Now that's a warranty

[Padmei]

Mark congrats with the purchase what a list of extras. The previous owner must have been a seppo or kept a secret wad of cash in the States.

When you are down this way again I would love to hook up & compare the 685 with mine. Do you notice any difference in power (cue hysterical laughter from KTM girlieboys & incoherent snorts from DR dribblers)

I was actually thinking as I rode during the weekend that if I had more power I would end up off the road a lot more


Are you going to sell your 'old' 08 & are they putting better rings in?

[marks]

Mark congrats with the purchase what a list of extras. The previous owner must have been a seppo or kept a secret wad of cash in the States.

He (Shards) was on holiday in Canada and picked up all the bits. Shards was the perfect person to buy from - a self confessed 'anal retentive' bike fiddler and maintainer - the bike looked new and all the mods seem to have been installed to a very high standard.

When you are down this way again I would love to hook up & compare the 685 with mine. Do you notice any difference in power (cue hysterical laughter from KTM girlieboys & incoherent snorts from DR dribblers)

I hope to be down your way at the end of Feb - I'll pm you so we can meet up and you can take it for a blat. Power increase is less than the american forums would have you believe. the thing is KLR riders have normal sized peckers so they don't need to compensate with high HP like KTM owners do.

I was actually thinking as I rode during the weekend that if I had more power I would end up off the road a lot more

The power is still super soft so its never going to bite you like something high performance and snappy will.

Are you going to sell your 'old' 08 & are they putting better rings in?

My son is considering buying the 08 - if not I'll sell it soon. Hopefully Motorad will put a new barrell, piston, 09 style rings etc etc in - its being done next week - then I'll take it on a 500k ride to check its ok.

[pete376403]

Did Motorad suggest you would be getting a new barrel and piston? They put new rings on the original piston, a light hone of the cylinder and new valve guide seals. However if that is all it needed than that's ok.

[marks]

Did Motorad suggest you would be getting a new barrel and piston? They put new rings on the original piston, a light hone of the cylinder and new valve guide seals. However if that is all it needed than that's ok.

no
I assumed they would based on the repairs quoted on american klr forums. my understanding is that if all they do is put the same type of rings on the original piston then the problem will not be fixed. To my knowledge the late 08's and 09's have different pistons and rings to the early bikes.

Hows your oil consumption now?

cheers


Mark

[pete376403]

there are two different part numbers for '08 rings, (which are different again from the '07 and earlier.) This is the info that I got from digitdions e-mails from Kawasaki japan. The first '08 part number is the burner, the second part number is (supposedly) the fix and I would assume this number is carried over to the '09s.

So far as I know, it's ok now. Haven't checked since we went over Wainui.
Put it in the shed after that ride and only got it out to clean / pull of all the bits of duct tape / etc last weekend.

The fairing lower is a bit of a mess, don't know if it's salvagable.

[marks]

finally got the 08 back from Motorad today - so much for it only taking a couple of days.

They only replaced rings - didn't touch anything else other than doing a light hone.

Bike seems to be running fine - I'll do a decent 300-500k run sometime over the next few weekends to see if its fixed.

I put mineral oil in it before I took it in and did lots of accel/decel cycles on the 100k (via Akatarawas) ride home - hopefully that will help the rings bed in as good as they can.

[NordieBoy]

I put mineral oil in it before I took it in and did lots of accel/decel cycles on the 100k (via Akatarawas) ride home - hopefully that will help the rings bed in as good as they can.

That's the way to do it.
It's a good feeling when you know you are running it in and you're not relying on how somebody else did it.

My 1979 XR250 still had honeing marks in the bore when we looked down it in about 2004. It'd been run in so gently.
I ran it in over a classic mx fun day and each lap you swore it accellerated better and better.