Simply Living on a KLR

Hishooter · Sep 26, 2011

Hola all!

So this thread is getting started a little late as we have already left on our ride but better late then never, right? We are currently in a motel in Oregon and are rather tired as we rode through the rain all day today but updates will come soon. As you can guess we are all riding KLR's. This trip has been in the planing stages for the last two and a half years. Our plan is to do what so many have done before and do a cross-continental america's trip. We will be taking eight months to ride from our hometown of Saskatoon (right smack in the middle of the prairies) in Canada to the tip of South America, with the ultimate destination of Ushuaia, Argentina. The trip, is a rather open book with plently of room to find random exciteing things to do. Here is a picture of the group from the Mcdonalds on the 3rd day as we were leaving Calgary, Alberta.

My name is Colin (Hishooter) and I am the one on the far left, a Bio major at the U of S and instead of finishing my degree I have decided to put it on the back burner for a little while and take on the trip before focusing on finishing school. Here is me and my bike:

It was in pieces that night as we were doing the last of the prep for the bikes (changing the fork oil and other fluids), pretty no? Well for a KLR... It is an 05 and I bought it from a guy in edmonton with 1200 km on it....there was quite a bit of farkle on the bike....a K and N air filter and a dynojet jetting kit on it, which was destroying my gas milage...it took a fair bit of tinkering to get it running the way I wanted it to for the trip. But I finally did, about four days before we left. Oh and I have never actuall been to new york.

Billy(deus216) is the kid next to me and he has just graduated from the U of S cell bio program and Braydon(bray8) is the really tall one on the far left. He is a graduate of the commerce program at the U of S. Since Billy and Braydon both were scheadualed to graduate at the end of last school year we planned to leave this summer. Billy bought a newer 08, Braydon has a 05 like me, and as with mine none of them are even close to stock anymore, as a trip like this kind of requires.

Billys Bike

Braydons Bike

The final member of your group is Patrick(blockp) and he is currently a student like me and he will maybe be majoring in engineering he is the one in the center right of the above picture.

Patrick and his bike. As you all can see we painted them all rather drab colors to try and make the KLR even less flashy. All of ours but Patricks are one color but his is a bastardised hybrid of multiple colors, very funtional I am sure. He is also missing a bunch of his side pannels, but in their place he has a cut up front faring and a antenna. All of these bike pics were taken in Patricks garage, it became the place where our bikes were torn apart and rebuilt into the machines they are today.

The plan from Saskatoon was to head toward Calgary for a couple days to visit some family and get some last minute supplies. We were then going to continue on from there to ride the mountains and visit some more people in Vancouver and then head south along the coast though to Cali, Las Vegas, Pheonix, and then to Mexico.

For the most part that brings us up to the departure date. More updates to come, it is 10:45pm so I might do another one before I go to sleep I don`t know yet. Will keep everyone updated.

Colin

de Vaca · Sep 26, 2011

Looking foreward to this. I'll follow along too.

tedder · Sep 26, 2011

This could be fun. LMK if you need somewhere to stay in LA.

Throttlemeister · Sep 27, 2011

At least spares will be available to share off your buddy's bike and should always be able to keep at least two going, best idea if riding in a group imho.
Goodluck!

Looking forward to more

btw: nice cell signal bar strength group photooser

Cgirou · Sep 27, 2011

Subscribed I wish I had already owned my KLR when I was laid off for a year. It looks like you are taking a trip that will will bring a life time of memories.

papaduc · Sep 27, 2011

In.
College students, Mexico, South America...what could go wrong

Keep an eye out for Radioman down there.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16941846#post16941846

Newner · Sep 27, 2011

subscribed

Solo Gato · Sep 27, 2011

ckjj888 · Sep 27, 2011

klr650haha

petefromberkeley · Sep 27, 2011

papaduc said: ↑

In.
College students, Mexico, South America...what could go wrong

Keep an eye out for Radioman down there.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16941846#post16941846
Click to expand...

Man you guys are doing the right thing. Exactly the right thing.

Idahosam · Sep 27, 2011

Excellent start guys, hope to see you all on the trail sometime. We cross tomorrow at Douglas.

See you out there

Hishooter · Sep 30, 2011

Hello all,

Our plan for the day was to ride from Saskatoon to Calgary. If you don't know it is about 600km of straight and flat prairie driving. When you live in the prairies it is a rather boring ride. When that is combined with the jitters and stress of starting an 8 month ride and multiple breakdowns along the way it turns into a stressful and tiring day. We ended up taking 11 hours to ride a 7 hour drive which was not good time.

We started the day by meeting at a central location and having a farewell gathering with the families. The pictures of the whole group will be added later as I have yet to receive them.

When we left the family gathering our first stop was to a gas station to check out tire pressure and to get gas. The first mishap of the trip happened early, as we were checking the tire pressure Billy's bike fell over twice, what a good start. As it turns out when his bike is fully loaded the bike is too low for the kickstand to work properly. After getting the bike upright for the second time and making sure the bikes were ready we headed out.

We got about 20km outside the city before Patrick’s bike started to stutter and then died; we were irritated to say the least. We thought that the recently installed fuel filter was choking out the fuel line, so we removed it and kept going. However after another 20km his bike died again we were actually worried. This picture sums up how we were feeling.

It turns out it was a pinched fuel tank vent hose, which was easily fixed by moving his tank bag, however that solution came after 130km and 4 stops. Great. Doing a dry run on a packed bike before you leave on an 8 month adventure has many benefits. Guess who didn't do a dry run?

Oh well, after fixing his bike we continued on and had a quick bite at Tim Horton’s. Guess who is happy his bike is working again?

So after eating, we tried to cover some distance, however yet another failure on the first day, great. Billy had mounted a GOPRO camera on his bike and as we were riding he felt something hit his foot. Braydon, who was riding behind, saw something silver fall past his bike and Billy let us know over the radio that his camera had fallen off. We then spent the next 10 minutes hunting on the side of the road for it. This is what we found.

This is the Camera

Here is the sheared off mount. He is getting the camera and the mount fully replaced by GOPRO, so not a loss, but not a good addition to the first day.

While parking my bike to look for the camera I dropped my bike. My bike also has an issue with the kickstand, when the shortened KLR is combined with being fully loaded it is slightly unstable. Nothing happened to the bike, however I am now aware of the problem and it hasn't happened since.

After all the small problems we really had to try and make up some time, however being on fully loaded KLR's and not used to the weight yet we were still going under the speed limit. Going that slow left us getting passed on the highway by at truck hauling a house, this was rather entertaining. Since we had so many small issues we ended up taking 11 hours to get to Calgary. This made it dusk when we arrived at the city limits and left us riding into the sun for the last hour of our ride, which was blinding. When we finally arrived in Calgary, we arrived at walked into Billy's condo and immediately left again to go have a late supper with a friend. She took us to an awesome Mexican restaurant. We then spent the night hanging out in the condo and enjoying the company before turning in for the night.

It comes to my attention that this post was rife with spelling and other errors. It was totally my fault as I tried to update after I had had a couple drinks, all is well now however, enjoy.

Colin

P.S. It might happen again at some point.

eakins · Sep 30, 2011

sweet!

i'll be in Guanajuato (mexico) till nov 1
and the Sayulita (near Puerto Vallarta) for the rest of the winter.
If you guys are in the area, look me up!

XC Rider · Sep 30, 2011

Guys, this is looking good so far! As a former KLR owner, and person who still has a soft spot in his heart for KLRs, not to mention the fact that I'm still looking to ride in South America someday, consider me SUBSCRIBED!

Now, just keep in mind that since you've started off so well, you'd better keep this RR updated regularly, and with lots of photos!

Just razzin' you a bit; having written several RRs while in the midst of a trip, I know exactly what it takes to do it, so do what you can and update when possible, and above all, ENJOY YOURSELVES! (I don't think you'll have a problem with that last part though )

Ironballs · Sep 30, 2011

Guys...have a great trip...look forward to watching your progress..One piece of advice...don't ride at night ever...especially when you hit Mexico and all points south...plan on getting off the road by 4pm daily...gives you more time to chase the ladies

Mercenary · Sep 30, 2011

slabm7 · Sep 30, 2011

Hishooter said: ↑

Click to expand...

I love the Riders sticker. I'm from SE SK. You guys are taking the trip of a lifetime! GO RIDERS GO!!!

vintagespeed · Sep 30, 2011

i'm so in! take lots of pics of all the crazy gurls you might happen upon on this adventure...

and i think i'm going to move to canada so i can quit my job and go on long bike rides.

deus216 · Sep 30, 2011

Oooo... Colin fail at spelling.

gasandasphalt · Sep 30, 2011

I will be right behind you,,,, reading your every word..

Log in or Join

Simply Living on a KLR

Hishooter On the Road

de Vaca Long timer

tedder irregular

Throttlemeister Long timer Super Supporter

Cgirou Adventurer

papaduc Been here awhile

Newner Buffering

Solo Gato long in the tooth Supporter

ckjj888 Been here awhile

petefromberkeley -

Idahosam Set Adrift

Hishooter On the Road

eakins Butler Maps

XC Rider Motorcycle Vagabond

Ironballs Adventurer

Mercenary Mindless Savage

slabm7 Been here awhile

vintagespeed fNg

deus216 n00b

gasandasphalt Been here awhile

Log in or Join

Useful Searches

Simply Living on a KLR

Hishooter On the Road

de Vaca Long timer

tedder irregular

Throttlemeister Long timer Super Supporter

Cgirou Adventurer

papaduc Been here awhile

Newner Buffering

Solo Gato long in the tooth Supporter

ckjj888 Been here awhile

petefromberkeley -

Idahosam Set Adrift

Hishooter On the Road

eakins Butler Maps

XC Rider Motorcycle Vagabond

Ironballs Adventurer

Mercenary Mindless Savage

slabm7 Been here awhile

vintagespeed fNg

deus216 n00b

gasandasphalt Been here awhile