Posts Tagged KLR650

Weekend Wrap-up: High’s, Low’s, and Somewhere In Between

As February gets closer to its end, mother nature decided to throw us a curve ball. Instead of the typical rainy weeks of misery we tend to get around here this time of year, she gave us one beautiful week, and an absolutely gorgeous weekend.

Mid 50 temperatures, clear, cloudless skies, and beautiful snow capped mountains surrounding us. It really has been a wonderful time so far this year with our weather.

My weekend started early, due to putting in my 40 hours earlier in the week, and getting Friday off because of this.

Friday ended up being a great day.

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Weekend Wrap-Up: My First 500 Miles with Sara

Breakfast in Napavine. Sarah waits outside.

Breakfast in Napavine. Sara waits outside.

So I am a few days late writing my weekend wrap-up, due to being overwhelmed with work.

The weekend was mixed with some parts of joy and some parts of frustration.

It ended up being a beautiful ride down on Saturday, minus the monsoon I rode through in Olympia. All I can say is thank god for my TourMaster Defender 2-piece Rainsuit!  It kept me completely dry through the whole ordeal.

After stopping in Napavine to top off the fuel tank, and grab some breakfast at BK, I pushed on down to Vancouver to meet up with GusGus, my co-rider for our Arctic Expedition Trip.

After Vancouver, I pushed on down the Columbia River Gorge towards Hood River.  The one thing I absolutely hate about The Gorge, is the wind.  Fighting wind gusts of over 40mph really can fatigue you, especially the neck.

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And I call her “Sara”

My 2008 KLR650 that I call Sara

Yesterday I picked up the bike that will carry me to the Arctic Circle and beyond this summer.

I call her Sara, as it is a name that is adventurous, and so it fits well with her intentions.

This bike, I have been interested in since last fall when a buddy of mine told me about it. It belonged to a friend of his, and I had always thought it was a pretty dang nice setup.  I really didn’t know how good of a setup it was until I went and took a peek at it on Sunday.

I have to say, that I am happy that I purchased it.  Not only was it an excellent deal, but the fact is, after I test rode a couple different KLR’s over the weekend, and got a feel for how well they handle, and how well balanced they actually feel underneath you, I was hooked.

Not to mention, the KLR has a huge fan base, with an extremely large selection of aftermarket bits and pieces.  It really surprise’s me just how much time and dedication is put into these bikes.  The loyalty that the community that rides these, have into the bikes is pretty amazing.  It reminds me a lot of the XT225 community which has very little aftermarket manufacture support, so the community stepped up and fabricated for it.

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A Productive Weekend (Well, kind of)

New Oversized Footpegs

What a weekend!

The Weekend started on an up beat when I got home from work on Friday and my oversized footpegs were in the mail waiting for me.

The XT225 does not have a huge amount of aftermarket support, and one of the area’s that it really shows is in the footpegs.

A gentleman in Arizona makes these oversized pegs, and while I am ecstatic that I got them, I’m a bit sad that this is one of the final sets he will manufacture.

As you can see from the picture to the left, they are much larger than the stock pegs. Also, the stock pegs have rounded serrations on them, where as the new ones are pointed, given them much better bite into the sole of your boot.

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