Monday, September 1, 2008

KLR maintenance day

On Sunday I futzed around with my moto all day with various maintenance tasks. After discovering the running light filament on my taillight was out I read a few msg board posts and headed to the auto parts store. I bought a 1157 bulb for the tailight, and a Sylvania Silverstar halogen headlight bulb....also some blue locktite.

I got back and figured I would try cleaning my air filter, which I have never done before. The mechanic at my recent servicing said I really should clean it regularly....and after I opened the airbox and looked at it I know why!! It was covered in dust. I maybe have 500 or so miles since the service so it must be all the dusty dirt roads I ride. It was pretty easy to clean, I just followed the directions in the manual. I cleaned it with brake cleaner spray, and then washed it with detergent in the sink, and then reoiled it. Took maybe 10 minutes.

Headlight replacement I did because I read all these posts about how if you get this certain bulb that it is like 200% improvement. I always have been unhappy with the stock headlight output so I figured for 20 bucks it was a good idea. I had to mostly unbolt the front cowling and the indicators, and after some swearing finally got the old one out and the new one in.

Tailight swap out was 2 minutes.

A few days ago I relocated my license plate up to right under the license plate light. I saw a great mod on ADVrider where the guy moved the plate up right under the tailight and then got rid of the black subfender underneath. I figured what the hell and went for it. Drilled holes for the new location, loc tited the bolts, and then hacked off the subfender as far up as I could reach with my trim saw.
I think it looks way better now, and the damn plate won't get bent up anymore from big hits. I took the plate light off altogether and just unplugged from the bullet connectors before I cut off the subfender.


Last night I rode the KLR back from my girlfriends house in the dark and got to check out the new bulb. It seemed fine on low beam in town, lots of streetlights and hard to tell, but near my house I turned onto a dark street just to see. I flicked on the high beam and it was like frikking daylight! Holy crap is it better than stock. I am amazed. Best 20 bucks I have spent on that bike besides gas! If you ever ride at night you should get this bulb!

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