The last few posts have been more about people than projects, so I thought I would go back to the motorcycle that started this blog. Or more correctly, this blog has been about travel and projects, but since much of my travel has been on a motorcycle and motorcycles have also been projects, there are more than a few posts on the KLR.
In truth, I find it hard to sell projects, especially cars and motorcycles. I kept Gidjet for more than 30 years. I have had the KLR since 2003. When I bought the KTM in 2016, it replaced the KLR for club riding and other motorcycle travel/exploring. I thought about selling the KLR, but it has more emotional value than it is worth to any other person.
Over the years, one person really liked the KLR, my friend Mark Doman. I had sort hoped that I could pass it on to Mark, but if you read a couple of posts earlier, Mark passed away this summer.
With the pandemic, I didn't ride very much this year, just a few hundred miles, but those miles were on the KLR. It is still a solid, reliable bike with lots of life left in it. As winter came on, I needed to decide what to do with the KLR.
After not traveling for more than a year, I kept reading about places out west that I had been or wanted to go. The Tomboy Basin and the headwaters of the Rio Grande in Colorado. Elk City, the White Bird Grade, and the Old Spiral Highway in Idaho. Actually, the whole Salmon/Snake River area. And eventually Brittania Beach, Bella Coola, and Gingolx in British Columbia. Many of those places are dirt road or off road.
So I hatched a plan. The idea was to convert the KLR for dirt/off road use, get some training and practice in riding off road, and get the bike out west for a few weeks (hopefully 2021). Then store it out there and go back west every year for a few weeks of exploring. Leaving the bike out there makes sense because the ride across the plains isn't any fun. Tentatively, John D. will join me the first time and trailer our bikes out the first time.
I want to acknowledge the pictures above. The historical picture of Tomboy comes from WesternMiningHistory.com. The historical picture of the Old Spiral Highway comes from the Lewiston Tribune. The pictures of the Rio Grande, Bella Coola, and Gingolx come from Google images.
I admit to getting older, so the riding won't be aggressive, but it is still necessary to prepare the bike for tipping over and for good traction on poor surfaces. The KLR is too heavy for riding in much mud or sand and I don't like that stuff anyway, so the plan is to mainly stick to Forest Service and mining roads.
It's amazing how adding some knobby tires makes any bike look tougher. The luggage rack came from Ukraine, but the other bits are more local. The skid plate is for Rocky Mountain rocks and the crash bars are to keep the radiator from being crushed in a tip over. Off road footpegs have been added for traction and lowered for riding out of the saddle. I also made some spacers to lift the handlebars for a more comfortable standing position on the bike. Just a few things left to do like power the GPS. This year has reinforced the idea to live now, don't wait. I am looking forward to new explorations.
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