V649HP-Kawasaki's new gravel runner

another SW Motech style gravel guard...

it's interesting that these are fabricated as a modular assembly for the body of the guard, maybe for ease of shipping and to compensate for any minor fitment issues. buy something similar, or fabricate your own, but you do need at least something to protect the front and underside of your rat gravel runner. without some protection, at the least, the front of the bike will look like it has been sandblasted from flying gravel. the design of this guard has some nice features, i might fab up a knockoff myself, although it would fit tighter on the bottom.

Who makes that one?

Hepco And Becker Skid Plate For Kawasaki Versys 650 '10-'13

If you look at the link of the picture it links to pca-one.com. A quick search will find it.

yeah, HB. maybe because the Motech gravel guard doesn't work well with the HB engine bars, so HB needed their own design.

what, nobody wanted to source that dual horn setup? should have painted them black.

hey jd,

is that dual horn setup "double redundancy" in case 1 takes a gravel hit?

.

Horns? Oh, my mistake. I thought they were more lights, since you like (more) lights...

could be, but it ain't my bike.

no doubt, i like more lights.

just out in the shop before the game and took the bikes off the maintainers, started them up for a little exercise...man, the rat looks good with those LED lights.

in my book, the idea is to ride, then make it home in one piece. if more light helps with that objective, so be it.

I'm with you, JD. The only view I am particular about is the one from the saddle. (And I'm NOT too particular about that one.)

How the bike looks to others, well... if it attracts attention and keeps them from running me down, mission accomplished.

Being such a budget burdened rider I limited my Aux Lighting to the Clearance Isle at the Walmart and bought some cheap driving lights. When I've got 'em all ON it throws quite a bright light out in front.

dundance

dang, that is right:eek1

guess i got lost multi tasking last night.

1. chatting with my out of town wife texting on the phone.
2. playing chess with my oldest son over the internet (and yes, he was 1 move ahead of me the rest of the game after I made my one and only mistake).
3. watching my 2nd favorite team trying to catch up last night.(and if i should point out, mistakes are very hard, is not near impossible to recover from....pls see item 2 abv)
4. playing chew toy throw with my way too smart queensland heeler/border collie mix.
yes, it was too wet yesterday with the big snow melt the last week, plus the rain yesterday to take him out on his atv run
in order to "work" him. these dogs can become a handful if they DO NOT GET their required amount of work daily.
5. catching up on my reading.

sorry jd, been so long since we have had the experience of following "your latest build" that i lost track :eek1

BUT......with the extra bright marker lights, addig "redundancy" with that LOUD HORN of yours might not be a bad idea.
.........hmmmmmm now, where might be a good location for that bad boy?

.

i've had the bike out twice at night since i added those LED lights, and both times had a big left turning cager incident, and i mean to the point where they had started the turn into the road in front of me.

fortunately, both times the driver finally saw something and slammed the brakes. had to have been the lights...both headlights on, auxillary lights on, all the running lights and LEDs on. how could a cager not see the bike in the first place?

nothing wrong with the budget approach, heck, this whole build is nothing but budget driven. cheap, cheap.

JD
I was reading your posts #151 through #171 and had some questions. I don't have any front end for my ninja mutant yet, but I can get a 2003 DRZ400 front end at a reasonable price. Will the DRZ triples fit the ninja steering head with a change to the races and bearings. If not, what front end would you recommend for an easy gravel runner conversion short of just buying the KLR forks like tonymorr did on his build.

as you point out, the 08+ 41mm KLR forks are the easiest of all options since they slide right into the 41mm ER6 (650R) clamps. there have been a number of knockoffs of this setup since the cost of these KLR forks has come down significantly since Tony built his bike.

the DRZ forks are also very easy when matched up with the Versys clamps, are cheap and easy to find, and avoid the interference issues found with wider clamp spacing. the DRZs are fully adjustable after 2003 and conveniently use a 20mm axle. the Versys clamps have become a little tougher to find on the used parts market recently...hmmmm, wonder why.

the DRZ clamps are just one of the many that could be modified to fit the ER6 steering head, although i have not investigated the bearing/machining issues. the procedures for doing these swaps are straight forward and well documented. if you take the trouble to do this type of swap, i recommend a fully adjustable late model fork set with a minimum 46mm inner, preferably 48mm. before buying forks, make sure your whole front end will work together...forks, axle, wheel, brakes, fender. saves time and expense.

remember, using a long travel fork, either conventional or USD, will automatically produce a tall bike.

Thanks JD,
I am not too worried about height as I am tall. I am leaning toward the DRZ front end, but I also see alot of KLX 300 forks available. I don't know if the 300 front end would be beefy enough for a 400 # bike. What do you think?

the KLX300 forks are plentiful and cheap because they're only 43mm, outdated by current standards when all the manufactures went to larger diameter inners. the KLX also used a small diameter axle, might have been only 15mm.

46mm would be the smallest i would fool with, and you should have a good selection of 48mm forks in your price range too.

the effort and expense is the same, might as well go big.

several good writeups by builders using late model USD forks, ktmklx for instance.





i wish some dude with crazy search skills would find the source for these bar mounts that fit the Versys top clamp.

I thought someone posted awhile back that a machinist friend made them, with the logo. Or am I thinking of another story I heard?



David

hey montana man, if you can find it, how 'bout a link.

why don't you get some time off so we can ride that 2500 mile best of the west route?

I'm not very good at searching. I'm going off memory, which is pretty sketchy. I remember reading about a french Canadian with poor english talking about his KLR build. I think some scandinavian jumped in and showed the bar mounts. It was some machine shop in Finland or something. Its tough to dredge through all those threads. I've been reading through sailah's and sanjoh's threads but no luck.

-David

Project kickoff!
To add more steam on this one, i just pampered myself :)

The protekk fork tube clamps are still out of stock. Finding it tough to get something similar, machine cut back home.



The Mowtechs.... how ever i need to machine out the mounting points of the fairing for this to latch on to the bikes frame.




Looks cool ... so cool that i would not want to dirty it at all ... wish i could just keep it in a show case!






The Tuono tear drop mirrors




Wishing these are a straight fit on the handle bar




Finally i am quite close to getting myself a power outlet on the bike. Got carried away and ordered the ROK straps too.





JD,
The ER6F you mentioned in the below post

Any idea which wind screen this one is. Looks good on the bike and its a bolt on fit.
Me just waiting for the fort tube clamps and may be the wind screen before i start off with an initial design of the headlight and digital console mount.