KLR 650 Dash Plate

Yesterdays project was making a Dash Plate to hold my accessory switch and heated grip switch. I also am going to wire in a voltmeter here soon. I purchased a cheap 4 dollar one to modify by moving the screen, but the screen isn't connected by wires...only touch contact with the board!

The primary reason I wanted the dash was due to having the accessory ran directly off the battery with only an inline fuse. I have left my grips on twice, both leaving the bike dead. I purchased a light up toggle switch so I have to turn it on to run any accessories (voltmeter soon, 12v socket) and heated grips. It is more dumb proof so I don't find myself stranded some day to push start on gravel...

The project started as follows:
Headed to hardware store to purchase up to 3" wide aluminum (they only had 2 which is good anyway), some 1/8" x 3/4" strip aluminum, and 4 washers, 2-1/4" bolts, 2 - 1/6" bolts (or so) for side to side control, and 4 nuts with nylon for vibration.

Here is before:

I cut the 1/4" strip in around 8" lengths and cut channels into them to bend accordingly. The faceplate I traced the form on some cardboard and then cut out the 1/8" x 2" material. I then had to modify the bottom so the speedometer wouldn't hit it (here is where I wish I had more tools!). I had a hack saw and a 1/2" wide file to work with so the cutout turned out wierd shaped, but I will work on that someother day. (it rains alot in oregon)...


Then came the fun of mounting:


And for the toggle switches: there is nothing like drilling 7/8" holes in 1/8" aluminum with a 6v drill and only a 1/2" drill bit :) Nothing can be made easy right? For the future diy'er I would purchase the taper drill bits that can be found at Sears or such...

Finished product:


Notes and tips:
1. Solder all connections (I only soldered to the switch as I do not have a plug in outside, then wrapped the wires together, electrical taped, then zip tied the wires, and the connection firmly) I will solder when I find a good location to do so.

2. Make sure all your wires are not routed through anything related to the steering center piece, or be prepared for extra wire requirements from steering lock to lock turns.

3. Use nylon lock nuts and washers for the big bolts to have a tight fit and one that will not vibrate loose.

I used it last night and it worked great :)

Riding ATV trails

The latest adventure I finally tipped the bike over! It's nice to have a bike that doesn't break when you do that. Dave came down for a Saturday adventure and we took off in attempt to make it from A to B. Well all the gravel roads had been freshly graded and were scary as hell, and once we hit around 3500' in elevation there was 6" of packed unpassable snow.

Lookout:

Eventually we headed back to another area that had some "off highway vehicle" trails. By OHV they simply mean 4 wheelers. They had carved tracks with 2' high berms in some places, and 2-4" rocks in the trail too. Simply put...there is nothing like trying to wrestle a 400 lb bike while floating on gravel and trying to maintain your line :)

This was my first trip after putting the stock exhaust back on too. The prior one was light, but way too loud. Guess i'm getting old as the crisp silence at 60mph was very enjoyable. I also found out that the KLR can cruise at 75-80 comfortably pending you have at least 30psi in the tires! For the prior 400 miles going anything over 53 was sketchy! Air pressure makes the bike rather enjoyable on the highway.



More modifications coming up:
1. Dash Display Plate (for heated grip switch, accessory switch and Multimeter reading)
2. Happy Trails panniers: 9" wide beauties!!! Can't wait to mount them and drink some beer...Should be next week when they arrive.