I'd taken the cover off it and got it off the lift when Mrs. HAL and I first got home, and everything looked good - no mouse houses or frayed wiring. After I got back out to the garage, I gave the KLR a once over, everything looked fine. Hoses, wiring, air box, fuel, liquids, controls, tires... everything seemed to be in good order. Well, almost everything - the throttle is a little sticky, so I'll need to lube it a bit.
Anyway, so the next thing was to put the battery in. The new battery is supposed to be the same size as the old one, and it is... mostly. I spent a bit of time cursing at it a bit before everything went into place.
A quick turn of the key and the headlight turned on. At least something was working! Since I'd left the bike in 5th gear over the winter (so I could move the piston a bit by turning the rear wheel) I had to wiggle the bike back and forth while tapping the shifter to get it back into neutral. Then, it was a matter of turning the fuel on, full choke, ignition, clutch, and hitting the starter.
The KLR cranked strongly (I'm already impressed with that new battery - it's been sitting for two weeks) and after about seven seconds it started to catch. Another second or so and it was firing strongly enough for me to let go of the starter. A few seconds later it had settled into a stinky and smoky idle as it warmed up. About a minute after that, the exhaust was clear and the KLR was running like a charm. A few blips of the throttle to make sure everything sounded okay, and then I shut the bike down.
By this time, the rain had turned into fat fluffy snowflakes and I was starting to get chilly. I was thinking of putting the fairings back on but it was still going to be too cold to ride in the mornings, so I went back inside.
I'm hoping tomorrow to get everything back together and maybe take the bike out for a short ride. There's a lot of really salty water around, and if I ride through too much of that I'll probably be able to hear the KLR rusting. The other problem with riding now is all the sand and gravel still on the roads, makes riding pretty interesting at times.
Safe riding!
Odometer reading now: 9078.7km
Distance since last fill: N/A
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