Wilsons Sandbox

Hi all, OK I've got a couple minutes to share with you so I figured I'd send along my impression/review of the Happy Trails K-9 Fork Brace. First of all, I'll attest to the fine character and generosity of Tim Bernard of Happy Trails. I bought the fork brace from Tim in Moad, "used". That is, at dinner Saturday night, he removed the brace from his bike and instructed me on how to install it on my bike. Maybe 30 minutes max, and that was with B.S.ing. OK so as an engineer I'm scrutinizing his product and workmanship, with it in my hands. I'd personally change very little if I were given the assignment of re-designing this product. Very well made out of 6061 Aluminum, bead blasted for a matte finish and black anodized. The hardware is stainless steel and the design allows for more than adequate clamping force and stabilzing leverage. Installation was simple. I mean as in "Here son install this for me". 1) Slide the Fork boots up and out of the way 2) Clear the wipers of debris 3) attach the brace clamps to the forks (use loc- tite) 4) Align the clamps so that the flats are parallel with the axis of wheel rotation +/- 0.050 will still get you there. 5) Re- install the fork boots and zip tie them in place 6) Set the Bridge in place and tighten the screws 7) install the safety nuts and tighten them down 8) RIDE I have one proposed change to the procedure, and that is in the alignment of the clamps. Tim wasn't watching over my shoulder and I didn't have instructions (not that I'd read them anyway) so I don't know if this is actually part of the official procedure or not. Anyway I would wait on tightening the fork clamps until the Bridge is in place and you can visually see how far out of parallel the clamps are. Adjust as required and then tighten them up. It's not critical though as there is enough designed adjustment to accomodate. Now for those that are thinking that it is too complicated a design and a simple design like the Superbrace would be fine. Think again. The adjustability in the bridge mounts are necessary. Tim took the brace off his bike and it wouldn't fit on mine. Way off even. I could have made it fit, but I would have bowed the forks, ultimately resulting in premature wear on the bushings and even binding them at high displacements. Another side note about the Superbrace... It's enormous, it could easily be a landing gear strut in a 747. It weighs a ton (value not verified with a calibrated scale). It was shiny (no way was that going on my bike). The fork boots are not attached to the brace, they are held into these huge counter bores with gravity and friction. It is not adjustable in any way, and I think the KLR tolerances are bad enough that it needs to be. You also have to pull your forks to install it. Not really a one man job. OK so I'll stop bashing the Superbrace. Oh yeah and I'm not justifying the cash I unloaded, by bashing the Superbrace. The K-9 really is a very nice product. Hell I'm an engineer and I find flaws with lots of designs/products. Ok so now for performance. That's why I bought it afterall. At 75- 80 MPH I had a death wobble. Yes my stem bearing nut is tight, no I don't have Eldon't tube extenders nor will I want them. I like the steering just the way it is in the dirt. I've taken the torsional loads out of the tubes by loosening and re-tightening the upper t- clamp bolts, the tubes are also set at the same level in the t- clamp. Still I had this terrible wobble. I just dealt with it by only riding with one hand at those speeds, but high speed butt hanging sweepers are kindy scary with only one hand on the bars and windy days are also scary. So anyway. After dinner I just had to open her up and see if my money was better in my pocket or on my bike. ON THE BIKE! Holy cow... I looked down and I was doing 100 and I didn't even know that I got there. Then come some sweepers... OOOHHHH! Now that was fun, is there any more? I can't tell you with enough enthusiam how great a difference this product makes. But what about in the dirt? The huge difference, for me at least, wasn't there in the dirt. However, I certainly feel more confident in the dirt (perhaps an extension of just being more confident with the bike on the road) with the brace on. It is certainly more rigid up there and controls are a bit more precise. I have noticed a difference in deep sand, not better and not worse, just a different feeling that you have to aclimate yourself to. Oh yeah, I did White Rim the day after installing it. There's one other thought floating around that that is regarding "good" flex. Some say that I'd feel the small rocks more, I'd receive a greater input from the ground, with flex there is larger margin for error and the front end is more forgiving. As far as a rough road is concerned, I don't believe that the difference is so great to warrant not buying this product. I don't get more arm pump with this brace on and I have ridden the same trails that I did before the brace. The trail riding feels roughly the same, perhaps with a little better precision in the steering. Here's more food for though on fork flex. Some of you guys are easily pushing 600# bike and rider weight. If off road flex is so important, then why are 200# bikes with 100# riders (young MX'rs) built with cannon tubes for forks. I'd trade mine out for those anyday. The legs on our KLRs are too spindly for knarly stuff no matter how you look at. Most adapt and overcome and do it anyway. (take jumping out of the equation, that's not the only reason for huge forks) If for only $200 you could enjoy the riding much more, with alot less pucker, why wouldn't you do it. Oh yeah and $200.... Quit sniveling. I also moonlight in manufacturing, check out www.airtipps.com (shameless plug for another hobby). I know all about producing parts for niche markets. Tim's not making these things by the thousands people. They are very well designed, out of choice materials, they don't require you taking your front end apart to install them and the performance difference is incredible. Alright so I don't work for Tim and I don't get commissions on sales. This was just one big infomercial. Well, sorry it sounded that way. I truly am a critical bastard of most everything and I try to remain as objective as possible. Thanks for reading, questions/comments welcome. LaterZ Dash