Kawasaki KLR 650 aka Poor man’s GS!
Poor man’s GS!
This is what they call Kawasaki KLR650! And why they call it that? The answer is sort of obvious. It does what ever a BMW R1200GS does but in a less elegant and less expensive way a lot less! You can say just the price of GS is about 3.5 times a KLR650. A real budget Adventure bike. It has been said that if you need 6 bikes but only can afford one then buy BMW R1200GS, Same goes for the KLR650. But in a less expensive way!
To give you an idea about what are adventure bikes, these are bikes which can go anywhere and do anything for you. They can be your daily city commuter or they can take you to the other end of the world. With upright riding position, long travel suspension and fairly comfortable seats and good handling both on and off road.
For example KLR650 is a great handling bike for it’s genre which is based on a dirt bike. It first appeared in 1987 as a dual sport model from Kawasaki which was 50/50 for road and dirt. The bike was so good that Kawasaki kept building it without change for 21 years until they redesigned it in 2008 and gave it 50 changes and improved it dramatically. Still for 21 years it was one of the best selling Kawasaki bikes even best selling dual purpose bikes in the U.S.
The original design was so good that they even didn’t bother to change it for 2 decades and it was still a best seller. The good news is that it got even better in 2008. the list of changes exceeds 50 items and they are mostly structural advances, for example one of the problems with the original design was that the front end used to dive in heavy breaking. So they reduced the suspensions travel to reduce that effect. All those changes made a better handling and more comfortable street/long range bike, But it reduced it’s off road capability compared to Honda XL650 and Suzuki DR650.
In 2008 model Kawasaki moved towards making KLR650 more of an adventure bike than a simple dual purpose bike. One of the significant changes was increase in the size of cargo rack in the back.
All that said, the bike is ready for any adventure you through at it, you can do long range travel or you can go to the trails and do serious off roading or just go buy milk!
Of course when we talk about off road it doesn’t mean its a 450cc dirt bike! But still a skilled rider can manage the bike in most off road situations. You maybe be slow but still doable.
Stand up riding in the trails is fairly possible with KLR650 and it handles great on the asphalt in the twisties. One other aspect of the bike which is very mention-able is its reliability. And a reliable bike is what you need to go to the end of the world. Specially the bike is virtually maintenance free and cheap to do maintenance on. You just need to change the oil and the filter depending on which type of oil you use and put gas in it! And every 600km grease the chain.
For me personally the reason I bought my 2008 KLR650 was that I love to travel and explore unknown places. Specially places which no car can go! With KLR all that is possible,it gave me the freedom I needed. And all the luggage I can carry with me. Since I bought this bike, I have been to so many places both on and off road. The longest trip so far I made was from Dubai to Muscat and back a 2 day 900km round trip. And the most fun I had on the bike was when I went to musandam and “Khoor Najd” in Oman (north of RAK). The trip to khoor najd requires a 4x4 car and/or off road bike. Since there is a mountain gravel road to climb and descend to reach the khoor (bay). And to get to musandam you have to take the twistiest road in the middle east from RAK to Khasab Oman. The KLR proved to do well on the twisties and the trail road to khoor najd. A true go anywhere bike!
I even take it to the deserts of Nazwa and Fossil rock near the city of Dubai (United Arab Emirates), It can handle sand as well, but with difficulty. If a better tire is installed it can handle sand brilliantly. The original tire which comes with the bike is Dunlop K750 which is a 50/50 road/dirt tire. To have good performance in dirt you need some full knobby tire like Dunlop D606 or Pirelli MT21. But these kind of tires wear out so quickly on a heavy bike like this. If you are more into long distance traveling and don’t care about dirt you should get something like Metzeler Tourance which is a road only tire.
The new era
And now there is a new one! Since 2018 Kawasaki discontinued the then existing model and in early 2021, they introduced an updated model with much needed fuel injection and other improvements.
In the new model, they have improved the suspension, added a digital instrument panel with fuel and gear indicator and many minor improvements here and there. Also they added 2 more factory trims called “Traveler” which comes with a top case and “Adventure” which comes with built-in USB power socket, auxiliary lights and hard panniers.
