KLX250S Adventure Make-over - Phase 3

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.

KLX250S Adventure Make-over - Phase 2

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

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! <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.

Slowing fast-blinking LED turn signals on a Kawasaki KLX250S

I usually discuss farkles as they relate to our R1150GS Adventure, but I decided that today I'd mention a fix for a common problem that can plague pretty much any bike. The problem: Fast-blinking turn signals. Too fast that is.

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