Blog Posts

Attaching a RAM Mount to the Yaesu FTM-10SR/R "Head" Unit

2012-03-24T14:22:35Z

One of the things I'd planned to do with the comms box project is locate the Yaesu FTM-10SR "head" unit on a RAM mount somewhere up front on the Renthal bars. The head unit provides the display and all controls for the transceiver body which will be located in the Pelican 1200.

A trip to the hardware store netted a stainless metric bolt and washers, along with a nylon bushing to take up the space inside the mounting hole on the RAM-B-272. This RAM product is described as an Aluminum Mini Motorcycle Mount Angled Base with 9mm Hole and 1 inch Ball. It's actually intended to be bolted to the bike somewhere, allowing a RAM socket "arm" to extend outward to an accessory like a GPS. In this case, I turned things around, using the 272 on the back of the head unit instead.

After the nylon bushing was sanded down to a proper length, the stainless split washer was used to tension the bolt, making for a really secure assembly.

I used a couple RAM 231 U-bolt style mounts up front on the Renthal bar, intending for my existing Garmin GPSmap 276C to be on the left and the Yaesu head unit on the right.

With the U-bolt mounts bolted in place, I test fit the Yaesu head unit and GPS holder as shown below.

Here's the RAM 231 mount and extension arm on the right

And the 231 mount on the left for the GPS

Here's the actual Yaesu FTM-10SR/R "head" unit

Once the comms box project has been completed, wiring from the back will connect the Yaesu head unit to the transceiver. Power to the GPS and audio from it will also be connected and a Push-to-Talk switch controlling the radio will also be part of the ensemble.

The "big" little comms box project is started

2012-03-24T13:30:51Z

Time to catch up on some writing! It's a rainy day here and I've already made quite a bit of progress over the past couple weeks building up a communications box for the back of the KLX250S. This part of the overall project focuses on doing what I'd done years ago on our BMW R1150GS Adventure, but this time do it MUCH better. The idea is simple: Create a reasonably weather proof environment for a dual-band amateur radio and intercom. I already had the following items:

Yaesu FTM-10SR VHF/UHF Dual Band FM Transceiver
Autocom Pro-7-Sport Intercom
FuzeBlocks.com FZ-1 power distribution block

The Yaesu FTM-10SR is weather proof transceiver made for motorcycle use. The 10 Watt VHF/7 Watt UHF transceiver is the little brother to the FTM-10R which shares the same head unit (display and control), but has a larger body containing the circuitry capable of transmitting 50 Watts.

The three items I expected to locate inside the comms box are show below.

After some quick measurements, I settled on a Pelican 1200 case as being just the right size to contain the intercom, radio and power distribution. Although I'd purchased the Pelican 1550 cases previously from the interweb, this time I spotted a local (to Raleigh) Pelican dealer with a storefront and made a trip over to see them. US Case offers competitive pricing on Pelican products and does a wide range of customization. Highly recommended!

From the start, I planned to bolt the Pelican 1200 to the new rear rack. After deciding to orient the case's hinges towards the back of the bike, I settled on a position on the rack and used it to mark the case for drilling.

Holes were drilled and hardware procured. I used some rubber grommets as a form of vibration damping between the rack plate and the 1200.

After a quick check that everything fit, it was time to bolt and rear rack plate back onto the KLX250S and then bolt up the 1200 on top. This proved a bit challenging due to the limited space between the rear rack place and the plastic fender underneath. My fingers didn't fit well in there to position the washer and nut on each bolt! With a little help from Elizabeth I was able to make this work and was happy that bolting and unbolting was not going to be a common activity once everything was assembled. Pictures below show the empty 1200 bolted in place.

Below is a picture of the working space inside the case. The real fun was about to begin!

I wanted the radio, intercom and power distribution to all be mounted solidly inside the box, so a sheet of 6mm thick expanded PVC from Budget Robotics was selected. This easy to use material can be drilled, cut and sanded without much trouble.

After some measuring and experimenting with a paper template, I used a router table to "mill" the sheet to size. A table saw would have worked, too, but I don't have one. Here's the base after sizing and drilling for mounting on stand-offs inside the 1200.

I'll cover the mounting of the radio and intercom, along with all the wiring in a future post to break things up a bit. Besides, my coffee cup is empty and it's time to top it off again.

KLX250S with bags spotted in the sunlight

2012-03-16T18:28:48Z

By popular demand, here are some photos of the bike captured outside the garage. You should be able to get a better idea how the bike looks with the bags on it from these.

I've started working on the communications box that will mount to the rear rack and am on a hunt for certain small bits and pieces now to finish it up. I hope to make some progress this weekend.

KLX250S Adventure Make-over - Phase 4

2012-02-26T19:31:46Z

Phase 4 began on Saturday afternoon with me in the garage as the wind howled outside. The Happy Trails SU Side Racks were looking a little bare and it was finally time to mount a set of Pelican 1550 cases sourced from Nalpak Group on them. Along with the LED tail light assembly detailed in a previous posting, I'd picked up the Happy Trails SU Puck Kit for 3/4" tubing (P/N HTPMK750-A), as seen below.

I was favorable impressed with the ruggedness of the aluminum "pucks". Hardware was included for tool less mounting/unmounting using the big plastic knobs - 2 per side. In addition, extra bolts for wrench-required mounting/unmounting were also included.

To make sure I mounted the bags in the same location on both sides, I planned to use one of the ridges on the bottom of the Pelican case as a guide rest for the tubular rack. With this in mind, I knew from trial fitting that I'd have to remove some of the plastic from the ridge opposite the guide ridge due to the width of the SU Rack. I tackled this modification on both bags using a Dremel Tool earlier in the week, as shown in the photos below.

Knowing that I needed to make sure the bags were in exactly the same location on both sides of the bike, I decided to create a template when planning the left side that I could flip it over to use as the template for the right side.

I removed the left side SU Rack and positioned it where I wanted it to be on top of the template and Pelican case. Following the instructions from Happy Trails, I then positioned the 4 "pucks" in place to maximize stability at the bottom (no forward or backward movement allowed) and to allow rotation at the top for case removal.

Upon doing this, I realized that more plastic was going to need to be removed in order to allow the puck in the lower right to mount flat to the case.

The Dremel came out again, making short work out of the additional plastic removal. Then with the rack and pucks back in place, I used the insert from a ballpoint pen to roughly mark through the bolt hole of each puck. This worked out pretty well in practice, but probably has some of you cringing.

Small pilot holes were drilled through the paper template and left side case. I then used a step drill to work my way up to a clean 5/16 inch hole for each.

A keen eye will notice that the step drill got away from me on one of the holes. Oh crap. In reality, this mistake didn't cause any harm, but I was much more careful when drilling the remaining holes.

With holes drilled and deburred, I test fit all the hardware to make sure everything was secure. Yes!

With everything looking good and feeling very solid, I flipped the template over, traced the main lines through and taped it to the side of the right side case. I used the right side rack and pucks to check everything out. With just minor variations in rack dimensions, I only had to adjust the location of one hole before drilling. No mistakes this time!

Before I mounted everything back on the bike, I took a moment to weigh everything.

Left side Pelican 1550, mounting hardware and SU rack: 13.1 lbs.
Right side Pelican 1550, mounting hardware and SU rack: 13.2 lbs.
Happy Trails SU Rack "Bumper": 1.7 lbs.

That's a total of 28 extra pounds on the back of the bike, before I pack anything in. I might have to check that preload adjustment on the rear shock after all.

With the weighing done, the bags were removed from their respective racks and I commenced re-bolting the SU Racks back onto the KLX250S. I'm getting to be pretty good at doing this now and I managed to complete the process in about 15 minutes. The trick to making it a little easier is to start with the middle bolt on each side, followed by the shorter, front bolt and finally the hefty rear bolt. None should be tightened much until you are satisfied that the bolts are threading in properly. Stripped threads in the frame = much badness.

With everything in place and tightened up, I then bolted on the rear bumper using the 4 temporary (actually undersized) bolts, washers and nuts I'd used initially. I did end up asking Bob at Happy Trails about the missing hardware and he kindly arranged to send it to me! I'm not sure how it got missed in the first place, but it's the customer service that matters in this case. Thanks Bob!

A few minutes later I had the bags in place and the mounting hardware tightened. I'm really pleased with the results and managed a short, brisk ride this morning to get the feel of riding a (much) widened KLX250S. I actually couldn't seem to tell the difference, but I bet I would in a stiff cross-wind.

Anjoy the photos below of the finished work! I'm now starting to think about electronics.

KLX250S License Tag Relocation

2012-02-26T12:32:58Z

As you might recall, I found that the horizontal "bumper" that bolts between the left and right side SU Side Racks from Happy Trails partially obscured the license tag in its factory location on the '06 KLX250S. Not wanting another reason to be pulled over, I decided the best fix would be to move the tag down a few inches.

I scrounged a piece of aluminum from the junk box, made some measurements and had a friend at work cut it to dimension on the shop's sheet metal brake. I drilled two holes for the existing mounting bracket and another two near the top to secure the new bracket to the fender. I then cleaned and painted the plate using flat black from a rattle can.

Here's a shot of the finished "product" with the OEM bracket bolted on.

Yesterday, I bolted it to the KLX250S, using the existing holes in the plastic fender. Black 6mm cap screws and stainless steel elastic stop nuts and washers were used on the inside of the fender to keep things secure. The photo below shows the new position of the tag bracket with the Happy Trails "bumper" above it.

KLX250S - Simple LED Tail Light Assembly Swap

2012-02-26T11:37:51Z

Quick and easy! That's the way I like things sometimes. For better visibility, I decided to replace the existing tail light bulb on the KLX250S with an LED-based option. Already being a customer of Happy-Trails, I noticed they offered the LED Tail Light WOW Kit (P/N AER70-001-2) for all years of the KLR650. Buried away in the fine print was a reference to this same assembly reportedly working on the KLX250S. Their pictures made it look like a reasonable gamble, since the mounting "tabs" looked like they would fit with the two screw mounting of the existing red plastic tail light cover on the KLX. I ordered one up and it arrived along with the "puck" kit I was going to need for mounting the Pelican cases to the side racks.

Here's what it looks like...

According to the documentation on the Happy Trails website, the stock incandescent bulb draws 5 Watts of power as a tail light and 21 Watts when the brakes are applied. This 6 LED assembly reportedly draws only 1 Watt as a tail light and just 10 Watts when the brakes are applied. Oooh, that leaves some Watts for additional farkle!

This also being the second generation of this assembly, it was supposed to also be brighter than the original, boasting the same 10 Candela when on as a tail light and 100 Candela (up from 80 Candela) as the brake light.

On to assembly... I quickly removed the two screws that secured the red plastic tail light cover from the KLX and extracted the existing bulb. The new assembly uses a bulb base with wires attached as shown above to make the electrical contact necessary to operate. I inserted the bulb base into the bayonet-style socket and gave it a bit of a twist to lock it into place.

I then gave it a quick electrical test to make sure it worked. Key on: Check. Tail light "lights": Check. Brake light "lights" when brakes applied: Check. Excellent.

I noticed that the smarts of this unit also flash the brake light several times upon initial application of the brakes - cool! No, I didn't count the flashes, but you get a few seconds of flashing before the brake light stays on steady.

I placed the screws back in their proper spots on the red plastic cover, aligned them through the mounting tabs in the circuit board and within seconds had everything back in place on the bike. VERY simple.

Here's a picture of the tail light function in action.

And here's one showing the brake light on steady.

I've not heard any reports of failures of this assembly, so I'm hoping I too have good luck with it. Please note that I can only confirm it mechanically fits on the '06 and '07 KLX250S since they have identical tail lights. The '08+ models have a different tail light in terms of shape and location. If you know that this product works there too or want to compare measurements, please contact me.

I've already let Bob at Happy Trails know of the confirmed compatibility with my bike. It would be nice if something could be stated specifically for the newer years.

KLX250S Adventure Make-over - Phase 3

2012-02-18T18:50:18Z

After "losing" the Kawasaki-supplied rear rack during the bolting up of the Happy Trails SU Side Racks, Phase 3 activities were focused on adding a new rear rack back on the bike. My ultimate goal was to have a spot to fasten on a small Pelican case which will become a (near) permanent top box.

After looking around on the interweb for suitable rear rack replacements (Note: Very few options exist for the '06-'07 models), I settled on an interesting rack accessory from Twisted Throttle. Their SW-MOTECH Rear Rack for QUICK-LOCK tankbags (p/n GTH.08.428.100.TWT) was selected to fit the bike and as you will read here, it worked out pretty well.

As shown above, there's an aluminum plate that serves as the small, but useful (to me!) rear rack and a QUICK-LOCK Tankring Adapter that bolts on to allow any QUICK-LOCK-equipped tank bag from Bags Connection to snap into place on the rear rack.

This got me thinking that all I needed was the ring from one of those tank bags and I could bolt that up to a Pelican case and my "top box" would be easily removable whenever I didn't want it on the bike.

Since Twisted Throttle also sells the Bags Connection products, I figured they would easily be able to supply me with the part number for the matching ring I'd need to bolt to the Pelican case. After several emails and a gallant attempt on their part to help, I decided to give it up. Apparently, the only way I was going to get that ring was to buy a new or used tank bag and snag the ring off of it. I decided to leave that for later, since the rear rack itself showed promise to eventually allow me to bolt up the case.

Assembly was dirt simple. As you can see below, fit-up on the '06 KLX250S didn't require any modifications. The supplied hard plastic spacers fell right into place and all the bolt holes lined right up as expected.

Here's a shot of the rear rack with the QUICK-LOCK ring temporarily installed - just to give you an idea what it would look like. The hole in the front center of the ring is for a spring-loaded pin that locks the ring on the tank bag to the lower ring. Note: Although the tankring adapter looks like it's made out of aluminum, it's not. It's made of plastic, but does look like it's pretty strong.

You might recall that in Phase 2, I also lost the mounting location for my LED turn signals when the rear rack was removed. I needed to solve that problem here in Phase 3, but where would I mount them? A keen eye might have noticed the unused grommet-filled hole in the rear fender. This was the original location where the turn signal wires exited from inside the fender. The stubby little turn signal fit right into that hole, using the grommet for a shock mount. I could tell that the wide-flanged plastic "nut" that came with each turn signal was not going to clear the rear frame cross brace that's directly behind the mounting hole.

A quick visit to the hardware store yielded some possibly useful bits to make sure I could securely mount the turn signals in this location.

As it turned out, I used the new grommets, as the old ones were showing their age. The large rubber washers went unused, but the new nylon nuts were used to secure the turn signals in place. One side fit very nicely, allowing the flat side of the nut to snug right up against the frame cross brace. With this one, final snugging was done by carefully rotating the turn signal a bit - I got lucky! The other side was not so lined up and required a bit more fiddling under the fender to get things right.

With the LED turn signals in place, it was time to tighten the bolts for the rear rack! No sweat.

Oh, and one more thing... those LED turn signals needed to be plugged in under the seat. Oh boy. Time to remove the two bolts that held the seat in place. Now remember, these bolts pass through the Happy Trails side racks, the white plastic side panels and their associated hardware BEFORE they secure the seat to the frame. The seat came off easily, allowing me to plug in the turn signals, test them and zip-tie the appropriate wiring in place.

When it came to getting the seat back in place, it took loosening and in some cases out-right removal of side rack bolts to get it to cooperate and go back in the right spot. Another hour might have passed before I got lucky.

With all that work done, I could finally sit back and say sweeeet!!

Phase 4 will either focus on license tag relocation or the attachment of Pelican cases to the SU Side Racks.

Garmin GPSmap 276C 63 Cent Floppy Antenna "Fix"

2012-02-12T22:17:36Z

My aging GPS has recently been suffering from FAS (floppy antenna syndrome). That is, the BNC mounted external antenna needs a little Viagra to stand straight up and continue pointing to the sky like it should. Over time, the plastic that provides a little friction between the GPS case and the antenna itself tends to wear due to vibration, allowing things to get a little sloppy. You'll know if your GPS has this problem if the antenna falls over to the right and looks like the photo below.

I've seen this problem solved with a rubber band (you know who you are), but I had a better idea. I figured a properly sized O-ring placed over the business end of the BNC connector on the GPS itself would cause enough extra friction with antenna to keep things pointing north. The BNC connector on the GPS is shown below.

Off to the hardware store I went to get an O-ring that fit the approximately 5/16" diameter of the BNC connector above. I came up with this:

I slipped it over the BNC and tamped it down to the base as shown in this photo.

Thinking this would do the trick, I aligned the antenna and popped it back in place. My thinking wasn't right - never really is. The antenna was still as loose as when I started. OK, maybe two O-rings would do the trick if they're stacked on top of each other. After a convenient stop back at the hardware store later in the day (they love me), I procured yet another identical O-ring and immediate stacked it on the other. STILL no success. What?!?

It was then I realized that the antenna's connector slips inside the BNC on the GPS and not over it. It would take quite a few O-rings stacked to provide enough friction to get the job done. It was at this point that I fished the 2nd one back off the BNC and tried something different.

Take Two: I placed the O-ring loosely over the end of the antenna's connector and lined things back up to reattach the antenna to the GPS. As I pressed the antenna into place, the O-ring is forced up and onto the BNC in a manner that it doesn't align perfectly, but provides just enough resistance to make things a whole lot tighter. Success!!

No more floppy antenna! So, for 63 cents (just one O-ring if you try it), I managed a cheap, effective solution. Because I bought two, I ended up with a spare that I can fish off the BNC connector in case I ever wear this one out. Try it!

KLX250S Adventure Make-over - Phase 2

2012-02-12T13:10:47Z

The craziness continues! This phase of the work commenced early afternoon on Super Bowl Sunday. What I thought would take just a couple hours kept me garage-bound for the entire afternoon. There's no such thing as an easy project sometimes.

Sunday's activities focused on bolting up a set of pannier mounts from the folks at Happy Trails. Because I intend to eventually bolt up a set of Pelican cases, I went for the SU Side Rack vs. the SL Side Rack. The SU adds a horizontal support between the left and right side racks. It's designed for mounting real panniers vs. just providing support for soft luggage. In this case, I'm sure it keeps the panniers from sagging if fully loaded and takes some pressure off the three frame mount points per side, especially if there's an unfortunate tip-over. The SU Side Rack kit sells direct for $279, $80 more than the SU version.

Here's a photo of the left-side rack from Happy Trails. I was impressed with the quality, especially the welds and powder coating. I don't "really" intend to abuse my bike, but I think these will hold up pretty well with anything I might throw at them.

Documentation? Slim. One sheet and it appeared to be for the newer '08-'11 KLX250S models which don't have a rear rack from the factory. Besides the left and right side racks and the horizontal support bar, stainless metric bolts were included (6 total) for attaching the side racks to the bike.

2 M6x25mm SHCS for the front mount attach point
2 M6x35mm SHCS for the middle mount attach point
2 M8x30mm SHCS for the rear mount attach point

Surprise! No hardware was included for attaching the horizontal support bar to the left and right side racks. I didn't call the folks at Happy Trails on this because it was Sunday, because I wanted to finish the project that day(!) and I have a hardware store just down the road. The documentation "sheet" didn't mention the required hardware either.

On to the fun. Since the '06 (and '07) have an OEM rear rack and I was pretty sure that the Happy Trails engineers knew that, I simply thought I had to remove the 3 bolts that hold each plastic side cover on the bike and bolt the side racks up "through" the side covers using the supplied longer bolts. I was off the the races... This was going to be easy.

After some fiddling to get the bolts to thread into place (one must be careful with this!), I had the right side rack on and looking real good. Note the rear-most bolt passes through where the right side of the OEM rear rack attaches to the frame.

The left-side went on pretty much like the right. Wow, this shouldn't take long at all! Or so I thought.

I then proceeded to bolt on the horizontal support bar between the left and right side racks. Oh no. It's not wide enough. WTF.

Was it time to bend the bar? Get a bigger hammer? Hmm. I started to think about the difference between the '06-'07 KLX and '08-'11. No OEM rear rack!! I took a couple of quick measurements and decided the IF this was going to work, I had to give up the rear rack that Kawasaki was so nice to include. Bummer. My LED turn signals had a home on that rack too. I was starting to see my afternoon slip away.

Everything was unbolted, including the two additional mounts for the rear rack. With the rack loose, I lifted it up a bit to keep it out of my way while starting over with the attachment of the side racks.

Because it's a bit tricky to get the bolts through the plastic side covers and properly lined up, I decided this time, I would bolt everything up to the bike without the side covers. I rationalized that if there was still an alignment problem, I'd be able to see the problem much better. As the pictures show below (no plastic), with everything bolted up, things did align better and the horizontal support was the right width to bolt up properly!

A keen eye will spot one of the other problems I was going to have to fix at some point. Hint: Check out where the horizontal support passes behind the fender.

With things lining up as they should, everything was unbolted again. Before simply rebolting everything back up with the side cover plastic bits in place, I knew I had to do something with those turn signals I had permanently soldered up to those big resisters I mentioned in an earlier post. Off came all that electrical tape and out came my trusty wire cutter. I knew I should have used some bullet connectors in the first place to make removal of the turn signals as simple as unplugging the connectors.

I found a convenient place to cut the wires and removed each turn signal, and finally the rear rack that was floating there. One can never find pieces and parts when you need them and last Sunday was no different. I knew I "had" some male and female bullet connectors, but couldn't find them. Off to the auto parts store down the road. Did I mention that I'd already made a run to the hardware store for the bolts needed for that horizontal support?

The picture above was taken after the removal of the electrical tape and before the turn signal wires were cut. Before you ask why I had to cut any wires anyway, since clearly there are already bullet connectors shown in the picture, I'll answer by saying that big resistor doesn't fit through anywhere it would need to in order to remove the turn signal.

With turn signals removed and wires cut, it was a pretty easy matter of crimping on the waterproof female bullet connects as shown below and using a butane charcoal grill lighter to heatshrink the appropriate part of each connector housing.

The same was done on the ends of the turn signal wires, this time using male bullets connectors. Purists will note that I made a mistake here. I used two female connectors on the bike wiring end of things and two male connectors on the turn signal side of things. If I had mixed this up with one male and female connector on both ends of the equation, I wouldn't have to worry about checking the wire colors before plugging them in. No, I didn't think of that while I was still in the garage. It just occurred to me while I was writing this. Grasshopper continues to learn.

With the wiring (re)done, I decided to postpone figuring out where to mount the turn signals to another day. Besides, I was missing the pre-game on the tube. I finished the day by slipping the plastic side covers into place and rebolting and tightening the side racks. The pictures below show some of the detail with everything in place.

I can see where ANY bike maintenance requiring the removal of the side covers is going to be a chore. At least removing the seat only requires unbolting just two of the bolts that hold the side racks in place. Phase 3 will focus on mounting those turn signals and getting a rear rack back on the bike. Enjoy the rest of the pictures below!

KLX250S Adventure Make-over - Phase 1

2012-01-29T21:19:06Z

Got a wild hair? Lost my mind? Why would I want to take a box-stock 2006 Kawasaki KLX250S and morph it into something that resembles an adventure bike? Well, because I can! OK, really I do have a motive. In this case, I like the decent suspension and lightness of this bike. I could have taken a KLR650, DR650 or other larger-bore dual sport and create an adventure bike, but they all weigh more to start with and picking this little 250 up in the wild is a whole lot easier - quite the opposite of taking our rather heavyweight BMW R1150GS Adventure out to play in the dirt. At 10 years old and about 90K miles on it, I'm beginning to consider just what activities I involve the BMW in - before I hurt it.

So, what's Phase 1 all about? Phase 1 is focused strictly on the bars. At 6'1", when standing on the pegs, I found myself hunching over, making for some really uncomfortable riding. My choices of fixes included the addition of bar risers or a complete replacement of the bar. As seen below, the Kawasaki came with some rather flimsy plastic handguards. I REALLY wanted to bolt on a nice set of Barkbuster Storm handguards. I learned from the interweb that the Kawasaki bars are plugged with a welded in washer on both ends. That made the bar replacement an easy decision over adding a set of bar risers.

Some searching on the internet yielded a suggestion or two on the replacement bar. Calling Renthal about one such recommendation yielded an even more educated recommendation from Brad. At 6'2", he recommended the RC High bar, PN 809-01-SI-01-185 which would give me the proper lift, without running into issues with the clutch and brake lines. I was able to shop around and found the bar on sale at Powersport Superstore. Score!

The Barkbuster Storm handguards and fitments were ordered up from Twisted Throttle. Their website allows you to select your specific bike and all available products in their inventory are then displayed for your shopping pleasure. Oooo, farkle!

Grip replacement was going to be necessary, so I went with a set of grips mentioned by another KLX250S owner: ProGrip Rally 737 - Black. These were also ordered up from the Powersport Superstore, but this time through the Amazon marketplace. No tax, no shipping charges, $12.52 to my door. These soft, gel-style grips look like a nice step up from the stock Kawasaki ones, and appeared to be slightly larger in diameter, too.

Everything arrived in time for the weekend, so with some help from Ed Gray, the bar-replacement activity was started early Saturday morning (1/28/12). Pictures were taken of where everything "was" before everything was removed from the existing bar. Once everything was removed and dangling, the Kawi bar was removed. It felt heavier than I imagined, so I decided to weigh it. It weighed in at 2.5 lbs. The new Renthal bar weighed in at 1.8 lbs. A bit of a savings there, but I knew that adding the Barkbusters was going to likely result in a slight weight gain. Oh well.

The Renthal bar was aligned and lightly bolted into place. Brad at Renthal suggested I sight up the shock and align the bar to that same "line". Doing so, positioned the laser-etched Renthal logo right smack in the center of the cutout in the handlebar clamp.

Without riding the bike, I wouldn't know if I liked the height/tilt of the new bar, so I felt it best to start with the neutral position as seem here.

Grip replacement seemed like the next thing to tackle. ProGrip's documentation indicated that IF the package didn't come with grip glue, simply use alcohol as a lube to allow the grips to slide into place and allow them to dry 24 hours before use. Their documentation also went on to say that for racing conditions, safety wiring the grips in 2 or 3 places along the length was also recommended. The left grip went on without any hassle. We took some extra time to clean some of the existing glue off the throttle tube before mounting the right side grip. A box cutter and a bit of alcohol removed most of the glue (enough, we figured). The right side grip slid on almost as easily as the left, but required purging a bit of trapped air along the way.

Hmmm. What to do next? Wait 24 hours seemed to be the answer, so Ed departed for home and I tidied up a bit before moving on to other Saturday activities (time with my wife, late lunch, craft beer tasting, etc.).

Sunday arrived and it was time to finish Phase 1. First step: Finish up on the grips. After 3 stops in Raleigh and getting the blank stare when I asked about safety wire (unbelievable!), I resorted to taking my money to the craft store (A.C. Moore!) and buying some wire used for bracelet making! Strong, thin gauge, and inexpensive ($3.49 for twelve 2' lengths), it seemed like the ticket. If I was working on an airplane, I'd certainly get the right stuff, but for simply a little added security in keeping the grips in place, it worked.

The ProGrip grips have three nice slots for safety wire molded right into them. You can barely see the wire here and the twisted ends tucked in nicely, so not to catch on my bare hands (I ride with gloves anyway).

I even got to dust off my old safety wire tool from the good old days when I worked on my airplane.

With the grips secured, it was time to tackle bolting on the Barkbusters. After some experimentation, I decided that fastening the black plastic guards to the aluminum backbones ahead of time would reduce my frustration once bolted up to the bike. This turned out to be the wise move, as getting a screw driver in place to secure the plastic guards after the fact would have been difficult.

Both grips required a bit of cutting to allow the expander end of the backbone to slip inside the bar end. With the left side, this wasn't difficult, but the throttle side took some additional time and patience. The instructions suggested cutting a whole in the grip and then rolling it back off the end of the throttle tube. Once rolled back, they recommended using a hack saw to remove the very end of the throttle tube so to allow the expander to slide into the bar end without restricting throttle movement. The new grip wasn't going to behave itself, so I decided to use my Dremel to enlarge the hole in the throttle tube to match its inside diameter. This all worked pretty well, except that much of the plastic that was ground away ended up between the throttle tube and the aluminum surface of the Renthal bar, gumming up the throttle action. Oops.

I really hadn't planned on taking the throttle assembly apart, but no time like the present to learn something new. With the two clamping screws removed, the twin throttle cables were exposed and quickly popped out of their slots. This allowed the throttle tube to be removed and cleaned out. The bar was also cleaned of a few particles of plastic before all was popped back into place and buttoned up. Whew.

A little bit more trimming was required on the right side grip to keep it from binding on the bar-end insert from Barkbuster. Here's a close up shot, showing the completed throttle-side assembly.

With everything bolted lightly into place, I took the time to tweak and adjust so that left and right matched in height. With everything matched up and looking good, I followed Barkbuster's instructions that call out the specific order in which everything is tightened up. No torque specs were provided, so I went by feel and plan to check things out after a few hours of riding. One last thing to do... torque up the handlebar clamp (4 bolts) to 25 N-m. I'm glad I didn't forget that!

Below are some additional pictures of the finished product. Phase 2 is already on my mind and will focus on bolting on a set of pannier racks from Happy-Trail.com.