Wilsons Sandbox

Listers, A few weeks ago I posted asking if others had experienced cracking of the speedo cable sheath at the stock retainer mounted to the right fork behind the reflector. I got a few yup it happens a lot. I happened to be near the dealer and was looking at a 2008 to see about some ideas for my 2nd radiator addition and noticed the speedo cable retainer had been changed to a guide. That seemed like a good idea to me so I made one for my 2003 KLR650. I've created a photo album in the group photo section showing my guide. It's called *Speedo Cable Guide/Retainer . It should be the first album on the first page. I'll remove the * in a few days and then you'll have to dig to find it. : ) I've got about 200 smiles on my bike since I installed the guide. I'm pleased with it. When I sit on the bike the cable moves to the rear about 1". When riding pavement it seems to stay about there or move back maybe 1/2" more. When I bounce on the front suspension it moves almost to the rear of the guide. I haven't had the bike in the dirt yet so can't say how well it will work in rougher conditions. But I bet it works fine. I used 3/32" steel welding rod for the wire and milled a piece of cold rolled steel round stock to make the part that bolts to the bike. If you decide to make one of these keep in mind it needs to be wide enough to allow the cable nut to pass through the guide. My version is quite a bit shorter than the version on the 2008 model I saw. The wire on my version is also smaller. As you can see in the first photo I've put heat shrink tubing over my cable to help seal the cracks from dirt and moisture. I doubt I'll have a problem as I discovered the cracks when I noticed grease accumulating on the cable at the stock retainer. It was working it's way up the inside of the cable and out the cracks. Best, Jeff Saline ABC # 4412 South Dakota Airmarshal Airheads Beemer Club www.airheads.org The Beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota 75 R90/6, 03 KLR650, 79 R100RT

Jeff That's a fine piece of work. Funny enough I was only looking at Maccas '08 last weekend thinking gee that's a much better idea for the speedo cable guide. I will definitely do something similar. Ohh to have access to a mill (a lathe would be great too) griffo -----Original Message----- From: DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com [mailto:DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Jeff Saline Sent: Tuesday, 18 March 2008 11:32 To: DSN_klr650@yahoogroups.com Subject: [DSN_KLR650] Speedo Cable Guide/Retainer for up to 2007 KLR650 Listers, A few weeks ago I posted asking if others had experienced cracking of the speedo cable sheath at the stock retainer mounted to the right fork behind the reflector. I got a few yup it happens a lot. I happened to be near the dealer and was looking at a 2008 to see about some ideas for my 2nd radiator addition and noticed the speedo cable retainer had been changed to a guide. That seemed like a good idea to me so I made one for my 2003 KLR650. I've created a photo album in the group photo section showing my guide. It's called *Speedo Cable Guide/Retainer . It should be the first album on the first page. I'll remove the * in a few days and then you'll have to dig to find it. : ) I've got about 200 smiles on my bike since I installed the guide. I'm pleased with it. When I sit on the bike the cable moves to the rear about 1". When riding pavement it seems to stay about there or move back maybe 1/2" more. When I bounce on the front suspension it moves almost to the rear of the guide. I haven't had the bike in the dirt yet so can't say how well it will work in rougher conditions. But I bet it works fine. I used 3/32" steel welding rod for the wire and milled a piece of cold rolled steel round stock to make the part that bolts to the bike. If you decide to make one of these keep in mind it needs to be wide enough to allow the cable nut to pass through the guide. My version is quite a bit shorter than the version on the 2008 model I saw. The wire on my version is also smaller. As you can see in the first photo I've put heat shrink tubing over my cable to help seal the cracks from dirt and moisture. I doubt I'll have a problem as I discovered the cracks when I noticed grease accumulating on the cable at the stock retainer. It was working it's way up the inside of the cable and out the cracks. Best, Jeff Saline ABC # 4412 South Dakota Airmarshal Airheads Beemer Club www.airheads.org The Beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota 75 R90/6, 03 KLR650, 79 R100RT [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]