KLR 250 any good?

**Simon Kennedy** · #1 15 Jul 2002

KLR 250 any good for riding arund Australia? For a light person (42kgs) of little height who is new to riding.

**Glenn_M** · #2 15 Jul 2002

Yes, the 250 will be great. However if you want a bike with electric start and identical features, buy a Kawasaki Super Sherpa.

**Maniac28** · #3 28 Jul 2002

I would go with the sherpa. E start is mandatory in my opinion. I hate kickstarts. It is air cooled, but that only simplifies things, and I think it is still a great bike. It is nice and light.

**Simon Kennedy** · #4 3 Oct 2002

The KLR has proved a decent choice, but the kick start and the small tank are real drawbacks. A tough little bike though: Rachel had a 100kph collision with a kangaroo near Perth. Both rider and bike got up with only scratches. Speedy too. It keeps up fine on the highways. Not for RTW, but it has served us well.

**pfb** · #5 30 Jul 2003

A neighbor just bought a KLR250.

At 7,000 feet, it just doesn't have enough power IMHO.

Starting it, however, is super easy. I just grabbed the kick start lever with my hand and pushed it down, fired right up.

Certainly nothing like kicking a big single.

**Rufuss** · #6 10 Aug 2003

Just bought a 90 with about 5k. Superb bike, starts with 1 kick cold.Comes off choke quickly. Idles great and is smooth, Runs great. Actually like it better than my 97 dr350s.

**chris** · #7 12 Dec 2003

have spotted a klr250 for sale near where i live in the uk. want to use it for green laning. clearly it only has a small fuel tank etc etc, but i only want it for playing in the mud and not for a rtw.

are there any particular klr250-specific sort of things that might require a closer inspection other than the obvious things that apply for all bikes. the bike is a 1996 model with 12k miles.
thanks
ChrisB

**martync** · #8 28 Dec 2003

Ive been looking into the KLR as a green laner and apparenly there realy hard to start when hot and when youre stuck in mud, tired etc.. they can make a good day into an average day. This can be cured with a carb kit which will cost about £120. Ive come to the conclusion if youre going to get a kick start you might as well get a honda or a 2 stroke like a CRM which are as reliable as a 4 stroke an cost a lot less to run, however they have problems- weak suspension- anything more than green laning and you need to upgrade.

**Bol** · #9 2 Jan 2004

Martyn,
I hardly think that a 2 stroke 250 is cheaper to run as a klr 250.A 2 stroke runs a total loss lubrication system that needs expensive oil to run cleanly and reduce wear, and the 2 stroke engine would still use more fuel per cycle than a 4 stroke purely down to its twice as frequent power strokes and poor fuel efficiency.Also 2 stroke engines are far more susceptible to ring breakages and mandatory rebores than any 4 stroke engines.

**dakar200** · #10 4 Feb 2004

you bet it a good bike in the usa my riding has one and we went to texas on one 1100 miles roundtrip get good gas mileage and is a brese to work on.get it!