After completing and enjoying a summer holiday, working on a Greek island, I decided that the next year I would do something that I had never done before to any extent. To ride solo to Greece through Europe. I considered making the journey on my Honda 400 Superdream which despite what some bikers might tell you was a very reliable and surprisingly nippy motorcycle for its age.
However, I decided it was rather too old and having a small fortune in the bank (with the emphassis on small rather than fortune) a newer machine was what I needed. I was looking for a bike with torque and power, although not necessarily an excess of speed. Something with a comfortable riding position and lots of suspension travel to cope with the rough roads and tracks of Greece.
After days of shopping around, I set my heart on an F reg Kawasaki KLR650, which I bought from a small local motorcycle shop for £1995. The KLR is a quite complex single with watercooling, four valves, DOHCs and a balance shaft but despite this weighs in at a reasonable 350lbs dry.
Well, more things went wrong with this bike in the first fortnight than ever went wrong with the Superdream. First, I noticed that the chain was getting tight then loose with every rotation of the wheel, so first I replaced the chain. The problem initially improved then gradually became the same after a few miles of riding. Then I lashed out on a set of sprockets thinking the originals might be oval.
Still no better. I forked out for new rear wheel bearings, again to no avail. Next came the replacement of the rear cush drive but still, even to this day, I have no idea what's causing it. I just simply keep feeding it new chains and live with it.
I suppose that you should expect a bit of chain wear from a big single, with its strong, potentially destructive power pulses, but getting only a couple of thousand miles out of a chain from a bike that at most develops 50 horses is a bit hard to take. Despite its massive bore power delivery isn't exactly full of torque at low revs - in fact, combined with a clunky gearbox, town riding and slow trail stuff can be decidedly hard work. It doesn't like low revs in top gear at all, with a horrible crunching noise from the transmission. Perhaps my bike had something out of line.
Shortly after, on a trip to London, the bike kept cutting out on the M1 motorway, just as if I was turning the ignition on and off. Being a single cylinder high compression engine the effect of this took me completely by surprise, and as it happened at 70mph almost threw me over the handlebars. Not very nice when a forty ton artic's up your arse! By then I was becoming a little miffed with the machine. I tried fitting a new spark plug, thinking the old one might be breaking down, but no difference resulted. A few days later I received a letter from Kawasaki stating that carb icing was a problem on this model. A complete new, water heated carb was fitted by my local Kawasaki dealer for no charge, thus curing the stalling.
High speed motorway work was possible, as the engine appeared happy enough to push the bike along at 90mph, although the upright riding position meant a bit of pain was induced in shoulder muscles from the windblast if sustained high speed insanity was required. Vibration was present at most revs but the balancer worked well enough to damp the worst of it out.
The trail inspired geometry, dubious tyres (for the road) and long travel suspension meant it wobbled about a bit on fast bends and weaved a little on motorways once above 70mph. However, it never became so bad that I had much thought of backing off. The disc brakes were on the basic side compared to the multi piston stuff on the plastic reptiles, but worked well in most weather given the inherent lack of mass and speed.
The bike had cost me rather more than anticipated, after paying for green card insurance and road tax, I was left with insufficient funds to buy the Krausers I was hoping to fit. I settled for used 15 litre panniers and make-shift brackets. The top box cost £25, expensive for a washing up bowl with a lid, and bolted easily to the standard luggage rack. Nevertheless, I was all set and three weeks away from the big day.
A week later disaster struck. The rear shock decided to give up on me. Every last drop of oil lay in a big pool under the bike. The Kawasaki dealer had great pleasure in telling me that unless I had about £250 to spare, I had better get saving. Without further ado I rushed out and bought a copy of MCN, said a few prayers then started sifting my way through the pages. As you can imagine, these bikes are few and far between on the road, let alone in breakers yards.
As if my prayers had been answered I struck lucky with RS Motorcycle Breakers of Halifax who in exchange for £65 put me in possession of a unit from an accident damaged KLR with only 2000 miles to its credit (or discredit, whichever way you look at it). Now, I could go on to write pages and pages about the journey itself, but to cut short a long story, I did eventually make it to Greece in just over three days without mechanical problems. The KLR also lasted a punishing seven months on the island, requiring regular oil changes, a new set of fork gaiters (pattern, which were cheaper and better than the Kawasaki items), front and rear pads, yet another chain and sprocket set, front wheel bearings, a Trailmax rear tyre and a speedo cable.
Like most of these big single trail bikes, the KLR was not much use for serious off road work, being both too heavy and having too many expensive bits that would become broken if, or rather when, I fell off. However, the Greek Island was lacking in proper roads, having what in the UK would be classed B roads which looked and felt as if they had been attacked by a mad gorilla wielding a high powered pneumatic drill. Here, the KLR, and its like, were absolutely idea, being able to soak up the worst of the pot-holes and willing to be flicked off road at a moments notice to avoid oncoming madmen in speeding, dilapidated vehicles. All good fun!
After all the expense, the KLR rewarded me with a trouble free journey back to the UK except for the clutch cable breaking in Nice, which I repaired in emergency style with a solderless nipple I just happened to be carrying. Incidentally, the shock has recently shed all its oil yet again!
To sum up, then, I enjoyed riding the KLR and relate all the earlier problems to the fact that I may have bought a slightly abused bike in the first place, although two shocks in one year? Other problems are related to the top end with valve demise and camchain failure possible at surprisingly low mileages on earlier bikes. Others have suffered piston and ring breakages when thrashed. Not the toughest engine around, perhaps, but they can be picked up very cheaply, so it's all swings and roundabouts.
Mark Buxton