The gravel road tourer, my take on the KLR650

[mdlak]

[juames]

Originally Posted by mdlak

Process look familiar Mike?

[mdlak]

Originally Posted by juames

Process look familiar Mike?

Haha! Love this kinda stuff. If I find the right bike, I'll do it again.

Looking good FP!

[Kawidad]

I've been waiting for this. I'm in.

[fleshpiston]

Originally Posted by mdlak

Haha! Love this kinda stuff. If I find the right bike, I'll do it again.

Looking good FP!

Thanks man! It was your fork swap thread that inspired me to go this route, you made it look too damn easy!

Originally Posted by Brandon

I am pretty sure you are right. I had an Applied on a XR a few years ago and from what I remember it looked exactly like the one pictured.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Unstable Rider

Howdy Flesh,

Appears we are maybe neighbors. Great post, I have a KLR in the garage meself.

~Subscribed.

Howdy neighbor, I'm a little South of the metro ...... here to be exact -









Thanks to all that are following along, gives me some inspiration




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[Beezer]

nice. but as far as swapping forks goes... mebby not worth it. I put YZ forks on mine & ran it for a year. cushy ride but with the fat USDs you lose some travel lock to lock. you also lose the stock instruments, no loss... I kept the Acewell gage when I switched back to the stock forks with Ricor valves. the Ricors in front & Moab on the back fix the ride pretty well... it'll give you everything you need unless maybe you are jumping it. something to consider. in fact I've ridden side by side with my friends 640A & it 's really close... even he agreed, though most orange guys will contend that is not possible and are outraged by the suggestion.

[bobfab]

Originally Posted by mdlak

me too!

[fleshpiston]

Originally Posted by Beezer

nice. but as far as swapping forks goes... mebby not worth it. .

Now you tell me!

You're probably right, I guess I'll find out this spring.

As far as the steering lock goes.... I've heard people complain about it that have done the swap and I just don't see it as being an issue. I modified the steering stops, which I'll cover in the next couple posts, so I'm only losing a couple degrees of lock. The only time I can see this being an issue is making a u-turn on a really tight trail. If you're doing that often on a KLR you might be on the wrong bike?





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[fleshpiston]

So time to make the gold springy things fit the red shiny thing.


Time to visit my friend Ted. Ted is equal parts genius and artist. It's good to know people like Ted.

The Yam steer tube is too short so just swapping bearings isn't an option, the stems need to be swapped.



so apply a little heat .........









Press out the old ..........














Here you can see the difference in length.....









A spacer could be made to adapt the the pieces but Ted decided to add weld to the tube.......














Then turn it back down to the correct diameter on the lathe .........









A top spacer was made up......





























We also machined the bearing land to accept stock KLR dust seals as the aftermarket ones are a joke ........









And after a few hours work we end up with this....... all pretty straight forward if you have the tools or know people that do.










Thanks Ted!





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[Cumbacheech]

Originally Posted by fleshpiston

all pretty straight forward if you have the tools or know people that do.

Thanks Ted!

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You said it right otherwise it can be a real pain... looking forward to the rest of the buildup.

[Rot Box]

Cool. Looking forward to updates

[fleshpiston]

Getting back to the steering lock issue....


My solution was to remove the stock stop on the frame and make one that's compatible with the Yamaha triple.

This is all hacksaw and hand file (I'm no Ted)










I had my bro brass braze it to the frame so it wouldn't distort the head tube with excess heat.....










Then I mocked it up with shop vac tubes and checked clearance on the left










and on the right ....










check it, grind some off, check it again, grind some off, check it again, grind, check, grind, check, etc etc etc
















As mentioned before I did lose a few degrees of turning radius but I really don't see it as a deal breaker. Only an issue when making a super tight u-turn or maybe when moving it around the garage. Even then, worst case is that it becomes an 8 point turn instead of 6


I actually rode for several weeks with little plastic blocks taped to the stock stops to limit the lock and test it out. Not once did I miss the extra lock.




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[KustomizingKid]

A local guy building a KLR.... I am starting my build this weekend

[ProZac235]

Awesome

[PWRCRZR]

nice job on the fork swap, having the tools and knowledge to use them are key