My 950 Refresh or Mission Creep...

Great read! Nice work !

Bike looks SWEET!
Have fun on the trip.

Ride On!
Chris

Yep looks great. I really like the black swingarm.

Have a fun trip!

i like that 60.00 windscreen wher did you get that!!!!
is as tall as stock?

Okay, I'm finally going to tie this up for now - sorry to keep you waiting...

So I got the bike done Wednesday afternoon and left for TN and the BMW MOA rally on Thursday morning. Not wanting to be stupid I rode the bike once around the block and called it a day when nothing fell off. I went home, packed a few things in the panniers and Thursday morning I hit the slab.

570 miles later I pulled into a hotel and called it a night. The chain was too tight so I fixed that (better late than never) and that was about it. Two strange things were that the bike surged and hunted a lot at steady throttle on the highway which it's never done - I think I might have forgotten to hook up the float bowl vent as I did have a few things left over. The other thing was that I thought my fuel light was broken since it didn't come on until 200 miles - WTF? I thought it was a mistake since only once before did I get more than 200 and that was nursing it whereas this was 75-85 the whole time - even some traffic.

Since I didn't actually do anything to the engine I can only assume that the amount of dirt that came off the bike was worth about 8 mpg. Impressive.

Anyway, I didn't do beauty shots but I shot a couple quick ones at the motel:



And the other side:



When I got to the rally the KTM certainly got attention - it's orange and loud. I discovered a missing 6mm nut on the rear brake adjuster and I lost one rear exhaust stud and the other was loose. I consider that doing okay really. The new brake master cylinder is worth it's weight in gold. Brembo really is that good. There's much more power and far better feel. It's true two finger stops now. James Siddall of SuperPlush is nothing short of a magician as the suspension somehow became more supple (plush?) and yet more taught and responsive. Expansion joints disappeared and yet the bike was firm in the rest of the stroke. I like his style. James Renazco is a god among men and this saddle is beautiful and comfortable. I certainly have to thank Chip Munn of Munn Racing because I placed about 30 orders with the guy and got everything including the last minute stuff. I've been ordering all my parts from him for about 5 years now and I like doing business with him. Andrew of Adventurer's Workshop got me the new carbon for the bike and some nice new packing straps and other assorted things. I've mentioned CJ but I will again - his clutch cover was like the hypnotist's watch at the BMW rally - they couldn't stop staring at it. I can't either actually - it's fun and functional. Woody of course made gorgeous hoops for me and I love the wider rear rim.

The bike looks as nice as it works. Saturday Judiaann and I leave for a little two up adventure to do the Trans Lab over a few weeks. We're going to be testing some new gear for Revit, taking photos, camping and enjoying ourselves while we still can. Judiaann, we just found out, is pregnant so I guess this trip will be three up. I'll do my best to put up a ride report but right now I'm just slammed with work and packing and just getting ready.

Here's the last shot - some "kill markings" - these are career totals and not for this bike. This bike owns the bird and the tree...



I'm still on the fence about what wheel set to take up there. It will be 3000 paved miles and 800 dirt road. I've ridden the 17/19 on dirt and it's fine but on soft loose stuff it's squirrelly. I love the 17/19 on the road and I'd much rather take that but the thought of hitting the Trans Lab after a fresh grading and a rain storm makes me want the larger wheels with a set of TKC's. Anyone done it that can offer some advice?

Great job!

thats a beautiful lookin bike. I hope mine will be revived to such beauty some day

Proof is in the pudin', that bike looks fantastic!

Re: the wheel choice, look at it this way. Running the 19/17 with TKC's, you're switching over to "best case scenario" for a GS rider... with a lighter bike, better suspension, and more braap. You can't really go "wrong" either way I think.

Thanks. I think you're right about wheels. I've looked through about a hundred threads and photos and everything from Harley's with trailers to V-Stroms with stock tires has done this and most of these guys have never ridden dirt. I've ridden dirt for 20 years and raced it too so I think I'm worrying for no reason and I should just go with Distansa's on the 17/19 as they're such a good tire across the board; rain, dry and hardpack dirt. I should be fine.

Beautiful looking bike you have there.

Congrats on the future rider. Have a great trip.

Safe travels,
cj

Congrats on the child coming Gregor


Bike looks super as has been said, I cant wait to see her in her racing kit - no luggage, and serious knobs.

Whats the animal kill? I get the deer, bugs, tree, eagle(?), and 5x RIP bike moments. Whats the other 4 legged creature?

oh yeah - did you kill a hawk/eagle? What happened?

Looks great. Sorry I missed you at the rally but I wound up working all weekend.

That is one fine lookin orange beast Sak!

May have missed it, but where did you get the vents/ducts for the windscreen?

I co-opted the idea from the GS forum as a way to reduce (not eliminate) the wicked buffeting that I was getting from my Arai XD. It worked for me but as the 70 page thread "Windscreen Disgust" will attest there's no making everyone happy. I think that thread is driven by street riders or those coming from touring bikes who are expecting something similar. I'm not - this is an adventure bike and that's how I ride it and what I do with it and I don't expect it to be a touring bike.

Anyway, the NACA ducts are added to the stock screen - I put up a how-to here. Your mileage may vary and if you visit that other thread you will see all manor of whacky ideas.

Wow, it became a masterpiece

Ditto.

Great Job Gregor.

Congratulations on the little sakurama....!

One thing to consider - you'll probably be looking at two sets of TKC's for that kind of mileage, whereas a single set of distansia's should make the whole trip. FWIW I've slid around the Dalton with nothing better than a set of bald Metzeler Marathons on the 950 - it wasn't too bad.

Douf

I too had been thinking about the aviation product PRC, and today I was looking at your website and saw it was here that I had originally found that you had the same idea. Did it not work out for you? I thought it would be good as it is tough, and removable, but now see you have gone another route. They use tons of the stuff at work.

I didn't like the aviation stuff even though I thought I would. It was really difficult to work with and set up too fast and then it didn't make a great seal. I fixed it and didn't give it any thought for the last couple years as the wheels held but this time round I wanted to see if there was something different.

Cyborgs method was good because it eliminates a lot of weight which is a great thing to do on wheels. My original method tried to allow for trueing the wheel while maintaining the sealing but in the end how often do you adjust spokes? For me the answer was never so why not just seal the area that needs it and do it with as little material as possible?

As I mentioned if I were to do it again I'd skip the Seal All and just use the Goop - I don't see the benefit of the Seal-All since it bubbled so much whereas the Goop was strong, flexible and clear. The wheels are holding just fine too.