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Photo by Alessio Corradini, on the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, of two locals

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Photo by Alessio Corradini,
on the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia,
of two locals



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  #1  
Old 16 Apr 2007
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Need some advice ok KLE500
Hi everybody,

I am here here, so just a short intro, I from Malaysia, and now in Cambodia. Now I own a KLE500 (93), bought it half year ago. Need to ask you guys a few things. I go my tools mixed up with my friends, so would like to ask you guys what spanner size is the original KLE size?

Another problem I am facing is that, my front left fork is leaking, do you think I could pump more air into the left one to compensate the softness? What is the actual recommended pressure for normal road riding?

Hope u guys can help me .. thanks in advance.
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  #2  
Old 16 Apr 2007
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Can't help you, but try the KLE tips and tricks forum.
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Current Bikes - Kawasaki KLE500 '05 (May 06)
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  #3  
Old 17 Apr 2007
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Tools & Seal
Hi Bluecolour,

8 mm, 10 mm, 12 mm and 14 mm spanners, a set of Hex keys and a decent Phillips head screw driver should get you out of most trouble. There are others, but seeing as I don't have a genuine KLE toolset either I can't tell you what they are exactly.

The air pressure in these forks is probably next to nothing (Can someone correct me if I am wrong?).

It's not a good idea to pump air into a leaking fork. The seal is leaking because: A) The rubber is old and gone hard or cracked; pumping air in there will only force more oil out. B) If you have lost your protective fork cover, a stone may have kicked up and damaged the inner fork tube resulting in oil escaping when the pit or scratch pass by the seal. If this is so, you can usually pollish out the scar with very fine wet&dry sandpaper.

Hope this helps,

Peter
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  #4  
Old 19 Apr 2007
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Thanks
Hi Peter, thanks for the help. I am not sure about the air pressure on the fork, this is the first time I rode bike with these. But I am sure it does something, anyway, will not try to be smart and pump too much air into the leaking fork. Will repair it when I reach Malaysia next week, hope everything goes smoothly....
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  #5  
Old 20 Apr 2007
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Fork pressure
Hello Guys.

Please be very careful with pumping the forks up. DO NOT use a compressor. The volume of air in there is so little, that every time you put a pressure guage on there, it changes. The max pressure is on a sticker on the inside bottom end of the fork. about 2 bar. Please check this to confirm.

I used a bicycle pump to pump both sides up, and then put a pressure guage on the one side, and just using the guage, kept on checking until I got to 1.5 bar. I repeated it on the other side. The air needed to pressurise the guage actually deflates the shock by .1 or so everytime you check.

If you are loaded a little heavy, you preload the shocks with air, so that the bike does not nose dive so badly when you brake, and it also stops it from bottoming out. Just beware it changes your road manners.
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  #6  
Old 20 Apr 2007
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I've attached a pic from the kawasaki parts catalogue showing the tools, no size details unfortunately.
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Need some advice ok KLE500-f2810.png  

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  #7  
Old 24 Apr 2007
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Fork Pressure
I've checked out the owners manual that came with my bike and the detailed service manual, and they both say that atmospheric pressure (0kPa) is recommended for the forks. The service manual lists this figure as "adjustable" but they don't give maximum values.

As a side point, I had a Honda CB400 with air forks which I used to pump to 0.8 bar (80kPa I think), and never blew the seals. Different bike though, so I don't recommend doing it with the KLE unless you get some good advice from someone in the know.
Last edited by Radiohead; 7 May 2007 at 09:43.
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  #8  
Old 15 May 2007
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Smile Smooth journey
Hi Guys,

Thanks for helping out on the tools and the fork pump... I didn't use any of my tools and the leaking fork still manage to send me back 2000Km safely home. Only thing happen is lose my horn and my low beam light, cable loose. Haha

But most important of all.. it was a great trip... Happy riding

Wesley
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  #9  
Old 15 May 2007
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Glad you had a good un!!!

I remember my front fork leaking on my zx7r and it was months before I got it sorted, It never gave me any trouble though.


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  #10  
Old 21 Jun 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bluecolour View Post
Hi everybody,

I am here here, so just a short intro, I from Malaysia, and now in Cambodia. Now I own a KLE500 (93), bought it half year ago. Need to ask you guys a few things. I go my tools mixed up with my friends, so would like to ask you guys what spanner size is the original KLE size?

Another problem I am facing is that, my front left fork is leaking, do you think I could pump more air into the left one to compensate the softness? What is the actual recommended pressure for normal road riding?

Hope u guys can help me .. thanks in advance.

Hello everyone
Concerning the question about air pressure in the fork, you must know that you can fill it with air or nitrogen with a maximum pressure of 2.5 kg (2.5 bar). I have a KLE500 '95 and it has the same fork. DO NOT USE a tire compressor, because the fork is much more delicate. I have a specific pump for suspension forks from my years practising Mountain Biking. They are usually very little pumps with a manometer and they put the air inside very slowly and so very precisely.
On the other hand, if one of the fork bars is leaking, your have a problem to control rebound, so if you apply more pressure to the other bar, the fork will get very sensitive to every little bump in the road, and also you will overstress the good retainer, making the good bar start to leak soon.
The best thing is to repair the broken retainer, which should be very cheap.
I hope this information can be useful for you.

Regards


GAAAAS
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