What Did You Do To Your KLR Today - 2023??

Another cold ride today. 34 degrees. Just went out into the surrounding countryside and kept it under 35 mph. Still cold, but didn't crash on the ice.

Which is good, since I just wore my medium-weight Carhart jacket and 511 pants. Would have hurt to go down.

It was a rare beautiful day in North Idaho with temps in the low 50's, so I decided to take the bike out to my dad's place to bring him a meal and do some chores for him. He's about 12 miles away, so after I got done there, I went on some side gravel roads, went to another small town, fueled up with some non-ethanol premium at $4.30 a gallon, and then came home.
Great ride and did about 40 miles. Not another bike on the road.



Then, I decided to work on the bike a little. I had added some garage tool hangers to the back of my Apache case to use to hold a tent, or camp chair, or whatever else would fit when going camping.

But, where I bolted them on interfered with the two back latches on the case. No big deal since the side latches were plenty. But, I decided to take my angle grinder and notch out the latches so they would close.





All four latches can now be secured...



Then I decided to load up the case and rack with a sleeping bag and tent and was happy with the configuration. I still have room to add a folding camp chair and an air mattress, leaving the panniers for all of the little things needed for camping.

I do need to get some cheap dry bags to put the tent and sleeping bag in for added protection against the weather and the exhaust.

Finally above freezing AND dry here so went for a short ride...





I was checking tire pressures and noticed that BOTH tires are now cracking, but the front is not as bad.

Will have to get the Tusk D-Sports on the way ASAP.

Bought a cheap foam pad at Walmart for $6 to see if it helped my junk from going asleep within 15 miles.

It helped, but I still had discomfort and numbness.

Beautiful day for a ride and wanted to scope out some camping sites, but still snow in the woods.

Trying to get my helmet cam set up and ready for riding season. I lost my old Akaso camera somewhere in one of three rigs and a 3-bedroom house and shop. Gave up looking for it and ordered the upgraded Brave 4 Pro and a microphone.

Before, I used a mount that went on the front of my HJC motocross helmet on the face guard. It worked very well and even picked up my voice well enough when doing under 30 mph in the dirt.

But with the new Scorpion modular, that old mount wasn't going to work. So the only choice I had was to mount it either on the bike or on top of the helmet. Mounted it on the helmet and it looks dorky, but works. Routed the microphone inside the helmet and think it might work.I'm skeptical, though of using in the woods since low-hanging branches are a real thing.

The mount doesn't look real secure, but it is actually solid. Will still likely run some paracord from the camera to the helmet just to be safe.





Edited to add:

I think I can use my old mount, which would be awesome...





Would love to try it out, but forecast is for rain and snow for the next 10 days. Sucks.

Got bored and used a paint pen on my spare Tusk D-Sport tire...



Took a 20-mile ride around the county to test my camera set up and mic. Camera was pointed too low and the mic didn't work. Did some research and realized there is a setting in the camera to switch it to external mic. Bad weather moved in, so didn't have time to do another test run. Stopped by the local store and grabbed a pizza and gratuitous bike pic...

I did my first ride at night last week with the new LED driving lights.

They make an amazing difference riding home after work through rural farm country.

Stock lights with high beam on...



Then with driving lights on...



It's a very wide light pattern that lights up the ditches and shows animals thinking about trying to kill me...



Very happy with them. But, too bright to leave on for oncoming traffic, even during the day.

Amazon.com

I installed some tank knee pads I got off of Walmart.com. The exact same design was available from $17 to $35 from multiple sources on Amazon and the Walmart site. I paid $19. I really like the looks of them and they seem very good quality.