I shoulda known it would turn out like this. I’m no wrench head, but its important for me to really get to know the bike, so I’m doing most of the mods and repairs myself. The suspension on her is not really up to the task of carrying me down to the bottom of the world and back, so I decided to upgrade. This weekend I “installed” the system from Cogent Dynamics. The guy who builds these shocks lives here in Asheville and he said I should have the install done in about 3 hours. Its Monday morning and the bikes under a tarp.

Without getting too technical, I was thwarted by a lack of tools, not having a third arm and not having a clue of what I was doing. The weekend went like this: The rear shock went in no problem. Took less than an hour. The front forks? I’ve been working on them since lunch on Saturday. I was able to easily get the forks out of the tubes, open ‘em up and get half of the guts out. Then the problems started. To get the other half out (dampener rod) I needed a special tool – I saw that I could make one from a nut and long bolt. Cool. Except NO ONE had a 15/16th nut. Not Lowes, Home Depot, Ace, O’Reiles, Advance Auto Parts, Reds transmission or the crazy artist welder that lives on the corner. I posted the problem on KLR650.net and got an immediate response telling me that the nut on my rear axel was the right size and that I could insert it halfway in the socket of my breaker bar and that would work. GENIUS! Except that my stuff was so tight that I needed something with more torque. I brought the nut from the rear axel to Lowes where I figured out that the guy telling me to use a 15/16th nut was talking about the outer dimensions – who refers to the outside dimensions when naming nuts? Well, I measured and figured that a 5/8ths would work. GREAT! Back home and I’m cooking with grease. Fork tube #1 – done. Now to fork tube #2. Off and 1/2 apart in 10 minutes. The other half… well once I stripped the socket that is the head of the nut that holds it all in, I called Shannon for help. I drove a half hour to his place and we got it out together. Now I need a new bolt to replace the one I stripped – and its back to Lowes, Home Depot, Ace, O’Reiles, Advance Auto Parts, Reds transmission and the crazy artist welder that lives on the corner to see if they had the right bolt. Nuttin – and its getting dark and looking like rain. Did I mention I was working outside? Be cool, don’t start yelling in an empty car. Get a beer and something to eat and sit quietly. Breath deep. It’ll just have to wait.

So here I sit after a full weekend spent working on a three hour project, wiser, but taking the truck into work.

On the bright side, I did get a new clutch cable installed, changed out the tube fuses for more durable blade fuses and adjusted the shifter arm so that I can get my storm-topper boot under it. I also ran a 12v socket into the peli case that is my top box so that I can charge my camera, cell phone, and computer while riding.