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klr 650 life expectancy
Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2000 6:51 am
by Ted Palmer
Greg Dawson wrote:
[...]
> I read this article
http://home.att.net/~flafrank/kawasaki.htm and
> the author says:
> "On the down side. You can't expect Rolex quality at Timex prices.
> The bike has a life expectancy of probably 50,000 km (30,000 mi) max."
> Does this sound about right?
Depends on how you define "life expectancy".
It sounds like the author believes that a bike is worn out by the time
it needs a new camchain.
A well maintained and soberly ridden KLR should make 100,000km
without too much trouble.
Racetrack forays and weekends spent keeping sportsbikes honest
through the twisties does reduce the life a bit.
Mister_T
Melbourne,Australia
klr 650 life expectancy
Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2000 6:51 am
by Tom Simpson
Greg Dawson wrote:
>
> Hi all, I'm new to the group. I've considered purchasing a KLR 650
> for some time now and I'd like to know how many miles I should expect
> to put on one before it gets retired.
>
> I read this article
http://home.att.net/~flafrank/kawasaki.htm and
> the author says:
>
> "On the down side. You can't expect Rolex quality at Timex prices.
> The bike has a life expectancy of probably 50,000 km (30,000 mi) max."
That article is a widely known and quoted piece of crap. Mine has
almost 47,000 miles on it and I haven't even pulled the float bowl off
the carburetor. The engine has needed two valve adjustments and the
usual maintenance, and that's it. I know of one bike that had over
100,000 well thrashed miles on its bottom end before it finally sheared
a counterballancer shaft and hand grenaded. These are tough bikes that
generally do not give a lot of trouble.
-Tom
'96 KLR 650
klr 650 life expectancy
Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2000 8:21 am
by Mark
At 11:01 AM +0000 10/13/00, Greg Dawson wrote:
>Hi all, I'm new to the group. I've considered purchasing a KLR 650
>for some time now and I'd like to know how many miles I should expect
>to put on one before it gets retired.
>
>I read this article
http://home.att.net/~flafrank/kawasaki.htm and
>the author says:
>
>"On the down side. You can't expect Rolex quality at Timex prices.
>The bike has a life expectancy of probably 50,000 km (30,000 mi) max."
The author of that article should pull his head out of his ass and
see what KLRs are doing in the real world.
Mark
'88 KLR650 44,000 miles
'90 KLR650 Tengai 29,000 miles
klr 650 life expectancy
Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2000 8:23 am
by Kurt Simpson (Editor Dual Sport News)
>
> That article is a widely known and quoted piece of crap. Mine has
> almost 47,000 miles on it and I haven't even pulled the float bowl off
> the carburetor. The engine has needed two valve adjustments and the
> usual maintenance, and that's it. I know of one bike that had over
> 100,000 well thrashed miles on its bottom end before it finally sheared
> a counterballancer shaft and hand grenaded. These are tough bikes that
> generally do not give a lot of trouble.
Here is where I suspect we can respectfully get the article changed. Let's have one
person from the KORG/BORG write Frank and ask him to change the wording of that
paragraph. Give him some time and if he doesn't change it start flooding him with
messages until he does...he should know better and his site gets lots of traffic....
Kurt
klr 650 life expectancy
Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2000 9:04 am
by fewmoremiles@webtv.net
I have a friend in miss, that has been to alaska 3 times on KLRs , he
ownes 2 of them said only bought the 2nd one becaues it real low miles
then and a good price the last one is a98 model with over 80.000 on the
clock he ,s been to alaska twice on it , with out major problems , oh
yea he ,s over 70 years too , i think hes awise man , and i believe he
could get any bike he wanted to travel with , I thought
i out grew the ole single cyc, 20 years ago but he made me stop and
think now i own a 2001 KLR my self
best regards Jim
klr 650 life expectancy
Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2000 9:08 am
by k650dsn@aol.com
The KLR is a true third world bike unlike your typical fuel injected
BMW. Also not the comment about volve adjustments. I rest my case.
Just ride it.
Gino
--- In
DSN_klr650@egroups.com, "Kurt Simpson \(Editor Dual Sport
News\)" wrote:
> >
> > That article is a widely known and quoted piece of crap. Mine
has
> > almost 47,000 miles on it and I haven't even pulled the float
bowl
off
> > the carburetor. The engine has needed two valve adjustments
klr 650 life expectancy
Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2000 10:14 am
by Kurt Simpson
> The KLR is a true third world bike unlike your typical fuel injected
> BMW. Also not the comment about volve adjustments. I rest my case.
> Just ride it.
I don't see that there has to be much of a dispute about valve adjustments. The
idea is to think of break-in as the first 6,000 miles. During that period, I
would check mine at 500, 1500, 3000 and 6000. After that every 10,000 miles is
good. That is 4 valve checks for 16,000 miles...the average rider puts on
3,500 - 5000 miles a year (my guess) so that means 4 21/2 hour checks over three
years. This hardly seems to be a big issue to me...
Kurt
klr 650 life expectancy
Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2000 11:45 am
by frjsmithjr@webtv.net
Another word or two on life expectancy. I was in my local Kawasaki shop
yesterday for a service on the Connie. Had a chat with the mechanic
that bought my '92 KLR in Jan. of '98 when I bought a new '98 KLR. He
still has the bike, and has logged over 74,000 miles on it. Valve
adjustments were not discussed, but he's still running the original
clutch, top end and bottom end and gets 50 mpg!. He uses synthetic
blend oil.
This is why (among other reasons) I'm selling the KTM and buying a new
KLR.
Jim Smith
COG# Pending
Y2K Connie
Y2K KTM Adventure R (for sale)
klr 650 life expectancy
Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2000 4:50 pm
by bill e goat
> I'm going to go easy on Florida Frank because he is a long-distance
> motorcyclist to South America, China and a lot of other places most
of us
> have never been. But I don't agree with him about the KLR - mine
is an A12
> with 41,000 miles, including two meandering trips totalling nearly
30k
> miles over two summers from Florida to Alaska and back
Florida Frank, I believe, it quite firmly entrenched over at the BMW
camp. But his F650 did break down on him a couple of times in
Siberia.
klr 650 life expectancy
Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2000 10:36 am
by Michael Kovaliv
I have a 98 KLR that I just rolled over 25,000 Klm this week. I have
only had the bike one year and it had 8,000 Klm on it when I purchased
it. I have done all my own service and even the valve jobs and plan on
keeping the bike until it "dies".
My question is this: What does "die" mean in terms of a bike? I'm
learning more about bikes every day (I watch Speedvision you know, just
kidding) and see bikes rebuilt that are older than my grandfather. Does
there come a point when it's not worth fixing or replacing parts on the
KLR and you just toss it in the garbage? Should I replace my KLR every
50-75,000 Klm just to be safe and avoid expensive repairs? Maybe I
should not worry about it and deal with it when the time comes and
something does actually go wrong. What do you think?
Michael A12