The motorcycle of choice for the US Marine Corps, this workhorse of a bike will carry me across asphalt, dirt, rock, sand, mud, and everything in between. If it does so inelegantly, at least it does so.
I actually purchased this bike back in November 2007 - just a few short weeks after I received my M2 license - from a Suzuki of Newmarket. What a chore it was getting the thing back to Toronto. Tyson and I had braved flurries and -15 degree temperatures to make our way up ther, in the hopes that I would drive my new bike off the lot. However, it turns out that being a dealer sale the license had expired, and so it could not be driven back to Toronto. The ride back was disappointing to say the least.
In any case, we managed to get it sipped back to Toronto a few days later, and the work began in earnest. You would think that a fairly new bike might be more-or-less good to go - especially one so well-designed for dual sport use. Alas, this was not the case. Well over $2,000 of aftermarket parts were ordered to forestall known issues on the KLR650 (the infamous doohickey being one), upgrade components we felt to be lacking (footpegs, subframe, braided brake lines, shock and fork springs, locking motor mount, axle, and shroud nuts, centre-stand, magnetic drain plug, monster tubes), and generally armour the bike up (skid plate, engine and crash guards, acerbis hand guards, master cylinder guard, shift lever upgrade). Tyson, being the lanky man that he is, generously traded his aftermarket seat (which was about an inch-and-a-half shorter than stock) for mine (which was an inch-and-a-half taller). The end result is that I can now touch the ground with my toes, while he remains firmly flatfooted. Bah. In addition, we ordered up some Pelican 1550 cases, and pannier racks from Happy Trails to put them on. This is actually quite a story, with plenty of Sturm und Drang. For those of you who want to know more, I direct you to Tyson's blog (see link in sidebar), which will in trun direct you to the AdvRider forum in which the drama takes place.
I should say that all this work was only completed on Sunday, May 11th (or rather, Monday, May 12th) at 4:30 am. Yep, that's right. I stayed up until 4:30 just to say my bike was finally complete. Of course, this wasn't entirely true - a few wires had to be soldered for the installation of a 12 V plug (since completed), and the carb mod remains to be done. But what the hell, at least my hands will have time to heal.
As it turns out, Tyson still has work to do on his bike. Fortunately, he noticed a blown gasket in time to have it fixed. One more trip to T.O. Cylce awaits...
Oh yeah, one more thing. This experience, if it has taught me anything, has taught me to respect red Lock-Tite. After liberally soaking bolts and nuts hither and yon in the stuff (despite Tyson's warnings I might add - after all symmetry is important, right?), I was faced with having to remove a few to replace the washers mounting my Pelican case. What a gong show that was - after stripping one bolt completely, I had to have it decapitated with a dremel, and the knobs are only now (a week later) loose enough to turn by hand.
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