A Little Husky Orphan...aka...The Magic Thumpa

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Modded B+B rear rack plate

Issue:
Flimsy and small factory rear rack made from some thin plastic material and only anchored with 2 forward-bolts, 95% of the rack hanging unsupported into fresh air.

No support, no brace...and a flimsy plastic rack of ~2mm thickness.


There are three vacant, fat 10mm mounting holes in the factory plate.... an invite to bolt on something inappropriate with "massive bolts"...and all that. An invite, B+B just couldn't pass up.



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Don't get me wrong, I certainly admire the B+B stuff!!

But ONLY!! for it's manufactured quality. More often than not, their basic engineering ideas of how and particularly WHERE to attach their goodies to any given bike is just plainly ridiculous.

I've seen their bashplates bolted to a massive bracket, which in return was bolted to 2 tiny 6mm cylinder head studs on the V-Strom650 !!


Their TR-top-rack is the same...the beautifully -made, totally over-specced plate is bolted with 3 massive M10 countersunks to the flimsy plastic factory item, which in return sits in fresh air.

The weight of the 5mm thick alum plate alone will break the flimsy substructure sooner or later, doooh!


Things are not a good match and it's obvious why the previous owner of the B+B stuck to the Motech side-racks, but sold me the B+B plate without any comments...but at a bargain price!


We've got things to fix....






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The neatly bent outer edges are hitting the OEM-rack




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Marking out....blue dots for new and extra holes, red markings for 3 possible lines-of-cut to create 2 "tongues" to be bent with a hole in each, mounting on top of the Quicklock pannier crossbrace.



After it was all said and done, a new set of 3 holes 2" further back (bringing the whole plate 2" further forward towards the seat and the 2 solid mounts), bolts were sourced at an industrial supply in the suburbs and the front mods/ cuts produced two solid mounting points. The curved-over sides were straighted a bit to create clearance to the OEM-rack, the resulting 2 front "wings" bent downwards to comply with the shape of the OEM rack and still have area for luggage to sit on, as well as keeping the slots along the edges for tiedown-straps etc.


Now the plate has 2 solid mounts at the front, bolting into the bike's subframe...I'll still use the 3 bolts through the OEM-plastic....and there's provision to attach 2 mounting arms facing forward to the 2 other OEM-rack mounts, if needed.





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Some 1.6mm (1/16th) EPDM rubber sheeting to prevent noise through vibration...and possible chafing against the plastic OEM rack.


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Plenty of clearance of the bent-edge now




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Flush mount on top of the SWM cross-brace, using 10mm (3/8th) longer bolts.



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Very neat job by Cobra Powdercoating in Bayswater/ Melbourne Eastern Suburbs.

Down-turned front "wing" to principally follow the angle of the seat to still retain a half-decent pillion perch without the top-plate "biting" into the bum.



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Still easy access to the Quicklock bolts to attach/ remove the side-racks in seconds.



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If it turns out that even more stabilty is needed, the 2 "front-wings" are already slotted and the front 2 OEM-rack mounts within 4" reach ...a couple of narrow, strip-style brackets bent to suit are quickly made and bolted on.
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Frame-Plugs

Issue: Engine mounts are open pipe-shape and collect water, turning to rust



Frame plugs made from some EVA-offcuts I had floating around at work.

Siliconed into place, removable if need be. Weight 1/4 ounce (pair), solid, waterproof.




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glitch

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Staff member
Eruption-IAT spoofer

ITEM SUPERSEDED AFTER ECU RECALL IN 2017/18 WHICH FIXED THE RUNNING AND CUT-OUT ISSUES! CHECK WITH KTM/HUSKY DEALER IF YOUR BIKE (VIN-NUMBER) HAS BEEN REGISTERED FOR THE UPDATE.


Issue:
Most TRs run lean at low rpm's to some point .....many to the point of starving and stalling frequently.
There are various attempts at somehow getting a handle on it, from various spoofers that tell the ECU of a lower intake temperature making the ECU richen-up the fuel-mixture to Lambda-sensor mods at the exhaust side to fool the ECU into "too lean/ skinny CO readings", Autotunes, GS-911s and all sorts of other stuff.






Also got a Wuka-King laying around, another type of spoofer to mimic a permanent "cold-start-mode" to entice the ECU to add fuel to the mixture for the bike to run smoothly)


Fabbing an ERUPTION-Spoofer (IAT-spoofer) (not used, as this particular bike runs fine presently)


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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Cable-routing to/from headlight shell

Issue:

Space around the headstem is tight and choked with other stuff...where/ how to get a bunch of wires from back-to-front?


Cable routing from the headlight shell, piggybacking a 7mm flex-tube onto the existing OEM item.
I used double sided velcro pull-throughs to tie the flex-tubes together.

A good time to throw in an extra pair of wires for later use...and at least one or 2 length of builders-line (thin nylon cord) to pull through wires laterone without the need to tear into things again.




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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Drive-Chain Roller

Issue:
The drive-chain roller wears through the nylon material into the underlying steel bushing, wearing through that and cutting/ grinding the mounting pin off the frame-rail.


Some old PE tubing I bought yonks ago to cut "upper chain rollers" for the Aprilia Pegasos, re-emerged from the shelves.
Same diameters, hooray.

See Purple Pig or other Plastics shops for length of the material, cut with hacksaw.


Aprilia charged A$38 for a ~40mm long piece of this stuff...admittedly, it was black, though.:D


Check for it behind/ inboard of the rear brake fluid reservoir...your chain might've already worn into the white nylon roller material.


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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Wheel swapping, anything goes...sorta

Ebay, Hallelujah! Which also included a near-new 21" front wheel off a BMW G650GS Sertao.


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Quite some height difference...A 19" "road"-hoop mounted on the Strada's cast wheel...with a Mitas07 on the 21" BMW wheel next to it.
The wheels are interchangeable without any further parts.

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Converting a Terra-to-Strada (who would, but W-)) only takes a set of BMW F700GS / G650GS wheels. Brake discs, ABS rings, spacers, axles....everything fits, just slot it in and bolt it up.

Pretty much the same the other way around, but with a far bigger range of choice of BMW wire- wheels in the 17/21 dimensions.
Grab a set of wire- wheels from any F650 Dakar or G650Sertao....or any 17"rears from an F650GS 2002 onwards. If it's got an ABS ring, it'll fit perfectly, nothing else needed.
The Husky-Strada ABS gets a bit flighty on the 18" rears.... even the factory-ABS Terra's (there were only a few of those that came into AUS) came with a 17" BMW rear wheel.

The BMW 21" front wire-wheels come with a 1.6" wide Behr rim for 90/90/21 sized rubber.
The Husky 21" front rim is a 1.8" width, taking 90/90 as well as 100/90 width tyres.
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Overseas Shopping

As for the Husky spare prices in Oz compared to US....


Here's a quote from Halls/ Illinois for the front-end plastic guards/fork-guards and bits convert a Strada road-look into a Terra gravel-look.

The 2 fork-guards, the 2-piece front fender with cable clip and a small brakeline guide with bracket.


US$58.50


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Identical parts from the local Outer Melbourne Husky dealer, MINUS the brakeline "ring and cable bushing".





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Price discrepancies in the 250-400% range, considering the fluctuations in the exchange rates.
And all that aside the fact that the stated 3-4 weeks waiting time in AUS will most likely blow out to 3-4 months.
With everything on the list being available within 2-5 days in the US.
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Sorry to those who might have had a look at this thread a few days ago.
I tried to clean it up while it was active but there was just too much re-jigging, re-writing etc to be done to keep it alive.

Anyway, all done now... and hopefully it's EASY to find what you're interested in.
Just keep going back to the first post (thread-starter) to click the links for each individual item....or browse at your leisure.

:gday:
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Quick Change Pre Filter Mod

Just knitting onto some old posts here...

Issue: Crappy, leaky airbox + filter-holder required surgery.
PodMod done and original air filter holder modded to act as a frame for a pre-filter.
Used a pool sock/skimmer sock sprayed with air filter oil as a disposable filter.

Results: Perfect !! So good in fact, that if the pre-filter sock is changed frequently, the actual air-filter inside the airbox doesn't even have to be checked...re-oil once a year/ 12.000k?

Remaining issue: The air-filter door with attached frame at the back is a VERY tight and awkward fit, the 3 access bolts in idiotic positions and requiring multiple tools.
Also: the plastic threads of the self-tapping screws that hold the door + frame together are already starting to wear, already using over-sized self-tappers.

Attempted Fix: For fast at-the-side-of-the-road changes of the skimmer-sock those 3 door-bolts need replacing with something better and easier. The door/filter frame connection has to become more durable in the long term.
Preference: Have everything at a state where NO TOOLS AT ALL are required and a prepared/ oiled skimmer sock can be installed within a minute.



Original Mod:

The modded OEM-filter frame....door and frame screwed together...


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...oiled skimmer sock draped and tucked under frame edges to hold it in place.


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Current state: the left thread shows a bigger self-tapper


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Fix:

Drill through door and filter frame with 5mm drill



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Using some s/s wing-bolts M5 x 40mm off Ebay which need to be shortened.
Some matching s/s wingnuts are on their way.


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Bolts shortened


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Next...more wing-bolts for the air-filter door with its recessed bolt-locations.


Shortening the bolts to suit and leave the wing-handles just proud of the door-plastics, using some thickwall rubber tubing as a compressible spacer.
A little epoxy glues the parts together to prevent losing any small bits out there on the road when swapping the filter sock.
Curing...

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A little wipe down with some acetone and we're ready to go.


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All the bits in their places....bar the 2 required wingnuts


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Neat fit !!...the place of the OEM filter...now occupied by the pool-sock pre filter and the crankcase breather pod filter.


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New year, new price...5 skimmer sox = $7.50....still damn good value considering the alternatives....


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All lined up for an oiling....3 of the skimmer socks.


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Plastic bag as a "glove"


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...and under the seat they go for some rapid filter changes along the way....


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Now just waiting for those S/S wingnuts to finish things off.

Think, we're onto another winner....

Cost: ~ A$12
 
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