KLE 500 Performance modifications needed.
 

Hi everyone. I am from Cape Town, South Africa and have just recently bought a new 2007 KLE 500. The bike is great. Best value for money, reliability and low running costs. I use the bike daily for commuting. Only one problem that I found is that the front break pads needed replacing after only 5800km!

I was wondering if anybody knew of any easy performance modifications that can be done to the bike, cause it seems the bike could do with a little bit more grunt. The motor is very willing and free reving. I suspect the problem lies with the exhaust. It looks a bit restrictive.:confused1: Any performance tips are welcome.

Cheers.

Am yet to go down the performance enhancing route, but I believe the cat system on the kle is very restrictive. a "proper" exhaust would help considerably, but the carb jetting would require modifying too.
The cam profile on the kle is softer for a smoother low rev performance (alledgedly, my 2006 wouldn't pull the skin off an egg custard). gpz cams may sort that and take the power back upto the 50bhp mark.
I have no info on the ignition system.

Thanx for the info. I'll probably start with the exhaust. Powerflow makes a nice system (stainless headers and silencer). Can get it here in SA. Do you have any info on the carb jetting requirements? I have asolutely no clue where to start. Also, what about the airbox/air filter?

Thanx.

Try here Technologie & Ecologie : Motorbike - Kawasaki 500 KLE

If using gpz cams, with a good inlet/exhaust, then the stock gpz carb jets will not be too far out. A bit of research (too late tonight for me) will give the jet sizes for the kle/gpz motors. take it from there.

Go with the powerflow exhaust. Had a local guy here in PE (from powerflow) make me one from start to finnish. He did a good job and if those oaks do half as good a job you should still be happy. I also added a aftermarket airfilter and used a soldering iron to make some more holes in the air box. I then sent it in for a dyno. Boy what a difference.. I still have to come accross a 650 dual sport that will beat me from pull away to excelleration to top speed, alone or 2 up. Dont expect much increase on top end thou... You just get there a lot easier and hold it much better. Much better riding a 500c and leaving 650gs's or Klr's eating dust than riding a bigger bike and get eaten for breakfast by a 500cc.
ps. nothing was changed on the carbs except fine tuning it.

Can you tell me which aftermarket airfilter you use now.Tnx.

[quote=ronepaulsen;167844]Go with the powerflow exhaust. Had a local guy here in PE (from powerflow) make me one from start to finnish. He did a good job and if those oaks do half as good a job you should still be happy. I also added a aftermarket airfilter and used a soldering iron to make some more holes in the air box. I then sent it in for a dyno. Boy what a difference.. I still have to come accross a 650 dual sport that will beat me from pull away to excelleration to top speed, alone or 2 up. Dont expect much increase on top end thou... You just get there a lot easier and hold it much better. Much better riding a 500c and leaving 650gs's or Klr's eating dust than riding a bigger bike and get eaten for breakfast by a 500cc.
ps. nothing was changed on the carbs except fine tuning it.[/quote

How much does the full system cost approx. and did you go for the free flow or street legal system? I cant find any pictures on the net of the Powerflow system. What make of air filter did you use and what type of minor tuning was doen to the carbs.
The info will be greatly appreciated.

The air filter is DNA. K&N could not supply. Powerflow is a local exhaust manufacturing company ( mainly motor cars ) They do not mass produce pipes for bikes. Mine was a hand made once off deal for which i had to lay out R2500 ( compared to nearly R10 000 for the Arrow if imported) The carb settings was done by the chaps doing the Dyno. It is standard procedure of just setting the carbs to the optimum air/fuel ratios. nothing fancy like jet kits ect. I used a soldering iron to make the holes as not to get shavings from drilling into the carbs

Have you any photos of that? Tnx.

Sorry just sold the bike in favour of the new BMW 800gs coming out in March. Never expected it to go so quickly. Had it advertised for one day and could already have sold it 3 times over. It is however very easy. Just remove the airfilter cover and air filter. Use a hot soldering iron to melt a couple of holes in the back of the housing opposite where the air filter sits. You will notice that the air intake is only the size of the top a match box. I made 6 holes, 5mm in diameter, to essensially double the intake capacity. basically in this shape :::

I'm curious to see if anyone has done any CDI mods on the KLE to play with the ignition timing...

If Anyone wants more grunt from the KLE, Then just drop a tooth on the front sprocket. You will loose a bit of top end but get a whole lot more pull off the mark.

But, as always theres a trade off between power and Fuel consumption. So if your trigger happy then visit more petrol stations. With only a small fuel tank that may be a poor trade.

And with regard to brakes, EBC do the pro-light disc with sintered pads which should make a difference.

Roy

My bike is back from the workshop and with 5 extra ponies and a little increase in torque.

The mechanic told me that I could gain even more is the exhaust system is replaced to get rid of the catalytic convertors in the extractors or something like that.

The KLE has 3 cats and restrict the bike a lot but I decided that I had already eliminated some restriction and don't want to increase the emisions for a little extra power, at the end of the day it is not a race bike so no need for it.

The DNA filter went in and the airbox was modified, so the little snorkel intake was taken out of the box and new holes were drilled at the back of the box too. As many may know by now, K&N doesn't make and specific kit for the KLE but DNA does and they have very good reviews.

The first run in the dyno indicated that the bike was running too rich, maybe because of the premium unleaded (98+RON).So after fine tuning the carb the 134 jets went in but it went rich again. Probably because of the restrictors and because the dynokit was designed to be used in conjuction with the K&N universal kit and regular unleaded. So he tried 130 and finally settled for 126 after asking me if I wanted to keep running the bike on premium or change to regular. I rather using premiun because I had bad luck with getting bad batches of regular that made my car run like crap in a couple of occasions. But if you are running on normal unleaded the 130 are good if you keep your stock exhaust or 134 for derestricted exhaust and mufflers and unversal K&N air filters. Remember that this Dynojet kit was designed in the 90s when the emission laws weren't as tight as they are nowdays and it hasn't been updated since then due to the fact that they don't get the newer model KLE in the USA. This is the reason why the kit is sold online as 1991-1998 and for European models only.

So here is the dynorun sheet with before and after:

Before in blue with stock airbox and filter and carb. Only staintune pipe in it.

After in red with DNA air filter, modified airbox to improve airflow, 126 Main jets and the staintune pipe

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h2...00892132AM.jpg
My mechanic also ran the bike without the muffler restrictor at the end of the staintune exhaust and it increased the noise a lot but the gain in power was almost non existent. It was very much the same graph but going rich again at the high end of the revs range. So if I take the restrictor out it will be to piss the neighbours off or to interrupt the mobile phone conversation of some stupid drivers :devil2:

Will

confused
 

Can anyone shed any light on this - the standard spec. for the KLE (Kawasaki manual) is 44bhp and 30 ft/lb of torque.