maint. update, 08' klr

[montequint]

I want to sleep not listen to the air slowly leaking out of my cheap ass pad. Maybe you have so many options that being on rocks at 3am is appealing, do you carry a spare or two of the $9.99 ones??. I'd rather the only rocks poking me were in a large drink of nearly anything. Maybe I over spend but most times I don't have to deal with equipment failure either. The link was for a plastics welding company that makes pads, dry bags, rafts etc. It appears that I misplaced or deleted the link from the post, going back the past three days I cannot find the link. Can one of you help?? Monte

[Fred Hink]

I have used the Paco Grande pad for several years now and they are rugged and very comfortable.   Look for message # 195693 Fred www.arrowheadmotorsports.com     [b]From:[/b] monteruwei@... [b]Sent:[/b] Thursday, April 01, 2010 9:08 PM [b]To:[/b] DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com [b]Subject:[/b] [DSN_KLR650] NKLR pads   I want to sleep not listen to the air slowly leaking out of my cheap ass pad. Maybe you have so many options that being on rocks at 3am is appealing, do you carry a spare or two of the $9.99 ones??. I'd rather the only rocks poking me were in a large drink of nearly anything. Maybe I over spend but most times I don't have to deal with equipment failure either. The link was for a plastics welding company that makes pads, dry bags, rafts etc. It appears that I misplaced or deleted the link from the post, going back the past three days I cannot find the link. Can one of you help?? Monte

[Tengai Mark Van Horn]

But, as you've stated, you have "gone through a half dozen of the Thermarest pads in the past 10 years at a hundred a pop ." I've been using the same air mattress for 3 years (about 25 individual deployments), and never had a failure. I use a 4x6 tarp as a footprint under my 5x7 tent, which also has a tarp material floor, so rocks are not an issue at all. I don't carry a spare because these are a common item, and if I do have a failure, I can stop at any walmart, drugstore, sporting goods store, etc and grab a new one. BTW, in a pinch, sleeping in your riding gear works great. I once crawled into my 0 F bag on the paved shoulder of the road in North Sydney, NS and slept great for 6 hours. I also slept comfortably in full gear in the rain on a loading dock at an abandoned factory in Halifax. Mark At 3:08 AM +0000 4/2/10, montequint wrote:

>I want to sleep not listen to the air slowly >leaking out of my cheap ass pad. Maybe you have >so many options that being on rocks at 3am is >appealing, do you carry a spare or two of the >$9.99 ones??. I'd rather the only rocks poking >me were in a large drink of nearly anything. > >Maybe I over spend but most times I don't have >to deal with equipment failure either. >

[sh8knj8kster]

Thought I'd mention I finished up with the first valve clearance inspection yesterday. Approx. 10 K miles on the motor. I've been putting off this first valve inspection. Why?, laziness I suppose =:-) Also replaced the OEM air filter with a Twin Filter brand foam filter, and used PJ1's foam oil filter oil to saturate the filter. Engine oil and oil filter were also changed using an Emgo oil filter and Wal-Mart's house brand of oil (Super Tech) 10-40 (API-SM) As a side note, I bought the motor oil in a 5 quart plastic bottle. Cost was $9.50 before tax. Upon starting the motor after this maint., I was surpriseed how quiet the motor seemed. Must have been the fresh oil as I opened up valve clearance with the inspection/adjustment. Goes like ships off shovels now=:-) The valve clearance procedure went fairly uneventful, until I removed the cam chain tensioner, resulting in a ripped paper gasket. I'd recommend getting a new oem tensioner gasket along with any shims you need to order, in case you find your gasket ripped when removing the tensioner. Just a thought, having this gasket in case you need it...might save the day for you, and it's only a few dollars. FWIW I greased both sides of the gasket before installing. Maybe it will come off in one piece next go around I'm a shade tree mechanic=:-), have done various valve clearance inspections/adjustments in the past, such as shim under bucket, threaded/lock nut, desmo. Nothing particularly difficult about doing this shim over bucket arrangement. In fact, what with the KLR being a single cylinder, it's quite easy IMO I also installed a new spark plug...went with the oe NGK spec. The oem spark plug didn't look all that bad, a bit on the lean side, enough so that Al Gorp would be proud. (Note to self-time to do the 22 cent smile maker mod=:-) I took all the pre-cautions before removing the plug, like blowing the plug well out with compressed air, not only before removing the plug but after the plug was half way out, I blew it with air again, and that was a good thing as a lot of dusty bits from the plug's threads gave way while turning it out. I used copper slip on the new plug threads before turning in and also marked the open electrode (gap) location on the top of the plug with a permanent marker to see where the electrode gap would end up. A new found KLR friend insists you will get a more complete and better combustion with the open gap facing the intake valves. As it ended up, the gap faces the right intake valve, almost dead on. I left it right there Poncho=:-) My hat's off to the peeps that spin wrenches for a living. I could never do this type of work for profit as I'm not very fast. Took me well over an hour to fit the fuel tank, hoses to the fuel tank, radiator fan, lower fairings, install the new air filter, seat, side covers Looking forward to doing more riding now that maint is up to date, at least most of it. There's always something else to do, as it's time to R&R the brake fluid. I still have the brake fluid in there that it left the factory with. And it would probably be a good time to clean and re-lube the steer stem bearings. Yep!, there's *always* some maint. that needs to be done to your KLR=:-) Jake Reddick Fla. "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher~ http://www.shakinjake.blogspot.com/