Tripping to Almonte and Carp in the rain

So I tripped up to Almonte and Carp this Saturday morning with my dad (and mom riding up) and brother. The bare Triumph Speed Four is my brothers while the Suzuki Burgman 650 is my dad's. BTW the seat mod does wonders for the seating problem. I found the ride less tiring because I wasn't always adjusting myself. Oh and I love the rain protection on the Versys. The wind tunnel protects your legs pretty good. My shoes only soaked after about 80kms in the rain, I was pretty good most of the way.

Versys seat modification, stopping the slide

So, as I mentioned, the Versys seat had been a problem for me. I did I a bit forum digging on the Versys NA and UK sites and decided to try raising the front of the seat where it fits into the seat mount at the base of the tank. I don't know if tsunamichop007 over at the Kawasaki Versys Enthusiast was first to attempt this, but I'm giving him the credit. To me it seemed like a natural mod, I just wasn't sure if raising the front would be enough.

http://forums.kawasakiversys.com/showthread.php?t=339

So I ran out to HomeDepot and grabbed a piece of 3/16" thick steel, a couple of 6Mx35mm bolts and a bunch of 6M washers, including a couple of rubber ones. The idea is to raise the base of seat mount a bit.

Here's a before. Note the blue tank metal under the black curved bar.

Here is an after from a different angle.

The seat fits back in great and locks fine. However I noticed the helmet strap clips aren't completely covered by the now slightly raised seat. Its raining tonight so I haven't been able to take it for a spin, but it feels better. If it stops the slide, it was a mod worth doing.

The only piece I need to sort out is the seat itself has a black hard foam piece under it that keeps the battery in place. I'll just add some height to the battery so it makes contact and that will be that.

First month honeymoon on a Versys

So I hit my one month ownership mark, and thanks to a week of rain and a sudden flu that lasted over a week, I've only managed just over 320km. I will say that the early vibration and roughness are all gone. This twin cylinder 649cc engine is awesome! Yes, yes, I can't really break 4,000rpm for any length of time, but its so damned smooth and the exhaust note is great. I would only ever consider an aftermarket exhaust to shed some weight and hopefully experience a performance gain. Also, my shins seem to have adapted to the taller ride and foot peg position. That first week was brutal, I still have bruises from the pegs nailing my legs, but I haven't hit them since.

Finally, the transmission was impossible to get into neutral for the first 200kms. I stalled it a couple of times at a long red light and had a hard time getting it started again when the light turned green because it would not kick into neutral. I had to hop off and push it a bit for the gears to turn over. I have not had a problem since, which is really thankful. It was ruining my new bike afterglow.

Only nagging complaint? The front of the seat slopes forward too much from the back. When I decelerate my whole body slides forward a bit. Its just enough that I have to adjust myself back a bit. This effort really adds up, before you know it your arms are tired from keeping yourself in place and your leg hair is all pulled out from sliding around.

I've got a plan though.

Kaoko Throttle Control and Hepco Becker Engine Guard Installed

So I received my shipment of farkle today from Adventure MotoStuff (http://www.amotostuff.com). In this post I'll comment on the Kaoko Throttle Control and Hepco Becker Engine Guard.

Hepco Becker Engine Guard
Firstly I wanted this engine guard for a couple of reasons. This is a most expensive bike I've owned so far and I wanted to protect it. I'm planning a 5000+km trip next year and if I wipe out at some point, I want to be able to pick and hopefully ride. Finally my old Ninja EX250-H13 had like next to NO accessories of note available and it drove me nuts for years, so I guess I'm saying I'm farkle starved. (Ninja 250 owners will get the H13 reference)

Installation took about 2 hours and was easy enough, I mean as easy as you might think installing a engine guard would be. e.g. tight screws, wishing you had a 3rd arm, etc..

The instructions are ok. They don't really depict the mounting points well and describe next to nothing. Here are some thoughts to guide you along:

1. You don't really have to remove the rad fairing. The instructions say to, but after you get it all installed you'll notice the engine mount bolts are indeed accessible with the fairing in place. It just makes it easier to remove the fairing.
2. Some people have complained about the bolts sucking. They strip, whatever. I didn't find this to be the case and ended up using the ones that came with the package.
3. After its all in, I realized I might have some trouble getting it off if I needed to remove the lower fair for anything. The only reason I could think of needing to take it apart would be to get access to the rad cap, which is under the right side lower fairing.
   

The fit and finish are fine. Nothing touches the fairing and the side bars are 2mm wider than the turns signal lights so you get full rad and signal protection. This is an important point. As you can see in my pictures the guard comes around and connects to the other side guard in front of the rad. If I wiped out on a long tour and the guard bent into the rad I would be screwed if the bike was in decent enough shape to start up. This isn't just about protecting your fairing, but also that large and vulnerable rad.


I've read about the Motech guard and wasn't convinced it was worth the money as both guards didn't connect so they supported each other structurally in a crash.
Finally on the looks. The guards look good! I don't think anyone but a Versys owner would notice they were there. They don't stick out and do suit the lines of the bike. The pic on MotoStuff's website is of a Silver kit, which would be awesome since the Blue Versys is mostly Silver, but note that it does say the color is black.

Take a look at my pics. I tried to capture the fit and front bar which connects both sides. You can see how it clearly would protect all the most vulnerable bits.


Kaoko Throttle Control
The reason I chose the Kaoko throttle control was because there haven't been many easily available controls which Versys riders have recommended, and the comments from BMW 1200 riders have been good. (quality, effectiveness, etc...) I'm planning for a trip to New Found Land on the east coast here in Canada next year (a 5700km round trip tour!) and since I was ordering a bunch of parts I thought I would toss the control in.

For those who don't know exactly what a throttle control is, its basically a handle bar weighted end, much like the existing ends but has a gear (or grip) you can grip when twisting the throttle. Twisting the gear in the same direction as you would to accelerate makes the gear screw inside and press against the throttle grip, holding it in place. When you decelerate simply grip the gear with your pinky to unscrew it and release the hold. Note that it doesn't "lock" the throttle but it will definitely hold it open! Even if you don't loosen the gear, you can force the throttle if needed.

The control installs easy enough. The control is basically a weighted replacement end and a sort of washer. Unscrew with the allen key in the tool pouch, slide the washer on (note the washer has an inner ring sticking out, that side goes against the throttle grip!) and stick the weighted end on. Just screw the original bold back on and you're done.

I took it out for a quick ride on the highway for an exit and found it did as advertised. Though I'm not super jazzed about it now, I know my right arm will be thanking me come next year. (and this year and the year after next year)

Getting Rolling

So this is my first post of my first real blog attempt. I'm hoping to capture my motorcycle touring adventures and any motorcycle information related to my recently acquired ride, a blue 2008 Kawasaki Versys.

Since I've owned it for just over 1 week now, I guess I'll get started by commenting on the Versys itself. I love twin cylinder motorcycle engines. They're easy and cheap to maintain, and Kawasaki has a history of engineering their twins to, with the exception of some fairing, make maintenance easy and accessible. I'm enjoying my 1st 250kms so far, but the break in period makes my opinion a bit limited. (e.g. max 4000rpm limit for 1000kms) Here are some excellent professional reviews of the Versys. The 1st of which was 1 of 2 reasons I decided on the Versys over Suzuki's V-Strom 650. The other reason was that the local Suzuki dealer stopped selling, well, Suzuki. (apparently Suzuki Canada and they didn't see eye to eye on which bikes they should push on people, like the twin turbo Hybusa on old ladies, and lost a dealer as a result)

http://www.webbikeworld.com/motorcycles/kawasaki-versys
http://www.sportrider.com/features/146_0711_2008_kawasaki_versys/index.html
http://www.motorcycledaily.com/11october07_kawasaki2008versys.htm

I did manage to order and install some sweet farkle on my ride:

• Hepco Becker Engine Guard
• Kaoko Throttle Control
• Pyramid Front Fenda Extenda
• Xena Disc Lock Alarm XR1
  

Also on the slow boat from Italy I've got the following items back ordered:

• Givi Monorack
• Givi V46 Tail Case
• Givi Touring Windscreen
  

I already had a Oxford sport tank bag, 14L fully open I believe.

To be honest there is little more I'll likely be looking into for touring needs. Naturally I'll have to settle on some pannier cases. I found the Kawasaki (Givi made) factory panniers got in the way of my foot when I threw my leg over so I'm not totally sold on hard mounted panniers.

However, one huge word of caution regarding hard case luggage.

The Kawasaki factory panniers are a custom job by Givi for Kawasaki. Currently (though I've heard some people have made something work) you can't use a tail rack, at least from Givi, with the Kawasaki pannier rack in place. The pannier mount replaces the passenger seat grab bars and sort of screws up the mount points where the Givi Monorack and other tail case rack makers would attach.

Because of my leg to pannier concern I decided to go with the Givi Monorack 1st. Givi makes 2 different pannier racks that will work with the Monorack on the Versys. So you can always add panniers if you have the Monorack, but it's tougher to go from panniers to the Monorack. (or any tail rack)

Anyways, more pics and descriptions of my more interesting bits of farkle and travel planning to follow. I'm hoping that my travels will help others looking to tacking bits on their Versys, or simply planning for some long rides for the 1st time. (seeing that I've never owned a bike that I could even think of touring with)