Looks a great project bike,more my thing rather than these virtually brand new rebuilds you see. Great channel guys. The servicing vids on the suzuki 110 has come into great use. Thanks.
I went on a 1,500 mile road trip from Hampshire to the Outer Hebrides on a Honda XR125L last month. You can tour, and tour long distances on a 125, but it's tiring when you have a lot of distance to cover. Interested to see the KLR build, this should be fun. There's a lot of light weight ADV style bikes being made at the moment, so will be interesting to see your take on it.
Sound like a good trip you had. We did a 125 mission up to Northumberland recently and even with the casual milage, after a few days it was a bit of an effort. Some great moments though. As for the KLR, i suppose I'm doing things a bit backwards, taking a "dirt" bike to be more a road bike, but it gives me more options over all. Cant say that i have any incredibly unique or outrageous plans... function is the focus. Are there any of those bikes you mention that stand out or a favourite to give me an example?
@@MechitBetter Yeah, on one of the transit days I did over 300 miles in about 12 hours, that was a bit of a chore, especially as it rained for about 10 hours straight. That was day 2, on the third day (Glasgow to Ullapool) my hands really hurt because of the constant buzzing of the bars. If I was to do such a long ride on a buzzy single cylinder again, I'd either look into getting better grips, or gloves with a gel insert. Or both. Of the lightweight ADV bikes I'm looking at the Versys-X 300 is probably in the top spot at the moment. I do plan to do some light green laning with it, so an engine guard and bash plate is a must, for touring I added panniers and rack, the aux power output, 'fog' lights (mount on the engine guard), and for convenience of servicing and loading luggage, a centre stand. It's also less precarious having a bike with a centre stand on the ferry as the return journey was very rough (was almost cancelled) so I was a bit concerned about the bike falling over. At least the luggage I had strapped to the bike would mostly have saved it if it had.
@@_zzpza yeah, 300 miles over 12hrs... Doesnt sound too crazy, until you do it on a small bike and wonder what the hell you're playing at, haha. whenever we've been on long trips, be it 125's or big bikes, our average milage per hour always end up being rubbish. But to be fair we stop often and plan in stuff to see. I'd have to agree with you on the Versys-X though. If i could afford a NEW bike, i would totally go for that 300. I have the 650 versys and its a great machine. Just the manual handling is a bit awkward with the height and weight etc. But the performance when riding it is awesome. Smaller, lighter, versatile machines are the way forward though so I'll have to see what i can achieve. And as for ferry crossings, its a bit of a steep learning curve when a hi-vis dude throws a soggy ratchet strap at you with a scrappy strip of hideous carpet... Then walks off, expecting you to know what youre doing. Haha
Mech it Better Sure do. Mine is a 2005. I would really like to find black OEM plastic but it appears they never sold a black model to the US market. I love the bike.
Mech it Better Only mods I have done was install a snorkel from a KLX300, which required opening up the hole in the air intake box with a dremel so it would accept the larger snorkel, and changing the main jet from 118 to a 120. Definitely an improvement, I’m guessing 2-3hp at least.
@@artbmarshall sounds interesting... Was the extra horse obvious in a particular place like higher up the range or all the way through? What was the snorkle for?... You must be hitting some pretty deep water? The plastics are occasionally available on ebay but they vary heavily on the condition. If you have a good set already, either paint, respray or vinyl wrap them the way you want.
Mech it Better it’s the rubber air intake boot. I guess I just call it a snorkel. The HP gain is most notable during acceleration at mid to high range RPMs. Just feels like it woke up the bike enough to make it noticeable without messing with reliability. N
Garden Weirdo. Best character ever.
Ha, I'll let him know that you enjoyed his involvement. He may well be back again to offer some invaluable assistance.
Cheers
Looks a great project bike,more my thing rather than these virtually brand new rebuilds you see. Great channel guys. The servicing vids on the suzuki 110 has come into great use. Thanks.
Thanks. Much appreciated. Glad the 110 videos are proving helpful 🙂
I went on a 1,500 mile road trip from Hampshire to the Outer Hebrides on a Honda XR125L last month. You can tour, and tour long distances on a 125, but it's tiring when you have a lot of distance to cover.
Interested to see the KLR build, this should be fun. There's a lot of light weight ADV style bikes being made at the moment, so will be interesting to see your take on it.
Sound like a good trip you had. We did a 125 mission up to Northumberland recently and even with the casual milage, after a few days it was a bit of an effort. Some great moments though.
As for the KLR, i suppose I'm doing things a bit backwards, taking a "dirt" bike to be more a road bike, but it gives me more options over all. Cant say that i have any incredibly unique or outrageous plans... function is the focus.
Are there any of those bikes you mention that stand out or a favourite to give me an example?
@@MechitBetter Yeah, on one of the transit days I did over 300 miles in about 12 hours, that was a bit of a chore, especially as it rained for about 10 hours straight. That was day 2, on the third day (Glasgow to Ullapool) my hands really hurt because of the constant buzzing of the bars. If I was to do such a long ride on a buzzy single cylinder again, I'd either look into getting better grips, or gloves with a gel insert. Or both.
Of the lightweight ADV bikes I'm looking at the Versys-X 300 is probably in the top spot at the moment. I do plan to do some light green laning with it, so an engine guard and bash plate is a must, for touring I added panniers and rack, the aux power output, 'fog' lights (mount on the engine guard), and for convenience of servicing and loading luggage, a centre stand. It's also less precarious having a bike with a centre stand on the ferry as the return journey was very rough (was almost cancelled) so I was a bit concerned about the bike falling over. At least the luggage I had strapped to the bike would mostly have saved it if it had.
@@_zzpza yeah, 300 miles over 12hrs... Doesnt sound too crazy, until you do it on a small bike and wonder what the hell you're playing at, haha. whenever we've been on long trips, be it 125's or big bikes, our average milage per hour always end up being rubbish. But to be fair we stop often and plan in stuff to see.
I'd have to agree with you on the Versys-X though. If i could afford a NEW bike, i would totally go for that 300. I have the 650 versys and its a great machine. Just the manual handling is a bit awkward with the height and weight etc. But the performance when riding it is awesome.
Smaller, lighter, versatile machines are the way forward though so I'll have to see what i can achieve.
And as for ferry crossings, its a bit of a steep learning curve when a hi-vis dude throws a soggy ratchet strap at you with a scrappy strip of hideous carpet... Then walks off, expecting you to know what youre doing. Haha
Looking forward to the renovation of the kwack and the up and coming town mate
Cheers Phil!
Do make a video on the front suspension maintenance!! 🙏🏾
What year is that KLR?
Its a 1994. Its showing its age in places but generally its still a strong bike. Do you have one yourself?
Mech it Better Sure do. Mine is a 2005. I would really like to find black OEM plastic but it appears they never sold a black model to the US market. I love the bike.
Mech it Better Only mods I have done was install a snorkel from a KLX300, which required opening up the hole in the air intake box with a dremel so it would accept the larger snorkel, and changing the main jet from 118 to a 120. Definitely an improvement, I’m guessing 2-3hp at least.
@@artbmarshall sounds interesting... Was the extra horse obvious in a particular place like higher up the range or all the way through?
What was the snorkle for?... You must be hitting some pretty deep water?
The plastics are occasionally available on ebay but they vary heavily on the condition. If you have a good set already, either paint, respray or vinyl wrap them the way you want.
Mech it Better it’s the rubber air intake boot. I guess I just call it a snorkel. The HP gain is most notable during acceleration at mid to high range RPMs. Just feels like it woke up the bike enough to make it noticeable without messing with reliability. N