KLR Shims In Argentina?
 

Doing the valves on my KLR 650 here in Buenos Aires and am having trouble locating the shims I need. I am staying at Dakar Motos (which is the obvious first place to look), but does anyone know of another place in BA or in Argentina that could be a resource for shims?

Thanks,

- Tom

BMW bike dealers. Apparently the K75's shims are a possible substitute. Also heard rumors about some Toyota bits?

Grind em down
 

Maybe no one else uses this method but I have used it on several of my own bikes. Take the shim and rub it in a figure 8 pattern on some emery paper taped to a sheet of glass. That will take off small amounts of metal. If you have to take off larger amounts use a belt sander. Yes you may grind off your fingertips and no the shim will not be angsrom level but it does work. I have sused this on shim on top of bucket and shim under bucket types. The main thing is that tight valves will burn your valve and possibly valve seat.

A great idea, and I definitely would do it. But the shim(s) I need are actually larger than the ones I have, so that´s the problem. I will try the BMW thing, though, and I think Yamaha has a couple bikes with 29 mm shims, too.

Thanks, everybody. If you dream up anything else, let me know.

Also, a little off subject, need to buy a bike for when I fly home. Thinking about the Kawasaki Concours. Heard some stuff about a bad buzz and sloppy handling. Any of you guys know anything about that or have an opinion on the Connie?

I did a 30 mile demo ride on the "old" Concours, and for me, it was completely unacceptable. Buzzing in the hands was so horrendous that my hands starting getting numb.....after 30 miles:( .
It was so bad I asked the Kawasaki tech person if something was wrong with the bike. His reply was "what you see is what you get".

Other people have ridden Concours for 100,000 miles and vibration isn't an issue for them.

Seeing that everyone on this earth is a bit different, I'd suggest a test ride of at least 20 miles prior to purchase to see if you are compatible with the bike.

The "new" Concours with the 1400 cc engine hopefully has addressed the vibration issue.