Maintenance and farkle day for the Versys!

On Saturday I'm leaving for a twelve day riding vacation to Prince Edward Island, and as I expect to put at least 3,200 kilometres on the bike, I figured it was time for another oil change, as well as an opportune moment to install some Barkbusters Storms and a Kaoko throttle lock that I purchased used last fall.

I dropped the oil without too much mess right into the pan, and to my delight I located a cap style oil filter wrench that fit onto the Bosch oil filter. The wrench made removal and installation a breeze! In fact, it went on so tight that I had to back it off to hand tight and deliberately add a 1/4 with the ratchet.

Hokay. The barkbusters are all fiddly, and need to be installed with all the fasteners pretty loose until it all lines up. Removing the fasteners to hit them all with medium strength thread locker then finding they didn't quite want to go back into place was a pita! But eventually brawn and wile beat them out and they  are installed to my satisfaction, although the Strom handguards look a bit too tall for my riding style, and I wander if enough air will flow over my hot sweaty hands in the dog days of summer.

The Kaoko throttle lock is designed to be used with handguards, so there is no bar end with it, and while similar to the Manic Salamander bar ends I had on my KLR, it has the potential to lock up quite a bit tighter, so I'll be using it when on a straight boring stretch of super slab when I want to stunt or scratch my nose. Just kidding, I pull over to scratch my nose. :P

Right, now to test drive the nice clean oil and watch  it fade to black again.

Oops, I almost forgot to lube the chain while it's up on the stands!

Test ride!

Update: With the bar risers and Give windscreen set to the highest adjustment level, my new barkbusters hit the windscreen just before steering lock. It's manageable, I'll ride it out. :) 

There was wind coming over the barkbusters, and the air stream is felt most on my wrists. They should be great for spring fall and the odd rain storm.

And there you have it! Bark Buster Storms

Update: 2019-05-29

The bark busters do flow a lot of air onto my wrists, and that's changed the way I dress on cold spring or fall days, so that I always wear a long sleeved shirt while riding as it runs right up my jacket sleeves. *sigh*