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!

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!

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! <gasp> 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.

If you know anything about the dual-sport KLX250S, you probably know that Kawasaki puts some God-awful ugly turn signals on it. If you like playing in the dirt (and who doesn't), any get-off results in some stress to the aluminum mounting tab on the rear rack where the turn signal bolts. I.e., that metal tab gets bent! How many bends does it take to break? That's the question and I wasn't interested in finding out the answer. BTW, mine's a 2006. I understand that newer models actually don't have the rear rack from the factory. They still do have the ugly turn signals. :-)

So, I bought a pair of surface-mount amber LED turn signals and wired them in a few months ago. Since then, I've been putting up with fast blinking. With the possibility of a change to my commuting routine and the likelihood of using the KLX250S instead of the GS, I figured it was the right time to tackle slowing those puppies down.

A quick consultation with Google turned up a few hits on solutions and other related problems (There were even reports of ALL the turn signals blinking at once after installing LEDs instead of just the intended left or right side). The basic problem is this: The LED turn signals draw less current than their incandescent bulb counterparts, which affects the electro-mechanical operation of the blinker control relay. Less current being drawn results in a faster blink rate.

There's the expensive and perhaps quicker solution: Replace the Kawasaki-supplied signal relay with an all-electronic version from an auto parts store. That would be fine as long as one does the research and picks the appropriate unit. You also have to FIND the signal relay on the bike and admittedly I didn't look too hard nor does the manual tell you where to look. Perhaps it's actually up around the head light.

The second solution is to add some additional resistive load to each of the LED turn signals. Google results suggest that most folks did this by adding 10 Ohms of resistance across each LED turn signal. A quick trip to the local Radio Shack solves this problem, as long as you don't come home with low-wattage 10 Ohm resistors (the little ones you find on circuit boards). Go for the 10 Watt ones that are a couple inches long, as the little ones (1/4, 1/2 Watt) will definitely burn right up. The 10 Ohm, 10 Watt ones cost $2 and some change for a pair and they make nice little heaters under your seat to boot.

Seriously, with the added resistance (equates to load on the signal relay), the additional current drawn needs to dissipate. The resistors will heat up each time the relay energizes the turn signals. If they were on steady, they would get quite warm and things would likely start to melt.

With the side covers and seat removed, I was able to locate the left and right rear turn signal wiring. Yes, I knew where it was before, since I had already replaced the turn signals, silly. You'll need to be a little creative in how you cut and solder the wires to the actual resistors. Remember that you wire them in parallel, not serially. That just means connect the resistor between the two wires coming from each LED turn signal. I did this near where the turn signals plug into the wiring harness on each side, cutting the appropriate wires and soldering each side to a lead on the resistor. A short piece of medium-diameter heat-shrinkable tubing was used to cover the soldered connection in each case.

I'd hoped to use a larger diameter piece of heat-shrink as a sleeve over the entire resistor, but frankly, I didn't have anything with a large enough diameter. Good old electrical tape came to the rescue and I spirally wound enough turns of it to completely cover the resistor and the wires extending out both ends.

How did I know that the 10 Ohm resistor would do the job on my bike BEFORE I cut and soldered the wires? I simply connected each lead of the resistor in next to the appropriate butt-connector and tested it. Nice slow, appropriate blinking of the turn signals was the result. A couple bucks and an hour of my time in the quiet garage this morning paid off with a nice solution. Thanks Google!

DMP Fuse - Flush Mount LED Turn Signal - $29 a pair

Wow! First... Where was the corporate representation? BMW was represented, but only by the local Greenville dealership - Not what I expected. Yes, the BMW Performance Center was there due to local proximity to Greenville - Great folks and well worth the money to take their courses - especially the off-road course. Triumph? MIA! I thought for sure they would be there trying to get the spotlight on their new adventure bikes. Oh well.

Protective clothing manufacturers? Let's just say that Elizabeth was less than pleased that nobody had her size AT the show. She was ready to buy a new set of all-weather riding pants, but was hell-bent on trying them on first. Tip 'o the hat to Ms. Joanne Donn, Gear Expert from gearchic.com that DID spend some time with Elizabeth and gave her some great advice.

BlueTooth farkle - Somewhat well represented, with show marketplace dispays for SENA, ChatterBox, BLiNC and J&M. BUT... where were the people that were supposed to be there to answer my questions? It reminded me of attending a tradeshow in Vegas where by the 2nd day, the help doesn't show up until late in the day. What gives, folks? You pay to exhibit at these shows. Why not send folks that are reliable enough to show up and spend time talking with enthusiasts like myself? This is not some lone rant. I spoke to many others that made the same observations about the show and visibility of the help. I can get the same literature and information off the internet, but made a point to attend the show to get some facetime with the experts. What a let down. It's back to doing my research via experimentation and... the internet.

Will I attend the IMS next year? It's doubtful.

A quick check online reflected that other sources were also hopelessly stuck in backorder mode, too. One glimmer of hope surfaced when Competition Accessories' website showed that they had them in stock. I quickly ordered up two. Disappointment set in a day or so later when the order was acknowledged and... they were also showing backordered.

Competition Accessories can be praised for keeping on top of the situation, emailing me updates on the order status once a month. However, three months later, I started to get concerned and took the opportunity to email the folks at HJC to see what was up. I was getting suspicious of a factory defect that was causing the widespread availability problems. Here's my email exchange with HJC:

I never received an answer to that last email. :-(

The friendly reminder emails continued from Competition Accessories all the way into November. I even received a phone call from them indicating that they were finally being told the shields were due in at the end of November! It was nice to get a call from them. It was certainly not their problem.

Finally, a week or so before Christmas, I FINALLY received the two visors as ordered after almost 5 months!! How, come on HJC, what's up with that?

Back to being suspicious of a factory defect, I decided to compare the old and new visors. It took me a bit, but I found the broken one (glad I saved it) and was able to compare it to the new one. From what I could tell, there wasn't ANY difference. The photos below speak for themselves.

Here's the original "broken" HJC visorAnd here's the new replacement HJC visorMy conclusion after the long wait... It must have been a Chinese supplier problem and an unrectified design problem remains IMHO. The moral of the long story... Consider a spare if you routinely remove the visor for cleaning.

I'll probably change my ways in 2011 and NOT remove it for cleaning. How about you?

Happy New Year to all!!

I was already "eating" the microphone in my helmet, so that didn't seem to point to the low audio problem and I know from Elizabeth's POV that she hears me loud and clear from the pillion. The Autocom doesn't have any user-adjustable controls for transmit audio, nor does the ICOM radio. However, I did begin to wonder about the FM Mode selection button on the radio. By default, these radios are all supposed to be set to FM Narrow, which takes up less radio spectrum every time you transmit. FM Wide is also an option and effectively adds a bit of punch to your signal.

Pressing and holding the Wide/Narrow button ensures that radio is in FM Narrow mode. I felt pretty certain that I was going by the book and using Narrow, so I tried a little test.

With the radio removed from the bike, rubber antenna and battery installed, I enlisted the help of a scanning receiver and headphones so that I could listen to myself when transmitting.

With the radio in FM Narrow mode, I was able to hear myself, but the audio lacked life. I pressed the Wide/Narrow button once (didn't hold it) which changes the mode to FM Wide. I repeated the test, but oh what a difference. The audio was substantially louder and easier to copy.

I'm going to leave my radio in FM Wide mode for future rides and ask for some comparison to Ed's audio. If Ed's willing, I also intend to run a little test with his radio, comparing his transmit audio as it is right now (no button pressing) to what it sounds like after a single press of the Wide/Narrow button (without holding). I'm expecting no change in audio, which will confirm that he's been running his radio in FM Wide mode.

Then, I guess the next question is whether there's anything wrong from the FCC's POV in running these radios in wide mode. More later.

The Argus Battery BugFor $50, the Battery Bug provides you with the current battery voltage and an indication of battery health (0 to 100%). Each engine start is reflected in an analog fashion on the LCD display, showing how well that start was versus the worst "health" level experienced with the battery. The bug even beeps at you to let you know the battery is in poor health.

Installing the Battery Bug is quite easy, requiring nothing more than attaching the positive and negative leads directly to your battery - plus finding a nice spot to attach the weather-resistant display to your bike.

I found a location for the display just to the left of the instrument cluster. A piece of hook and loop tape is provided and so far, the display has stayed in place.

I waited to install the Battery Bug until I installed the new Odyssey Battery as described in my last posting. The Battery Bug helped me find that the "new" health of the Odyssey wasn't so hot and that I needed to charge the battery first in order to reflect something near 100%. I charged the battery overnight, but the Battery Bug didn't figure out that I did something to make things better. It only remembered that things didn't seem so hot the last time I started the engine. To solve the problem, I lifted the fuel tank and removed one of the leads to clear the Battery Bug's memory. It then agreed that the battery was indeed fresh and quit beeping at me.

Argus might want to consider the addition of some sort of reset button on the bug. That would be swell.

I have a big trip coming up where I'll be running the PIAA lights most of the time. That should provide a better test for how well my bike is charging the Odyssey battery and the accuracy of the Battery Bug.

The old battery was ready for a replacement

A trip to the Batteries Plus website revealed that they carried the Odyssey PC680MJ-A which is recommended for the R1150GS Adventure. The "MJ" portion of the part number stands for "Metal Jack" and that's necessary to protect the plastic case of the battery from the heat and vibration that it's subjected to on the Adventure - or so they say.

I stopped by the local Batteries Plus store to see if they had the battery in stock. No such luck, but I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my "company" discount provided nearly a $40 discount on this rather pricy battery. I promptly ordered one up and was able to pick it us within a week for about $120 before tax. Sweet.

The Odyssey "Unboxed"The metal jacket is essentially a metal box that the battery slips into. The plastic battery case is actually black in color and can be seen above the jacket near the top of the battery.

The mounting posts on the original battery are substantially different, so you need to make sure that you obtain a set of L-bracket hardware to allow the stock R1150GS Adventure battery cables to connect without major modification. Follow the torque specification provided when fastening the L-brackets to the battery posts.

The required L-bracket hardware

Note the orientation of the L-brackets in the picture below. From what I can tell, this is the ONLY way to make things fit without modification to the battery cables on the R1150 GS. I had to remove one of the bends on ground-side terminal with a Dremel Tool, but it was just a minor modification. Why you're at it, take the time to clean all your connections up. I had some serious corrosion on the positive side that took some time to clean away on the accessory ring connectors.

The completed installationYou'll find the metal jacketed battery a tight fit in the stock battery box on the GS. With the old battery out, take some time to clean up in and around the box and take your time when sliding/pushing the new battery into place. You won't be able to prevent scratching up that pretty orange box, so don't worry about it.

Once the battery has been installed, place it on your trickle-charger right away and get it up to proper voltage. I found quite unscientifically that the battery I received required some charging to 100% before first use. No worries and it's quite happy now. Many folks recommend charging they (and other) cycle batteries with a small maintenance charger whenever the bike is parked. I'm not that religious about it, but do rotate the charger around the garage from time to time.

ICOM's Parts Department can be reached at 800-346-0495.

While researching what I would do if I couldn't find a F21GM, I checked out the F21 DTC. The DTC is a 16 channel "programmable" UHF radio that looks pretty much like the GM. It uses all of the same accessories and other than having to pay someone to program the appropriate GMRS frequencies into it, it's a good replacement option.

While talking to an the fine folks at Action Communications in Tuscon, AZ (authorized ICOM dealer) about purchasing a DTC, I found that he had five remaining F21GM radios in stock, so I purchased two at the same price as the DTC. If you are looking for a GM or for that matter a DTC, you should consider giving them a call at 520-792-0326.