KLR - Yes, the KLR

[OrangeYZ]

Skip the KLR.
I was choosing between Wee-strom and KLR and picked the KLR because it was on sale. On the first ride I wished I had bought the bike with power, brakes, wind protection and functioning counterbalancers. A month later the DL650 was on sale and I was even more pissed at myself.

[Dubl-A]

Originally Posted by AviatorTroy

Whatever you do don't buy a brand new KLR. in 2 years it will depreciate about 50%. Don't ask me how I know. However a 2 year old KLR for 3500 bucks is not a bad way to get back into it! I would look elsewhere considering my own KLR ownership experience, but lots of people do like them.

Bought a brand new 09' at 4900 OTD, sold this summer for 4400. What you DON'T want to do is farkle the sh!t out of it. Thankfully I either bought used or fabricated my own farkles. Check out the ammo cans for instance...




Ammo can thread...
http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=746395

[OaklandStrom]

Originally Posted by WestVirginia

As a college graduation gift I bought myself a Yamaha dual sport 250. Great fun, no maintenance due to low miles, but always felt "naked" on the highway. Sold it after about a year or two when I moved just outside Washington DC. You'd be surprised at how few off road trails there are in D.C.

My 2 cents.

Going from a 20 year old (with a 20 year gap) 250 to a Tenere seems like a HUGE jump to me.

Learning moto maintenance on a carburated, chain drive, tubed tire non-ABS bike so that you know how to work on a FI, shaft drive, tubeless ABS bike seems a bit odd. I think the only maintenance items that are similar would be fluid changes and checking the tire pressure.

Start with a used Wee. It's fast enough for now, and so much better than a KLR on fast pavement. If you buy it used, you can ride it for a year and sell it for the same money (this works well if you decide to get a faster bike, or decide bikes aren't for you).

I've never quite understood the "I want to get into motorcycling, so I'm going to buy a $15,000 bike" mentality. On the other hand, I want to thank the people who buy nice things, take care of them, and sell them to me at less than half price a few years later. Perhaps you have a financial situation where none of this matters.

In any case, have fun and ride safe.

[LexLeroy]

I quit riding my ZRX1100 when I turned 60 because it was getting more & more uncomfortable each day. I replaced it w/ a 2008 DL1000 V-Strom, which is extremely well suited to Kentucky's paved back roads as well as its interstates. Only fly in the ointment was that it's a pig on dirt & gravel roads. Or maybe I don't have enough punches on my man card.

Keeping the Strom I found a used Honda XR650L. It's a major hoot on Forest Service and dirt roads, but it's not happy at much over 60 mph.

If I had it to do over again I'd think hard about a 2 year old KLR. Lots of upgrades are available and the first one I'd do would be the 705cc displacement increase. That would probably get me back to one bike - not as "dirtish" as the Honda and not as highway-oriented as the Strom, but it would cover about 90% of the riding that I currently do.

[BigIron]

Originally Posted by Dubl-A

Get a beater then your dream bike after

Yup, buy a used KLR, ride for a year, drop it a few times if necessary, and then go shopping.

A KLR will take you everywhere and anywhere you want. I had a great time on mine.

[klrider99]

Originally Posted by WestVirginia

Greetings Beastie Boys:

Ok, there is snow on the ground here in West Virginia so I'm daydreaming about buying my first bike in 20 years.

Top contenders (this will change every five minutes) are the Tiger 800XC and Tenere.

The question is, should I (or anyone) buy a new KLR to get back into the scene and learn Motorcycle Maintenance 101 - or jump right into the beastie dream bike?

One detail I should supply is that I only want one motorcycle in the garage.

I wonder what you seasoned pros would do in my position. I'm 47 by the way, so jumping over a building or running from the cops really isn't on my agenda. Doing two up riding looks to be very limited as the wife is showing, ummm, shall we say....very little interest.

You're a YOUNGSTER, West Virginia! Got 20 years on ya. And after 20 years off the saddle I'd say get a decent, lower mile used KLR, have a lot of fun riding it, and learn how it ticks, too. Maintained, and with a few frakles, the bike will go anywhere....I rode my A13 KLR some 60 k miles, had it in Montana and across Labrador, down to Georgia four times. I rode a Vee Strom five years, and a Wee Strom four, now mainly ride a Tiger 800 XC and a dirtified DRZ 400SM. The main place the KLR is lacking is for two-up, and that doesn't seem to be a problem you'll have. The KLR is cheaper to drop, easier to pick up, and cheap enough you could even have a parts bike. Best luck dual sporting in the Mountain State!

[Jake Mountain]

I went thru this same sort of thin a year ago, only I had been back into bikes for 8 years after a long break my last one was a cruiser. I first bought a low mileage 2001 KLR and rode it and my cruiser with more riding on the KLR and more fire road stuff. Then I sold the cruiser and have an 03 Vstrom 1000 and the KLR, I don't see myself living where I live and only having one bike EVER. The Vee gets used on longer rides and some fast twisties stuff and is really good on fire roads but the KLR is easier to throw around in the tighter more technical stuff. And both bikes together were 1/2 the cost of a new Tenere.

[ArmSC]

I would think that you would be fine getting the bike you really want. You can get a KLR but you will probably always wonder if you should have gotten the tiger or ten. If you don't like it then get the KLR or something else. Now you just need to figure out what you really want.

[kars85]

had an '09 KLR and got raped when I sold it a year later. learned the hard way that trying to farkle a bike into what i needed from the get go rarely works. i've heard it mentioned that KLR's are what you might consider "disposable" and boy did that ring true when I sold it.

got the tenere this spring after my rude awakening/learning experience with the KLR. love it. easy maintenance and a rock solid machine all the way around. a big thing for me being in iowa is that it takes me nearly 3 hours for any decent riding. 3 hours on the KLR was "meh" at best, i had a full ricor suspension + all the farkles you could imagine, but it still was a 35hp thumper with basic, old technology all the way around no matter what you did to it.

the tenere is a beast...what was once a mundane 3 hour trip to good riding was now something i looked forward to.

so i guess if there's anything to take away from your thread, if you're looking for a brief intro back into it, look for a dumb SOB like me who has a KLR for sale all farkled out for you to get back in the saddle with. then sell it down the road when you want more for a minimal loss (and you probably will want more). then buy a tenere...

[Timothy Blomquist]

I own a 2011 KLR and a 2012 Tiger 800XC. The Kawasaki for me is just not a higher speed highway bike. If I could take two lane blacktop and gravel roads on longer trips (30-50mph) the KLR is just fine. In October took the KLR into the BLM south of Canyonlands National Park Utah, 84 miles off of pavement (6 hours) at an average speed of @ 13 mph. The KLR did fine. No tip overs but bogged down in sand numerous times on the two track trails, causing me to stop, stand up, twist the throttle and start moving again. No damage on this trip except my license plate was nearly peeled off.

The Tiger 800XC is a much better highway bike. This past September took the Tiger to eastern Tennessee and rode in the Smoky Mountains with Harley Riders in my group. Did Tail of the Dragon on US 129 and the Tiger was just the perfect bike for that road. The Harleys were scraping their pipes on those sharp curves.

[Superstar]

Skip the KLR and buy a Tenere.

How they continue to sell the KLR is beyond me.

[Nightstrom]

My picks for best all arounder are BMW 800 GS, Triumph Tiger 800 XC, or Suzuki Vstrom 650. All great bikes.A Sergeant or Corbin seat would be in order for any of them.

[Gundy]

Originally Posted by AviatorTroy

Whatever you do don't buy a brand new KLR. in 2 years it will depreciate about 50%. Don't ask me how I know. However a 2 year old KLR for 3500 bucks is not a bad way to get back into it! I would look elsewhere considering my own KLR ownership experience, but lots of people do like them.

x2 made that mistake.....oh the other bikes I could have had with that money. Not to confuse things anymore, but a used BMW Dakar 650 might be an option.....like a KLR but with modern technology + friendly power and weight.

[Snarky]

I would go for the Tenere. My friend's KLR is the least the reliable bike in the world. It died on us after it drank all it's own oil. He had checked it before we left, but it ate it all during the course of one or two tanks of fuel at high rpms, (guess he didn't think it was possible for it to drink it all that quick). Left him stranded in the middle of nowhere with no cell signal. I had to go to find an area to call the AMA to find us a tow using the Versys.

It was still under warranty, and they agreed to cover it. It took 2 months to get repaired. We got it back, they left a screw on the piston. Started it up, and it was fucked again. Took it to another Kawi dealership. It was covered under warranty, took another 2 months to get repaired. Was out of warranty by the end of it, so they extended it a bit.

Lemon bike, crappy dealer service, Kawi corporate was 'okay'. Your mileage will of course vary. I recommend that people try something else, perhaps more modern if possible, everytime now. I, of course, had no such problems with my Versys, other than shitty non-dealer service, but I was always yearning for more power.

It was a toss up for me between the Super Tenere and the GSA. I went for the GSA because I could always sell it and get a Yamaha if I hated it (I don't).

I think that once you get to the liter bike range, you are trading a lot of the offroad capability (not that the KLR has much), for power. The GSA feels like it has unlimited power off the line, you can even power wheelie it despite it's weight, it's great. My friend tell me the Tenere is much the same.

I don't particularly trust the Triumphs, just because of ignorance about the current state of British Engineering. I don't know if they've improved over the years or not. It's just me, never seen a reason not to get behind Triumph though.

[kojack]

Originally Posted by WestVirginia

Greetings Beastie Boys:

Ok, there is snow on the ground here in West Virginia so I'm daydreaming about buying my first bike in 20 years.

Top contenders (this will change every five minutes) are the Tiger 800XC and Tenere.

The question is, should I (or anyone) buy a new KLR to get back into the scene and learn Motorcycle Maintenance 101 - or jump right into the beastie dream bike?

One detail I should supply is that I only want one motorcycle in the garage.

I wonder what you seasoned pros would do in my position. I'm 47 by the way, so jumping over a building or running from the cops really isn't on my agenda. Doing two up riding looks to be very limited as the wife is showing, ummm, shall we say....very little interest.

The way I look at it, you can buy 3 klrs for the price of a ten. Buy one modify the crap out of it, and have a 100% reliable capable bike for 50 percent of your money, and have half left for a big trip.

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