End of an era

Last night I started the process of preparing my 2002 Kawasaki KLR 650 for sale. Given the fact that I can't stand on the pegs and really will never be able to trust my left leg to hold up again when doing so even after it's finished healing, having a dirt-ready motorcycle just doesn't seem like a reasonable thing right now. The trusty KLR has been a reliable steed and I'm not feeling good about selling it. I just don't trust the machinery that operates it anymore when it comes to offroading, and my V-Strom is a much better on-road motorcycle.

One part of this process is removing whatever accessories have value once removed, because accessories really don't add anything to the value of the bike at sale. I took out the Brake! LED tail light / brake light module and put the old-style filament tail light back in. I also put the license sticker on it and started going over the bike looking for problems that I need to solve. In the process I discovered a puddle of ATF on my right wheel. Yeppers, my right fork seal is leaking (I use Mobil 1 synthetic ATF in my forks, which about an 8W fork oil but easier to find and a lot cheaper than "fork oil"). Sigh. So I'll have to fix that before I can sell it. Luckily fork seals are cheap! Over the next few days I'll clean up the bike to make it showroom shiny (yeah right, it's a KLR!) and repair any other problems I find and remove any other accessories that I can sell separately without hurting the resale value of the bike (e.g., the hand guards, skid plate, and engine guards go with the bike, because I'm selling it as a rugged desert cruiser, but the relay kit for the headlights comes off as do the GPS power cables and the GPS RAM mount).

And so the process of simplifying my life begins...

-- Badtux the Saddened Penguin