and a spare tube. So I load up the backtire/rim and head over to Arlington to his house.
When I arrive, Wasabi and I get right to business. The tube is toast with a huge tear nearly half way around the circumference. EVERYTHING is slimey and gross!! We destroy several shop rags cleaning up all the goo. It turns out that the valve stem was not sealing because the core has some kind of hairlike stuff all around the inside where it makes its' seal so the valve surface never seated. Also, the tube rubber seems really brittle, almost rotten 
After getting everything cleaned up nice and good, we got the new tube installed with a minimum of fuss and rebalanced the tire. Good to go and with it nearing Midnight, I head back to my buddy's place in Cedar Hill.
Here's the bike in the garage waiting for a new tire.
Getting everything lined up and shoving the axle back through would be no problem with two people... It is a real pain for one 
After a few tries I finally get it all together, adjust the chain, and tighten everything up. I get my bag strapped on and mount the GPS mount. Everything ready for the ride home tomorrow, I head to bed.
Sunday morning arrives and we head for home, Beth via I-45 and me by way of a ton of little backroads that wind around the general vicinity of I-45 I stopped at the gas station on the corner of US 67 and FM 157, a popular meet/stop place for local riders. As I pull in, several sport bikes are heading out. I spot an 1150 GS and of course have to go over and say hi 
The couple is from Carrolton and is just out enjoying the beautiful weather. Being a loser, I have no TWT cards on me 
I tell the wife about the site and then hit the road. Hopefully, they will show up here!
I stay on 157 and run down to Maypearl. My GPS keeps turning off and won't come on even when I am stopped. So I pull over Maypearl to get new batteries. My wallet is in my jeans underneath my riding pants. When I start unzipping in front of the counter so I can get to it, the girl behind the counter looked at me with quite a look Some quick explaining set things right, hehe. The new batteries do the trick and I am back on the road.
I run a bunch of little backroads in a generally East direction and head for FM 55.
FM 55 and turn South. This is actually a pretty good road. I find out that the KLR tops out at about 75-80mph in the headwind. I am running the 16 tooth front sprocket and the motor just doesn't have enough oomph to turn that sprocket because it can't spin up enough to make the power. I think I may put the stock 15 tooth sprocket back on the bike. This will let the motor spin up a little higher in the RPM's so it should do better. When I do get it up to about 80mph indicated, the front end likes to get squirrely. A little pressure on the bars damps it out without any problem. About this time I am really thinking to myself how much I am going to miss the power and handling of the big GS...
I hit a few little dirt roads here and there cutting between FM's and eventually entering Teague. As I cross the tracks I spot a really cool old train station. It turns out this is a railroad museum. I don't go in because I need to get on home, but I do take a few pics.
The hotel right next to the station
Apparently at one time, this was The happening place! Then life just kind of left the town to the dust bin of history.
Old No. 1... that is a LOT of heavy steel!!
Pictures taken, I get back to the riding! I cross over I-45 on Hwy 179 and head out of the tiny town of Dew on FM 489. I keep running East until I hit CR 340 and it's back to the dirt!! The bike has a set of Avon Gripsters mounted. These are supposedly street tires but they have a fairly agressive tread and work great in the gravel and dirt. CR 340 has a lot of quick elevation changes and curves! So I start experimenting with shifting my weight around and sliding the backend through the corners. Immediately I noticed how much more the bike responds to me moving around compared to the GS. It helps on the GS, but only so much. The effect is much more pronounced on the KLR and it really helps. I can weight the front end and let the back end pretty much do what it wants and the bike tracks through the corners with no problem. I think I am going to have a lot of fun on this bike
I am getting in my groove and having fun when I come sliding around a corner on the gas pretty good and look up to see a truck blocking the whole road and some rancher waving his arms wildly I pull up to see what's going on and he tells me they are about to move a bunch of cattle between pastures and he is parked in front of the gate so the cows won't keep going down the road. He wants me to wait a few minutes until they are done. No problem.
With the cows happily grazing in their new pasture, the rancher thanks me and I head out. Some of the scenery out here is fantastic! All the pastures are a golden tan color with big naked oak trees sticking out of the ground and clawing at the sky with crooked tendrils. There are some great views looking down into some long valleys. Most hilltops have a large ranch house atop them positioned to look down into the valleys below. Then all too soon, I am back to the pavement.
I pop out on Hwy 79 just West of Oakwood. In town I head South on FM 542 about a mile and then peel off on FM 831. This is one of my favorite FM's North of Huntsville. It flows through some really nice landscape and has lots of fun elevation changes and tight curves. Lacking the power to really accelerate out of the corners, I keep the KLR pegged and opt for keeping my corner speed up. The Big Gun exhuast screams its' delight into the stiffly blowing wind. Like the big GS, the KLR does not lack for ground clearance and exciting lean angles! I weight the front end and hang to the inside of the corners and the front wiggle is barely noticeable. The last time I dragged a group of street riders up here, I was on the GS and the road was under construction, all hard packed dirt with a little gravel for several miles. I've never heard so much whining... Now it has been repaved and it is nice!!
I pick up FM 1511, another great road, and head South to Hwy 7. I take Hwy 7 West to FM 811. It's just more of the same, great curves! I run South to FM 1119 and then to OSR just outside of Midway. A quick hop on Hwy 21 and then South on FM 247 and twenty minutes later I rumble into Huntsville. The tall windscreen on the bike makes for a vision blurring head shaking ride and I have a bit of a headache from the buffeting. I think I will put the stock screen on and see how that works. I might even just run it without a screen. I prefer my helmet to be in clean air instead of behind a screen.
The reason I wanted to haul home is so I can clean up the GS. I have a potential buyer and I like for my bikes to be spic-n-span when they see them for the first time, curb appeal you know First things first though. Beth has been after me to blow the leaves and pine needles off the roof for several weeks and I have managed to weasel my way out everytime. She's been real patient with me so I figure it is the least I can do for her, hehe. Then I get the GS washed real good. Afterwards I take it out on a favorite backroad for a dry off run 
Coming off the KLR, the power of the GS and superior handling just seems overwhelming. I keep haivng to remind myself what it is like in the loose dirty stuff... If only I could afford to keep it AND the KLR 
I zoom back home and get started on cleaning up the KLR. It does not look like it has ever been washed and it has a LOT of grease and grime on the swingarms and engine cases. I soak it for a few minutes with some grease cutter and then spray it off with the hose. Most of the mess comes right off to reveal a nice looking bike underneath. I do a follow up spot treatment with the spray and a good brush. I take my time and give the bike a good looking over to get familiar with its' condition. Everything looks pretty good. I wheel both bikes in the garage and start the detailing.
When I was hauling home, about half way here, the voltage meter on the dash panel started going haywire. The bike was still running fine so I just chalked it up to a loose connection and kept going. Now I take a closer look. There is a cover on the backside of the instrument custer. It is missing a bolt and is moving around. When it moves, the lights and meter flicker. I pull it off for a better look and find five connectors, all loose. I pull them apart and use soem contact cleaner on all of them just for good measure while I am here, then get them all reinstalled and connected good and tight. I put the cover back on. The missing bolt seems to have been used for holding on one of the side covers under the seat The bolts for this cover have black heads and those for the side covers are all silver. To protect the electrics, I put the bolt back where it belongs. I'll head over to the hardware store and pick up some replacement bolts for the side panels. The stock bolts are all phillips heads. I'll see if I can get either 4mm or 5mm socket heads with the same threads to replace all of them.
The bike is all cleaned up and looks great. It has a few spots where the plastic is scratched a little and some other minor blemishes, but overall it is in good shape. I need to replace the battery with a sealed maintenance free unit. Then I plan to do a full maintenance service on it, oil, spark plugs, etc,... The Corbin seat is quite comfy and I will certainly enjoy it! There are a few little things I will probably add to the bike, but for the most part, it is ready to go exploring! Now I just have to get the GS sold!
With a new kid on the way and crazy insurance issues, Beth and I decided we had to trim down the budget. This means the sale of my beloved R1150GS All is not lost though, we have decided that I can stick with a smaller and cheaper DS. For months I have been agonizing about which 650 to get. Many great deals came and went here on TWT to add to my torture. Finally, the practical side of me took over and I had to settle for the KLR 650. It excels at not excelling at anything and doing everything adequately. Bang for the buck, it is just a hard bike to beat! So the decision made, I get serious about looking around. I have been watching KLR's come and go on various forums so I have a pretty good idea what I am looking for. Out of no where I get an email from Pete "Txcpl" Russo about an 01 KLR for sale. A quick glance over the ad shows the bike to be well outfitted and pretty much exactly what I want. Pete assures me the owner is a top notch guy and maintains his bike well. I contact the owner to get a few pics of the bike and to confirm all the mods and accessories. Then I make an offer, he counters with an even better offer, and the next thing I know, Beth and I are heading up to DFW Friday evening to meet the owner. He is trailering the bike down to DFW from St. Louis! That was part of his better counter offer We goof off with some long time friends in Cedar Hill (South of DFW on US 67) until getting the call that the owner is almost to Pete's. We load Sarah into the minivan and get on the road. Not long after, we meet Courtney, the owner, at Pete's house. Pete is not home as he has to play sailor this weekend in the Navy Reserve. I look the bike over and it is pretty much as advertised. It is quite dirty which is a bit annoying but not a deal breaker. Courtney also has extra tires and other goodies he is throwing into the deal so all is well. As an added bonus, the bike is really an 02 and not the 01! The 02 color scheme is the one I really wanted! While I am getting my gear on, He mentions that he has put some tire slime in the rear tire because it had a slow leak around the valve stem. It seems to be holding air so I make a note of it and then we take off. There is very little gas in the bike so I plan to stop at the first gas station and fill up. However, all the way from Pete's house to US 75, and for quite a ways down US 75, there is not a single gas station!! I'm not sweating it because I know the KLR's get pretty good gas mileage... and then the bike starts to sputter in heavy traffic It has been a LONG time since I have been on a bike with a reserve switch. Fortunately, I had checked it before getting on the bike and manage to get it switched before the motor dies on me I get on and off at several exits hoping to find gas and still nothing! Finally, we find a station five or six exits later. We get back on the road as day light starts to dwindle. The KLR gets buffeted by the turbulence in the traffic much worse than the GS. Riding the GS in heavy traffic inspires condfidence. The KLR just makes me want to get off the freeway and head for backroads. However, time is of the essence because I want to get back to Cedar Hill before dark and I can't lose Beth because she has no idea how to get back. Just after US 67 splits off of I35E, I get into the HOV lane. A mile or so up the road from the entrance, people start swerving all over the place and some are swerving into the HOV lane! I start braking hard and then see a wheel bouncing and rolling across several lanes into the right side wall. Just up the road a short way is a car on the right shoulder sitting kind of funny... Has to be scary losing a front wheel at 70mph in traffic! Amazingly, even with all the swerving and freaking out, no one hit anyone else and we all went our merry way with a few more grey hairs. Just before dark, we are nearing the exit on 67. The wind has been blowing pretty good and the KLR like to wiggle a little. That does not really bother me, but I notice the wiggle seems more pronounced than I recall being normal. Then it starts getting worse Gotta be a flat The front looks good so I guess the leak in the rear tire got worse... I manage to wiggle my way off the highway and into the little neighborhood we cut through to get to our friend's house. The first house on the right has a few bikes parked in the garage so I stop hoping they'll put some air in my tire and I can limp the bike the last mile or so. As soon as the guy starts pumping air, I see slime oozing out around the spokes... No good. He pumps it up and I take off. I make it a few blocks and the tire is flat again. Beth goes on ahead to get help. Rather than wait, I poke along at about 5mph. I get back to my friend's house and he has gone out to get dinner. So I just pull in the garage and wait for dinner. Afterwards I got out to see what I can do about the tire. I don't have a spare tube and odds are, a patch won't do. Once of the nice mods on the bike is the addition of a centerstand I have the back tire off in a matter of a few minutes. Unfortunately, my friend has no tire tools... A quick call to Wasabi confirms that he is home, has the tools, and a spare tube. So I load up the backtire/rim and head over to Arlington to his house. When I arrive, Wasabi and I get right to business. The tube is toast with a huge tear nearly half way around the circumference. EVERYTHING is slimey and gross!! We destroy several shop rags cleaning up all the goo. It turns out that the valve stem was not sealing because the core has some kind of hairlike stuff all around the inside where it makes its' seal so the valve surface never seated. Also, the tube rubber seems really brittle, almost rotten After getting everything cleaned up nice and good, we got the new tube installed with a minimum of fuss and rebalanced the tire. Good to go and with it nearing Midnight, I head back to my buddy's place in Cedar Hill.Here's the bike in the garage waiting for a new tire.
Getting everything lined up and shoving the axle back through would be no problem with two people... It is a real pain for one After a few tries I finally get it all together, adjust the chain, and tighten everything up. I get my bag strapped on and mount the GPS mount. Everything ready for the ride home tomorrow, I head to bed. Sunday morning arrives and we head for home, Beth via I-45 and me by way of a ton of little backroads that wind around the general vicinity of I-45 I stopped at the gas station on the corner of US 67 and FM 157, a popular meet/stop place for local riders. As I pull in, several sport bikes are heading out. I spot an 1150 GS and of course have to go over and say hi The couple is from Carrolton and is just out enjoying the beautiful weather. Being a loser, I have no TWT cards on me I tell the wife about the site and then hit the road. Hopefully, they will show up here! I stay on 157 and run down to Maypearl. My GPS keeps turning off and won't come on even when I am stopped. So I pull over Maypearl to get new batteries. My wallet is in my jeans underneath my riding pants. When I start unzipping in front of the counter so I can get to it, the girl behind the counter looked at me with quite a look Some quick explaining set things right, hehe. The new batteries do the trick and I am back on the road. I run a bunch of little backroads in a generally East direction and head for FM 55. FM 55 and turn South. This is actually a pretty good road. I find out that the KLR tops out at about 75-80mph in the headwind. I am running the 16 tooth front sprocket and the motor just doesn't have enough oomph to turn that sprocket because it can't spin up enough to make the power. I think I may put the stock 15 tooth sprocket back on the bike. This will let the motor spin up a little higher in the RPM's so it should do better. When I do get it up to about 80mph indicated, the front end likes to get squirrely. A little pressure on the bars damps it out without any problem. About this time I am really thinking to myself how much I am going to miss the power and handling of the big GS... I hit a few little dirt roads here and there cutting between FM's and eventually entering Teague. As I cross the tracks I spot a really cool old train station. It turns out this is a railroad museum. I don't go in because I need to get on home, but I do take a few pics.The hotel right next to the station
Apparently at one time, this was The happening place! Then life just kind of left the town to the dust bin of history. Old No. 1... that is a LOT of heavy steel!!
Pictures taken, I get back to the riding! I cross over I-45 on Hwy 179 and head out of the tiny town of Dew on FM 489. I keep running East until I hit CR 340 and it's back to the dirt!! The bike has a set of Avon Gripsters mounted. These are supposedly street tires but they have a fairly agressive tread and work great in the gravel and dirt. CR 340 has a lot of quick elevation changes and curves! So I start experimenting with shifting my weight around and sliding the backend through the corners. Immediately I noticed how much more the bike responds to me moving around compared to the GS. It helps on the GS, but only so much. The effect is much more pronounced on the KLR and it really helps. I can weight the front end and let the back end pretty much do what it wants and the bike tracks through the corners with no problem. I think I am going to have a lot of fun on this bike I am getting in my groove and having fun when I come sliding around a corner on the gas pretty good and look up to see a truck blocking the whole road and some rancher waving his arms wildly I pull up to see what's going on and he tells me they are about to move a bunch of cattle between pastures and he is parked in front of the gate so the cows won't keep going down the road. He wants me to wait a few minutes until they are done. No problem. With the cows happily grazing in their new pasture, the rancher thanks me and I head out. Some of the scenery out here is fantastic! All the pastures are a golden tan color with big naked oak trees sticking out of the ground and clawing at the sky with crooked tendrils. There are some great views looking down into some long valleys. Most hilltops have a large ranch house atop them positioned to look down into the valleys below. Then all too soon, I am back to the pavement. I pop out on Hwy 79 just West of Oakwood. In town I head South on FM 542 about a mile and then peel off on FM 831. This is one of my favorite FM's North of Huntsville. It flows through some really nice landscape and has lots of fun elevation changes and tight curves. Lacking the power to really accelerate out of the corners, I keep the KLR pegged and opt for keeping my corner speed up. The Big Gun exhuast screams its' delight into the stiffly blowing wind. Like the big GS, the KLR does not lack for ground clearance and exciting lean angles! I weight the front end and hang to the inside of the corners and the front wiggle is barely noticeable. The last time I dragged a group of street riders up here, I was on the GS and the road was under construction, all hard packed dirt with a little gravel for several miles. I've never heard so much whining... Now it has been repaved and it is nice!! I pick up FM 1511, another great road, and head South to Hwy 7. I take Hwy 7 West to FM 811. It's just more of the same, great curves! I run South to FM 1119 and then to OSR just outside of Midway. A quick hop on Hwy 21 and then South on FM 247 and twenty minutes later I rumble into Huntsville. The tall windscreen on the bike makes for a vision blurring head shaking ride and I have a bit of a headache from the buffeting. I think I will put the stock screen on and see how that works. I might even just run it without a screen. I prefer my helmet to be in clean air instead of behind a screen. The reason I wanted to haul home is so I can clean up the GS. I have a potential buyer and I like for my bikes to be spic-n-span when they see them for the first time, curb appeal you know First things first though. Beth has been after me to blow the leaves and pine needles off the roof for several weeks and I have managed to weasel my way out everytime. She's been real patient with me so I figure it is the least I can do for her, hehe. Then I get the GS washed real good. Afterwards I take it out on a favorite backroad for a dry off run Coming off the KLR, the power of the GS and superior handling just seems overwhelming. I keep haivng to remind myself what it is like in the loose dirty stuff... If only I could afford to keep it AND the KLR I zoom back home and get started on cleaning up the KLR. It does not look like it has ever been washed and it has a LOT of grease and grime on the swingarms and engine cases. I soak it for a few minutes with some grease cutter and then spray it off with the hose. Most of the mess comes right off to reveal a nice looking bike underneath. I do a follow up spot treatment with the spray and a good brush. I take my time and give the bike a good looking over to get familiar with its' condition. Everything looks pretty good. I wheel both bikes in the garage and start the detailing. When I was hauling home, about half way here, the voltage meter on the dash panel started going haywire. The bike was still running fine so I just chalked it up to a loose connection and kept going. Now I take a closer look. There is a cover on the backside of the instrument custer. It is missing a bolt and is moving around. When it moves, the lights and meter flicker. I pull it off for a better look and find five connectors, all loose. I pull them apart and use soem contact cleaner on all of them just for good measure while I am here, then get them all reinstalled and connected good and tight. I put the cover back on. The missing bolt seems to have been used for holding on one of the side covers under the seat The bolts for this cover have black heads and those for the side covers are all silver. To protect the electrics, I put the bolt back where it belongs. I'll head over to the hardware store and pick up some replacement bolts for the side panels. The stock bolts are all phillips heads. I'll see if I can get either 4mm or 5mm socket heads with the same threads to replace all of them. The bike is all cleaned up and looks great. It has a few spots where the plastic is scratched a little and some other minor blemishes, but overall it is in good shape. I need to replace the battery with a sealed maintenance free unit. Then I plan to do a full maintenance service on it, oil, spark plugs, etc,... The Corbin seat is quite comfy and I will certainly enjoy it! There are a few little things I will probably add to the bike, but for the most part, it is ready to go exploring! Now I just have to get the GS sold!
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It is not as heavy as I would have expected given how heavy other Corbins I have handled have been.
