yup, the original is half as thick and it is welded, not sure why in the 17 years of producing the KLR that Kawasaki hasn't machined this part out of one piece of steel....luckily when I installed it that it cleared the gear, on some you may have to file the DooHickey....took a couple of hours to put it in, but worth the piece of mind...i.e. no more worries now...

dave

 

So has anybody here installed the lowering links on their KLR 650? Do you lose suspention travel when you install the links? I have done some research on the gel seat, but I am thinking the lowering links would be the way to go for me. Could somebody 5'7" 175lbs with a 30" inseam ride this thing comfortably in stock form? I mean does the seat/shock give enough to where I could touch?

Oh yeah elkbow, I have read that the stock mpg is about 55-60 mpg cruising at 55-60 mph. How much have your mods affected your fuel mileage?

 

The lowering links lose some suspension travel and throw off the rake on the front end. You can adjust the front end to compensate. I'm 5'9" tall and if I push really hard down towards my feet, I can touch both feet flat on the ground. When I stop at a stop sign or light, I only put my left foot down, which you could do also. You can either go with the links or the corbin seat, the one that reduces the height by 2".

As far as fuel mileage, right now I'm getting about 50 mpg. I need to go alittle leaner on the main jet, which should bring it back up some. Its nice riding the bike to work almost every day, before I was filling my diesel hog Superduty up every week, now I fill up once every 3 weeks. We went on a ride a couple of weekends ago, from Albuquerque to Los Alamos through the backroads was about 102 miles....I put in 2 gallons of gas, gotta love that....

dave

 

I have found the corbin seat that says it is 1" lower than stock, but in the pictures it looks kind of hideous. Maybe it looks better in person? I really don't want to lose any suspension travel, I think it may make the bike look out of proportion too with the rear end any lower. You know I have been driving myself crazy the last few weeks trying to decide what to get. In the end I may end up getting a cruiser or a sport bike just because of my size, even though a dual purpose would be my first pick. I really wish I could see a KLR with the lowering links first. Oh well, decisions, decisions.

 

Well, I rode my KLR 650 in the Virginia City Grand Prix , three weeks ago.....Man what a tough ride...

I was the only one there with a KLR. There were 450 bikes in the event. I rode in the Amateur over 50 class.....It was a 19 mile course....And very tough for the KLR..... But I finished, and after stopping twice for a 1/2 hour each time, to help my buddy on his BSA with a broken off fender and ripped out wiring,.....I thought I did pretty well.....

I got a heroes welcome at the finish line when I cruised in with my buddies fender (with license plate) on the back rack.....

I did finish dead last in my class,....but what the hell, I did it right.....

My friends all have state of the art Yamahas and KTMs and had know Idea how tough it was on the KLR until I let them ride it up to the top of the mountains to make cell phone calls.....Dude, you rode the KLR, your the MAN>>>>.

I got some way cool pictures I'll get on my yahoo site one of these days.....

 

Mojave...I would go take a KLR for a ride at the dealer and see what you think. You can always go with the DR650, which has a lower seat, but tiny 3.2 gallon gas tank, which put it out of the running for me.

Budxxx, great to hear about your ride, I bet it was fun. Finishing last doesn't matter, the fact that you finished is an accomplishment in itself. Before the KLR, I had a KTM 620RXC...it was a great off-road bike, but sucked on the street, the KLR is worlds above it for dual-sport riding. I'm on vacation next week and trying to figure where I'm going to go for a good day ride. Here in New Mexico there are alot of places to explore. I may take a ride up the back of the Sandia mountains here in Albuquerque, and there is a dirt road that comes out to the north. I haven't driven it yet, so want to take the bike.

dave

 

Well, I bought my second KLR650 2 days ago.. My first, an 87 KL600 with its big Acerbis desert tank, Original style Supertrapp (with the obligatory burnt and blackened rear fender) and 38k was one of the most memorable bikes I have ever owned. I sold it about 5 years ago after blowing the rear shock and not really having the desire to fix it. After longing for a replacement for the last year or so, I had checked out just about every other dual sport or possible dual sport conversion I could find, but with California's emissions laws and all the red tape you get to navigate to get a native dirt bike converted to a street registered dual sport, it was just a big pain. I looked at and rode both the GS1200, F650 from BMW, the KTM 950 Adventure, XR650, DRZ400 (which I almost bought, but no one had blue!) and the DR650. I am a more advanced rider, and thought I wanted something a bit more aggressive. I had rented a DRZ400S last year on a dual sport ride, and while I loved the motor, it felt WAY too small. I am 6'2" and 220# and discovered during my dual sport trips of 300-500 mile single/dual track weekends, I was more comfortable on a more substantial bike. Not to mention the seat on that thing was way to small for my big ole' rear. As well, there was no where to put anything, so my pockets were full and my buddies with their older DR and XR650's got to hold my gear in their rear rack bags, not to mention the tiny fuel tank. The more I looked the more I realized what I was trying to replace a long lost friend.. I went back down to the Kawi dealer and laid a deal on the line, and they bit! So I trailer it out for a dual sport ride near Lake Isabella with my friends but didn't get a chance to ride with them. Due to a family emergency, I decided to jump on the bike and race home. I had to leave the truck and trailer so my friends could get their bikes home. No reason all of our weekends had to be cut short!
Let me first say, the stock tire SUCK!! The looser the terrain, the more it wants to swap ends on you. I found the best way through was to keep you speed up (45mph +) and stab at the throttle rapidly while in a lower gear to keep the front end as light as possible. I did this for the almost 40 miles of dirt road from the top of Piute Mountain elevation 8500' to CA14 in Jawbone Canyon. Man was my arm pumped and sore! Jumped on the 14 south and WHOA!!! The cross wind was INSANE! Gusts with such power I was riding the next 30 mile into Mojave at a rather dramatic angle to the right, with the abrupt pucker in the seat when the gusts would deminish or increase abruptly. I found that it was happiest at 80mph, which suprised me. Once into Mojave I fueled up with 4 gallons (not sure what it had in it from the dealer, but it wasn't full) and took off south toward LA. Again with the cross wind.. My Harley just doesn't get blown around like this, and I dont remember this of my old KL600, but I never did open desert riding, so I dont really have basis of comparison. Now, I have read in this very post about top speed being in the 90 mph range... Its odd that I saw 100mph+ on more than one occasion, with throttle to spare, but I held about 90 most of the way home. Onto the 5 fwy, past griffith park and thru LA, no sweat, 90-95mph. Just kick my feet up on the passenger pegs, set my helmet chin bar on my tank bag and tuck down behind the little windscreen. Suprisingly, I noticed very little vibration in the handlebars, and no tingle in my hands, though I think the stock grips are revenge for something I must have done to tick off a Japanese engineer or buyer somewhere. Anyway, I get in to Orange County, roll past Disneyland and continue to cruise down the 5 fwy, as I near my home, about 25 miles south of Disneyland, the bike starts to cough and sputter, I instintively reach down and switch to reserve.. huh?? Reserve? I shouldn't need reserve yet... I get to my offramp, and pull across the street into a gas station. Fill'er up.. It takes 4.9gal of fuel.. in 145 miles since Mojave.. Thats 29.6 mpg!!!
Man, I sure do hope that I get better fuel mileage when I ride it like a human rather than a maniac! That evening took me 236 mile in 3 hrs and 5 minute. Thats an average of about 74mph, including the time for the fuel stop and a cell phone call. Considering 40 miles was on a switchback plagued dirt road. I was definately moving!

New Pirelli MT21's went on today, and I ordered a gel seat, braided steel brakeline, Cartridge Emulators, Supertrapp Quiet IDSE2 muffler, Jet kit, Twin Air filter and front springs.. A little effort, and these things are AWESOME!

So now, with 252 total miles on the odometer, I guess I'll start to be easy on it and break it in! :-)

 

sounds like you did well and had some fun on the KLR...

the stock tires work okay for the street and perform just okay offroad....I've gotten some serious lean on the street and showed some sport riders how to go through the corners....I couple left turns I got in too hot and had to motorad it through the corner, locking up the rear and sliding some for steering, alot of fun...

Right now I'm getting 45-50 mpg....i ride pretty hard, have a hard time keeping off the throttle, I had alot of mods and still running a bit rich, so I'm going to lean out the main jet this weekend and see what happens on the gas mileage....

dave

 

Well, about 3 weeks ago the wife and I went looking at bikes. The dealer sells Kawasaki and Suzuki, but he didn't have the DS650 for me to compare. So in the process of checking out the KLR, I noticed some nice street bikes and cruisers and sat on each to see if any felt "better" to me or not. So over the next two weeks I read, researched and drove myself nuts trying to decide (on a $5,500 budget) wich type of bike overall would be best for me. I finally decided to wait until next year because I was so undecided, BUT, the wife had other ideas. So last weekend on our anniverssary, she pulls into the drive way with a Suzuki GS500F loaded in the bed of the truck. Surprise!!! It turns out that when she went to the dealer she was undecided wich one to get also between the KLR and the Suzuki, but the KLR was pending sold. So, she figured the higher power made my mind up for me and got the Suzuki. Man, I can't wait until my next anniversary (hmmmm, BruteForce or KingQuad........) LOL! Like I said in my last post, decisions,decisions,decisions........

 

Kewl deal mojave.....thats the type of wife to have.....now if you can get her to pull in with a quad in the back, that would be great...she is definitely a keeper.....