Nice roads!!!! What else to say!?!? I was lucky

I still haven't found the fault ...... no signals, no signal indicator light ... but I will have to work at transmission chain so maybe when it will be only with the engine and frame I will find what went wrong.

Thank you for your tip and I will study wiring diagram to look for loose or broken wires

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Hello Kumuya.

Good luck with those. Send us some pics on the gearbox work, and the removal procedure. Any shortcuts will be appreciated in a bush repair.

When you have everything out, wire the turn relay directly to the battery and 2 lights. If that works, bring the other sections in one by one and see which part is faulty.

Regards

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Pleco

If its stupid, but it works, it aint stupid.

Hi guys!

I have just had my first real worry with my bike! Still almost brand new (+-3000kms) and yesterday when I went to start the bike (from cold) and thumbed the starter, a little trail of white smoke crept out from between the tank and the seat! I had only pressed the starter for about 1.5 secs and the bike hadn't started. I switched off the ignition and the smoke stopped. I whipped off the seat (thinking I would find a pinched wire or something) but nothing looked wrong at all! No wires running near there...no blown fuses...nothing!!

After checking it out, I tried starting it again, and this time no smoke, and it started fine. I put the lights on etc to see if the electrical load affected anything, but still...no smoke! Put the seat back on and went for a short ride without any problems.

Any ideas?!

Two things which I'm thinking may have some bearing on the situation are;

1. I washed the bike down the day before (with a hose pipe) - but I still went for a longish ride afterwards to dry everything out and the bike started and ran fine.

2. Could the problem be related to the exposed connector blocks on the fuse box? (The connector blocks onto the fuse box under the left side cover face forward and a bit back, so it is possible that some water may have collected in them. Could that cause a small short and the smoke?

I'd like to see if I can find what's wrong before I take the bike back to dealer.

Hi Radiohead,

Check your starter motor connections. A loose connection can cause a spark and possibly a small amount of smoke if dirty or corroded. Also check the bolts which bolt the starter motor to the bike as it is grounded there and if loose may spark too.

While you're at it, check your battery connections for the same reasons.

Peter

Hi Peter

Already checked the battery connections while the seat was off, but I'll definitely check the starter connections and mountings. After doing a bit more reading up on the subject, I'm going to check the starter relay as well.

Thanks for the advice. Will let you know what happens.

What did the smoke smell like. You will get different smells for arcing, burning insulation and exhaust smoke.

Just for info I got white smoke coming out from under the seat, and it was the pipe from the carb that was loose on the block, allowing smoke to escape there. It smelt like exhaust smoke though.

Regards

__________________
Pleco

If its stupid, but it works, it aint stupid.

I had a rather unfortunate experience. I blew a hole through the right hand side piston. Will submit pics a little later.

I see the 400 has quite a thick sleeve. What are the chances of boring it to the 500 spec, and replacing both pistons with 500 pistons?

As far as I know, the only difference between the 400 and 500 is the piston size. I would like to confirm this before I start boring the head.

Urgent advice needed.

I also need to try and find out how this happened. The plug electrode looks like it exploded, with little welding beads on the bottom of the plug. I used the same range in the other piston, and that is fine.

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Pleco

If its stupid, but it works, it aint stupid.

sucks

But I get this proposal from a friend of mine to transform kle400 to kle500, he told me that the only differences are at piston size and I have to buy entire engine set for 500 - cylinder, piston and piston rings and also spark plugs for kle 500.

But I don't know how safe is this operation because it must be made with 100% accuracy. It can be made but not in my yard and only by people who know what they are doing.

If is working maybe I'll reconsider

Good luck!!!!

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I got myself one of these jobbies today, seeing that the KLE toolkit does not contain a spanner to loosen the front wheelnut.

A bit expensive at R125, but I suppose one can try to shop around.

Attached Images

 

Does anyone else have a really annoying plastic sounding rattle?

When I first got the bike there were a few... all at around 3,000 rpm. The most annoying turned out to be the little black plastic panel between the side faring and the radiator. I fixed that with a bit of rubber. Then there was a metalic rattle which bugged me for months. It took me ages to track it down, finally I realised it was the horn which had slumped down a bit and rested on the frame.

But this one has me stumped. It sounds like it is coming from the instruments, but no matter where I put my hand to deaden it, it persists. Must be inside somewhere? Anyone else have this?

P

Ok, I have now rebuilt the bike again, replacing the damaged piston. Went through everything, and can only conclude that The right hand plug was not screwed in properly, causing air to be sucked in and making the right hand side piston very lean.

Lessons learned: Make sure the hinge in the plug spanner is not pushing against the top of the engine block, simulating a tight plug.
Never trust a torque wrench that has not been calibrated. (snapping cam bolts in the engine is NO fun)

__________________
Pleco

If its stupid, but it works, it aint stupid.

Hello all !

I seen that this topic is mainly on thechnical issues, but I lso seen that this subject is the often visited (all others are even at 4 weeks).

So I hope that you can advice me. As I said I am intersted to buy a KLE engine, but I also study the others (Vstrom, F650 GS, etc) being on the same class.

Can you give me some advices ? In one hand KLE has a good price. On the other is an EUR 2 motor and gossips are that will be discontinued (replaced by a new model). Is a twin cilinder and that is better than a single (less vibrations). I want to use it on city, but wery seriously to go on country roads.

Do you had other motors on the same class ? Is advicable to go for a vstrom as an example ?

Best regards

Petre

The KLE has a cracking little engine in it, not too vibey and gives enough power to satisfy most.

I took a gs650 out and a great bike though it was, I hated it in town or traffic having to feather the clutch all the time. Plus it was very vibey.

Im lucky coz I have a fireblade to go thrashing on when the mood takes me but to be honest, I seem to ride the KLE harder and get more enjoyment from it.

They all have good and bad points and the gs650 and the like will be better in a whole lot of other areas (tank range, build quality) etc...

BUT... for the money, the KLE is just amazing value. mines an 2006 and a paid £2500 for it with 800miles on the clock!. I thrash the pants off mine and it never fails to please and the complements it gets from shocked sports bike riders who think they will leave it on the twisties always makes me smile!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Roy
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Whats in that thing?? "a R1 owner said"

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"Whats in that thing??", An R1 owner said.

Regarding the motor: It really depends on what you are expecting from a motor and how you like to ride.
Regarding the bike: Same as above with the addition of where you want to go.

There is a good review in the April issue of Bike (a UK magazine) of four bikes in this class. The KLE doesn't fare well in the comparison, but that is mainly because it is essentially an old bike in new clothes and tuned down for commuter use. Having said that, it can behave well off road providing you give it a thrashing. A solid bike albeit a little sedate.

Check out the article.

Maybe this isn't the best forum for these questions? Everyone here likes their KLEs... as do I.

P

Hi there.

It all depends what you want to do. I recently took an offroad trip with my brother in law. He was driving a 125 hyosung. In the technical sections, I could not keep up with him, as the going was slow and tricky. His lighter bike was far easier to control. The moment we got to the open stuff it was a different story.

I did the BMW offroad course, with my KLE off course, and the guys on their 650s could not handle the situations as well as I did. The 1200 guys had a torrid time. Again it comes down to the weight of the bike. If you can get a copy of the "long way round" you will see what I mean about the bike's weight. On the road, the BMs were much faster of course.

If you are going to lift somebody a lot of the time, I suppose 650 would be a minimum.

I find the KLE (mine is a 400) a very good trade off for commuting, off road and some on road touring. It would be a little light for carrying a pillion along though. There is no one bike for all conditions, so trade offs will have to be made. If you are looking for a round the world bike, just make sure it is simple to fix. The newer bikes have way too many electronics controlling everything. You need spark, fuel and compression to run. Anything else will become a liability out in the bush. I recently replaced a piston on the KLE, and if you can get the parts, it is something that can be done in the field.

I hope we are providing more answers than questions with this. You can also look at the "which bike" forum on the main hub. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder though, so the posts are not always objective. Take all the advice you can find, and then make up your own mind.

Regards

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Pleco

If its stupid, but it works, it aint stupid.