"Prying Mantis" with panniers

Mud ain't no friend of mine

I have discovered a new way to stop, shut off, and park my bike.

I was out in the woods yesterday...somewhere I should not have been...on a barely visible two track woods road, covered with last autumn's leaves. I had been having a better time then any almost 61 year old should have with a 400 lb. bike in the woods, and was feeling pretty good about some of the hills I climbed. Anyway, I was moving about 15 mph in 2nd. gear, along this nearly invisible track, and it turned left terracing the side of a hill, then it dipped and turned right up the hill. I was in the left track scoping out the uphill right, when I went through the dip, or I should say "nearly through the dip"..

All of a sudden "Praying Mantis" slowed to a stop, stalled and just stood there in the mud. The consistency was like thick oatmeal, and I was in it up to the chain. I restarted and spun the wheel, but "forgetaboutit", just deeper in the mud. I dismounted and the bike just stood there, I couldn't have parked it nicer. By now I was hot from horsing the bike back and forth but getting no where. I pulled off my helmet, gloves, jacket and sunglasses, and just studied the situation while I rested. After a few minutes, I tried to lift the tail out of the muck...no go. I finally dug out from behind the rear wheel and was able to horse the bike back about ten feet to where the mud hardened up a bit and the bike surfaced. Of course at this point the bike fell over and was belly laughing at me as it lay there. After a few minutes rest, I was able to lift the bike to 45 degrees, and almost had a coronary getting it up all the way. I rode it home and hosed at least ten pounds of mud from everywhere, even my right side hand grip was full of mud. You would have been very proud of me.

All that to say this: From experience, this bike "ain't no mudder". You guys out west must not be riding in very deep mud in the woods. The KLR is a hard surface bike that requires an experienced able bodied (read young) person to throw it around, and frankly I don't believe most of what you guys claim. I think you are all a bunch of lying SOB's.

Ok, I feel better

Ready...but for what?

The bike is pretty maxed out. I just received a Happy Trails skid plate and that does it for this year. I will have done everything that I wanted to do to the bike and am now just racking up miles. I have already put 600 miles on the bike in the last thirty days. The engine sounds great and I have even found my little annoying rattle. It is in the headlight assembly. When I touch the rubber dust cover over the rear of the bulb socket it stops. Now I have to figure out how to get to that area so I can isolate the noise and muffle it out with something soft.

New tires, new panniers, new crash bars!!!

I have gone a little crazy here getting set for spring. Spent about $600 for various "farkels" for the KLR. I am happy with them all. I built my own panniers from army surplus Mermite cans, which had been used for carrying food to forward line troops. The cans are good sized and double walled. I had heard rumors of how difficult it was to pry out the inner aluminum skin, but I had no problem using a 90 degree angle grinder with a cut off blade. The toughest part of the whole job was breaking out the foam insulation that filled the space between the double walls. I used a Happy Trail SU rack (built like a tank) to mount the cans and they are solidly attached.

Another upgrade was to replace the highway tires (Dunlop 607's) with a more 50/50 tire. I did my research and decided on Mefo Explorer 99 tires which are like a 60/40 tire. They whine just a little up to about 40-45 MPH and then the rest of the noise from the engine and from wind just drowns it out. I ventured into mud over these last few days, somewhere I would never have gone before, and I made it through...bearly. The tires did the trick but this is no "mudder".