Passes & Canyons Blog

The new SW Motech crash bars and skid plate make my V-Strom much more prepared for riding off the pavement.

I’m not much of one to add stuff to a motorcycle. The V-Strom is proving to be the exception.

Besides the throttle lock and top bag I already added to that bike, I’m now pleased to say that I have added crash bars and a skid plate. Next up is highway pegs, although that has proven trickier than I expected.

I wasn’t planning to take the V-Strom on the OFMC trip last week but the Concours had a rear tire that was so on the cusp of whether it would make it or not that I decided not to chance it. But I didn’t want to go on another long ride, like last year, on a bike with no highway pegs. We’re talking about you, V-Strom.

The problem was, there is nowhere on a stock V-Strom to attach highway pegs. A related problem with the V-Strom is that the radiator and oil filter are just hanging out down there, fully exposed to anything flying up off the road. I don’t understand Suzuki’s thinking on that. That’s just too vulnerable, especially if you go off the pavement.

Fortunately the solution to one problem provides a solution to the other. Put on crash bars, which gives you a place to attach a skid plate, and that protects the radiator and oil filter. It also gives you something to attach highway pegs to.

Thanks very much to Ben Kriederman at House of Motorrad, I got the crash bars and skid plate on on Thursday evening before we left town on Friday. I’m truly grateful to Ben for putting these things on for me because there was no way I was going to be able to do it myself.

I did try. The problem was, although attaching the bars was pretty simple, just four bolts on each side of the bike, busting those bolts loose was beyond my meager tools. I had an allen wrench and an extender but I quickly saw that if I applied enough pressure to bust the bolts loose, all that would actually happen would be that I would bend the heck out of my allen wrench.

It’s wonderful having the right tools for the job. Ben did and he quickly took care of the bars, but then the skid plate even gave him some trouble. It seems the (supplied) replacement bolts fit fine but the (not supplied) washers were just too small for the new bolts. They had to be drilled out.

Ben got ‘er done and even threw in an oil change while the bike was up on the lift. Nice guy.

The next day, on my way out of town, I stopped at Vickery and bought some highway pegs. I figured I’d put them on in Brush or in Chadron when I had a moment. Uh-uh. The pegs came with two sizes of strap to go around the bars, but the small (7/8″) was too small and the large, with the provided spacers, came completely together without being tight enough to hold the peg in place. So I made the whole ride without highway pegs again. Fortunately, this trip was mostly short rides so I didn’t miss them terribly.

I figure now the thing to do is put some rubber strips under the strap to both prevent scraping metal on metal and to take up room, making it possible to tighten things and have it hold in place. I was hoping to do that yesterday but it didn’t get done. It will get done this weekend.

Then, let’s see . . . what else does this bike need?

Biker Quote for Today

Money can’t buy happiness. But… it can buy a motorcycle. And you can’t be sad on a motorcycle.

This may not be a big deal for most motorcyclists, but I just got highway pegs on my Kawasaki Concours. So why is it a big deal for me?

Because for many, many years there were none available. The fact that you can finally get highway pegs for a Concours is thanks to Murph, not Kawasaki. Who is Murph? Murph is a guy who has taken it upon himself to create and market a wide variety of accessories specifically for the Concours. With the first highway pegs he created for the bike you had to cut a hole through your body work, which a lot of guys did, but others were reluctant to do.

But Murph kept at it and now he has come out with a set that requires cutting through a bit of plastic underneath the body work (out of sight) but not the body work itself. You mount the main bolt to the spot where the radiator bolt normally resides, and then a bracket goes sideways from that spot and pokes out one of the vent slots on the fairing. That’s where you attach the pegs.

Now, I’m pretty handy with a wrench, but trying to get clear on what I needed to do to install these things had me bothered. Fortunately, I didn’t have to go it alone. The local chapter of the Concours Owners Group, which I recently rejoined, has a yearly tradition of meeting at Rick Hall’s place up the South St. Vrain Canyon for Wrench and Retch. Folks ride on up to Rick’s and help each other out with the work they need to do on their Connies. Steve, whose last name I didn’t get, has a 1999 Concours, same as mine, and has the same pegs, so he helped me install mine. Rick supplies the tools and the workshop. Rick also cooks up a big pot of chili each year for after the wrenching is all done.

So finally! Now I can go out on these long trips we take each year and I’ll have a way to reposition my legs. Heck, I used them on the way home. From Rick’s I went on up the St. Vrain to the Peak to Peak Highway and on home that way. It was about 75 miles and my legs were ready for some shifting long before I got home. And by gum, they work! Thanks Murph.

Biker Quote for Today

Always replace the cheapest parts first.