Flooded with thanks and praise...

This morning I had to go in to work before Church, decided to use Shrek but after unlocking the gate the dirt called, filled up the bike and then let the front wheel dictate... After a while I stopped to take these pictures as they seemed to be appropriate with how I feel, blessed and flooded with God's Grace and Mercy. Somehow this song just describes the joy and peace I have as well as the praise I give to God for his mark in my life. 
 

David Crowder Band Everything Glorious
Songwriters: LINDEN, COLIN KENDALL / WEIDER, JIM

The day is brighter here with You
The night is lighter than it's hue
Would lead me to believe
Which leads me to believe

(chorus)
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours
What does that make me?

My eyes are small but they have seen
The beauty of enormous things
Which leads me to believe
There's light enough to see that

(chorus)
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours

From glory to glory
You are glorious You are glorious
From glory to glory
You are glorious. You are glorious
Which leads me to believe
Why I can believe that


You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours

From glory to glory From glory to glory
You are glorious. You are glorious.
You are glorious. You are glorious.

You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours

1 O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.

2 The Lord hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.

3 He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

4 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

5 Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.

6 With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King.

7 Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

8 Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

9 Before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity. Psalm 98 King James

Shrek has a new sticker!

Wesley has a great bike blog/website... he sent me some stickers and now Rather be Riding is now on the swing arm... 
May his site grow and prosper.
His site is one of my favorites along with The Kneeslider.

"I was told having a website would help me. I have yet to figure out why my life story needs to be on the web."

Wally Schirra

Enough already

Woke up at 6 am to more rain... it is now 10 am and it has not let up for a moment... this is 1988 deja vu! Many parts of the country are now flooded! We need a rainbow or two!
We have been having good, nay extraordinary good rains since before Christmas but since last Friday it has become Noachian rain!
While fitting new crashbars to Shrek I had to duck back inside a few times as the rain was flooding the carport... thankfully no tools or parts got washed away.

The black box was brim full by midday Saturday... and it is once again overflowing!

The access road has been a river on and off for the past few days...

So it seems we may need those rubber ducks and gumboots soon just to get to work...
I also had the resident engineer check out the new crash bars, L's kitten Misha is extremely inquisitive...

apparently they met her approval after a thorough looking over and nuzzle!

In between showers I was able to take the new bars for a test ride... Must say the new bars have tamed the vibes a lot... I can even see out of the bikes mirrors at 5000rpm... with the old bars it became a blur... Thanks to Harold and Matthew at Bike Gear for letting me be a Guinea pig...
"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." Dolly Parton

Back in the saddle

Last time we rode this road MD and me had some "Boulder" trouble, well since then Mitchell's pass has been fixed and the ride home was more like a highway trip down the mountain... but not boring at all, it still took concentration around the curves. This time it was a solo ride back to Bloem and apart from the wind quite uneventful, fortunately the trick of sticking a knee into the gale does help.
Will do some backposts with pics we took, hopefully my blogging will pick up again in 2010.

Back in the Saddle - Aerosmith
I'm back
I'm back in the saddle again
I'm back
I'm back in the saddle again

Ridin' into town alone
By the light of the moon
I'm looking for ol Sukie Jones
She crazy horse saloon
Barkeep gimme a drink
That's when she caught my eye
She turned to give me a wink
That make a grown man cry

Come easy, go easy
All right until the rising sun
I'm calling all the shots tonight
I'm like a loaded gun
Peelin' off my boots and chaps
I'm saddle sore
Four bits gets you time in the racks
I scream for more
Fools' gold out of their mines
The girls are soaking wet
Not tounge's drier than mine
I'll come when I get back

I'm back in the saddle again
I'm back
I'm back in the saddle again
I'm riding, I'm loading up my pistol
I'm riding, I really got a fistful
I'm riding, I'm shining up my saddle
I'm riding, this snake is gonna rattle


Ridin' high
Ridin' high
Ridin' high already

"Life is just a chance to grow a soul."
A. Powell Davies:

LED there be light

Ok... so while Shrek was dismembered I decided to do some radical surgery to the instrument cluster and add a hazard warning switch while I was about it...
Fortunately the wiring diagram has not changed much since the 1985 model, it is basically the same just that some of the stuff has been relocated on the bike.
The indicator relay is now under the instrument cluster which made it very easy to splice in a wire on the Orange output wire to feed to a DPDT switch and then feed that to the LH and RH indicator wires on the harness. Green = left and Grey = Right. I used a peice of ribbon cable... also fitted 2 plugs so that it is removable. yeah I know... looks like computer plugs... I did not have a suitable 3 pin one at hand so this will have to do till the next
farkle episode...
Then I removed the white lettering on the N and <> lamps, this was to make the Neutral the LH indicator and the <> the RH one. I found that paint brush cleaner did the trick while not being too aggressive to the plastic lens.
The indicator leads are now split, one to the old neutral lamp and one to the old <> lamp, the other ends of the lamps are now grounded on the instrument cluster ground points so that they LED's now have a ground path.
Due to the fact that the LED lamps are fitted with reverse polarity diodes you may have to orient them 180 degrees if they do not work. This also keeps the LH/RH indicator circuits isolated!
While doing this I hooked up 2 diodes and a buzzer as well to the indicator circuit... now Shrek sounds like a delivery bike... but I have less excuse to leave the indicator on now!
Then I fitted the new amber neutral LED under the speedo... using plastic steel to mount the led and resistor as well as the lead securely... the lead is then spliced on to the old neutral wires from the harness plug... the other ends became the LH indicator leads...
Once all the splicing and dicing was done I fitted the blue LED lamp to the high beam socket and the 3 HiBright LED lamps to the 3 lighting sockets. LED lamps are supposed to outlast ordinary filament globes and at the same time
they draw less current from the electrical system. Here are the pictures:Led lighting up the unstruments...
DB25 connectors!

Splicing into the Orange indicator lead to go to the DPDT switch...

Splicing into the R/h L/h Indicator leads...

DPDT switch mounted and silicone used to waterproof and insulate the back...

The switch on the front panel...

Indicators! one for each side!

Mounting screws on the right to be loosened when un mounting the instrument cluster...

Ditto another screw on the left...

Neutral LED mounted on the front panel...

Led and resistor prior to connecting and potting with epoxy or plastic steel...

Lead fitted and the lot gobbed with plastic steel...

Filament lamp VS LED lamp, a bit bluer than the filament and not quite as bright... but I like it...

Main and indicator LED's being tested...

Another shot...

Lights before the mod...

All the plugs and leads... wiring and speedo cable loosened to remove instruments.
"Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning."
Bible, Luke xii. 35.

HID me... for all the KLR Wild Dogs...

How to fit HID lighting to your 2008 KLR. One of the best farkles in my opinion.
Main beam on before HID
First thing of course is to get a kit from Bikegear for a H7 type globe system.

When your parcel arrives it will be in this neat box that you can use to store KLR bits and bobs in neatly...
Start by removing the windscreen.


Then you need to loosen the 6 bolts that hold the fairing to the bike, 4x 6mm Allen heads and 2x 4mm as indicated in the pictures.






Then gently move the fairing forward and disengage from the instrument cluster... don't break anything! Let the fairing rest on the front fender/mudguard as you do this.



Once moved forward by around 200mm you will be able to unplug the indicator leads and the headlight leads, be careful as the whole lot can fall off at this stage.

The indicator leads...

Close up...

Right...

Left... Now for the headlight leads...



Once the leads are all unclipped/unplugged you can take the fairing off and put it in a safe place where you cannot step on it/fall over it/drop the bike on it or otherwise destroy it... Beware Murphy lurks where tools are involved!
Now comes the tricky part... where to mount the HID ballast, my first thought was to mount it on the instrument mounting.


but after taking a good look again it seemed that it would make a good fit inside the fairing... more on that later...

After fitting the ballast begin preparation to fit the globe in place of the OEM H7 one... Take out the OEM globe by pulling of the lead then removing the rubber cover... this is what it looks like after being removed

Then undo the retaining clip...

You will find that the OEM globe has an adapter between the globe proper and the lead...

H7 globe and adapter...

H7 and adapter removed, this is used to retain the globe in the light fitting itself with the retaining spring/clip. It is 34mm OD by 9mm thick where it the retaining clip rests.
The problem is that the kit has no adapter! Fortunately I found a substitute for the dimensions needed... 3x rubber tap mounting washers! They are the right OD and have the right size hole as well as being 3mm thick! Volia!



I cut a small slit in each washer to enable them to be slipped over the leads of the HID globe. Actually I removed about 1.5mm, this makes the washers fit better in the light fitting...
Now fit the HID globe, pop the washers behind it and clip in the retaining spring, then connect the HID globe leads to the ballast... retaining clips to the small tab... if you get it wrong it will not work but will also not fry anything. "Whew! glad to hear that!"

Put the boot back and secure with some Duct Tape, you will have to slit it to get it over the HID globe leads...
Once you have fitted the HID system you can put the fairing back and test things.
This is what it looked like...

Now comes the interesting part... the plug tabs on the OEM light lead needs to be slightly crimped as they tend to be loose on the HID lead tabs... be careful... the plastic around the plug can break but does bend enough when gentle pressure from a water pump plier is applied.
The HID is polarity sensitive in respect of the connection to the OEM light socket, I tried it one way and the HID did not work... if this happens to you just swap the leads around and it should work.
Oh yes, do not test on a battery charger... it cannot deliver the starting amps the HID system needs to fire up the HID Globe. Rather do the final testing and connecting on the bike.
When the HID fires up and everything works as it should you can proceed to refit the fairing... except it wont fit! What now?
Aha! Found the problem... this support on the instrument mounting is the problem... the ballast is now taking up the same space as this pipe section wants to occupy...

The pipe too long...

The remedy is to unclip all leads again... put the fairing in a safe place and grab the hacksaw! yes... you need to trim around 20mm off this projecting pipe... then you will have space for the ballast and fairing support to live together... without causing strife. Once that bit of surgery has been performed you can file the end smooth and give it a dab of matt black spray paint... do not want the Rust Monster to get a hold on your bike now do you?
Once the fairing is back in place start by inserting the top 2 bolts first... do not tighten all the way... now do the two bottom 6mm ones followed by the smaller 4mm ones and their spacers... once they are all seated you can tighten them all snugly.
That is basically the lot... now check that everything works

and if so pack away all your tools... gear up and take your KLR for a test run.
While I was doing this farkle I also fitted a few other things like LED lamps for the indicators, lighting and high beam... I also converted my indicator and neutral lamp to be the RH and LH indicator lamps... and fitted an amber neutral indicator LED... and also fitted a switch to give Shrek a Hazard warning facility, more about these mods here...

at the same time the temperature hovered around this... chilly...

I also had my apprentice Myoo looking on...
I like the quote I found as well... it fits in with the purpose behind fitting the light... to be safer at night and to avoid chaos!
"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting."
Alan Dean Foster, "To the Vanishing Point"