Wilsons Sandbox

I had a similar moment tonight. I've been prepping my '76 Suzuki GT-750 "Water Buffalo" for sale because I never do anything with it. It's been 2 years since I rode it last, but I started it up a couple weeks ago, replaced the gas, and rode it up and down the street till it was warmed up. So, tonight, under the cover of darkness (it smokes a lot at startup if it's been sitting a while), I decided to take it for a ride and check everything out. Started right up. It always does. Idled for a while as I put my gear on, and I rode around the neighborhood for a couple of minutes. All OK. I rode off onto some back country roads and it still ran fine. By now I'm among darkened Amish farms and about 10 miles from home. Soooooo... where does it decide to quit? At the bottom of a 2 mile (to home) hill, on a busy road now. @#$% out of gas. And I had it on reserve. Thought of Stu. There's no way I'm pushing this heavy beast home, so I tried did the KLR trick of leaning the bike way over to get some gas to the carbs. 2 people stopped to ask if they could help (nice town). "No, thanks, I'm out of gas and putting it on reserve" WooHooo (and whew!) it started! I made it about 1/2 mile and it ran out again. And now I'm on a dangerous part of the road - small shoulder, blind curve. More !@#@$#. Got it going again, left the choke on and managed to limp home. It quit twice more but those were safer areas. It was sputtering again as I coasted into the garage. I swear the KLR was leering at me... "neener" ... Tomorrow I'll ride the KLR. I promise. Mike

----- Original Message ----- From: CA Stu To: DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 2:58 PM Subject: [DSN_KLR650] NKLR 2005.5 KTM 950 Adventure S So I barely skated into work on time today, and my KLR is still sitting in my shop at home. We had a good thing going for almost 10 years now, I'm going to stop on the way home and buy my KLR some flowers and see if we can work this out. Thanks CA Stu

Hey all, I've been lurking for a week or so, but figured I'm due to post up an introduction (especially since I squealed for help earlier today)... I'm a 30-smthng living just outside of Washington DC. I do high-end IT stuff for an international organization. I commute in from Northern Virginia to DC every day and was looking for something a bit "lighter" than my FJR for it. A friend bought an '07 last year and convinced me to consider the K. I pulled the trigger on an '08 last week (the sexy blue one, of course). It's the first DS I've owned and I'm already in love with it. I'll probably end up selling the FJR in a few months, as the K seems to be perfectly capable of everything I need it to do and is surprisingly more comfortable than I expected. I've currently got the nerf bars and engine guard on it, lowering links and short sidestanda are on the way. Today's ordeal has prompted me to add a center stand to my shopping list. For those that missed it, I got a flat. Normally not a big deal for me, but I've never dealt with tube tires before... no tools, no spoons, no stand... it got trailered home and I'll take the wheel in tomorrow for a new tube and have the dealer see if he can figure out what flattened it. Anyway... I've been riding for quite a while and have been through the following collection (at least what I can remember of them)... '73 Suzuki GT750 (Water Buffalo) '83 Yamaha Seca Turbo '95 Yamaha Seca II '8? Kawasaki Voyager (worst bike ever to have crossed my path) '96 Yamaha YZF600 '96 Honda Shadow ACE '94 Yamaha Seca II '04 Yamaha FZ1 '05 Yamaha FJR1300 (still have it) '08 Kawasaki KLR 650 Favorite: The GT750 - It's got an amazing "cool factor". Best so far: The FJR - Take the best feature of each of my previous bikes and stuff it into a frame. Anyway, I appreciate the info from everyone and hope I can add a bit as I figure stuff out. I look forward to many miles of thumping! --Jonathan "smthng" Kalmes Springfield, VA 2005 Yamaha FJR1300ABS - "Blue Bayou" 2006 Jeep Unlimited Rubicon - "Teflon" 2008 Kawasaki KLR 650 - It's here, but it hasn't earned a name yet. http://smthng.info "Look, the truth is, I've been trying to save the world, one person at a time, but, I'm meant for smthng bigger. Smthng important. I know it now."