Ghetto brake pedal repair

Bent my brake pedal all out of shape in a minor crash last fall. Bending it back into shape after the crash seemed to have created a couple of small hairline cracks in the marshmallow-soft metal. My fear was that I might jam the brakes on quickly and snap it off.

Yes, I could replace the pedal with an OEM part for about €70, or upgrade to the beefy Rally Raid pedal or the one made by CleanSpeed Racing. Those are both nice pieces. But the damage didn't look too serious, and I think a sturdy repair job may do the trick.

For less than the price of a latte, I bought a long piece of aluminum flat bar, and scrounged some machine bolts and nylock nuts. I spent about 15 minutes to cut the flat bar, then bend and shape it to piggy back alongside the original piece. After drilling three holes for some nuts and bolts, the test fit seemed to be quite strong. I slopped a bunch of JB Weld all over it and let it cure for a day. Definitely stronger than the original piece now.

In case you're wondering, that's a Touratech spring loaded folding tip.

Better than new.

Factory Pro Shift Kit

In an effort to rid the KTM 690 gearbox of the dreaded false neutral between 5th and 6th gears, I spent $140 USD on a shift kit from Factory Pro. According to their website and many of their customers, it makes shifting the 690 feel more precise. For the most part, the 690 tranny is pretty good, but I do find you need to shift like you mean it when going from 5th to 6th gears, otherwise, you may just find a hidden neutral. We'll see if this solves that problem.

Left to right, bolts removed in clockwise order, starting with 

the bolt closest to (and slightly above) the swingarm pivot. 

Note that bolts #1, #6 and #7 are longer than the others, 

with bolt #6 being the longest of them all.

Fortunately the clutch cover gasket did not tear and I was able 

to remove it in one piece. The engine was stone cold, 

and I have very light taps with a rubber mallet.

Here is the OEM shifter detent arm 

Note the difference between the OEM and aftermarket detent arms. 

Specifically, the OEM spring is lighter (less tension) and the roller 

is just a disc riveted onto the arm. With the Factory Pro arm, the roller 

has small ceramic bearings (rolls way smoother) and t

he spring is stronger (higher tension, supposedly -- but I could not tell) 

Installation notes and observations:  Installation was pretty easy.  I did not drain the oil, or bother to do a full oil change for this... An oil change with new filters was done about 1,500 Kms ago, and I will do it again as winter approaches in the coming weeks.  I did lose about 750 mL of oil during this procedure, which I replaced with fresh Motorex 10W60.  I did use a new oil filter on the same side (the small oil filter needed to be removed in order to remove the clutch cover .... there's no way I'm going to re-use an oil filter).

Conclusion:  Does it work?  Does it do what they say it does?  Well, it definitely made an improvement -- but not huge.  I still find that shifting from 5th to 6th gear requires firm input from my boot -- more than other gears require.  I have not found the hidden neutral which previously happened on occasion, but it doesn't really feel like a night-and-day difference. Shifting generally feels like there has been a small improvement, yes but not vastly different.  I was hoping for a magic cure, one that would transform the feel of the shifting. Yes, I'm a little disappointed.  Worth $140 smackers?  Probably not.

690 bling blinkers, horn relay, and evap-canister-ectomy

New blinkers for the rear of the 690, and fuel evap-canister removal. 

Expensive, yes at €80 for a pair (~ $100 USD)

They're made by MotoGadget

Info here

The silver tube is an integrated circuit, meant to condition the voltage 

being fed from the bike's electrical system. Not sure if it's absolutely 

necessary or not, but I left them in place.

Very tiny, but extremely powerful lights (while the LED itself is quite bright, 

they've managed some pretty amazing optical tricks with the glass lens to 

intensify/concentrate and control the light, making it incredibly bright. 

The stainless fender washer was my way of strengthening the flimsy 

plastic of the mud guard.

Look straight into the light and your eyeballs will explode. 

Holy shit, these are bright!

Horn relay installed to ensure maximum current goes straight to the 

horn and not through the horn switch on the handlebar. The Fiamm 

low tone Highway Blaster I bought at AutoZone ($15) is much louder, 

but it also draws more current.  I measured the resistance across the terminals 

of the stock horn and it was something like ~ 4 ohms.  Resistance measured 

across the Fiamm horn was ~ 1.5 ohms, which means the current draw 

is 2.7 times higher. Holding the horn button on would eventually fry the 

switch due to the increased current draw, so a relay is probably a good idea.

Here's a wiring diagram. I basically did exactly as you see here, except 

I have used just one horn. No photo, but I managed to simply remove the 

whimpy OEM and install the Fiamm horn in the same location, using the

same bracket.

This seemed like a good location for the relay. I used some stretchy 3M 

self-sealing rubberized tape (used for weatherproof outdoor wiring on 

telecom / satellite dish equipment) to protect the terminals from the elements.

I also removed the overflow fuel evaporation canister system 

(a.k.a. partial evap-canister-ectomy)

I followed the instructions at this link since Bartron from ADVRider 

was generous enough to provide full details. Easy to follow.

Variety pack of vacuum line plug/caps.

Left side of throttle body, remove the hose, install rubber cap on the brass vacuum tip.

The hose leading from the bottom of vacuum control valve was 

removed (it went to the left side of the throttle body as shown in the

 previous photo, which was plugged off). Actually, I removed the hose 

and plugged both ends (throttle body and control valve). Eventually, I will 

remove the control valve but for now, it will stay in place until I find a 

22KOhm resistor and install it across the electric terminals that feed it 

(to fool the ECU into thinking it's still connected, preventing error codes). 

Optionally, this dongle from Rottweiler would be a more elegant solution.

690 valve clearance check

Since the weather has been cool, damp and gloomy, I decided I should take a few minutes to check the valves in the 690.  It's got 7,500 Kms on the odometer now and they've never been checked.

Airbox removed. A few hoses and electrical connectors in the way.

That round silver thing with the brake lines attached is the ABS sending unit.

5 minutes later, valve cover removed.

I also decided I would pull the coils and remove 

the spark plugs to have a look.

The ignition coils are built-into the spark plug boots.

This is my 30-year old feeler gauge.

KTM service manual says my valves should be 

somewhere between 0.07mm and 0.13mm (0.0028" and 0.0051"). 

While I don't have those exact gauges, I should be fine. If I really had to, 

I could whip out my calculator and add a couple of thinner ones together 

to achieve the desired thickness but I should be fine with these. 

Both intake valves were 0.076mm 

Exhausts were 0.102mm (left) and 0.127mm (right)

All four need to be 0.07mm and 0.13mm, so the intake valves 

are just within spec but at the tight end, while the exhausts are at 

the loose end of the spec range.  Fine for now, but I'll think about some 

shims for the next time --probably later this summer.

Removed the rocker arms to have a closer look at the rollers. 

All good there.

Might was well inspect the teeny tiny inline fuel filter 

(inside the fuel hose coupler just behind the injector).

Shoulda just bought a new one, but 

a quick squirt of WD-40 and it's clean again.

filer re-inserted

Gave the plugs a quick cleaning with a wire brush, and checked the gap.

Interesting to note that they are different thread sizes.

Inner plug: NGK LKAR8BI-9

Outer plug: NGK LMAR7A-9

Gap: 0.9 mm (0.035")

Cleaned the valve cover before reinstalling it.

Maintenance and trip preparations

In just one week, some friends from Canada and the US will be landing in Berlin and we'll set out on a 12-day ride around Europe. Time to do some motorcycle maintenance.

I will be riding my 1190, and one of my buddies will take my 690.  The tires on  the 1190 have some tread left on them, but I don't got a lot of confidence to run them for this entire trip, which I expect will be ~5,000 kms. So, for peace of mind, I've ordered a new set.  Also, both bikes will need fresh oil and filters.

dirty filter and screens from the 1190

3 Litres of Silkolene 10W50 synthetic for the 1190, 

and topped up with another ~ 300 mL of Motorex 10W60 

(my preferred oil for the 690)

The filter for the 1190

Skid plate re-installed, now for tires.

Highway Dirt Bikes DS Rallye Fairing Lite

Been fitting the pieces together and tinkering with a few other things.  No rush since the weather is shitty these days. Slow but steady progress.

I still have yet to decide what I'll do for lights.  As much as I'd like to get a pair of Cylops Optimus Long Range LED lights with Euro beam lens filters, or maybe Rigid D2's, I really don't want to attract the attention of the cops. To that end, I've decided to search for a lighting solution that is compliant with European standards.

One light I'm considering is this one made by Shin Yo. It's a single projector beam light that does double duty as a low and high beam, and it even has the silly parking light built in. Cheap, and I don't expect it produces awesome light...but for farting around the city, it's not likely to get me in trouble with the law. That would leave the other hole in the fairing available for something like a Cyclops -- which I would use when I'm not in the city. Just ideas at this point in time. Still looking.

Kouba lowering link, Rally Raid shock collar, and other farkles

Some parcels arrived in the mail this week. A box from KTMTwins.com, and a box from Rally-Raid-Products-UK:

• Kouba 1" Lowering Link
• Radiator fan sensor switch 88 Celsius
• Heavy Duty stainless steel shock collar
• Fuel injector hex bolts and spacers upgrade kit

While there were a couple more items in the packages, I only had time today to install the items listed above. The rest will have to wait until next weekend.

Over a beer last evening, I started to think and plan the work required to install these pieces. Since I would need to remove the rear shock to swap out the flimsy aluminium collar for the very beefy stainless steel piece from Rally Raid, and since I was also planning to switch out the suspension lower link for the Kouba unit, I first thought it would be good to remove all of it at once... to gut the entire rear suspension. Then after thinking about it for a while, I figured it might be smarter to do the jobs separately. Probably didn't matter much, but I decided to do the shock collar first, and not remove the lower link until the shock was all done and re-installed.  Once that was done, I then proceeded to remove and swap out the lower linkage. My plan worked out well enough and everything went together nicely. The end result is that the bike sits about 1" lower than before. For my 32" inseam, I'm still on my tippy toes, but not as much as before. I notice the seat is more level now. Previously, the rear of the seat was significantly higher than the middle part of the seat, causing me to slide forward all the time because of the sloped geometry of the seat position. Now the seat feels flat and level, and my feet are touching the ground a little easier. The side stand is noticeably lower, but does not need to be shortened.

The seriously rugged Rally Raid shock collar on the left,

the flimsy OEM collar on the right.

I used these super heavy-duty zip ties to keep the spring 

compressed a little (put them in place before removing the 

original shock collar, while the spring is still compressed). 

This helps to get the spring seat off without too much swearing 

or cuts on your knuckles.

The shock with the new collar and lock ring in place

Now the shock is back together, and the spring is 

compressed a little so I can now cut the zip ties.

OEM linkage and Kouba side-by-side

The 1" lower Kouba link is actually a little longer than 

the OEM linkage but the end result is that the bike sits 1" lower to the ground.

Linkage removed - left side

Linkage removed - right side

I hung the bike from the ceiling using a pair of tie-down straps.

Kouba link installed.

With the suspension mods finished, it was time to swap out the 

temperature sensor switch for the radiator fan. The OEM sensor 

activates the fan at 105 degrees Celsius. This unit from KTMTwins 

causes the fan to kick in at 88 Celcius. Yes, the fan will be on more

 frequently but the engine will run cooler.

The new sensor switch installed.

I used my ninja skills to swap the fan sensor switch in just a 

couple of seconds, but somehow I still managed to lose about 

1/2 cup of engine coolant. No sweat, I had some of this 

$900 a bottle stuff from Motorex.

Rally Raid UK sells a bolt upgrade kit for securing the fuel injector. 

£11.34 (nearly $20 USD) is pretty steep for two little metric bolts and 

two aluminium spacers but I definitely have more confidence in this hardware 

that the OEM crap. Fortunately my bike is practically new and I didn't have 

any real trouble removing the Philips head bolts. If the bike was old and dirty, 

you'd easily muck up the heads of those cheap bolts and you'd have a nice time 

trying to get them out.  I could feel them getting hacked  up even using my good 

quality screwdriver. Soft metal Philips-head junk.  The Rally Raid pieces are nice 

quality. Piece of mind if I ever need to remove the injector.

The injector held in place with the cheap OEM Philips-head bolts

Injector removed

New sturdy hex bolts holding the injector in place now. 

The aluminium sleeves just slide down inside for a perfect fit.

***** OBSERVATIONS:  I'm no mechanic but I have wrenched on bikes for ~35 years. While I do love this bike and I really admire all of the technology that makes it what it is, I can't help but say nasty things about the fucking engineers who designed this bike. What I'm saying is that it's not the easiest bike to work on.  In order to remove the shock, you need to practically strip the whole bike down to the bear frame. First the rear luggage rack, then the rear fender, the seat, side panels, voltage regulator, the airbox (yes, the fucking airbox on the 2014 model must be removed before you can pivot the fuel tank upward and out of the way), lower fuel tank mount, muffler.  And that's just to get the damn shock removed. For fuck's sakes...  It's times like this that I really miss having my trusty old Suzuki DR650. That bike truly was an easy machine to work on. It's a good thing that I actually enjoy working on motorcycles -- almost as much as I enjoy riding them. I like hanging out in the garage with a cold beer and tinkering late into the evening hours. Relaxes me after a long week in the office.