Wilsons Sandbox

About ten years ago, I made a voltmeter for my A15. It uses 10 LEDs mounted in a recycled 35mm film container. I find it very useful. It doesn't give a numerical readout of the charging voltage, but it does let me in on the personality of the charging system. If I am overloading the charging system, the lit LED starts moving counter clockwise. When I replaced the glass fuse and holder with a blade fuse, I gained 2 lights in the clockwise direction. Before I replaced the glass fuse, I would know when that fuse was blown when none of the LEDs were lit. (The blade fuse has yet to fail.) When that fuse blows, you lose the headlight. This voltmeter will tell you that. It's is a handy thing to know if your ride extends past sundown. It is hard to know your headlight is out if you are riding while the sun is still shining. Okay. So why am I sharing this? Because it is VENDOR FRIDAY. I work a seasonal job. In 6-8 weeks I am going to be bored to tears, and quite possibly snowed in. I am also a technician with a degree and 20+ years in the industry, so I won't build a crappy product. I would love to make some of these voltmeters for my brother and sister KLR enthusiasts. I need something to do to keep me from going stir crazy this winter. I've checked out some of the other voltmeter offerings, and cannot justify spending $25.00 for a multifunction readout that requires a $25.00 dashboard and quits working the first time it rains. In 10 years and 45,000 miles, the only thing that has failed is the double sided tape I used to mount it with. That gave out at around 30,000 miles. I've found better tape since then. The country of origin is also questionable regarding these multifunction readouts, i.e made in China. My voltmeters will be made with my own two hands right here in Oregon. With some of the initial investment I will have to make, I won't break even unless I can sell at least 10 of these things. If 10 people on this list are interested, and let me know via email, I will go into production around the 1st of November. You can contact me off-list. I'm thinking about charging $25.00. That would include free shipping anywhere in the United States. I will have to work out shipping to other destinations. The voltmeters will ship with KLR specific instructions on how to wire it into your bike. They should also work with any other bike out there. I just don't have an infinite number of wiring diagrams and mounting locations. Of any and all of the farkles you can strap to your KLR, this is the one to have. The black 35mm film container is an exact match for the instrument cluster on the KLR. You will look at it as another instrument, and wonder why Kawi didn't put one there in the first place. I hope to upload some pics this weekend. I'll keep you posted. bmrbill- who plans on replacing his doohickey someday...

Okay, after 8 years, my welded up sidestand broke off, leaving the bottom part somewheres down the road. ;-( . Need to fix it pronto. Needing to know what is the length of it from the center of the bolt to the toe. Then I can build it again. Reason it was welded up was I put lowering links on years ago and didn't like the lost of ground clearance as I was playing in the Ozarks quite often back then. So, had cut it to shorten and then added a piece of solid rod to get it back to stock length. Andy in Jennings, La.