Many moons ago I bought an XR250 for my step son Darran and I loved riding that thing around the neighborhood. What a blast it was. I would pop little baby wheelies and felt like such a badass. I loved how tall it sat and I've always entertained the idea of getting another one of those for myself someday, but then I figured I'd probably need an XR400 or maybe even an XR600. Though I could never find the XRs with titles and I wanted something I could ride on the street.
About three weeks ago, an old Yamaha XT600 caught my eye on CL. The guy was asking $1500 - title in hand. I test rode it and liked it. But it was old, air cooled and I could not see myself riding far from home base on it. I figured for a little more money I might find something a little more road worthy and touring capable.
With a little bit of direction from JoeB who claimed the KLR delivered the most "bang for your buck" in the world of dual sport, I started pricing the KLR. To my delight, I found no shortage of them on Craigslist. As one guy put it, the KLR is the Ford F150 of adventure bikes. I Craigslist searched a 300 mile radius to get a feel for what was out there and at what price.
I came across this one in Topeka, which is only 75 miles from my front door. The seller (Mark) is a nice 48yo man with a lot of motocross under his belt and several orange dirt bikes in his garage. He had bought the KLR a couple of months ago. It had a thousand miles on it when he bought it a few months ago and he put another thousand on it this summer. The bike had under 2k miles on it when I test rode it. If he didn't sell it within a week, he was going to truck it to Texas to trade it in on the KTM690 Adventure he had his heart set on. I went and looked at this KLR on a Wednesday after work and bought it that same day. We had agreed on a price ahead of time. There were no real surprises. The bike looked like new and rode out well. Mark had installed the crash bars that came with the bike when he bought it. He included Progressive springs for the front shocks and a new rear spring for the rear shock. He had also done the "jet kit" which allows one to adjust the carb for riding in Colorado altitude, but I haven't looked into the jet kit details much. He also threw in a couple of different front sprockets.
I rode it home from Topeka the night I bought it. It was 75 miles of interstate - half of it in the dark. The bike did fine. It easily cruises at 75mph at 5k rpm on the tach (redline is 7500rpm). Though to be very honest, those big wide handle bars feel like they want to get twitchy when you push much beyond 70 and 75mph. It is MUCH happier loping along on back roads at 60 to 65mph. And 70 to 75mph on the highway means you're getting passed by pretty much every other vehicle on the road. When I got the bike home, I started going over it a little closer. I discovered the tires were set at trail pressures. Front had 9.5psi and the rear had 14.5psi. I am embarrassed by the fact that I didn't check that before hopping on the bike to ride it home that night. Live and learn.
My initial impressions are great. I love how tall the bike sits - like getting up on a horse, I like how light it is, and the seating position is so neutral it makes the ZRX rear sets feel ridiculously aggressive. It's going to take a little time to get used to the ZRX seating position again. A couple of good, fast corners should do the trick. Though to be very fair, the KLR feels just fine on paved corners. It doesn't wallow around too much; it doesn't feel like it's bowing and flexing like one big leaf spring. I've ridden some old bikes that feel like that. Though I wouldn't want to push the traction limits of that skinny little front tire. Low-gear engine braking on pavement is enough to make the front end dive, but I figure the Progressive springs will help with that.
I've put 300 miles on the bike in two weeks and they have been all smiles. I am eager to venture where the pavement ends. I have always enjoyed the the exploration aspect of motorcycling, and this KLR opens a whole new world of possibilities.
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