Jerry,
While I still feel a bit melancholy to see the bike having fun without me it sure feels good to see you all having as good a time as we always did on that great bike. As much as I like my new Adventure there will always be a warm spot in our hearts for that bike. It got me back into riding after a 15 year hiatus and introduced me to long-distance touring, exploring and adventure. It is no hyperbole to say that I learned a great deal about life from that motorcycle and my travels on it.
We had such a good time in and around Taos....I am sure that we will be very enthusiastic to go there again...I am pretty sure that my long distance/endurance riding will be done on a solo basis on the KLR...my brain needs that solo time anyway, so all is well...I guess my KLR is to me what this GS is/was to you...
The hockey puck addition to the side stand was LOOOONG (pardon the pun) over due. I never really got accustomed to the extreme lean of the bike on its sidestand...especially when fully loaded. I almost always put it on the center stand.
I will mount the GS when it is on the centerstand and ride off...no prob, but we use the sidestand when riding together...I like to mount a tall bike as one would mount a horse...left foot on left peg then right leg up and over...hard to do w/ the short sidestand...the shake down rides we did in preparation for this trip did not teach us how burdensome that the sidestand would be...the first two days did give me plenty of thinking time so that when i encountered a friendly garage in Denver, I was ready to alleviate the problem...
It looks like you added a Jesse rear compartment with a PL outlet? Does it make the Givi mount/case more secure? I never really thought of that but it looks like a GREAT addition. I miss that Givi bag. The ADV bag is much smaller (one helmet). I thought about replacing it with a big Givi but it just wouldn't look right.
Yep Jesse rear compartment...Danyell had voiced her concerns about the lack of rigidity in the givi mounting system...while secure, it was not confidence inspiring...the Jesse rear comp. and a redrilled luggage rack rotated 90deg. did the trick...as a bonus, the backrest was raised to a position that was more comfortable for her...between her backrest and sheepskin seat pad, she was able to ride 158miles w/o needing to rest...we basically kept the givi box empty so that when we got off the bike, the helmets could be secured...worked out well....what appears to be a PL outlet is a lock cylinder...i did mount a 12V Cig outlet on the charcoal canister so that she could conveniently recharge her Zune on the fly and have nonstop entertainment on the long stretches...
It is my sincerest wish that the bike generate as many good memories for you both as it did for us.
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Thanks for the good words...I am hoping that we will have good times as a family on the GS...I am already planning a sidehack addition so that our 3y.o. daughter can go too when she gets a little older...good memories for sure...Emily loves wrenching on the motorcycles with me but she gets a little nervous when I would start one of them up...I got her to sit on the GS with me and she let me start it up...now she is constantly asking if WE can ride to the sand dunes or Carlsbad...I tell her that she is not big enough yet...Five minutes later she asks "Am I biggernuff now???"...
ps, Paige has sent me on a mission to find some Camo BDU pants like y'all's....
We had a good time dressing to match...got some funny looks too...we were like a twisted version of the traditional 'Wing couples...
Side note...I was able to rigid-ify the driver seat so that I could run it in the high setting...I just cut some solid steel spacers to eliminate the rubber bushings on the seat bracket...I cut a few different sizes so that I could level the seat and not constantly slide forward...
I also discovered that it takes 6 pennies to make KLR offroad footpegs work on the GS!!! The KLR pegs provide the lowering and the "forward-ing" that the $150 footpeg lowering brackets provide with the added bonus of a much wider peg...once a KLR-rider, right??? The pin size and width are approximately the same but the pivot "stops" weren't long enough to contact the brackets so the pegs would point down and forward a bit...wedge 3 pennies on each side for perfect fit...I was initially going to braze some bar stock on the pegs then file smooth and paint it...JBWelded pennies were more fun and I wanted to upset the purists when they saw what a KLR rider could do to a GS!!!
I have removed the GPS cable I promised and it is ready to send...I am contemplating keeping the Centech fuse panel though...I will play a few rounds of rock-paper-scissors with myself soon and make my final decision...be watching for at least the cable soon...
Anyway...Thanks again, Fletch...
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