Suzuki DR650 « Short Way Round

Suzuki DR650 « Short Way Round

How to make an around the world bike through trial and error. This is a great write up.

2011-06-18 The Icehouse Smoothie ride

I'd arranged with Trevor to be in Burlington at Guelph Line and the QEW where he was meeting John to pickup the 2002 KLR that he'd just purchased, although I was there to get a used Corbin "No-dip" saddle for my KLR.

John helps Trevor load the bike while Christian supervises.

Richmond Hill - Burlington - Appleby Line - Cheltanham Badlands - Forks of the Credit - Gravel sideroads and home.

The Corbin "No-dip" saddle. I now tippey toe on the bike. 

I'd bought it online off of Trevor ages ago, but as he was in Tillsonburg Ontario, I just never found the time to collect it, and when John and Sarah found out that I was riding out to collect it, they invited themselves along for the ride, although they were late getting up and met me in Campbellville at the Icehouse restaurant.

Let me tell you, if you were forced to live on one side of the city or the other, Halton is a great, hilly place to be with twisty roads, gravel and some great food.

The Icehouse Restaurant, a popular bike spot out at Guelph Line and the 401.

We left the Icehouse and headed south to Appleby line and climbed the escarpment, then back down the south side of it. Sarah was a bit concerned about that inside lane tight hairpin down the south side, but enjoyed the experience. I hope I can convince them to do some riding in Pennsylvania with me this summer or fall, where there is plenty more of that.

Passing a large charity ride on Guelph Line

 So the concept now was to head north through Lowville and end up at the Cheltenham Badlands just south of Belfountain on Olde Baseline Road East off of Mississauga Road. I used Google Maps to create a fun route, then GPSVisualizer to load it as a track onto my Garmin 60Cx GPS, so all I did was follow the blue line. It's so much easier than allowing that foolish auto-routing tool to take you off on Adventures By Garmin™.

The Acton Quarry

John and Sarah. Hot hot and wondering why I did a U-Turn to get this shot.

Mississauga Road looking north.

Boston Mills

I haven't lost them yet, must try harder!

The Cheltenham Badlands

Same place, Blackberry shot so I can compare. What do you think?

Alberta? Nope right here in Ontario. Two of my very special friends, John and Sarah. Thanks for a great ride guys!

I was quite happy until Sarah pointed out no motorized vehicles allowed. :(

Everyone needs some loving. 

It's a popular stop today.

1983 GPZ 550

Some of us use ice cream to recharge our engines in Belfountain, other's use Gatorade.

An older BMW, but still out and about. What is this one?

More and more bikes cycle through the parking lot. The shade under the trees is popular today.

Can she make it  on the hairpin at the Forks of the Credit?

There she is!

Sarah's first time at the Forks of the Credit

In the fall this is so beautiful.

John and Sarah were heading North through Hockely Valley and home, but my destination lay further south in Richmond Hill, so I turned off on Escarpment Road, a fun hilly gravel sideroad that goes on for a fair distance south of Highway 9, and I caught up and passed a Yamaha FJR riding two up on the gravel. He was pretty capable on that bike and maintained a good speed.

The view from up here looking South-south-east.

Here they are catching up and passing me while I played at Paparazzi. 

The road gets hemmed in by the trees, and I am loving the shadows now and then.

So I was practicing a different cornering technique today, to tip the bike in but stay high in the saddle upright while throttle steering around the corner. It feels weird, but I'd slightly better control with it. I'll play around some more and see what happens. As always, I was saying "Get your head up!" to prevent myself from looking at the ground as I tend to do when off road or in some rough and hairy gravel situations. If I get my eyes up and look through the hazard, over it. I tend to ride right through it in the path I want as opposed to the path the bike wants to go because I hit three potholes and never saw them because my eyes were looking at the one twenty metres back. I try to challenge myself each time I'm out. Sometimes it can be a challenge just starting the bike. ;)

Now we're talking, lane and a half gravel road heading god know's where, but in the correct general direction. The KLR was owning these roads!

I have to stop and take pictures of rivers and creeks. I'm OCD that way. :)

Notice how neatly groomed they keep the golf green as compared to the other side of the fence?

The fun begins just a wee bit down the road.

Suzi is happy to see me!

But her ball suddenly becomes much more interesting. :(

I'll see you out there again, have fun and keep the rubber side down.

The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time

I lost a friend and colleague this past Sunday in a tragic accident that claimed her life.

Liz Metcalfe

From my tribute to Liz locted on GTAMotorcycle.com:

I'm going to miss you, Liz, I will remember you as that geeky, goofy girl with infectious laughter, a ready smile, pithy comments, and with the strength of ten for your heart was pure.  

As an instructor with Learning Curves she brought years of practical experience to her students, and she did her best to coach students past their faults towards better riding habits. I loved working with her, as she brought positive energy, that smile, and her "Let's get this done and call it fun!" attitude every time she was on the lot. She excelled at coaching, and her loss is felt most acutely by my colleagues and her friends.

Those "media hound" tweets of hers were all over the map, as she had varied interests and tastes. I'll miss those quite a bit.  

She was directly responsible for suggesting a means for enabling Suzi to ride in comfort with me on our tours aboard the KLR. Thanks Liz, Suzi and I will never forget. 

When my number is up I would feel fortunate to be remembered so fondly by half as many friends. You made your mark 

She was the author of more than one blog, Moto-Mojo and Lizard Words. One of my favourite bits of poetry is:
A Minute in the Life of Gerry the Grasshopperhttp://lizardwords.blogspot.com

Liz, So long and thanks for all the fish. 
Your friends, Ron and Suzi.

She was the author of a number of blogs such as  Moto-MoJo  Lizard Words  Media Gleaner and describes herself on her Blogger profile:

Liz Metcalfe

• Gender: Female
• Industry: Communications or Media
• Occupation: Writer/Editor/Web Content Strategist
• Location: Toronto : Ontario : Canada

About Me

Liz is a Toronto writer and editor with extensive experience in Web product management. Part of the teams that launched Canada.com, Yahoo.ca and AOL.ca, she has created content and content promotion strategies for almost every major portal in Canada. Known for creative problem-solving combined with solid technical skills, she has been building online audiences for almost two decades. Less well-known is her obsession with poetry and motorcycles. A motorcycle instructor for Learning Curves and a dirt girl wanna-be, over the years her rides have included a Honda CB350 and 450, a Honda Shadow 500, a BMW R75 and a Honda CRF230. She currently owns a Yamaha YZ250F and a Kawasaski ZX7-R that’s had so much plastic surgery it’s been dubbed “Hollywood Baby.”

Goldie and Don did a great job speaking on behalf of the motorcycling community that is reeling in shock at the loss of one "good" ones.

What can I say about the accident speaking as an enthusiast and motorcycle safety course instructor? We can gain experience, achieve skilled control of a machine in good working order, yet still be become involved in a collision due to circumstances beyond our control. At this point we have a decision to continue riding in spite of the inherent risks or to put the bike up for sale. Should the choice be to continue riding, we can limit our risk by ensuring that we remain visible, that we leave a large space cushion, and operate with care and pride.

At the end of the day, let those around you know that you care about them, and program an In Case of Emergency (ICE) contacts into your cell phone so that next of kin can be notified promptly.

If you really want to make a difference, I encourage you to take an Emergency or Standard First Aid course with CPR. Check with your local St. John's Ambulance.

Be careful out there, I can't afford to lose a single friend. ;)

2011 GTASportriders Victoria Day trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway

I signed up for the annual May long weekend ride with the GTASportriders, the plan, to ride for four days, two down and two back from Toronto down to Salem Virginia and back again, but via the twistiest most fun filled squiggles on a map that we could find.

My Fork Seals are Leaking!!!

The GTASportriders.com and I have been planning our annual ride for Canada's Victoria Day weekend, and I've had some problems with the bike that had to be sorted out before riding away on a two thousand kilometer trip down south.

My fork seals started to leak on the left leg of my 2004 Kawasaki KLR 650, so I ordered in a set of aftermarket seals from Aviciouscycle.ca , the "All Balls" line that they carry. The advertisement reads that they last three to five times longer than OEM seals, so I thought I'd try them as I've gone through seals before.

If you have a slow leak, have a look down at the bottom to see if you can save yourself some trouble by using a quick fix called "Sealmate".

'87 - '07 KLR650 Fork Seals

The big thing was I was going to have a stab at replacing them myself. I did some research and found a method on the internet that allows you to unseat the seals and blow them out using compressed air delivered by a bicycle pump, compressor or shop air.

It's a Messy,

messy,

messy business.

To start off, I needed to remove the fork legs so I got the bike onto

it's stand and trussed it up to the roof of the garage and the sides
so that I could work without fear of it toppling over on top of me.

Once the fork legs are off, I cleaned them up so no dirt would find
it's way into the internals of the forks, and proceeded to open the
drain holes at the bottom and drain both forks. This was the messy
part. The oil dribbles out slowly, so you think to speed up the
process by compressing the fork, and instantly a three foot jet of oil
launches itself across your garage floor, straight over top of the oil
drain pan you were aiming for. Okay, there's another way to skin this
cat!!! I hooked up my air compressor to the top of the Schrader valve
and turned on the air while aiming the drain hole directly at the oil
basin. Success! A last blast of oil and I was done!.

Now I replaced the drain screw and made sure it was nice and tight,
then removed the fork seal retaining ring, and wrapped a rag around
the shiny fork tube with a zip tie to hold it in place, then slid that
down on top of the seals. I turned on the compressor again and watched
the gauge as it began to pressurize the seals, 20 pounds of air, then
50, now 80 and near 100 I heard a telltale hiss of escaping air. Sure
enough they'd risen in the well and I was able to carefully prise them
out with my snap-on hook set and a very small screwdriver.

Now I ran into a problem, I had purchased a fork seal driver for the
newer 2008 and later model of KLR, a 41mm fork seal driver, so when I
moistened the new seals with fluid and slid them over the tube, I
couldn't apply sufficient pressure to drive them home into the well so
I could replace the retaining clips!

I posted a question on a couple of the boards I frequent, measured the
diameter of the fork leg, put a new seal in my pocket and went to Home
Depot to look for a piece of PVC pipe that would fit over the inner
fork tube, but fit within the well of the outer fork leg completely
clearing it's edge by 1 millimeter at least. I found that the 1-1/2"
PVC DWV pipe was exactly what I needed so I bought a precut four foot
length and headed home to find that my question had been answered:

"invert the pvc pipe and thump the whole assembly into the ground."

so in essence, use a bigger hammer. Now we're talking!!! I placed a
chunk of old 2x4 on the ground which I'd had laying around for a dogs
age, and proceeded to have a go at thumping in the seal and dust cover
in one go.

Mission success! With one massive blow that left a ring gouged into
the soft spruce 2x4, both seals had set and I was able to easily
install the retaining ring on my test leg. I reinstalled the fork
legs, then was in for a brand new adventure, removing the springs and
refilling with oil. In anticipation of this job I'd ordered in a tool from Yamaha XS650
that would make it a precision job to both accurately measure the
fluid and to level each leg identically.

Fork oil level gauge

 Basically it was a hollow
tube with a ring nut attached to a syringe via a plastic tube. You fill the fork leg, set the adjustable ring to the correct depth on the hollow tube, and set the tube into the fork. The ring sits on the top edge of the fork, and you easily draw out the excess fluid into the syringe and deposit it back in the container.

My next gaff was after removing the springs, was to attempt to fillthe fork leg while still at full full extension! It kept sucking back more and more of the fluid, and as I'd odered it online from New
Dundee in the Kitchener/Waterloo area, I didn't think my chances of getting another litre bottle would be good so riding was out for the foreseeable future. Darn it! :(

I took a break, had some dinner, then decided it was time to RTFM
(Read The Freaking Manual) where I found that the fork fluid was
measured at full COMPRESSION, not extension. Whew! I headed back out
to the garage and began to compress the fork leg, to find that I'd
obviously overfilled it and should have raised the leg a bit more
slowly as I lost a dribble or two over onto the tank and onto the
muffler. Doh!

Okay, that fork done and set at 188mm below the top edge which seemed
a middle of the road compromise at the time with no previous
reference. I sport tour and get into the dirt once in a while, so I
wanted a good ride over lousy pavement, but great handling mid corner
as well as being able to take a trail without bottoming, and this
seemed like a middle of the road safe guess.

One of the fork caps was a bit cross threaded so I had to clean up the
soft aluminium thread with a needle file before it went home and
sealed properly.

Now to put the wheel back on and clean up this unholy mess! I'll do my
own seals again, and maybe even go for complete fork disassembly, but
I'd prefer to pay someone else to do it and work some overtime to pay
for it. ;)

Did I mention it's a messy job?

2012-12-29 Update:

22,000 kilometres and the Trans Labrador Highway later, and they're doing fine, thank you very much. ;)

Are your forks dirty and now leaking slightly? Perhaps you can salvage your seals by cleaning out grit and dirt that might be letting oil slip through. It's a ten dollar fix that might be worth a try, or you could cobble something together with a stiff piece of plastic from an old set of window blinds or something...

Add caption

 Check out their product here: http://www.sealmate.net/

And read a story about my 2009 Kawasaki Versys 650 that needed some TLC on a leaking fork seal... Seal Mate was the answer for that one.  https://www.ridereports.ca/2016/05/leaking-fork-seals-solved.html