950 S-new look, new mods, new year

It's 2008,

My 06 950 ADV has been a great bike for trips, commuting and misc screwing around. No regrets. Thanks to all the help from the great members on ADVrider my 950 has been transformed...some good, some not so good. Learning all the time, none the less. This WI winter season has been pretty poor for riding. We got dumped on w/ snow early in Dec. and we've been getting snow/sleet/rain off and on since then. Last year I was able to ride most of the winter, but this year the roads never dried up long enough to be safe from ice. My plan for this winter was to go through the bike and give it a once over. It's been through a lot this past year. It deserved some TLC. A week into it, the opportunity to head back to Mexico popped up again, so the complete tare down has been postponed, it's just getting a good look over now.

It started w/ an oil change. Then I figured I have the time and all the posts about water pump issues finally got to me. Last year at about 10,000 miles one of the coolant hoses sprung a small leak so the system has been drained and flushed under warranty. I went to order parts but the stuff was back ordered from KTM. Willnevergrowup came to the rescue w/ a full rebuild kit, so I took that on. Thanks.


Figured almost 30,000 miles, so what the heck. At least now it has the updated parts and I have some piece of mind.

The shaft was scored and the seal lip surface had some darkening to it, almost like it was burnt. Thanks to Pyndon's great rebuild report, that service was no problem. I checked the bearings and they were fine so I just swapped the shaft and seal. "If it ain't broke don't fix it" I'll change those in the next 30,000 miles...maybe.

BTW, We have a BMW 1999 F650 in the stable too. Last year it blew a head gasket so I looked it's entire cooling system over. Sure enough, at about 12,000 miles it's shaft was scored and need replacing too. Looked just as bad as the KTM's. The BMW parts were much more $$$ than the KTM replacements so I made my own shaft, we'll see how long that holds up. 3,000 miles and still going. So there...It's not just KTM's.

Next project I was into was adding the tripmaster switch, but I did my own kit from a post on ADVrider.

I used this one.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=256750&page=2&highlight=mode+switch

But this one the most.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=197086&highlight=radio+shack+switch

Post #7 Jaydee1445 mentions the smaller swtich from Radio Shack. That's these. Thanks Jaydee.
"radio shack PN 275-1571"

I don't like taking my hands off the bars to toggle through the functions, we'll see how this hold up in the long haul. So far so good. Looks stock.






UPDATE: 7-30-11
I now have 95,000 on the bike and these buttons are still working great. My MODE button on the Instrument no longer works though..... :/

I like it !!!

Very well done, looks like a factory install

Dam, Where is the (that pic gave me wood smilie)......


Nice install on the switches.......

thanks guys.

Next up was the dash.

I use a Garmin 60cx GPS 90% of the time I'm on the bike. This setup has not failed me yet and is plenty stable for off road use, but I was getting sick the Garmin cigarette power outlet wiggling out of the power socket. I bought a cheap cigarette lighter power plug off ebay for about $8 shipped and wired that in. Now I still have the Garmin power cord for the truck and this one can stay on the bike all the time. I like having the full size power plug for charging MP3 players, Cell phones and using my tire pump when needed, so that stays. Both plugs are wired to the all time 10Amp fused power leads under the dash and routed behind the headlight. I drilled a hole in the base of the Ram mount and threaded the power cord through that.


The oval plug is for my heated gear and battery charger.

So why did that one come out small like I wanted? Hmmm..

This has gotten beat up pretty good and bent against the chain, so the Jury is still out on how useful it is. I do know I've hit some pretty good rocks w/ it and it's still there, not sure how well the plastic one would have survived. Only time will tell.



Then I thought I'd add a little color.





I swapped a new set of sprockets and chain on. If I was riding around here I would have let them go for another 2-3,000 miles as the chain had about 12,000 miles on it. Down in Mexico is not the place to have a chain fail, so a new one goes on. I put a Regina 525ZRP/120 X-ring chain on at around 15,000 miles.(needs to be cut to 118 links) It has held up well. It is rated for larger bikes than the stock chain is actually and is plated to help prevent rust. The stock one took a lot of maintenance to keep the rust at bay when I commuted almost everyday. I like the Regina so I got another. One other thing I learned lat sprocket swap is stick w/ the KTM ones. They are pricey but the hold up well. I run JT sprockets on my LC4 640E w/ good luck so I thought I'd try there 950 42T rear. The rear bolt are held from spinning by the flange on the sprocket. The JT flange was not the right size and too soft. I had to use a vise to hole the head of the bolt to keep it from not spinning. NO FUN. I bought new bolts and nuts and from now on KTM sprockets only.

Last year I ran 16/42 in Mexico. Two up travel w/ Gobis and tail bag for two weeks. This year I'm going w/ 16/45. We travel w/ KLR650's. 80mph max would be fine. No problem for the 950.

I had put the 950 SE chain guard on some time ago. Both side for about $15 is a good deal I figure. They include frame guards integrated in them and have held up very well to MX boots and mud. Plus it's nice to be able to see at a glance how the front sprocket is doing and the nut is tight.

I checked/cleaned the clutch oil jet again while I was in there. First time it was clean, this time it was clean too.



If you look close you will see that I have the clear hose that comes from the bottom of the air box plugged too. Now that I run the UNI prefilter, air is only coming in through there. I'm sure it doesn't make that big of a difference, but there has to be a slight draw on the end of the hose too, so no dust is getting sucked up through that now.

Head2wind's jet kit has worked great. Thanks for all your hard work.

:eek1 :eek1

I had ordered up some white side panels to try and get the bike look a little more finished and to get it back to the Blue and White color scheme the old KTM's use to be.

I got them from here.

http://www.airtech-streamlining.com/ktm/KTM9501999-04.htm

Great place to deal w/. They are actually fiberglass, not plastic like I had thought. My fault, I never asked, just assumed. Very well made. You have to trim all the holes to match the mounting locations, so it took some time.

Tools used-


Go slow, these remove a lot of material fast, and skin if you're not careful.



I bolted them on-



Then off to the painters. I'm still waiting to get some parts from KTM for another mod I have in the works, so I won't be getting them back until everything comes in for him to paint.

Tony does some great work.
http://tonybcustomrides.com


Fuel pump change-

I had swapped pumps back at 20,000 miles to the Facet 40105. It gave me some grief, in that I had several flooded engines when I forgot to turn of the shutoff valve. I tried an in line shutoff solenoid, but that failed and left me for dead when it decided to not flow fuel anymore on the freeway. I ripped it off on the side of the road and continued on. Lesson learned. After testing by the OC and Krampus gave it a shot, I thought now would be a good time to swap to the Facet 40171 also.

I already had the plumping figured out from the previous Facet install so this was an easy swap.


I only have about 200 miles on it, so far so good.

Nice mods cjracer .

I see that You have a Garmin 60 cx gps, how are You satisfied with the thing, and how about the visibility on the screen.

Thanks for your comments

I like it a lot. I've had it about 1 1/2 years and it's held up well to life on a bike. Great reception in the woods and mountains. Great all around versatility. I'm still learning how to use all the functions. Now w/ them marked down again, they are a great buy. I found mine at http://offroute.com/ , they had everything I needed and it came in one shipment. Great place to deal w/.

Sometimes it would be nicer to have a larger screen, but it's nice not having a huge GPS bouncing around up there too. W/ a 2gb Micro SD card you can put all of north America city navigator on it. It does slow it down a little, but not as much as I thought it might. It's nice not having to load maps when ever you go on a trip, now I am free to roam. I like having it at eye height, or close to it, not safe looking down at the bars when you need to glance it quick.

Thanks for fast info. I 'm considering Garmins 60 csx and the Zumo, but besides riding my Strom, I like to hike, trek and mountain bike. Only thing that bothers me is kinda small screen, and pure visibility.

But on the other side I like the ability to have 2-3 Micro sd cards and swap the maps very quickly(have plan's to visit Morocco this or next year).

You've mounted Yours behind the screen so it's at your eye height? How about visibility at night, does the screen iluminate enough?

I'm curently riding a 06 V-Strom, but dreaming of having 990 s

Previously I had posted some info about the 12gal Aqualine tanks.

Before-


After-

You can find more info on the first edition of my bike in the links below, so I'm not going into that again.

I did take my old set of SW motech bars and modified them to fit these tanks.



This is how I have it mounted to the frame now.


I hated how they bent around and bolt to the swing arm bolt. It always rubbed on my right ankle. I bought a set of clamps from http://www.twistedthrottle.com/ and designed it to clamp on like the H&B and KTM bars. I have not tested them yet, so we'll see how it hold up.

I spaced out the front a little w/ some spacers.




I love my highway pegs. Every good trail is about 3-4hrs from my house so riding the freeway is the fastest way to get to the good stuff. These help out a lot when I need to stretch my legs, but don't want to get off the bike.



Plus it's just 2 bolts to pull them off when I hit the trails.

Sorry for that stealing of your thread . Those highway pegs look great man

No problem, that's what ADVrider is all about. Sharing and helping.

This is the best pic I have right now.


I got setup w/ these map sets.
http://www.smellybiker.com/maps/
For the price I thought it was worth a shot and they helped out a ton when over in Spain over Christmas driving around. I'm going to load them in for Mexico too. Give them a look. Might help on your trip. I found most roads and city locations to be pretty close. Good enough for a reference anyways. There is no auto routing, but that's fine w/ me.

As for the cards, you can load several different types of maps on one card, but you need to load them all at once. You can them swap between them on the fly. It took me a bit to figure it out, but it works great. For example. You can be using city navigator to get you there, then when you get to the trails, you can hide the city nav. maps and bring up the TOPO maps, say your doing some fishing too, you can then hide the topos and bring up the Recreations lake maps. Pretty slick. 2GB holds a lot of info, but topo takes up a lot of space.

Night visibility is just fine, no complaints there. When you have it powered off the bike power it can run at full brightness w/o worring about battery life or you can dim it down. I normally just run it at full and have no issues. I'll try and add a pic of night use in the future. As for seeing stuff on the screen, if you can read the dash clock, you'll be able to read the GPS screen.

Thanks for the links cj)ll have a look, and also some back up facts for my dilemma. Keep up with your mods, the thread is highly interesting

Wow...that willnevergrowup guy sounds very cool and good looking!!

Did you get your tail rack powder coated or just paint bomb?? Bike is looking good!!

He sure is.....or somthing like that.



Black anodize.

I wanted to try one of those Kings tires when my next Scorp AT was shot. I put the 5.10-18 on and this is how it looks.





It is a tad thin for this rim, but otherwise looks good. We'll see how long it lasts come this summer. Kinda of an in between TKC and Scorp tire.

This is where I'm at now, Not sure how long the decals will work on these tanks, we'll see.









Hopefully this will help w/ car drivers seeing me.



This weekend I'll try and get some shots out in the snow. Once the rear panels get done in white and blue it should look a little more complete.

That's all the mods until after I get back from Mexico. I'll report on what worked and what did not.

Wow...you can see my 6 pack abs...bulging biceps and pecs through the jacket!!!

Screwing around this weekend.