Talk about a '08 KLR650

 I've read loads of reviews on this bike and they all seem genuinely
positive.  Can anyone think of a reason to stay clear of it?  I'm dredging
up the cash to buy one this weekend, maybe even tomorrow depending on how
the dealership sells me on it.  Anything to watch out for when owning a
liquid cooled bike?

 
The sullen Paul Dean of Cycle World did the best review of the KLR650
I have I ever seen. He said that the KLR650 didn't do *anything* well,
but it was cheap.

That's it, in a nutshell. Of course, Turby and other KLR650 owners are
going to insist that their KLR is the best thing since sliced bread,
and that it even gives them oral sex.

What can I say?

I have owned the granddaddy of that motorcycle (a KLR600 electric
start) since 1985, and, in that time, have only put 4000 miles on it.
It looks like a giant motocrosser, with a skinny 21-inch front wheel
that sinks into any loose sand it encounters.

Kawasaki discontinued their offroad version of the KLR after just a
few years, it was too big and porky for the dirt.

A KLR is really not much of an "adventure tourer" unless your idea of
adventure touring is 90% paved road and 10% dirt roads. My KLR came
with mild knobby tires that lasted only 3000 miles, and a tire with
bigger knobs just doesn't work on the near 400-pound porker.

And, you're sort of *stuck* with the OEM tires, nothing else fits
correctly on the stock rims.

My KLR will not go as fast on a dirt road as an ordinary passenger
car. If it was a dirt *trail* chances are the dirt would be so loose
the front tire would knife in and the bike wouldn't steer.

The KLR650 was a styling rehash to make the KLR look like a Paris to
Dakar replica racer.

OK, so now it's heavier and you can go 300 miles between gas stops. It
helps to be tall, like over 6 feet, in order to move forward on the
bike to make it steer and move backwards over the seat to
get the weight off the front tire in deep sand.

The KLR650 is in its own element on windy two lane blacktop roads, and
it can go from the highway to a campground, especially if the dirt
road is nice and hard-packed.

If you get into a long stretch of loose sand, let most of the air out
of the tires, go down to 5 pounds in the front and maybe 7 pounds in
the back tire, then when you get back to pavement, reinflate the tires
to the recommended pressures.

Carry a stripped down electric mini-compressor in your tail pack.


Kawasaki has installed a heavy duty "doohickey" (crankshaft balancer
chain tensioner) to replace the old "doohickey" that owners used to
break by turning the locking bolt out too far and retightening it.

Why in heck didn't Kawasaki just redesign the motor to use a gear
driven crankshaft balancer? Like the Ninja EX650R has?  ï¿½


I have the cash to buy anything I want, and I would buy the Ninja
EX650R, before I'd buy a KLR650. �It's a twin, it's set up better fo=
r
the paved back roads you're going to be riding on most of the time.

I was looking at 650R's just before Christmas, when locals were
sacrificing their toys to buy presents. I could have had a 650R with
400 miles on it for $4500.


Change the antifreeze every two or three years to replace the
corrosion inhibitors and don't drop the motorcycle on the radiator.

 

When there are a lot of aftermarket products available for a
motorcycle that are not mere styling accents, that suggests that the
basic machine is inherently in the categories that the aftermarket
seeks to exploit.

A KLR650 needs a different seat, stronger, wider wheels, wider tires
with 90/10 road tread, crash bars, a luggage rack, and soft bags.

A diehard "adventurer tourer" would add a GPS tracker, a radar
detector, a water bottle, and maybe some sort of accessory fuel tank
to add another 100 miles to its range.

 

It also suggests that a helluva lot were sold, and that people use them
for all sorts of things, which in turn suggests that it's a pretty safe
buy.

If you're saying that "Lots of aftermarket stuff available" means "the
basic package is crap" then I wonder why so many people made stuff for
(for example) the original Honda CB750.


--
BMW K1100LT  Ducati 750SS  Honda CB400F & SL125
GAGARPHOF#30 GHPOTHUF#1 BOTAFOT#60 ANORAK#06 YTC#3
BOF#30 WUSS#5  The bells, the bells.....
chateau dot murray at idnet dot com

 On Mar 13, 12:15�pm, totallydeadmail...@yahoo.co.uk (The Older
Gentleman) wrote:


The CB750 *was* a steaming pile of crap. It was not what the
enthusiasts inspired by GP racing expected at all.

And, a lot of the aftermarket accessories seen in California were
intended to make the POS look like a Harley chopper.

It was certainly easy to make aftermarket crap for Jap bikes in those
days. Just saw up up cold-rolled steel plate, drill holes in it, and
chrome it.