Motorcycle on traviscj/blog

everything has a failure rate

Wed, 03 Jan 2018 07:09:49 +0000

I was happily riding in to work this morning on my motorcycle. Periodically while riding, a spark of terror that I’ve forgotten to buckle my backpack to the bike’s frame hits me. So frequently, in fact, that I’ve grown used to reaching behind me to feel for the backpack in a spare second when I don’t need to clutch.

Today was different:

I reached for the backpack but felt nothing.

klr650 planned upgrades

Mon, 17 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I’m planning on “civilizing” my KLR650 just a tiny bit, since it is coming up on 1500 miles and I haven’t made it offroad at all yet.

There are two (fairly minor) issues with the stock setup, as far as I’m currently concerned:

First, I’d prefer the gearing to be just a little bit taller so I don’t have to wind it up quite as much. The engine just runs a little faster than I’d like at freeway speeds, and even driving around town it just feels slightly off. So I’m thinking about swapping out the stock 15T countershaft sprocket for a 16T. That changes the final drive from 2.87 to 2.69, and saves about 400 RPM at freeway speed, which doesn’t sound like much, but should quiet it up nicely. I found a website called gearingcommander that allows all of these calculations pretty nicely.

motorcycle learnings at 250 miles

Fri, 02 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Two new learnings at the 250mi point:

The backpack straps down to the back!

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The balance of the bike feels so much better with the backpack low and riding without weight on my shoulders is so much more comfortable.
Ear Plugs are amazing! I noticed earplugs being worn on The Long Way Round and decided to try it out. It is really surprising how relevant noises (other cars, etc) make it through fine, but how much nicer it is to not have the wind noise!

KLR-650 first month & american gumball

Wed, 30 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday I finally got the title for my motorcycle and realized that I’d owned it for exactly one month!

![]({{ site.baseurl }}/assets/klr650_first_ride_s.jpg)

So far, I haven’t done anything very adventureous – still getting used to riding again. I had a couple things that were making me nervous about it:

The bike gets warm (>1/2 way on the heat gauge, but still significantly below the red) tooling around, usually on my commute home in the evening.