the rooky meets the cold truth of the north trip report part iii

[mtnbikerfred@yahoo.com]

I finally got my christmas box for my KLR from Tim Bernard. I can't bear to make the poor bike wait till xmas to put everything on. Everything looks great. the only bitch I've got, isn't with the products themselves, it was with the supplied hardware for the racks, and the radiator/resivoir guards... There wasn't any for the racks, (Hi todd!! he rushed to get my order out) and the longer bolts for the guards need washers, or flanged/faced bolts, just so they don't dig into whatever you tighten down with them. The Fork brace is GOD!! I am not kidding!! What a beautiful piece of engineering...very well made...nice matterials...great finish... nice hardware.... OH HELL!! It made me go pleasure my wife!! Goddamn Sexy!! If we had never ridden the KLR until after the the forkbrace, we wouldn't have anything bad to say about the fork. Now the bike needs better brakes, so I can charge into corners that I used to back off way ealry for. Warning!! Do not let the "new" bike your riding convince you that it's 2nd cousin in a ZX-7R, and that it can keep up with it, or use it's braking marks on a tight road like my "drive-way"(ask Scott from the posse about it). It Can't. .....anyway, Tim has my praise and approval. stuff is great. I also picked up some Aceribis Rally Pro's & spoilers. I got the clear ones, as the Aluminum inside sort of matches the Tank on the '01. There is still time to order you bike something nice for Christmas. Fred A15 Kawtchasaki

[motor_rider@email.msn.com]

--- In DSN_klr650@egroups.com, mtnbikerfred@y... wrote:

> > The Fork brace is GOD!! I am not kidding!! > What a beautiful piece of engineering...very well made...nice > matterials...great finish... nice hardware.... > OH HELL!! It made me go pleasure my wife!! Goddamn Sexy!!

I got my fork brace in Moab. The only ones around were Beeze and Bogdan... so I took a cold shower. MR

[mtnbikerfred@yahoo.com]

You Poor Bastard!! I used to go out to Aguilla AZ. with about a dozen other guys under the thin guise of hunting quail. (read:eat,drink,smoke, drink more, shoot stuff). For such emergencies we usually bring a sheep-shaped inflatable friend known as the "love ewe", so the afflicted person can get some releif, and everyone else can get some sleep without worrying about who goes "bump&grind" in the night.....

--- In DSN_klr650@egroups.com, motor_rider@e... wrote: > > I got my fork brace in Moab. The only ones around were Beeze and > Bogdan... so I took a cold shower. > > MR Fred A15 Kawtchasaki

[Juan Carlos Ibarra]

Hi all,

 

THE COLD TRUTH

 

I left Jasper very early in the morning. It was cold. It was very cold...It was TOO COLD!  I was doing about 60 when I saw a huge something in the middle of the road...it took me several seconds to understand it was an elk, a few more to verify the situation and less than one to realize something: I was going to crash!  AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! I screamed, I was just too cold to react, I couldn't go for the brake because I couldn't feel my hand, my right foot was in the same condition, and my brain...it was a huge ice cream ball.  What a horrible situation!, I headed towards the animal like in a trance , he looked at me and realized I was really as stupid as I looked, so it took a leap forward and saved both our asses.

 

Ten secons later I could finally gather enough energy to stop and stutter to myself:..."tttt thhatt t  ww aaas sss frrrreeeaaakk kk iii nnn ggg      ccc   cl  lll ooo   ssseeee!! !  !!  "

 

So I stoped at an Inn and had a two hour breakfast until the temperature outside rised a bit and my body came out of the state of shock. That day I realized that no one can kill in cold blood, you simply can't do anything (except for presenting hipothermia symptoms) ...it is when your blood is too hot that you can do dumb things like killing...I am the proof of that: I just couldn't kill the elk!!!

 

I rode again, and I camped out somewhere around Fraser Lake. It would be my first camp out in bear territory. I was very scared but managed to sleep. The next morning I saw all my gear was intact and felt relieved. I decided that I would do this as often as I could from then on, which was a wise decision because I now know that a blanket woven out of stars and silent, silver moon beams is far warmer than any motel room or noisy, light polluted campground. One thing...mosquitoes. They are worst than I could have expected, so I developed a teknique to make do with this pest. I pitched the tent in full armor, helmet and everything. I also used an empty bottle of Gatorade to pee into it at night so I could just open the tent's back door for a moment, and through the warm liquid out, hopefully drowning some of my tiny predators in it!!!

 

 

PAYBACK TIME

 

I got up, and immediatly got started. The weather was much nicer in spite of the perpetual drizzle. It was a Sunday. That morning I did a good job at kicking myself for not buying my tire in Calgary as I loaded up. I had read that I might find a $300.00 or so tire in Whitehorse. I rode into Smithers to have breakfast and as I was leaving town I saw an open Harley dealer. So I stopped to ask about my tire. The owner was friendly and showed me one that wouldn't fit. It was a Dunlop Trailmax DS tire. He said it cost about "a hundred and twenty dollars". Too bad it didn't fit, I didn't like the pattern design but it was a lot less than $300.00 The guy also told me that there was a "Jap dealer in town" that might have what I needed. So I decided to stay in Smithers for the night and go see these guys first thing the next day. That night I kicked myself thoroughly again for NOT BUYING THE TIRE IN CALGARY!!!!

 

The next morning I went to see the other dealer, and he didn't have anything but MC tires. But offered to "try" and get one from Prince George the next day. They asked me to call back later that day to confirm that they had gotten the tire. Sooooo....I stayed one more freakin' day. I called and they were happy to tell me that a $ 170.00 plus s&h Pirelli MT 21 was on it's way. I almost died, that tire would not last enough!!! But I had no choice, so the next morning as I was going to get it I stopped at the Harley dealer just to say good bye and...he had a Dunlop Trailmax tire that fit after all...he had had it all the time...he had just found it that very morning and ... oooopppsss....he had given me a wrong price too!!!  What do you know, how very sweet...the real price was $180.00 !!!  YEAH, BABY, SOCK IT TO HIM GOOD!!!!     BUT it was better than the Pirelli. So I called the other dealer and told him my predicament. He was very cool about it and told me to do whatever I wanted.

 

So I got the Dunlop, from the Harley gut ripper. 

 

Dear God , I thought, were you asleep when I helped out the other Harley rider? Is this yet another teaching about the tunrning cheeks bit? 

 

To top it all he wanted $50.00 more to install the tire. So I begged him to just lend me his compressor...he said ok $10 bucks more and I said: "Eat your freakin' tire you motherfuc...." I think he was pleased with my language, 'cause he let me use his heated shop for free after all. I wonder, is this the Harley way?  In spite of everything that I have told you, dear KLRists, I still wave at Harleys, I shall nevert convert !!!! I will not own a Harley and I will never behave as a Harley owner (or dealer), this is my holliest quest!!!!

 

Now let's talk about the Dunlop. I rode with it all the way to the Arctic Ocen and back to Mexico and it is still on the bike!!! It handles very well on not so good pavement,  quite poorly on dirt, though, but it is not unbearably bad. Next year as I travel South I will sport this tire and bring a Kenda with me as a spare to interchange according to road conditions. BTW the ONLY front tire I'll ever use again is the Conti Twinduro, it rocks!

 

As I was riding to Dease Lake I knew I didn't have enough time left to make it to Purhoe Bay...so I set my aim towards Inuvik, which, I think, was yet another wise decision.

 

More later,

 

 

Juan