94 DR650 Trail tech vapor install - speedo rear wheel?

[94DR650RIDER]

Hey just ordered  a Trail Tech Vapor Kit  for my kids 96 DR650 for Xmas.   He Had a crash a while back and the stock speedo and tach are shot. Kind of a joke keeping them on there now...        We got some RM Showa USD shocks up front now and rather not have speedo going to FT with that shock travel and routing , etc.   Anyone tap off the rear hub/rotor  for Speedo pulse?   Also any tips for picking up the temp and tach on the DR?

 

TKS

Ken 

[Older and Slower]

Used a vapor for a while, now using a differnet one. I had the vapor, and now the other one driven from the rear wheel. I made a bracket out of a piece of .060 stainless steel that bolted to the caliper with one of the caliper bolts and the magnet replaced one of the rotor bolts. Easy-peasy.

When i had the vapor, i had the tach input connected to the hot side of the coil, and the temp sensor went to the top oil banjo replacing one of the banjo copper rings. Worked very well.

Edited December 20, 2014 by Older and Slower

[William1]

You can run it to the back wheel though wheel spin will make it respond funny.

When installed to a front wheel, you zip tie the wire to the brake line, i is a non-issue.

[Older and Slower]

Well ... wheel spin is a non-issue as when i'm backing it into a corner, the LAST thing i'm looking at is the speedo. Never has been a problem and the wiring is out of the way. If you're off road going thru the brush, it has less of tendency to get snagged. Also, zip ties deteriorate over time.

 

Just 40 years experience raising hell on motorcycles.

 

Cheers

[94DR650RIDER]

Well ... wheel spin is a non-issue as when i'm backing it into a corner, the LAST thing i'm looking at is the speedo. Never has been a problem and the wiring is out of the way. If you're off road going thru the brush, it has less of tendency to get snagged. Also, zip ties deteriorate over time.

 

Just 40 years experience raising hell on motorcycles.

 

Cheers

 

Those were my thoughts  the Ft suspension has a lot more movement  with the steering and shock stroke.   The Upside down  shocks make the brake hose and anything else attached to lower end of fork move more.

and I see a nice route for wiring  on the rear swing arm along the rear brake line.  less attached to the FT forks the better.

Thanks for the inputs!   

Ken

[jjktmrider]

Can't say I've ever heard of anyone thinking it would be an issue with one of those sensors on the front forks. I have four bikes now with usd conversions , used offroad, in brush,bit of mud, ride all winter snow/ice. no concerns or even a distant issue of that little cable having troubles.  Good quality zip ties take years to even think about getting brittle and they are $3 for 100, just snip and replace every 3 years. Front wheel is more accurate consistently, shorter length to run the wire , "extra " movement is irrelevant because there really isn't much more. Any kit you get will be made for front mounting even, I don't think they'll even have a cable long enough to reach because nobody does it.

 

I also use fork guards so the chrome tubes don't get sandblasted and cause short seal life , they have mounts on them for the brake lines and a cleaner look and function.

 

]

Edited December 27, 2014 by jjktmrider

[kezzajohnson]

Hey just ordered  a Trail Tech Vapor Kit  for my kids 96 DR650 for Xmas.   He Had a crash a while back and the stock speedo and tach are shot. Kind of a joke keeping them on there now...        We got some RM Showa USD shocks up front now and rather not have speedo going to FT with that shock travel and routing , etc.   Anyone tap off the rear hub/rotor  for Speedo pulse?   Also any tips for picking up the temp and tach on the DR?

 

TKS

Ken 

I would imagine you will have to lengthen the speedo wire to attach to the rear. Honestly, I think you are waisting your time. There are no issues with attaching to the front and if you feed the wire through the brake line loops and zip tie it in a couple of places, it's gold. I have never had any issues with the line snagging.

 

 

I enlarged the spark plug temp guage sensor and at attached it to the upper oil line banjo as seen in the photo below. Gives a nice stable reading fairly close to actual oil temp. There are proper oil sensors you can but and attach but in my opinion they are a bit open to damage because they attach to the sump.

 

 

My tacho sensor wire is attached to the coil connector block as seen in the photo below (thin red wire). I preferred this option to the ugliness of coiling the wire around a plug lead

 

Edited December 29, 2014 by kezzajohnson

[94DR650RIDER]

 Thanks,  for the images and inputs guys!     I agree  the  front wheel will be appropriate. Sometimes I want to do a twist on the norm. but no sense in making things more complex.  The simple routing, common to other applications for the next owner makes sense.  Also the FT hydraulic line needs to be there anyway so tag along to it.  -Yes wire ties are fine as mentioned.   

 

"kezzajohnson" ,  The Oil temp pickup is an interesting thought, have to weigh if we want to read Cylinder head temp or Oil Temp. what temps do you see? I suspect Cyl. head may trend higher.   Piston / valve failure is always a bad thing so off the plug may trigger something is up before the sump oil. I realize your oil pickup is still on the head. 

 

Your coil pickup looks clean as shown.   Did you press the pin out or just shove it in?  I may want to push the pin out  strip the lead back to expose wire just above the connector then solder the red wire in and slide some shrink tube over (making a Y of sorts) ,  then press the pin back in.

 

Looked at the other version with  volt display   and opted for this one  

But picked up a volt display and some LEDS for neutral and High beam we will add to custom bracket .

 

Another Twist on this bike -  the key  vibrated out one day after a ride ( left us in ON position)   so we dumped the IGN sw have a tandem dual toggle switch  one is run and other is power - lights on  you need the combination to start and ride.  so kind of an anti theft.     ( also have a separate switch wire run under rear fender  to disable run  but not wired in  yet)     Once running you can kill all lights  like for off road or   in case  you need to ditch someone...   

 

We will try and post up some images when we dig into this for the other newbies attempting adding the digital unit.

K

Edited December 30, 2014 by 94DR650RIDER

[jjktmrider]

For oil temps I got the 6mm threaded probe and drill a hole in the valve cover so the probe is physically touching the oil. With the probe up at the head it gives a good reading on the head temp which is where it'll be the hottest first usually. Worst is that the cover has to come off to do it. I tried the ring terminal sensor and it was quite a ways off and conciderably slower in response to temp changes. I had one of each TTO gauges side by side on the bars to compare the 2 .

[kezzajohnson]

 

Edited December 30, 2014 by kezzajohnson

[kezzajohnson]

 

Edited December 30, 2014 by kezzajohnson

[kezzajohnson]

Yes, I pushed the pin out and soldered the red wire to it as well and shoved it back in. Didn't use any heat shrink as there was no bare wire exposed.

 

Re: Oil temps.

A watercooled bike monitors coolant temperature and not cylinder head temperature, so that was my way of thinking with the Oil cooled DR650.  

The Vapor won't provide a temp reading until it reaches 40 degrees C.  

I have nothing to compare with but I do have have benchmarks that i use as the norm when monitoring my temps.  For example, with my setup I have found it to be fairly responsive to changes in conditions and road speeds eg; Normal riding it reads between 65 to 75 degrees celcius. Stop/start commuting and slow bush riding it creeps into the 90's celcius. Stopped and Idling for ages it will go up into around 120 celcius but won't keep climbing much past about 120 celcius. Seems it will idle all day and not overheat. Unlike a watercooled bike.

 

I am not overly concerned about piston or valve failure as I maintain my bike well and it's a DR, which is more likely to have a 3rd gear failure anyway. More, I monitor my temps because it will alert me if they are suddenly or unusually higher than what they normally are under same conditions. Because of that, where and how the pickup is for the temp is irrelevant really and up to the owner who can then monitor them once the benchmarks have been set depending on where and how they have installed the temp sensor.

 

[MR5627]

Those were my thoughts  the Ft suspension has a lot more movement  with the steering and shock stroke.   The Upside down  shocks make the brake hose and anything else attached to lower end of fork move more.

and I see a nice route for wiring  on the rear swing arm along the rear brake line.  less attached to the FT forks the better.

Thanks for the inputs!   

Ken

 

 

I just bought a 2000 Dr with 2800 miles on it, and will be overhauling it as soon as I get it.  I love that front plate / headlight combo on your bike.  What brand is it, is it good for lighting, or is it cosmetic, and where did you get it?

 

Thanks.

 

Mark R.

Albuquerque 

[94DR650RIDER]

Hi Mark, The headlight is a Stock 08 KTM  headlight.  When My son wrecked the stock headlight ( and forks)  we were looking at alternate headlights    and tried the Polisport MMX   and the light was very dim and the bulb was odd looked difficult to find a replacement so returned it.

 

My Sons friend came buy with the used KTM headlight   it was orange and we repainted it . The light bulb in it was similar to the Polisport and also dim compared to the stock light.   We ended up installing a H4 halogen 55/60 at bulb in and lighting is way better. ( It's a common easy to get Bulb ) . Installing the bulb with the correct orientation was critical. Originally we installed up side down  it didn't last a week.   Revisiting the mounting also helped, it fits into the socket but really didn't lock securely  and we were using foil tape  on the backside to secure it .    Well worked okay but still vibrated loose  so I made a locking  disk for the bulb. The locking ring is   basically a .09 Delrin disk with two tabs to lock - the tabs have a small radius sanded into them to lock with the KTM locking grooves.  Two more tabs allow you to get your fingers on it to twist and lock. 

 

 I think the High beam on continuously will drain the battery as it seems my son went riding during the day and left high beam on, then got a no start on the trail.   The dual switches we have replacing the IGN Key allow for RUN and LIGHTS.   Both need to be on to start,  then the light switch and be turned off  and ALL lights are off  for on the trail etc.   I guess if we swapped out a higher output Stator  it would be more robust with that bulb arrangement.

the other hole in the KTM reflector is for a running light, it always seemed to vibrate out    so just left it out   and it may help provide some cooling , So far the lens has held up fine with the 60 watt halogen. when the high beam is on you are normally riding so lens is in the air stream . Not sure if you let it sit a long time with high beam on and not moving really no sense in doing that. 

 

Here is a link to a KTM  copy that is priced reasonable,  and there are some from china a little cheaper. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/KTM-EXC-XC-MXC-250-450-525-530-WHITE-DIRT-BIKE-HEADLIGHT-HEAD-LAMP-FAIRING-/281490781057?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&fits=Make%3AKTM&hash=item418a287381&vxp=mtr

 

And the OEM version

http://www.ebay.com/itm/KTM-COMPLETE-HEADLIGHT-MASK-KIT-FITS-ALL-W-EXC-BIKES-08-13-NEW-/301423658332?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item462e40055c&vxp=mtr

 

 

 

 

This is the volt display we will be adding to keep an eye on the battery,    

$8 shipped from China took 2 weeks to get it.

• Input voltage:12V-24V

• Measure voltage: 6 ~ 33V

• Lights color: red

• Size: 3.5 x 2.7cm(L x D)

Edited January 2, 2015 by 94DR650RIDER