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NEW versys incoming

5K views 30 replies 12 participants last post by  Mark Arnold 
#1 · (Edited)
new to me at least, picking up a 16 LT model with 3k on it this sunday, a few nice addons, like a givi rear carrier plate, adv monster lights. 30 mm risers, motorwerks footpeg lowering blocks, new TKC70's and a bigger puig windscreen.

gotta move to a lighter bike, the concours 14 im on weighs 700+ lbs and im actually nervous riding it. i shattered my left leg and down to 60% use, just enough so that if i drop the big beast i cant pick it up anymore. parking lot/ garage shenanigans are exercises in hoping i dont tip over.

this looks like the lighter bike route to go.

on a related note, who makes a good centerstand. have the homemade crutch jack for my KLR. but really prefer a centerstand for a touring oriented bike.
 
#2 ·
I have a prop stand, which allows me to lift both the front or rear wheel for chain lube or tire plugging, it fits easily in the top of my Trekker case, I don't know of any other simple device that lifts the front wheel, strictly for tire plugging. Cost me nothing, to make less than $25. I have photos in the How To Forum. When home I use a pit stand or the Venom triple tree stand. That is a lowered 2015 650 Versys, I used the same when I had the 07.
 
#5 ·
I have a '15 with now 67k miles on it. I came off of a c-10 Connie that hauled me all over N. America. The itty bitty six fiddy does a marvelous job in it's place and is really a blast once you get to there once you farkle it to want you want/need.

BTW, a Rostra cruise control is installable, quexpress did a marvy write up on it, though you will have to mount it in a different location than he shows on an LT. I replaced the evap canister on my bike.
 
#7 ·
Yeah, I’m kinda obsessive about it. Also helps that I don’t ride in the rain or do any dirt or gravel roads. At my age, and health, I’m a fair weather rider. I’ve got a KLX 250s to get dirty, and occasionally go trail riding with my Grandson.

Actually, I’m no where close to the cleanliness that Weljo2001 does! I was in awe of the post where he cleaned out his sprocket cover!
 
#21 ·
I too am a clean freak when it comes to motorcycles. Mechanically sound and sparkling clean. A clean bike is a happy bike.

As I once heard: "Cleanliness is next to Godliness."

Our mechanic on my last flying job would keep the jet so clean that you could eat your lunch up in the gear well. Love it.

Being a fair weather rider certainly helps maintain the clean.:wink2:
 
#8 · (Edited)
picked up the newish LT model today, after riding it round a few hours here are my impressions of it.

its not tall. not to me at least. 5'9" w a 32 inseam and its perfectly doable, not flat footed doable but balls of both feet down with good control no problem.

gotta do something with the seat, that driving me into the tank shiznit has GOT TO GO. ill be taking a closer look at the spacer mod to get this under control.
then when i can actually sit on the whole seat ill see if its gonna be long distance worthy. theres a medium alaska sheepskin pad on standby..

it turns QUICK. its compact front to back and the steering is light the TKC 70's that are on it now will probably live out their natural life. but a set of good sport touring rubber is going on at the first swap

theres a puig touring screen on it now, the stock was included in the deal as well, itll probably stay in the plastic the puig does pretty well. and ive got good klim/stitch gear to handle any rain that gets by it. thats gotta be a windmill from hell with the little stock screen, not for me.

suspension feels a little soft need to break out the sag tape and get it set up to my 220lb self.

brakes, heard a lot about how the slide pin brakes are inadequate, not so much im thinking get into the abs and the rear wheel is floating thats good enough and more than most can handle, probably hit up speigler for a set of braided stainless lines. i prefer braided lines on all my bikes anyway.

motor, a bit fluffy under 4k but wants to rev like nobody's business. and decently smooth as well, yay rubber engine mounts. may get a flash from steve to clean up the low end, top end is fine.

gearing..WHOA stop 6000 rpm at 80mph indicated? is this normal. there may be a 43 tooth rear in the near future. im not used to running that many revs, motor seems perfectly fine with it
im a bit bugged out about it tho.. thats not natural. remember im coming from a concours 14 turn 6k on that in top gear and you are well north of go to jail speeds.

the luggage is good, kawa did a nice job on it. obviously made by givi but still they put the effort in to provide decent luggage. it will even fit my schuberth C3 pro lid in a side bag with room for other stuff, not a lot of side cases can manage that. well done to kawasaki.

lighting, headlights are meh, not the worst, but could be better. i have a set of cyclops H7 led bulbs that were supposed to go in my klr, ill try em in the versys and see what happens. if theres a bracket that will let me mount some good cyclops optimia driving lights without having to mount a crash cage please speak up.

dash layout, not bad, like the dual tripmeters and it has a fuel gauge yes!! the tach is good and legible, the digital speedo is weird to my old fashioned self but its easily readable ill adapt.

need to hit up motorworks for the above the dash bracket to mount my GPS and a voltmeter/usb charging port.

OH and which little 5 foot nothing 120lb size 4 shoe wearing engineer designed the footpegs. the bike came with motorworks lowering blocks on it but there not much there to lower. does anyone know of a bigger footpeg suited to someone with a size 11EE foot? that will fit this bike? they feel like tricycle pedals after the plastic is broken off of em..


those are my first initial impressions after 3 hours of ownership. feel free to comment in fact please comment of you have any ideas, especially in the gearing and footpeg dept..
 
#10 ·
Yep, 6000 RPMs at 80. That's normal. The cool thing is it is also normal to get 50 MPG running 80. At least I do on my bike running Freeways and I weigh 250 right now.

Welcome to Versys ownership. It took me a little while to get used to some things with it but you will love this bike very soon. Believe me.
 
#13 · (Edited)
so i got the seat mod done, a few spacers and washers along with a piece of heavy gauge metal from work. works a treat, no more sliding forward.

found an extra harness for my wolfman blackhawk tankbag to itll swap between the concours and the versys. the blackhawk is the perfect size for this style/size bike. i have an explorer model that is huge and fits better on a bigger bike. or makes a good tailpack.

added the kawasaki relay under the dash and installed a voltmeter /usb charger along with a spare ramball i had and my old xgrip for the phone/ radar.

bought a set of the sw-motec driving light mounts from twisted throttle. relatively cheap for swmotec and TT like 60 bucks shipped. got them installed after more time than i want to admit on the install. motec install instructions are sparse to say the least,that and my natural i dont need instructions nature is a bad combo. but its done anyway, ill post pics to help whatever other poor soul wants to try it. (think monkey/basketball and an 8mm hex socket)

Ill move the PO installed advmonster model 19 lights from the low foglight/bodywork breaking position to the new mounts and wire them thru a skene dimmer and see how they work. if they are good then good enough if not a set of model 55's looks to be the deal

tried, note i said tried to install some good cyclops H7 led bulbs, swapping a conventional bulb on this bike appears to be duck soup, its right there easily gotten to. getting the retaining wire around the large heatsink on the cyclops leds however is another story, i know these will work, they work on my h7 klr lights but i had to pull the front cowl to get them in, probably gonna have to do the same with this bike as well.

ill start stripping stuff off the klr like my fz1 fuseblock, gps mount/wiring, radar detector mount/wiring and heated gear wiring this week and get it ready to sell. after 12 years and 50k hard adventure touring miles i dont expect to get much for it even with the nice toys on it so off they come.

after that stuff gets transferred ill start with the heated grips, looking at getting a set of oxfords unless someone has a better suggestion?

the GPS and detector will power thru the relay up front and the heated gear/lights/grips will go thru the fuseblock under the seat, the area at the back near the taillight looks like a good spot for the powerblock and theres an accessory circuit for the relay right there.

did stop by cyclegear and get some 8mm spools, now to find the spool adapters for my stand. been using the flat style adapters with my klr for years.

eventually ill get a centerstand. im on the road 250+ days per year and a centerstand is nice for maintenance or plugging/patching a tire in the middle of nowhere alabama. and WOW they are proud of them.. but i cant exactly just throw this one over in the dirt to fix a tire/chain like i did the klr so its a must do eventually.

oH and i really want the over the dash mounting plate for the gps that motowerks sells. that looks really well done and i think it would be better than the handlebar mount option.
 

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#14 · (Edited)
...after that stuff gets transferred ill start with the heated grips, looking at getting a set of oxfords unless someone has a better suggestion?....
KOSO Apollo heated grips. Work GREAT w/ a built-in switch on the left grip.

IMG_2849 by Ed Copeman, on Flickr

IMG_2850 by Ed Copeman, on Flickr

...oh and i really want the over the dash mounting plate for the gps. that looks really well done and i think it would be better than the handlebar mount option....
I made my own for my Gen 3.

P6211173 by Ed Copeman, on Flickr

P7272584 by Ed Copeman, on Flickr

P7272582 by Ed Copeman, on Flickr
 
#16 · (Edited)
updating the progress so far

16t jt front sprocket, it feels a tiny bit harder to get moving from a start but pays dividends on the road with less rpms for a given speed and the speedo is correct to within 1mph now. the gears are so closely spaced that final drive selection is mostly a matter of how hard you want to drive the bike.

swmotec front driving light mount brackets installed, not for the faint of heart or clumsy of finger, they have to install from the bottom. the bracket goes on top of the front fairing stay and the cushion blocks, spacers and bolts have to be installed looking up. the motec instructions arent really clear on this. took a bit to figure it out.

installed the factory kawasaki relay and am running the voltmeter/usb charging ports from it along with my gps. i like how kawasaki did the access for this 2 screws and 2 pushpins and youre in.

mounted a ramball on the left mirror mount, the gps is riding there now. may stay, may move to a motowerks bracket,

pulled the wiring harness and gps cradle for the garmin 660lm off my klr and got it installed. if you travel a lot you dont really notice how much you use one till its not mounted on your new bike.

relocated the previous owner installed advmonster model 19 driving lights from the side of the fairing to the motec brackets, and re-wired the power connection. the PO had them straight from the battery just waiting for me to forget to turn them off and draining the battery, they are powered from the aux light lead under the left fairing now.on/off with the key switch or the microswitch on the bars once the key is on. theyre only 22w for the both, theyll be fine. wouldnt run a pair of 55w lights from it but theres plenty for a pair of 11w lights. led lighting rocks.

what else, did the seat raise mod so i dont slide forward, thats the best 10 bucks youll spend on the bike i think. the foam is kinda thin to me, so the sheepskin helps with the seat.
added a bit too much 3m reflectix tape to the rear. however noone can say they didnt see me at night

added a tender lead with the coax adapter so i can run my heated gear.

things to do

removed the fz1 fuseblock from the klr and will get it installed this week, thatll power the heated grips when they get here. and will move the tender and heated gear leads to it.

was going to order a valentine radar detector, my old escort x50 black is past its prime, it alerts on every lane sensing radar within 50 feet. however theres not a V1 to be had. theyre coming out with a new model and the old one is discontinued. there are way too many localities in the south that depend on traffic ticket revenue so this is a must have for me, F'em they can raise taxes im not paying the mayors salary.

I have to break down and pull the front mask and get the cyclops H7 led bulbs installed. the factory lights are weak and look like an afterthought compared to the driving lights. im on the road working out of my toyhauler so next time in in ill remember to grab the skene dimmer off the shelf and get the driving light working properly, but it'll be mid november before i make the trip in so ill probably just order another one before then.

also the topbox that i thought was a givi from the craigslist ad isnt a givi, its a bestem/emgo. sort of a mini givi, the mounts look the same but the spacing is way different so none of my givi boxes will mount on the plate. so, theres a custom made aluminum givi mounting plate on the klr that ill transfer over. i made it out of a 1/4" thick pump mounting base. and sell the klr with just the stock rack on it. a bit of drilling and maybe a few spacers and it should work out. the arms for the emgo box look plenty sturdy. i dont run with a lot in a topbox its mostly for groceries and to stash my jacket/helmet at stops. but the big mounting plate i made will carry my 40l drybag with my camping kit perfectly.

lets see, what else need? done? handguards, need bigger handguards the stock LT handguards look nice but i would like a bit more coverage for winter riding. does anyone know of a bigger handguard cover that will fit without extensive modification? im running maier atv woods pros on the klr, big and ugly but very effective. I would like something similar for the versys.
 

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#17 ·
...lets see, what else need? done? handguards, need bigger handguards the stock LT handguards look nice but i would like a bit more coverage for winter riding. does anyone know of a bigger handguard cover that will fit without extensive modification?....
Try "Hippo hands" like weljo does on his V1000...l
 
#19 · (Edited)
little progress to report, been mostly riding it. theres a skene dimmer arriving tomorrow and a set of oxford sport version heated grips waiting to be installed. along with the fz1 fuseblock i pulled off the klr.
i went with the sport over the adventure style grips due to the fit, you dont have to trim them and they are a little fatter which i prefer.

I did get my givi mounting plate installed, my v46 now rides with me ill get a pic of the install up asap. i built this in 2002 out of a pump base that installed for a customer. its seen over 200k on 3 different bikes, this will be the 4th bike to wear it.

did get some interesting numbers about the charging system tho.
trying my 90w warm-safe jacket liner the other evening. I can run the liner at full load toughly 108w at 14.1v with the 10w driving lights on for another 20w load and hold 14.1v on the voltmeter. adding the highbeam for another 55w drops the voltage down to 13.8v
the stator/RR will put out full voltage of 14.1 v at 2200 rpm so basically if youre moving youre getting all the power it has.
this is a a nice change from some that dont make full output till 4000 rpm or so
my voltmeter is only .1v precision and ift fluctuates between 14.1 and 14.2 v at full load. the true rms reading is somewhere in the middle i think,
but for practical purposes 14.1 is what i define as max v/output.

I didnt add the heated gloves into the circuit, that would be another 36w load but ill have the heated grips installed next week and get a reading with them on then. i like to maintain 13.2v to avoid battery discharge. if i cant get that with the grips on high and hi-beam on ill install the LED headlight bulbs which should save 40w or so. and may let me run grips and gloves both, run them both at a low setting and you never feel the cold at all at least on other setups ive ran. if its cold enough to run them both past 50% its too cold for me to be riding. even wearing the roadcrafter with baselayers theres a limit I can take, did it at 12 degrees F a few times but im older now and that isnt fun anymore.

with the way the oxford controller works< i may not need to add the fuzeblock, ill have to puzzle that one out. probably will tho. if theres a way to kill a battery in the middle of nowhere ill find it so i think the relay controlled central power is prolly the way to go. rather than trusting the grip controller to shut them off if i forget to.

I need to research whether the power for the skene dimmer can be taken from the driving light lead under the fairing or if it needs hooked to the battery/fuseblock. im referring to the power for the unit that it consumes, I have power for the lights which will come from the aux light lead but theres a seperate power just for the unit that may need to be on a battery to maintain settings.
the fz1 fuzeblock has two choices for each circuit,relay controlled or battery direct depending on which side you put the fuse in. but thats another wire going back to under the seat. that ill have to open up the harness to add in, all this stuff takes a bit to install.

need to get a thermobob installed, had one on the klr and it worked great, tho the install on the versys looks to be considerably more complex,
same connections but a lot more stuff to move to get to it. if nothing else ill have a really good understanding of how to dismantle a versys 650 before this is done.
 

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#29 ·
Mosfet / Series / Shunt /Not The Same


I have a posting here;https://www.kawasakiversys.com/foru...20962-thermo-bob-2015-older-info-install.html
got my oxford sport heated grips installed today, those puppies will roast on hi setting, i discovered the best way for me to use them is crank the bike set the grips to high then helmet and gloves when ready to ride switch to 50% setting and thats plenty, even with my standard weight aerostitch ropers. also discovered my fz1 fuzebox relay side no longer functions, so its battery direct till i get a replacement.

Did a bit of testing with the 90w heated liner grips and lights. on low beam i can run jacket and grips on hi no problem 13.8 on the voltmeter.
things go downhill quickly when the hi beams come into play tho. the extra 55w for the high beam and the extra 18w for the driving lights at 100% really drags the voltage down. with grips and jacket on hi it drops to 12.2v, not enough. need to hold 13.2v to avoid discharge. I can hold 13.8 with the grips and liner set at 50% but i really want that liner at 100%, So it looks like Ill have to go with the led headlights to save 40w or so and give me a bit of headroom on voltage.
You can gain 10 watts by replacing the city lights with the Philips LED ones, I have something like 600 hours on them so far. Also a word of caution, first I don't know of any LED replacement that works well in the MK-3, beam spread is all over the place, yes I am running a 6000 lumen LED on low, I would say I got a extra 500 lumens on the road over my Osram 65 watt halogen bulbs, roughly 3500 lumens is going in the air and to the curb, if you deliver pizza, bonus, you want to P**s off / blind oncoming cars, perfect. A word of caution, reducing load such as you are suggesting will create a additional load on the shunt regulator, I don't know what it is rated for shunting, my advice is to switch to a series regulator, worth every penny.
 
#24 · (Edited)
an update is due,

I got the skene dimmer wired in and the little adv monster model 19's aligned to use as driving lights, they work better than i had hoped, plenty of light when switched to 100% on high and the 10% lo beam setting hasnt earned me any brights back in my face. so i think theyre good to go. seriously, if your looking add lights to your ride check them out. I actually mounted and wired them just for the purpose of seeing if my wiring skill are as good as i hope they are. i had planned on replacing them with some cyclops optimas. no need they are good to go. 5-600 feet of good useable light. not the 1000' range of the optimas mounted on the concours 14 but this bike doesnt travel quickly enough to make that a necessity. if youre going to run at night at reasonable speeds and are willing to put in the effort to wire in a dimmer its the best value going in a light set in my book.

also mounted the fz1 fuzebox in the tray where the toolkit used to ride. just velcroed it in so i can pull it out for service if need be. the tool kit relocated to a spot at the rear under the seat like it was meant to go there, the rubber retaining strap even works with some stock points that look like it was made for them.

I wired the lead for the heated gear into the relay controlled side of the fuzeblock and the lead for the battery tender into the non-relay controlled side thats tied direct to battery. both work as intended. ill add the power lead for the oxford heated grips to the relay controlled side when i install them.

a word on powering the driving lights, i pulled power from the relay controlled accessory bullet connector under the left side of the fairing to run the lights and power the skene dimmer. its pulls less than a watt to run so its good. for the grounds i carried a single 12ga stranded forward from the ground strip side of the fuseblock. I really dont care for frame grounds. ill tie the ground for the heated grips into it as well. that'll have only one hot for the grips and one common ground running in a wiring sleeve tied to the inside of the frame, clean and neat

i like clean and neat installs, easier to troubleshoot if something goes wrong and sooner or later something will go wrong and you will have no idea how you wired this at 1am on the side of the road in east jesus wyoming. if its done neatly you can at least figure it out instead of looking at a spaghetti mess and thinking dammit.. i keep a log book on all my bikes with the usual maintenance stuff about oil,tires,services done, brakes etc. but also lists any accessories ive added and how they are wired and gives me a lead on who to contact if i need replacements,

all connections except for the bullet connectors to the factory wiring and the terminals of the fuze block are soldered, heat shrinked and ran in 1/2" wiring loom. the best installs are the ones that noone else can tell aren't factory harnesses.

i was futzing with the posilocks that come with the dimmer and finally thought dummy get the soldering iron, so i did. much better/neater/secure.
did use the supplied posi-tap for the trigger wire from high beam signal tho. those are quite handy. altho the tap has to go on the positive side of the bulb, nothing happens on the negative side, (hey i had a 50/50 shot)
to get to said headlight wire I had to remove the left fairing. bet a tenner it had never been off, very tight and difficult to remove from the rubber grommets holding it on.
didnt plan on it but it needed to happen and i needed to know how to strip the bike. i know now. itll be handy when i do the thermobob. and a little wd-40 on the grommets goes a long way towards making removal and reinstall easier. ( did it 3 times just so i would know how its done)

im taking my personal truck home tomorrow with the versys on a trailer. I got a new company ride finally after the old one wore out and will just ride the versys back to work on sunday evening. thatll be a nice 350 mile shakedown run to see how this is really gonna work as a traveling bike. should be good, have roadcrafter and heated jacket/gloves/grips. ive done worse on lesser machines.

just a few thing left to do, heated grips, thermobob, and figure out how to pull the front mask/headlight bucket off to install the H7 led bulbs that i still havent done yet. oddly enough the headlight thing is the one that concerns me as i have no idea and havent had time to figure it out. after that it'll just be regular maintenance and a lot of riding hopefully.
 
#25 ·
Nicely done.

I will add that I use a silicone spray for lubing the grommets, I think it may be better(less harmful) for the rubber.

Have fun with the Therm O Bob, not nearly as daunting as it first may appear. I like how mine works on my '15.
 
#28 · (Edited)
got my oxford sport heated grips installed today, those puppies will roast on hi setting, i discovered the best way for me to use them is crank the bike set the grips to high then helmet and gloves when ready to ride switch to 50% setting and thats plenty, even with my standard weight aerostitch ropers. also discovered my fz1 fuzebox relay side no longer functions, so everything is on the battery direct side of the box till i get a replacement relay or completely replace the fusebox.


Did a bit of testing with the 90w heated liner grips and lights. on low beam i can run jacket and grips on hi no problem 13.8 on the voltmeter.
things go downhill quickly when the hi beams come into play tho. the extra 55w for the high beam and the extra 18w for the driving lights at 100% really drags the voltage down. with grips and jacket on hi it drops to 12.2v, not enough. need to hold 13.2v to avoid discharge. I can hold 13.8 with the grips and liner set at 50% but i really want that liner at 100%, So it looks like Ill have to go with the led headlights to save 40w or so and give me a bit of headroom on voltage.
 
#31 ·
got my venom front triple tree lift stand in today, went together easy. its a nice lift, not pitbull quality your not gonna get that from a $80 lift but good large diameter tubing and clean welding with decent paint on it. would have no issue recommending the venom stands to anyone else, better quality than the cyclegear trackside brand.
had to buy the extra pin kit to get the 27mm pin for kawasaki trees. but I now have enough pins to fit darn near any bike i ever need to work on.
always wanted a headlift, now i have one.
yay me.

like i said not pitbull quality, but i dont do commercial work or run a race team either so i didnt need to go there. and its some $110+ cheaper even with the extra pin kit.

not a lot else to report on, have the thermobob i ordered here on the bench but have worked the last 2 weekends so no time to install it. same with the LED bulbs no time to get into the shop to work on it.

i did put a corbin saddle on my christmas wish list, im partial to the corbins, the firmness seems to work for me. so thatll be the next thing try. sargent seats arent bad, just prefer the lower height and firmness of a corbin on most bikes ive ran them on. ive had 4 corbins and 2 sargents over 4 different bikes, my rear end works with the corbins a bit better. YMMV
 
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