Kawasaki KLR 650

I got to ride the KLR today. For looking more like a dirt bike than most of the others you would expect it to ride well at slow, technical offroad speeds. I didnt really feel that way about it. Maybe its me not being used to the sound of a single piston engine at low RPM but it sure sounded like it was struggling at low speeds. Once the bike got to about 60mph it felt kinda wound tight. The tach showed it had almost half its RPM range left so maybe it would just take some getting used to its feel. That being said it seemed like it needed a wider gear ratio. Lower low gears and higher high gears.

It handled well and had a good standing ride position as well as sitting position so its still a decent bike to keep in mind.

Pros:
Its been around forever and its basically bullet proof and it has a huge after market support.

Cons: it has a dirt bike style shifter so I cant make it GP shift and its alternator may not be enough to power all the goodies I want.

BMW f 800 GS

I figured I should go sit on some BMW bikes since they are the iconic adventure touring bikes so I zipped over to our local BMW dealer. The sales guy and I talked for a bit about the stats the bike had and then he asks if I want to ride the Demo F 800 ... DUH!

Today I showed up, signed my life away and took it for a spin.

my thoughts went as follows: The seat is really high and Im 6ft. The standard seat is flat like a glorified dirtbike seat so you kinda end up sitting all over the place. I sat on the "low" seat and it felt better. they also had a "comfort" seat which was curved and looked even better yet. The gears are really tight which is OK, just different than im used to. Its standard shift and with no shift linkage there is basically no good way to make it GP shift like my street bike. it handles well at low speed because of its wide handle bars and wide steering range. The low tight gears help when putting around sharp 180 bends and it was orange!

Since I am planning on riding a bike to Alaska I needed to test it out on some gravel roads. It felt stable and its suspension didnt feel jittery or sloppy. The bars were raised enough so that it was totally natural to ride standing up. when I hammered the throttle it slid predictably and in a way that was totally controllable.

I had been told that ABS sucks off road but I didnt realize just how worthless it really is. I mashed the rear brake to see what would happen and my foot just got kicked right back up by the ABS which decided that i didnt really mean to apply so much brake. The brakes front and rear basically did nothing when applied off road. I turned the ABS off it felt much better.

Final thoughts on the BMW. its a cool bike but its not 13,000+ dollars worth of cool bike.

What bike to get

I have thought a lot about which bike I want to get because I will likely end up owning it for the rest of its life.

Some of the bikes that would do the job:

BMW f 800 GS

KTM 990 adventure

Honda Transalp XL700V

Yamaha Tenere XT660Z

Suzuki V-strom DL650

Kawasaki KLR 650


Of those bikes Im really only thinking about the KLR and the V-strom right now. the others I cant afford :(

Intentions

Basically the reason Im going to go do this is because its there and I can. Isnt that a good enough reason for any adventure? Lots of people mope through life wishing they could go see and do things, I actually go do it when I have the chance.


View Larger Map

this is a map with my intended route. The idea is to ride up as far north as possible and then ride home. I might stop and see if someone would give me a job on a crab fishing boat or something on my way home because that would be interesting and help pay some of my inevitable bills.

I am going to do as much exploration as possible, riding up random bunny trails just to see whats out there. I want to see abandoned mines, ghost towns, hot springs, glaciers and wildlife. I hope to get a decent DSLR camera by then so I can take good pictures of the things I find.

Because Im poor Ill have to save my pennies for this ride. I figure Ill end up riding 7-10,000 miles and spend about $1000 on gas alone. 6 weeks of food will run me another $650 because Ill have to buy a lot of prepackaged food and will end up eating at small restaurants fairly regularly. I hope to get an adventure worthy bike for $4,500 or less. Another $1000 for gear and accessories like crash bars, waterproof motocross boots, a GPS and maybe a CB radio.

Im at $7,150 to make this trip happen plus another $1,200 if I get a camera and little Netbook PC to store pictures / upload things when possible.

Another option I have thought about is buying a new bike and then reselling it when the trip is over. I would eat the off-the-lot depreciation but it might cost me less than a used bike would. The only problem is I dont know If I could bring my self to sell the bike when the trip is over ...

First!

First Ill say a little about my self. Im 25 and been riding almost 5 years now. I bought a bike when I turned 21 and have ridden it a little over 47,000 miles. People who know me know that there are few things I like more than riding. I ride in the rain. I ride in the sun. I ride when its cold and I ride when its hot. I even make motorcycle noises when I walk places and lean when I have to ride in a car. It likely makes me crazy but its who I am.

Last summer I did a car road trip which ended up being a 16,000 mile trip across the US which hit all but 2 of the lower 48 states. There were 3 of us in the car and we wrote a blog http://ourepictrip.blogspot.com. Of the 4 states we didnt visit on the trip the one I really want to see next is Alaska. I have always wanted to go to Alaska and a couple weeks ago decided that Im actually going to do it. The only way to do a trip like this is on a motorcycle.

I havnt talked anyone else into riding with me yet so I might end up doing this alone but thats something Ive come to terms with.

This is my current bike.



one of my other riding adventures took me out into the desert on my bike.