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Roxy's maiden voyage

Joined
Oct 7, 2017
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Location
Tyler
I've got an upcoming trip with a group from one of my camping forums this weekend down in Austin and have been gearing up to take Roxy for her maiden roadtrip. So far I've just been riding around town with her.

When I bought her she still had the stock tires date stamped 2012 so I knew I would want to get her new shoes before any serious trips. There were also some other upgrades that I felt I needed to do before too much fun was had. One was to upgrade the subframe bolts, a known weak point with KLRs, and the other was to add the Wattman Thermobob, a bybass in the cooling system for more efficient and uniform temps throughout the engine.

I'll use this thread as a trip/ride report.

I must have been on the nice list cuz Santa[emoji318] brought me new tubes and tires (Shinko 705), Ogio stealth saddlebags, an Altrider 25L drybag, a Coleman Maddog seat cover, and some Tusk hand mitts. Also my girlfriend got me a cool scratch off map of the US that you scratch off the states as you visit them. I'll post more pics or videos when I install some of this stuff.
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Canine approved, I see.
 
Here are a couple pics from my first adventures with Roxy.

My first long road trip with her was down to Austin for the McKinney Falls Frozen Butt Hang, a group event with fellow members of a hammock forum I'm a member of, hammockhangers.net. It was a long, cold 4 hour ride. I stopped halfway due to a sore bum and frozen hands, finally making it in after dark.

The seat definitely needs upgrading. Even with the padded cover I have for it riding over an hour at a time requires determination and a mind over matter mentality.

I rewarded myself with a nice ribeye that first night. It got down pretty low, 22° I believe. Stayed plenty warm with my 20° UGQ quilt set.

Overall she did really well. I did start smelling burning coolant as I entered Austin. I put off dealing with it until the day I packed up and left. The reservoir was leaking from its connection nipple so I tried using a ziptie to tighten the hose around it until I could get home to take it apart and properly fix it.

It didn't work. Had a significant amount of coolant blow down the right side on the way back, but made it home otherwise unscathed, where I took it apart and fixed correctly. As you can see from the pictures I installed the Tusk hand mitts and they made a world of difference for the 4 hour trip. I only have mechanic gloves right now and they are in no way insulated or windproof. My 30 minute ride to work is too much for my hands when its in the 30ºs, but with these its no sweat.

I also got my radio operator license plate in and mounted. I have a Yaesu FTM-10R to mount when I get the time. It is the only unit I've found with a waterproof remote head. Sadly they no longer make them, but I was able to find a new one still in the box that someone had packed away in a closet.

My most recent trip was down to Houston to the some friends for a thru-hike of the LSHT. The thru-hike didn't happen, but had a good few days on the trail and nights in the hammock before riding back to Tyler.

Overall I am very happy with my luggage set up. The alt rider bag is a quality dry bag for clothes and sleeping bag/quilts. The Ogios are not waterproof, but have integrated rain covers. The are cavernous enough for my purpose since they expand with a zippered gussets allowing more room if needed. I don't have any side racks at the moment and these just sit on the number plates. I've had them pretty loaded down and have had no issues yet.

Rolled over 2800 miles on the way back, putting the count at a little over 1500 miles since I bought her Thanksgiving weekend. Meaning I've put more miles on her in the last 2 months than she had since purchased new in 2013. Such a fun way to camp.
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Nice rig Andy.
I haven't seen the Tusk hand mitts before, would be nice at times.
Might check out the Seat Concept seat kit. My son just put one on his 2008, and really likes it. I like the stock seat on my 2015.
 
Nice rig Andy.
I haven't seen the Tusk hand mitts before, would be nice at times.
Might check out the Seat Concept seat kit. My son just put one on his 2008, and really likes it. I like the stock seat on my 2015.
I plan to try it eventually. Right now my budget is more geared to getting a Wal-Mart Ozark trail stadium sit pad and tucking it under the Coleman seat cover i have.

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I plan to try it eventually. Right now my budget is more geared to getting a Wal-Mart Ozark trail stadium sit pad and tucking it under the Coleman seat cover i have.

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Try hitting Homedepot and looking for a "Kneeling Pad" on the website. My wife got one for gardening and never used it. I have a 2009 Versys and I took the pad, cut it up a bit, and used that to "reshape" the factory foam on my bike. (I didn't replace all the factory foam, I just cut it up a bit and then used the kneeling pad to fill it back in.) Not perfect, but still better than factory or a lot cheaper than spending 200 bucks.

The pads are about 6 bucks and pretty soft, but plush. I tied mine to the factory seat using paracord for about a week before I decided I like it enough to try replacing the factory foam with this instead.
 
Anyone around tyler have the tools and ability to help me shorten/repair my kickstand? If not, anyone have a spare for sale?
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How did you do that? Looks like you need a new stand and maybe some extra gusseting.. hope the bike wasn’t damaged when it failed.

Gary
 
No the bike wasn't damaged. My left leg cushioned the fall. Happened in a parking lot I put the stand down and went to pull my right leg over and as I transferred weight to my left leg the stand have slowly and since I was off balance down we went. Not sure if it got hit and dented prior.

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Well after finding a local welder wanted $100 to fix the old stand I bought a new one from twisted throttle. Their website lists it as fitting 08-11 and 14-current. When I received it i could not get the bolt through, but with my Dremel sanding drum I removed the inner layer of powdercoat and it slid in fine.

So yesterday after I got her new sidestand installed I took Roxy for a ride and we ended up at the park watching the sunset on the water.

Today since I had to wash my other ride, she got a good bath too!.
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