Chain replacement and riveting

So after 20K miles on the KLR the chain has shown me it is done helping pull this bike along. For a stock chain it's done well with all the rain and gravel and dirt I've put it though. You can see what I call the red rust of death between the links. That color rust is when the grease that the factory made the chain with is gone and the link is failing.

If the chain also has tight spots like above even after cleaning it's also time you need a new chain. Remember if the chain snaps it will most likely bunch up at the counter shaft and destroy your engine case and ruin your day.

You always want to replace both sprockets with a new chain. The counter shaft sprocket seem to give people the most grief from what I see in the forums. Just bend the lock tab up and get a good 1/2 impact driver with a quality socket of the right size and it's better if it's a impact socket. The one THING you DON"T want to do is impact the nut with the bike in gear. The impacting can damage the transmission dog on the gears. 

My trusty Dewalt impact driver it was pricy but was a must before I put a air compressor in the garage.

The right tool for the job is the motoin pro chain breaker/riveter. If your going to stick around in the bike world and do your own repairs it's worth the money.

 

First step is grind down the pins on one link. If you don't you will break the pusher pin on the tool. Trust me, it's left me saying a few four letter words out loud and a chain I couldn't get off for days while I had to wait for a replacement pusher to show up.      

So why not just remove one pin you ask!! I could but I find it simpler to look at on the floor when cutting the new chain to length and a screw up is a $135.00 for another chain.

One more close up of the death rust. Next time your at a bike event walk around and just look for this on the other bike's. When it's really bad it will cover the sprockets.

Two links too long and I'll have to again grind just one pin this time and push it out.

Stock O-ring on the bottom and I guess you call it a X O-ring on top.

I'm not going to bother you with how to unbolt the rear sprocket but I will show you the spacer that you DON'T want to leave out.

Chain is on and sprockets are loose till the chain is riveted.

Let the sprocket do the work and hold the chain for you.

All four O-rings are on and the plate is ready to be pressed on.

First measure another link for it's thickness to see how far to press your rivet link plate on. Remember if you press the plate too far you will damage the o-rings and too loose they won't seal out the dirt. So 18.14 is a goal number to get close to.

Go slow and keep rechecking. After a few chains you kind of get a feel for this but you should always measure.

                                                                            1mm to go.

                                                                                 Closer.

                                                That is very good and what 300ths away.

           Now for the riveting of the link and the spec for this is .152mm to .500mm but never more than .700mm. Here's RK's link for riveting..RK So these picks are the before measurements.

                                                                      Top link riveted and flared to spec.  Again take your time and take the rivet tool on and off while riveting to make sure your not over doing it!!

                                         Bottom done.

Once the link is done it's time to torque the sprocket and set the chain slack. Make sure to properly torque the sprocket nuts and bend over the lock tab on the front sprocket. Do not use a impact gun to tighten the front nut! Put the bike in gear and have someone hold the rear brake when torquing  assuming  your chain  won't jump teeth when loading the nut. 
Chain slack is interesting per the book on the KLR. If I set it to what they call for I would damage the chain or ruin the output shaft bearing. I always set it on the loose side and then have someone sit on the bike and recheck. With a  long travel suspension bike the slack will be very different loaded or unloaded.                                 

All the chain crud has coated the neutral light switch and when I ride in the rain the light will come on at a half lit state.

                                          It's in there all gummy and cruddy. 

                                         A little kerosine and shes looking good.

                                         Ready to roll for another 20K maybe!!

Blueant F4 Interphone

 

I’ve been running this Blueant system in my helmet for a little over a year now and figured it was enough time to put up my little review of how it has worked for me and my ways of fitting it to my helmet.

My two Huge reason for getting this was to have a way for the wife to call me when I disappear for a 12+ hour bike ride when I’m sure she thinking I’m dead in a ditch. The other is when my kids are on the back we have a way to talk and make sure they are not falling asleep.

Let’s start with the phone deal and the first thing I have to say it’s pointless to own this if your phone doesn’t have voice dialing because if you don’t you can only answer but would have to pull over to call. Well sane riders would pull over to dial and I have seen riders holding the phone to there heads before going down the street!!

Right now by phone is a blackberry curve and works perfectly with the f4. Syncing was flawless and connects every time the f4 is turned on. That big round button is magical in how many things it can do. With the unit off push and hold till the led blinks red and blue and its ready for your phone to discover. Once your synced you push the button once quick and it asks for a command and I say “call Home” and it will give you three names with the closest match and the curve 90% of the time gets  it right first try. When your chatting on the phone it’s really mazing how well you can hear. Running down the highway at 70mph on the zx10 (head in the wind) and I can clearly hear with the volume at halfway. Also the people I’m talking to can’t tell I’m on the bike and at first don’t believe me when I say I’m doing so. The volume is also speed sensitive so when at 70mph it was a good volume it would be way too loud at a stop sign and the unit brings it down properly. If someone calls you, well you just say hello and the unit answers. If you want to hang up just simply push the round button once quickly.

The other nice part of this my phone can play all my itunes in stereo at least the ones that are not under some itunes protection. Hit the big button twice quickly and you have music and the volume is also speed sensitive, With the music playing is the only really time you notice the volume going up and down with speed. To skip a song hold the plus button for three seconds and release and the next song plays. The negative button works the same way to start a song over or go back a song.  Also if you get a call the music pauses and when the call ends the music resumes. I know this was a complaint with the older iphones and they didn’t have voice dialing.

Now my favorite part, rider to passenger. Sync up is right on the money per the instructions but when turning the units on they don’t automatically connect so you just hold the big button for three seconds and they link through bluetooth. Sound quality it perfect and just like talking on the phone. When a phone call comes in it drops the passenger f4 and connects the call. The down side to this is my young  passenger has no clue I took a call. This has led to my 11 year old drama queen to freaking out with wild finger poking to my shoulder the first few times.

Battery life is very good for intercom mode at about 13-14 hours. I’ve never ran the unit solely in phone but I would think battery life would be higher then intercom mode. Playing music does bring the battery down to 5-6 hours as expected .

The only flaw I have had happen and what is all over the web is the cable quality right where it plugs in to the unit. For me the right speaker went out and if I moved the cable slightly it would work. I had no sharp bends in the cable and always treated it right. This was the flat mic piece that I bought as a accessory so I went back to the boom piece and after a year it still works perfectly along with my kids helmet.

 

 

The other reason for this review happening now is I really needed new cheek pads and something I really recommend if you helmet is a few years old but not expired.

One way to hold your lid to work on it is a big roll of tape.

Pretty beat out pad compared to the left.

Left speaker unit in the old cheek pad. With my kids hjc helmet they have pockets in the cheek liner to slide the speakers into and not as intrusive as the arai lid.

 

Left unit free of the cheek pad.

The mic hole is so very important to have directly pointed at your mouth.

 

You can see old VS new and where to put the Velcro pad.

Here is where the fine tuning begins with speaker height and direction to your ear. This can take some time to get right. It’s easy to get the sound right but comfort is different. Once your at speed the helmet is slightly different on your head and the wind is buffing. I had to move the left speaker a few times throughout the summer as it would hurt the cartilage on my ear. You just need to take the helmet off and reach in and move it a millimeter or so. 

Boom mic coming out the front bottom of the pad.

Pad cover back on and wires routed nicely.

Right speaker in and a lot simpler then the left.

Right speaker connector.

mic about where it should be.

Me jamming to some tunes………………