Klr650 yay or nay?

[nhbubba]

Heated gloves and such are a must for this time of the year. But heated grips are just crazy versatile. Nice to be able to take the edge off without switching to bulky gloves. Especially in the rain. And those cheap ~$30-40 kits work just fine. I will have heated grips on all my bikes, even the dirty ones.

[nick5446]

I've never run heated gloves, but I use my heated grips with bar mitts and summer gloves all winter and my hands are never cold. The bar mitts take a minute to get used to, but they block 99% of the wind and keep the heat from the grips in. The bulkiness of winter glove sucks imo.

[boosten lebaron]

I did heated grips before. They worked good to a point then just seemed like a cruel joke when it got cold. Teaming them up with hippo hands was the ultimate solution. Didn't even need gloves at that point so I think that's what I might do.

[nick5446]

Exactly. Heated grips on their own is fine until like October, but you need bar mitts/hippo hands to be happy

[boosten lebaron]

+1 on full heated gear, I have the same, gloves, jacket & pants liner, and socks that all connect together and plug into the Warm & Safe "Heat Troller."

On the Guzzi, once you get past the 600 mile service, then you can use all the power, wring it out. Stay below the red line with deliberate shifts. I found it plenty fast enough.

I installed these extra guards around the hand guards, much easier than adapting BarkBusters -- but fer the life-a-me, can't remember the brand or supplier ...

Attachment 61798


PS --
Searched and found the Hepco & Becker "handlebar protection"
https://www.motomachines.com/hepco-b...to-guzzi-v85tt

Thanks for the link! I think I'm going to order a pair if they fit with the over guards I am going to get. The stock hand guards are just too slim to be much good at deflecting branches or even wind. I can buy or make extensions that go on top to get more surface area on them.

[whynot]

Thanks for the link! I think I'm going to order a pair if they fit with the over guards I am going to get. The stock hand guards are just too slim to be much good at deflecting branches or even wind. I can buy or make extensions that go on top to get more surface area on them.

Take a look at these foam handguard extensions from Moose Racing. A friend who rides year 'round uses them instead of HippoHands/muffs.
https://www.mooseracing.com/product/...ctGroup/384441

Available everywhere, like RevZilla ... .

[boosten lebaron]

These are the extensions I was looking at.

https://www.amazon.com/Compatible-Mo...s%2C112&sr=8-1

[Paul_E_D]

mitts work 90 percent better than extensions IMO. Mitts and heated grips with slightly insulated gloves are the best for absolute comfort at any temps. Tested in extreme cold and wind on the ice.

[whynot]

Those Amazon handguard extensions do look good.

Agree on the effectiveness of muffs/hippohands, I do find that they can get in the way of operating handlebar switches. I guess I'm just impaired.

[boosten lebaron]

I can totally see the hippo hands getting in the way of switch ones this bike. You can probably forget about using the high beams and fog lights. Those are hard to get to when they are wide open. The v85tt has if nothing else a strange control switch layout.

[Crconnor18]

I’ve ridden with all the combinations (moose extensions, heated grips, hippo hands, leather insulated gloves, heated gloves).

Extensions are best for aggressive riding. I only use mine on my dirtbike for winter or ice riding.

Hippo hands and heated grips were nice but restrictive & a PIA to install depending on your controls.

Heated gloves are nice but if a you have a bad harness or broken conductor they get cold quick and don’t compact to a winter glove.

If I’m riding in the cold I use a heated grip, vented leather gloves and some aerostich glove overs. They are water proof and really hold in the heat while not limiting in mobility so long as you aren’t a 1 finger rider since they are a three finger mit. They live in my panniers with my rain gear all year round for wet riding.

https://www.aerostich.com/collection...t-glove-covers

[boosten lebaron]

Those areostich gloves are interesting. I hadn't seen those before. I think they could work for me. im trying to mentally invision them on while working the controls. I'm generally a one finger rider but I think I can do two without issue.

[obsolete]

Are there no heated liners that work well? Wife has heated liners that are battery operated for skiing. She uses those under mittens and it keeps her mentally raynauded hands warm into the negatives. I'd think wired heated liners with a good wind breaking outer would work good with not much bulk.

[SRTie4k]

I've had W&S gear, including gloves, for nearly 10 years, and I have never had a broken wire internally nor have I broken a wire harness. All my heated gear always just works. I've never regretted buying any of it, it's a game changer compared to non-heated gear. I've done road rides at 15F with it in perfect comfort (unfortunately other things can become a problem at those temps, like your gas cap freezing shut...).

What temps you ride at and the type of riding will ultimately decide for you which type of gear you need; for instance dual sporting at 30F is nothing like 60mph+ pavement touring on a practically naked adventure-touring bike at that same temp. My general recommendation is anything road related at around or below freezing really needs heated gear.

[whynot]

Good discussion. I'll just add one thing re. the Aerostich 3-finger overgloves (I have the orange version). I found them to be slippery on the levers, even when dry, so, following a suggestion from NER, I coated the fingers with seam sealer, like you use for tent seams.

[boosten lebaron]

So I got some bigger handguards and better gloves to help with the cold for now. The OEM heated grips are $300 and need the dealer to calibrate the throttle to them so I'm going to get some oxfords and splice into the factory wiring harness.
Anyway I took it to the local ice races here in Stafford this morning and went through nipmunk state forest trails. It was rough going but I made it. Traction control was killing me all over and it took me forever to figure out how to kill it. Off-road mode isn't very offroady after all.
I did take a spill on the ice but I have enough armor that I didn't get a scratch on a single thing except the brake lever. Took 3 of us to lift it off the ice though lol. Bitch is heavy full of fuel.
Anyway loving the bike so far. Just needs so tweaks here and there.

[Paul_E_D]

Those side bags you got work well as tip over protection, and also make it easier to right the bike in most cases.

[boosten lebaron]

I actual didn't have the bags on. The trails in the woods are pretty narrow and I wouldn't have fit over one of the single track bridges out there. I can see where they would help though, those bags are strong and well armored up themselves.

[whynot]

The time I dropped my KLR with a full 6 gallons of gas, had to lift it myself, no one around. It was heavy, but I had no choice.

[edit] That was on solid ground, fortunately.

Not the time that I fell on a trail ride and the bike pinned my leg and three others lifted it off me.

[Crconnor18]

Adventure bikes are not dirt bikes. I learned the hard way with all of mine.

I have learned a few techniques on how to lift these pigs and also have seen some nice compact fixtures to help the solo rider like myself.

I guess I probably should just find more people to ride with as the solution?

[boosten lebaron]

The ice was the problem when i was lifting it. I just kept slipping. I can lift it easily on my own on solid ground. I did test that out at home.

[csmutty]

Adventure bikes are not dirt bikes. I learned the hard way with all of mine.

I have learned a few techniques on how to lift these pigs and also have seen some nice compact fixtures to help the solo rider like myself.

I guess I probably should just find more people to ride with as the solution?

Ok this brings back a lot of memories when I was young out on the dirt bike in the woods and got myself into situations haha!

I would love to hear how you got out of those two situations LOL

[nhbubba]

This was my first weekend with the 890 ADV-R. I took it down a very short (less than 1 mile) unmaintained road near the house while dressed in my road boots and jeans. Just to. You know. Try it out. A couple hours later I got out of there covered in mud from head to toe. At one point I had the bike on its side. I had brought my handmade z-rig with me by chance. It wasn't enough.

Then last summer I got my dumb ass in way over my head on an unmaintained in VT, alone, out of cell range. I dropped into a gully without scoping the way out. Spent hours trying to get the bike out. Had to hike out to cell for help. While that help was on its way a bunch of randos came along on real enduros. One of them was 7' tall and bullet proof and voluntered to ride the bike out for me. He got it up the embankment I'd been making runs at for hours on his first try. Although he admitted it was dumb luck. He nearly ended up with the bike in a tree. I was on the sportiest street rubber I could find for the 21/18 set after riding in WV with some sport bike types. Very dumb.

Now I'm itching for a much smaller ADV "lite". Resigned to riding the 890 99% on the street. I already have 19/17 wheels off a 1290 ADV-S to fit. One of these days I'll finish that project.

[Crconnor18]

I feel like watching a handful of Chris Birch videos and then finally getting an 890 adventure creates a false sensitivity of invisibility.

Left work early for a nice ride one Friday on the 890, which I have never ridden to work before. 5 minutes out of the lab and pst a power line I was genitals deep in mud in business casual attire. All I can say is that got KTM has these tanks low or else I would have never been able to unstick the bike from the mud.

Now that I think about it, riding an adventure bike is like driving a 4x4 truck. You think you can’t get stuck…but boy can you.

Pic of what the reality of owning an 890 looks like.

This thread really turned my mind about keeping my 890 now that I have the house and get into some fun adv riding.

[boosten lebaron]

I'm down for an adv trip. I am not down for getting my front wheel completely submerged in mud though.