adventure
 

As I said, the engine probably will give you no problems if the doo and valves are in specs. You can carry clutch cables that will fit any bike, just the steel cable with some little screw-on stops for the end. Cost abt. one dollar each. You lucky bastard to have a girlfriend who likes biking, and whose legs are long enough for the KLR.
I always carry the tools I need for tire work, and a piece of abt. 8cmx2cm, 35 cm long piece of timber to prop up the wheels when there is a flat. For safety find something to put under the skidplate, rocks, logs, so the bike will not tumble when the prop happens to slide out. If you need a valve job half way thru the voyage, carry some shims.
Spare bulbs, fuses, and tubes that´s about it, read up on KLR maintainance, carry a manual. Or download the parts numbers from the Kawasaki website, for in case you need to order one. the KLR can be lowered with lowering links, with all the gear and fuel it becomes very top heavy. Have a nice trip, masochists.

and?
 

Hi Cruthas / Nick,

How are you experiencing your bike? Do you think it has been a good choise, the KLR650, if you went along with it? I am planning do to something similar in september - let the world economic crisis go by in the meantime :-).

I am thinking to go for a KLR as well, so I am interested in your experience.

Thanks
Remco

remcoinuk@hotmail.com

I am now in Brazil, finishing a ride to TDF on a KLR650. Kawasaki is almost non-existent it Brazil. Haven't seen a dealership yet.

It's an easy bike to work on, even if something fails. I had several problems, but I either had the parts with me or was able to find them.

Local dealers won't have much, and even 17" rear tires were sometimes scarce. I carried many parts, and used a lot of them. My signal flasher relay died, but I had a spare. My chain stretched out after about 12,000 miles, but I carried a spare chain and sprockets. The chain would have been available in any large city, but maybe not the sprockets.

Went through 3 headlight bulbs, but always stayed stocked up. A few fuses bit the dust. Broke one clutch cable in Costa Rica, but had a spare. Went through several sets of brake pads, which might be hard to find along the way if you don't take them with you.

My riding buddy (also on a KLR6450) had his rear shock blown out, rebuilt, blown out again, and currently on the second rebuild. I have a really heavy spring on my rear shock, and I think it's worth it if you are loaded down.

He also had his speedometer hub go dry and tear itself up, so keep grease in there.

Lots of other stuff, but those were either related to crashes (yup, had a few bad ones) or to other specific issues that other riders might not experience.

I don't want to hijack this thread, but my ride report is here, if you want all the details and lots of photos:

http://www.errant-ronin.com/PrudhoeBayUshuaia.htm

That ride report is current as of about an hour ago, as I write this.

Hope all is going well!

This is just basic survival stuff for your bike. Learn your bike. You will be rewarded with a trouble free trip.

Thanks SgtMarty for ur comments. I checked your website as well, interesting stuff!

Thanks, Mollydog, very handy item overview, will be my new shopping list :-). Good tips.

Would you both go for a KLR again, or perhaps a Honda/ Yamaha?

I´m just finishing up a trip from Panama to Ushuaia, and back up to Buenos Aires. I think the KLR has been absolutely the right bike. One thing I should have done is been a lot more diligent in cleaning and lubing the chain. New chain only lasted 8ooo miles. I now clean with kerosene whenever I´ve been in dirt. I also don´t use an grease type lube in dirt, it just traps the sand.

Above advice re spare parts is good. I haven´t had any trouble getting 17 inch tires. Replace in Lima, Osorno, and rear in Patagonia as the Sahara 3 that I bought primarily for the southern dirt roads was pretty torn up. Replace with a Tourance, since it was paved the rest of the way.

not much to add
 

All the above is excellent advice.

Ultimately my choice to ride the KLR was to do with economics more than anything, but it has been absolutely solid. I´ve had to change a few fuses, bulbs and turn signal relay. Otherwise the biggest problem were nuts and bolts rattling loose here and there.

I´d make sure you´ve got decent tools for changing tyres. Due to a combination of really bad luck and a worn tyre I had to change 5 tyres in 2 weeks along the Carreterra Austral... never been so frustrated in all my life!

Honda is definitely the most prevalent company around Chile and Argentina. I found parts much easier to find in Argentina.

Anyway, if you want to ride the KLR there are plenty of people out there and doing it.
enjoy!

There is so much information out there on the KLR,

Sorry that I seemed to have faded from this thread.

Yeah, I would (and probably will) do this ride again on a KLR. It's dependable enough, and easy to fix. More "sophisticated" bikes are harder to repair on the side of a dirt road in the rain.

May I suggest:do something about the stock seat before leaving. Don't do as I did, thinking that seating comfort has never been much of an issue...so why bother? Somewhere around 20k miles I finally realized no one was giving me extra credit for suffering, and bought an Airhawk seat in Sweden (not recommended, but better there than if I'd waited until Norway).

Now, at 46k miles, the stock seat has absolutely no padding value left at all. The Airhawk literally saves my butt every day. Of course, there are alternatives.

enjoy,

Mark

This response is long after the original query but it may amuse some subsequent viewers.

The notion that you can find a Kawasaki dealer and KLR parts in any city in South America is simply a foolish notion.

A "Kawasaki dealer" is actually pretty rare. And if you find one that has a relationship with the national distributor, don't count on that dealer having any parts for the model Kawasaki you have. KLRs are comparatively rare in South America. Most dealers will have smaller bikes and not many parts for KLRs.

As far as "cables" in many areas the practice is to make a replacement cable using the outer sheath of your original and the dealer supplies the inner braided material as raw stock. A little soldering and presto, a cable that will maybe last a year if you are lucky and keep it well lubed.

Bearings, such as wheel bearings, are often industry-standard parts and a sharp dealer has a nearby (you hope) auto parts store who sells cheap unsealed Chinese-made bearings that might and might not last. But it's either that or zero in that town.

In Argentina there were some jurisdictions that used KLR650s as police bikes. There are some Argentine-made KLR parts. I found Argie-made clutch cables and fork seals. They were not the best but they served as spares. The Argie fork seal was installed in 1999, failed/unseated in 2001, and was reseated - it is still in that 1997 KLR that I rode up to Santiago recently.

Chains - o-ring chains of the right size not likely in smaller cities but can be ordered. Or you can get an industrial chain with no o-rings and pretend you are riding a circa-1970 Triumph and just lube the damned thing every day. Those industrial chains are durable, economical (compared to o-ring chains) and when lubed properly, are more efficient than o-ring chains. When I rode from US to TdF in the seventies I had an industrial chain with no o-rings and she went just fine.

The alternative to "not being able to find KLR650 parts where you are in South America" is sometimes fast air shipment from the US or from a distributor in a capital or major city. In Argentina and Chile many small-town non-dealers will help you get expedited shipping from a good supplier, but you are going to pay for it.

Then there are dismantlers, though this is not often a reliable source. There have been wrecked KLR650 bikes in the yards around Santiago de Chile and possibly in other major cities as well.

Suggestion -- carry the digital/PDF version of the KLR manual on a USB flash drive. Most shops in CL and AR now have computers that will allow mechanics to view digital manuals. I even scanned the parts manual for my KLR so that we could better see the breakdowns and of course see the part numbers. Carry a copy of a PDF reader on your flash drive in case the dealer doesn't have it installed. I also carry Word-document copies of procedures (images and text borrowed from the web) for things such as doohicky replacement. I have a ruggedized 16 GB flash drive which is my pocket library for everything, including passport, credit card, and other images.

Just a bit to chew on.

If you are in a part of South America where sheep are to be found, a little searching may offer you a sheepskin for a seat cover. Not a pretty one, mind you, and you don't need a complete one.

Perhaps my Finnish butt is more durable than most but I have never been uncomfortable on the KLR seat, even on 600 mile days in the heat. But then I don't find the KLR front brake to be a problem either since I can two-finger a front wheel til it locks up. Maybe I am just an animal.