It might be winter but we're back, in action!

Well hey there, again! Yeah, I know its been a while but this show boat is about to get back out to sea for the 2016 year and this ride might be a bit like class five rapids in July, in an inflatable kayak.

Since it is technically still winter time, there really isn't much motorcycling to be done in the northwest; seeing as most of it is covered in snow and riding below 30 degrees isn't exactly my idea of a good time. There are however lots of thing to be done during the "down time" that our favorite mother nature provides us during these cold days. I will be starting this year with a refresh of my engine on the KLR; raising the displacement from 650cc to 685cc. Where is this little event to be held you ask? How about my living room! #clearlyabachelor

Have you ever seen a dog outside a window in the cold, wanting to come inside? Well that's how my motorcycle looked out front of my apartment a few months ago. So I did the only logical thing a man should do and brought it inside. 

When I took all the plastics, the seat, and the gas tank off I discovered there was a ton of spiders living in the my bike! They were in the batter box, under the tank, in the frame, and had even managed to burrow their way into the rubber boots around the electrical connections. To be honest I was quite mortified and proceeded to kill all of them that I could find, which was a lot, with everything from shoes to wrenches and finally resorted to using my vacuum to pick them up. After that little fiasco the bike had to have the fluids drained, preferably outside. Do you know how much easier it is to get a bike through a door way with out any plastics on it?! Its great! Note for the future. Oh, and incase you were wondering; yes my wall paper is floral print, quite vintage if I do say so myself!

The next step was the disassemble process of the engine to get to the piston which would be replaced by a fancy new one ordered from eagle mike at Eagle mfg. I have purchased quite a few products from Mike including the famous "doohickey." His products are top notch and the service and shipping is always prompt. I love good service, way to go Mike!

There we go! A Piston! After a little wrestling around with the head and all that jazz the engine is finally coming apart. As you can see there is quite a bit of carbon build up on the top of the piston, but it seems to be in fairly good shape overall. Next we will be removing the jug to access the piston itself. 

Most of the time I think I Know what I am doing, but there is a huge benefit to having directions. I might not be a professional but I know that step three comes after step two; yep, following directions to the T. 

Bingo! The jug, what the piston is in, is off! That provides access to the piston, which is being changed out, and a vast opening in the crank case to drop stuff into! And when I say drop stuff into you can probably imagine that I did exactly that, hence why I am not a professional and why this is being done in my living room versus a shop. It's a classic rookie mistake!

Once everything is taken apart it is critical that things are kept organized and together. Having left over bolts isn't necessarily a good thing, though it seems to happen to me quite a lot...  who would have guessed?

Now comes the hard part; putting everything back together. The rings have to be soaked in oil, and the the new piston and jug must be installed with new gaskets, engine assembly lube and locktite. 

While reinstalling the jug onto the piston I accidentally dropped a bolt into the crank case. It was a bolt for a little rubber chain guide for the timing chain that goes inside the jug. Well me and my overly-caffeinated, shaking hands basically threw it down the hole where I spent a good half hour fishing about with a magnet to find it; but it took the crank case cover coming off for me to actually find it. Best part, it was the wrong bolt! 

So, once that minor disaster was fixed, it was on to putting the head back on with the cams, timing chain, and yet another chain guide that had problems... The threads in the jug for the top chain guide were all buggered up so using a thread chaser, or a bolt with a couple notches cut into it, we got got the bolts to sit properly! This is a really handy tool if you need to clean some threads with out using a tap. Nice part is, the bolt cost just over a dollar at Home Depot.

Now it's time to put the finishing touches on the engine and button everything back up to their proper torque specs. It took three separate torque wrenches and the mad power of google's conversion calculators to tighten everything back to the proper specs. Newton Meters to foot pounds to inch pounds is quite a lot of math...

Two days, three meals out, and probably ten trips to the hardware store and the engine is finally put back together! What should have been a simple switch turned out to be quite a bit more but it was a great learning experience; and knowledge of your equipment is never a bad thing. This bike has just under 20 thousand miles on it and now I know it is set up for several more years of touring! This summer should be filled with some great weekend trips, a few national parks, and most likely some shenanigans!  

I have to throw a huge shout out to my buddy and traveling partner, Scott, for all his help on this project! Having help when trying to tackle big jobs is never a bad thing. I couldn't think of a better way to bring in the new year! Happy 2016 everyone! Stay tuned for some great action this year! 

-Rhino, feeling refreshed to be back in the saddle, almost. In two months.