The task was simple, get up early on a Saturday, ride to some campsite upstate New York eat/sleep and return... of course that was the plan.
New York State has quite a good website that allows you to search for parks and facilities throughout the state. I did exactly this on Saturday morning to find a suitable camping location I could reasonably ride to - in the end I settled for a campsite at the Hudson River Islands State Park
located on a small peninsula in the Hudson River which looked great on the map...
I loaded my bike, rode for ~4 hours (taking a few twisty mountain passes along the way) pulled into the park to read the information sign and then realized I'd made one small error.
Half the land on the peninsula is privately owned which prevents people from accessing the campsite except by boat !! I'm sure if I'd read all the information about this place before I'd dashed out the door I'd have realized...
OK, so that is daft but that was just the beginning -- when I attempted to restart my bike, nothing !! Seems the battery was flat?! I'm still not sure what has caused the problem (there clearly is one) but I was able to push start the bike pretty much right away which was a good thing because I was in the middle of nowhere.
No now the mystery, what's up with the bike and it seems there may be a related recall on the matter.
So much for camping!
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Make: KAWASAKI Model: KL650E Model Year: 2008 Manufacturer: KAWASAKI MOTORS CORP., U.S.A. Mfr's Report Date: FEB 19, 2009 NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID Number: 09V062000 N/A NHTSA Action Number: N/A Component: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:WIRING Potential Number of Units Affected: 16167 Summary: KAWASAKI IS RECALLING 16,167 MY 2008-2009 KLR 650 (KL650E8F/L, KL650E9F/L) MOTORCYCLES. WIRES IN THE WIRING HARNESS MIGHT BE DAMAGED DUE TO RUBBING CONTACT WITH A PORTION OF THE MOTORCYCLE FRAME. Consequence: THIS COULD RESULT IN LOSS OF ELECTRICAL POWER TO THE ENGINE CREATING A RISK OF A CRASH RESULTING IN INJURY OR DEATH. Remedy: DEALERS WILL INSPECT AND IF NECESSARY REPLACE THE MAIN WIRING HARNESS FREE OF CHARGE. THE RECALL BEGAN ON FEBRUARY 24, 2009. OWNERS MAY CONTACT KAWASAKI AT 866-802-9381. Notes: CUSTOMERS MAY ALSO CONTACT THE NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION'S VEHICLE SAFETY HOTLINE AT 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), OR GO TO HTTP://WWW.SAFERCAR.GOV .
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