The Complete KLX250/KLX300 Long Term Review Thread

I've been trolling but haven't officially signed up. Guess the is no time like the present....

You know it!!
Nice bike. How many miles? Looks very clean. Welcome!

It had 1700 miles but I put 200 or so on today during it's maiden voyage with me aboard. It has a few scratches but overall looks pretty much brand new. the KLX will need some new tires asap for dirt duty but other than that it needs nothing. Everything is bone stock.

Jon, got any good dirt places to ride near you ?

No everything of any real size is South or East by an hour or so from Akron. You should check out the NEOhioADV thread in the Central forum for some rides (I think there were 2 happening this weekend) and ideas since I don't recall seeing you being too active on that thread. Feel free to PM me your info and I'll let you know when I am headed out for a ride.

CorNut and I at the Oregon Dunes today. His bike, my quad. Woulda brought my bike too but it's impossible to get both bikes and a quad in my truck without a trailer.

Rob




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I do and it kind of bugs me whenever I see anything about "manually adjusting" a supposedly automatic tensioner. All I can think of is would you tighten your drive chain up tight? No, you don't. You don't because you do not want it too tight when the swingarm swings to the point where the axle, swingarm pivot, and countershaft are all in line, the tightest point. The same is true for a cam drive. You do not want the chain to run too tight, because it can pull the cams against the plain bearing surface of the head, not good.

It's not about making an engine quiet, it's about having the cam drive work right without damaging anything. The noise is a symptom telliing you something is wrong. The fix isn't to make it quiet, the fix is to make the cam drive free of slack without overtightening the chain. My explanation is on my web site as well, with illustrations of what to look for on the tensioner to prove the failure. It isn't catastrophic, unless you let it go for too long. But by then the noise should be driving you crazy.

I hope this helps anyone with cam drive noise, which apparently starts with noise around 5000-6000 rpm and gets worse. On other bikes, 4 cylinders, it may be at idle and just above,

Is that paddle tire on the back of the KLX? Wild.

Deej is half right

07 all the way

Nice looking bike there.
Dan

it is, was a lot of fun

Yep! It fit. Barely. That little plastic shield that hangs down in behind the rear shock got a few inches snapped off. And when the rear suspension bottomed the first time, the reflector on the tail kit went bye-bye. I can only imagine what that tire would have done to my KLX, since it was lowered 1" with dogbones.

The bike did okay in the sand. I'd call it "passable." The poor KLX is just so underpowered. The only way it went anywhere was because of the paddle tire. You had to wind out 1st gear before 2nd was useful, otherwise it'd just bog. We could both get it up into 3rd gear for some 40-mph running on the flatter areas. Mild hills were okay, but anything steel was out of the question. BTW we put a 13T front sprocket on before the trip.

Cory did great, though! He went from no sand riding experience at all to being pretty darn good at it by the time we had to call it a day yesterday afternoon and head home. Trails are hard to do because we can't carry enough speed to keep the thing upright very easily. It turns into a major workout. He has long legs so it worked well for him. When I would try to ride it on trails, I would dump it almost immediately.

Rob

Has anyone fitted an '09 and up front fender to an early model? I noticed that the lower front fender on my 07 gets a lot of movement in high winds and wondering if a more aerodynamic front fender would make any difference in the buffeting. Replacing the front on my KLR with a KTM type and chopping one on an XR made a big diference. Just curious. Thanks

Can't remember...does the headlight have it's own fuse? I'm betting you blew a fuse.

I doubt that an incandescant bulb is polarity sensitive. LED, yes.

I was wondering about LEDs being polarity sensitive. I helped a friend replace some rear blinkers with LEDs on the a CRF230. The lights must be wired directly off the battery cause you can turn on all the lights without the bike running. The LEDs didn't work.

I turned the wires thinking it must be polarity even though I've never had an issue with LEDs before. Still didn't work.

Are LEDs designed for DC only or AC only?

Most LED's are designed to run off DC voltage. There are some (tr-i color) that will run off AC voltage but that does not apply to your aplication.

Jon...

Anyone have solution for this? Just did long ride 600+ over weekend and fingers hurting. Used all the tricks - light grip, change grip, use palm of hand, shake out hand regularly - but nothing worked. Tips still hurt days later, after having done a few of the trips the last couple of years. Have Zeta hand guards, 351, and D606s. Bike was comfortable and capable enough in all regards but handlebars. Bike does see primarily woods, so I need to keep it trail worthy. But on these spring/fall adventures I need a solution (do Barkbuster B66s work/weigh enough to be wortthwhile?) besides a different bike which may be added in spring. But NOT replacing, this bike is way too much fun with the 351... Thanks.