Have you ever used your OEM horn on this bike, and yet this is the best thought you can conjure up?

Now meet the PIAA Slimline Sports Horn. 

• 115dB, 500Hz lightweight horn is easy to install
  
• Perfect for limited-space applications
• No wiring harness is required
• Product ID: 1027206
• Manufacturer: PIAA
• Manufacturer Part#: 76501
  

Any aftermarket horn is going to be larger than your OEM horn.  And while you could have just plopped it into the same location as the OEM, I thought it was a bit curmudgeon looking.  When installing the horn, make sure that the vents are down (so you have half a hope that it might drain out after you ford water!)

Here's where I relocated it to:

To get it there, I unbolted the OEM bracket and reattached it to the bracket near the coolant reservoir.  Notice I have intentionally put the bolt heads on the "motor side", in case a bad crash they won't push into engine vital bits.

The horn does not appear to need a relay. There is plenty of slack in the OEM horn harness to get to this location.  Additionally, I was able to reuse the OEM horn connector by just snipping one of the 2 webbings.  Using a pair of dikes, just snip the webbing on the connector furthest from the wires.  This will enable them to open wide enough for you to slide them on the PIAA spade connectors. Removing the obnoxious PIAA sticker makes the horn blend into the bike better.

There are few things in life that are illustrative as a practical example.  Having recently returned from the Trans America Trail, there were two minor nits that needed to be dealt with.  The first was the utter lack of power at altitude.  I know you are a little bike, but really sweetie, you were completely gutless when faced with adversity nearing the summit of Imogene Pass.  Yes, I do realize that it was an extreme example, but we must conquer!  So, with that, I've installed a Power Commander V Fuel Injection module.  The installation is a snap...well once you watch the you tube video and locate the connectors.

The main module tucks neatly under the headlight assembly, and you would never know it's there once the headlight is secured in place.

Next up was taking the chill out of the cold mountain mornings.  How about a set of Heated grips?  So, part of the "problem" is that folks report that aftermarket grips don't produce enough heat to overcome the heat dissipation of an Aluminum aftermarket bars.  Secondly, many report that aftermarket grips are not robust enough.  My other personal pet peeve is companies that don't provide a switch, or provide a switch which is not waterproof.  For all the reasons, I chose to use the Oxford Adventure Heaterz.  Their switch has a dimming feature, auto turns off and also monitors battery voltage. 

I moved all the switches towards the center of the bike to compensate for the Adventure Heaterz, which are a bit longer than grips that were mounted on my Pro-Taper bars.  Another issue I had was getting the left side grip onto the knurled bar end.  It was so tight, that I didn't use any glue, but a whole lot of tire lube!

I was lucky that I previously installed an Eastern Beaver 3 circuit, and there was an open port.  Which uses all switched circuits.  Switched circuits are turned off when the bike is shut down. The picture on the left shows the grey connectors that Eastern Beaver provides.  They are robust, if not a bit on the big side for bike work. You can also see that 3-circuit unit which is captive between the frame and the relay.  The picture on the rights is the relay switch. 

I've used some electrical tape to keep some same fuses with me.

My only real nit with this kit, is that since it's a universal kit, the wiring loom is too long.  So, let's get to tucking those up. I've used some 3/4" heat tubing which I don't shrink to give the connectors some additional water resistance.  Then I zip tie them on behind the headlight on the top.

While it could never look factory, I am pleased with the final install appearance. To keep the wiring loom on the back side of the triple tree, I intentionally mounted the controller upside-down.  It is mounted to the Highway DirtBike plate with double sided sticky tape.  It's important that you make sure you leave a reasonable gap (2-3 quarters thick) on the throttle side to the hand guards.  Rubber expands when hot, and you don't want the throttle to be bound up on the hand guards!  Also, notice how the wire routes over the top of the handlebars.  This position is necessary so that that the throttle can rotate without snagging on the clutch perch or front brake reservoir. Also, the throttle will require the use of the supplied super glue (which starts curing really FAST!, but then fully cures in 24 hrs).

While Garmin is capable of making some fancy smancy GPS units, the same folks make some floppy mounts.  Floppy in the sense it's possible to pop that $900 bucks right out and skip it down the highway.  Here's a nifty trick.

Here are the parts sourced from Lowes:
The Hillman Group Spiral Wrist Band - Plastic Key Rings Item #: 33287 | Model #: 701304
Gardner Bender 10-Piece 1" X 1" Black Mounting Pads Item #: 292685 | Model #: 45-1MBUVL

From auto parts store:
3M™ VHB™ Tape 4910 Clear (It comes with foam tape, but I have really good luck with this stuff)

I hang the wrist band off the mirror mount. Works with both mounts I have including touratech locking mount and the stocker Garmin mount.

  Here's another option I've seen, but never personally used.  This is a GoPro Hero mount from Ebay.

One of the most important things about mods to the bike, is the law of unintended consequences.  In this case, shortening the suspension also required the kickstand to be shortened.  Now, the kickstand doesn't appear to be magically complex part (in fact it has no moving parts), so this ought to relatively easy task.  Except it's not.

For one, I am sure there is some fancy smancy correlation between running length of the kickstand, bike lean angle and suspension sag, but I for one don't have the stomach to dig all those numbers up.  So, instead we do the next best thing.  We intend to cut the kickstand in bites to get the correct angle.  This would have been a flawless method, had we not got a bit greedy, and taken that last 1/2" off.  

So you ask, why does it matter that the kickstand is too short.  Perhaps the most annoying thing, is that when you mount/dismount, the bike can pivot around the rear tire.  Additionally, when you park it on anything, very.slightly off true flat, you'll likely barely get off to and stand up so you can watch the leaning tower of pisa.  Except your learning tower of pisa actually falls! 

But once you get the correct length, you can't just weld the kickstand back together.  Instead, the proper way is to reinforce the hollow tube with a metal pin which provides strength, and also something to weld to. Here's the pin being lathed.

So the WR250 is panning out--it's now a nice modern fuel injected motor on a nice fitting chassis.  It's a hare taller than the DR200, and I could probably get it lowered, but I will ride for a bit before I make the final decision to lower it some more. Bruce finally realized as long as the bike isn't too long over the tank, or too heavy, pretty much any bike is game!

While I have been using them a few big trips, I think this mod from Big Dogs Adventures sled will be very handy!  It will replace the flimsy bag liners that come stock with the bags, which should make loading the bags faster and less annoying.  First,  start with exactly this trashcan that hasn't been produced since 2012.  As oval shape has gone out of vogue, it was tough to find a replacement...but I think I have it!  The Container Store still stocks them. They were a bit sluggish mailing them, and a bit spendy, but hey I didn't have to go to every Walmart in the free market to sleuth out old stock.

Capacity:
5.2 Gal / 20 L

Dimensions:
13 3/4" L x 9 3/4" W x 19" H

White
(073149) UPC ✓Digit: 10828-9
I2of5: 1-00-73149-10828-6

Black
(073149) UPC ✓Digit: 10829-6
I2of5: 1-00-73149-10829-3

The first few outtings in this configuration we a bit unnearving as the gas light comes on around 90 miles.  However, the bike then gets another 150 miles before really needing a refuel.  I guess what I have is a "High Fuel" warning light.  So, to fix this unintended consequence, we'll move the low fuel sensor down. The arrows are showing the before and after height. The sensor is at the end of the black and beige wire. Held by two zip ties.