my $45 lesson learned - yours free.............

[mark ward]

1st. Go get a valve stem tool. $1.50 +- 2nd. get some GOOD valve stem caps. (The cheapies do not have an EXTRA rubber seal inside.) 3rd. IF it ever happens again, Check your Valve-stem for a leak. A tiny bit of soapy water, OR SPIT on your finger, and watch for a bubble. 4th. Get HEAVY DUTY PAD-LOCKS, for the caps. combination locks are nice incase you lose the key. (OK I had to get some HUMOR in there.) It's not that uncommon for the stem core to not get Properly tightened Etc. after a tire change, causing a stem leak.

--- On Wed, 5/9/12, eddie wrote: From: eddie Subject: [DSN_KLR650] My $45 Lesson Learned - Yours Free............. To: DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, May 9, 2012, 8:11 PM OK, let me tell you all how I wasted $45 dollars today on a repair (shop-labor fee) on my KLR. I feel like a dummy for how this occurred, but this is one of life's lessons learned, and maybe it will help some of you all someday....... Last week, when I dropped my KLR off the center stand, I noticed that it seemed mushy. I rode about a half a block and noticed that the front time went flat. I "assumed" that it went flat as I was leaving for my ride. Strike One: My first thought was to inflate the tire and see if I could determine where the leak (flat) was. Strike Two: I got lazy and did not bother to do that, I simply removed the tire and took it to a dealer to fix the flat (replace the tube). The dealer calls me and says that they can not find a hole, the tire and tube were fine!!!! So, how did it lose the air? As best as they can guess, someone let the air out of the tire?! My bike sleeps outside under a MC cover, and I get along fine with my neighbors and do not have any enemies that would want to let the air out. My guess is that someone passed by and let the air out for some reason. Who knows. So, the next time that I have a flat, I will first re-inflate the tire before I take it to the shop to see if holds air. That seems pretty basic, but considering how this occurred, and it was so unlikely that someone would let the air out, assuming that is what happened? Lesson Learned - Note to Self - when you get a flat, first re-inflate to see if it in fact a flat, or it somehow lost the air pressure and will hold air pressure. Eddie M. P.S. I remember reading in the posts that someone once had mud thrown into their air intake for no apparent reason. Seems that there are some really low people out there. I place the blame on the 99% that I keep hearing about.......... I guess if they can't have a KLR no one should [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]