Back in Black

[viola-tor]

Originally Posted by Geek

I'm really hoping tomorrow's snow forecast will be a "1 day melt" like usual down here... but up high they are saying 20+ inches which means we're that much further from being able to get to the fun stuff this summer
After Wed night's thunderstorms I noticed everything over 11,000 was freshly coated with snow Thrusday morning.

C'est la vie

You poor, poor thing, having to endure that awful Colorado existence...

[LoFlow]

Originally Posted by Geek

Ah man I love that shot. I swear I can feel the sun on my shoulders.

[rnoliver]

First off, love the thread- read it all last night (stayed up way too late). Thanks for putting your HDB guards review in the thread as well. I have one question. I see you have a Kaoko throttle lock with your HDB brush guards. Did you buy the one for the stock 990 or the one for use with Barkbuster guards? I'm thinking the latter, but wanted to double check. Thanks again for all the posts- hopefully we'll run into each other- (Well, not literally...)

[elron]

Geek, You are an electronics meister, I've really pick up a lot from your threads, here and elsewhere, on setting up all kinds of electronic and other "accessorizing" for the big KTM. My bike is a 2012 990 Adv R, my concern regards it's capability of handling a combination of additional electronic accessories mainly due to it's gen output. You've installed the voltmeter, obviously to keep track of what's going on with the power re your battery, my question regards just how much can the bike handle. Can one run aux lights, and heated grips, and heated clothing, and GPS, and cellphone/I-pod power and still be within the capability of this bike? I realize a lot depends on the draw of each, but they are fairly standard. How do you figure where the limit s/b other than trial an error?

Originally Posted by Geek

The digital voltmeter I used is a Datel.
.........
I mounted mine in my upper left fairing as you can see in the photo below, and I used a waterproof push-button switch I got from highwaydirtbikes.com to toggle it off and on.



p.s. for me, I usually see the meter run 13.8 to 14.1 volts (higher at idle). I noticed that dropping for about a week (to where it read 13.2-13.4 on average) before my battery finally up and died. Food for thought if you see your voltage starts dropping.

[CamelBill]

Originally Posted by elron

Can one run aux lights, and heated grips, and heated clothing, and GPS, and cellphone/I-pod power and still be within the capability of this bike? I realize a lot depends on the draw of each, but they are fairly standard. How do you figure where the limit s/b other than trial an error?

I have also learned a tremendous amount from Geek's posts (Thanks Geek!), and followed his lead and installed a voltmeter on my 950. Was out on it all day yesterday, and i can tell you tha the heated gear and grips do dry alot of power. Assuming your regulator is in good shape (mine is new), my experience is about 14.3 volts with nothing on. Grips draw it down to about 13.7, grips and heated vest down a couple more tenths. I avoid using my aux lights when I have two heat draws on, because they can suck a couple more volts. I don't like to drop below 13.5 volts for long, as I have a Shorei battery, and they need a pretty good charge.

I'm sure Geek can (and likely will) provide a much more technical answer, but I thought I'd share my personal experience FWIW . . .

[elron]

Originally Posted by CamelBill

I have also learned a tremendous amount from Geek's posts (Thanks Geek!), and followed his lead and installed a voltmeter on my 950. Was out on it all day yesterday, and i can tell you tha the heated gear and grips do dry alot of power. Assuming your regulator is in good shape (mine is new), my experience is about 14.3 volts with nothing on. Grips draw it down to about 13.7, grips and heated vest down a couple more tenths. I avoid using my aux lights when I have two heat draws on, because they can suck a couple more volts. I don't like to drop below 13.5 volts for long, as I have a Shorei battery, and they need a pretty good charge.

I'm sure Geek can (and likely will) provide a much more technical answer, but I thought I'd share my personal experience FWIW . . .

Thanks, Camel, for relaying your experience, I find it quite helpful. Would you mind providing the wattage rating and brand/model of your heated gear?

Looking forward to Geeks input as well on this subject.

elron

[CamelBill]

I use the TourMaster Synergy heated vest with collar, no other heated gear. Per their website, it takes 51.6 watts and 4.3 Amps.

My grips are Warm-n-Safe with an in-dash variable controller.

It all works out to be sufficient heat for down to freezing temps, with First Gear jacket and pants, liners

[keener]

inspired by your idea I did this a while ago:

[gbowes]

Hey Geek, I was wondering about the dash board on the handle bar mounts. what do all the switches do and where did you get it. I haven't seen one of those before.
Thanks
Greg

Originally Posted by Geek

My KTM: Back in Black.
A photo essay.
by Geek


In the "black ktms" thread we were talking about the safari tanks & such and I offered to do a detailed review when mine arrived.



They just got here.

Along the lines of the review I did last year for the HDB hand guards and mirrors (http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...ydirtbikes.com) I figured I'd start this thread with the review, and then maybe back track a bit to take a look at the other 23450823 modifications I've done to my bike. Perhaps present some ideas for others who enjoy modifying their Adventures and share some of the things I've learned while making my Adventure into the bike I want.

I'm by no means the master 950 mechanics that pyndon, cpmodem, etc. are... but I do like to fiddle in the garage and "make things mine" as I best see fit for the riding I do here in the mountain states. I'm hard on stuff and I work hard to improve/maintain/upgrade things to make them more reliable; especially considering some of the places I go and what failure would represent. Some of the stuff I buy just for no reason other than I like it or I think it is cool. Sometimes I make mistakes and regret purchases I've made (and I'll share those too). Like most of us here, I love motorcycles and I really love my 950 adventure. It is one of those rewards that makes having to go to work acceptable.

I'm just going to throw unrelated photos in once in a while because I know that most of you hosers just look at the pictures and ignore the words


I definitely use my 950 for what it was intended for - Adventure riding - and am blessed to live in Colorado where we have an abundance of adventure available to us. A garage queen my bike is not. Of the 20,000 miles I put on my 950 last summer the ratio was probably 65-75% dirt ranging from fire roads to mountain passes to sand dunes to single track I had no business being on I try and get away from civilization as much as possible and the one common route-limiting factor is always fuel range.

Coming down Black Bear Pass above Telluride Colorado. Did I mention I'm afraid of heights?:



I've been wanting a larger fuel capacity for quite some time now. I ran into quite a few situations last summer where I needed more fuel. Exploring Dinosaur National Monument and riding the Great Divide Basin in Wyoming are two good examples. With more fuel on board, my routes would have been much more flexible instead of having to plan to be back to a gas station every 175 miles or so.

I'm hoping to change that...

If you visit the Dinosaur National Monument in north west Colorado make sure you ride the Yampa Bench Road. When you ride the Yampa Bench, make sure you stop at the Harding Hole Overlook:


Riding the Continental Divide Route. At one point you cross Wyoming's Great Divide Basin where no Fuel is available for over 200 miles.



Safari Tanks

This coming summer I really want the flexibility more fuel can provide (I can't wait to ride from my place in the Colordao Front Range to Moab, Utah without touching pavement ).

I looked at the various fuel options and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. For me, my Adventure is my Adventure Touring bike and I want the ability to go as far as possible between fill ups when I need. An option quite a few of my buddies have gone with are the ADV tanks that Neduro has designed that replace one of the exhausts. As it is, I have some other plans for the back of this bike that the AdvTank will not be compatible with (though I'll probably use Ned's system when I add an SE to the stable).

I had considered the Aqualine tanks for quite a while but always hesitated on the purchase because of the unknowns - the main one being how much it changed the feel of the bike overall.

Last fall I spent some time riding CJRacer's Aqualine equipped 950 and was pleasantly surprised with how little impact they had on my riding.

CJRacer's 950.


Sure they are going to make the thing steer like a bus on those occasions when you need to put 10+ gallons in them, but for normal riding (i.e. putting stock levels of fuel in them) they were pretty much impact free on my riding. The only time I really noticed them was in the sand when I'd put a foot out (dirt bike style) into the apex of a corner, my calve would brush against the fuel tank (whereas it didn't touch the stock tank) which was not that distracting to me.

Combine that with the peace of mind I had when we were in the middle of nowhere, knowing that even though I was low on fuel Craig still had 5 gallons on board, and I was sold.

120 miles from anywhere...



Fast forward a few months and CJ Designs (http://www.cjdesignsllc.com/) is now an Aqualine tank dealer, and since Craig is such a good guy I wanted to give him the business. I ordered my Safari tanks Wednesday of last week and I received them today.

Time to open them up and take a look...!

[kaia]

Originally Posted by gbowes

Hey Geek, I was wondering about the dash board on the handle bar mounts. what do all the switches do and where did you get it. I haven't seen one of those before.
Thanks
Greg

i think you're looking for stuff from Highway Dirt Bikes, of which Geek has the whole kit - Handguards / Mirrors, Top Clamp and Perch Switches