Motorcycle Trader magazine's ROB BLACKBOURN checks out how Kawasaki’s big-single dual sports performs as a contender in the learner and novice rider market segment …
pics: STUART GRANT
Access to bikes like the KLR650 – big-single dual sports under 660cc – is one of the big pluses of the LAMS (Learner Approved Motorcycle Scheme). The benefit is enjoyed by big blokes (and gals) who looked ridiculous and felt uncomfortable squeezed into the confines of compact 250s.
The KLR is a tall and rangy machine, a typical “duallie”, that can efficiently and comfortably accommodate most members of our species. The limiting factor is the seat height of 890mm that means shorties will have some difficulties. If you can mount it, though, the long travel suspension soon settles a bit allowing you to get more of your feet on the ground than you might have thought.
WHAT IS IT?
It’s no “Johnny come lately”, that’s for sure. It owes a lot conceptually to the Kawasaki Tengai that was introduced over 20 years ago. The more prosaic KLR650 moniker took over here in 2003.
It’s still powered by a 651cc liquid-cooled, four-valve engine that has become progressively more sophisticated and refined with the passing of the years.
The looks in particular are distinctively different now from its plain-Jane earlier versions. The frame-mounted fairing and headlight set-up combines with the distinctive front guard to give it a bit of visual attitude, a bit of predator flavour. The generously sized luggage rack at the rear completes the styling on a practical note.
WE HAVE LIFT OFF
The engine is a delight to use. Still on a carburettor, it starts easily from cold using the ’bar-mounted choke, warms up while you’re getting your helmet and gloves on, then idles reliably without any mechanical noise.
It’s an unusual engine, unlike its big-single peers, in that it seems to have a bit of old-fashioned flywheel mass. This gives it a calmer personality than most modern engines. Okay, so it’s a little slower to spin up off idle (though, of course, it still leaves all the tin-tops in its wake from the lights), but it rewards the rider with its ability to dawdle along in first with the clutch fully engaged – for example while you manoeuvre behind the clothes line and around the lemon tree to get to the back gate. It does this at idle revs. On the road it means the thing never dies on you at the lights. A lot of modern bikes, with no flywheel mass to speak of, are inclined to do the big dummy-spit stall unless you’re humouring them with clutch slip and revs.
It’s also a very smooth engine with most of its inherent vibration tendencies neutralised by double balancers.
Its mid-range is really something – very robust. Although its power peak is at around 6500rpm, you spend most of your time in the 2500 – 5000rpm band. At 100km/h in top it’s just loping along, spinning at about 4200rpm.
Fuel consumption is fine at around 22km/litre on the highway giving it a bitumen touring range of better than 400km from the serious 22-litre tank.
The gearbox is a sweet thing to use – changes are clean and accurate and it loves clutchless shifts. You could say that the ratios of first and second are a bit low, but you wouldn’t – because it’s a duallie. They’re a happy enough compromise to serve the differing demands of road and off-road needs.
ROUND THE CORNER
Steering geometry on a bike like this is fairly lazy but the leverage of the wide bars – cross-braced and tough looking – combined with the sit up posture, give you a lot of authority over its direction. So it turns responsively as soon as you ask it to. It makes for a great traffic bike (the well located big mirrors help too).
The real bonus was the excellence of the suspension. You come to expect that bikes with long-travel suspension will behave like rocking horses on the road under braking and acceleration. This doesn’t. You mount it and it settles to its natural position. At that point in the suspension’s stroke it has a tautness that keeps it on quite an even keel during most of your riding. It’s just fine for fast cornering with no exaggerated responses to brakes and throttle. When on a couple of occasions I got a bit of air under both wheels the long-travel ability kicked in. It landed with such a lovely “squish”, and no bounce, that you were hard pressed to identify the moment when it hit terra firma.
I only managed a few off-road kays, which it handled with aplomb. So I will assume that it wouldn’t disappoint on longer off-road stints.
COMFORT FACTOR
The basic ergos of the bike, as we’ve said make it comfortable overall. However, the feature that deserves a big tick in this area is the seat. Apart from purpose-designed touring seats, this is the most comfortable stock seat I’ve used in recent years. Perhaps it’s a fluke that the seat and the Blackbourn butt seemed to be meant for each other. I don’t know. But it was excellent.
The fairing with its modest screen combines well with the shape of the tank and the radiator shrouds to give some protection from wind and weather. I rode through a couple of half serious showers on a ride to Phillip Island without waterproof pants. With my knees hugging the tank as tight as possible, I stayed more or less dry.
NIGGLES
Let’s go from comfort to discomfort. In gridlock, stop-start traffic the radiator fan directs a strong flow of hot air back on to the rider’s legs. You really feel it and it becomes another incentive to find a way out of the mess.
The next issue is distraction. The gloss black horizontal tops of the fairing reflect stuff from overhead, be it tree branches, clouds or traffic signs. It happens suddenly and for a nano-second you fear something has come adrift. I would paint these areas matt black.
Sidestand length is a matter of opinion, but for me this one is a bit too long, meaning that dismounting and parking the bike requires more deliberation than I enjoy, in the interests of not dropping the bike.
SUMMING UP
I’ll repeat the answer I gave to a police motorcyclist doing a “routine licence and rego check” when he asked me what I thought of the KLR:
“It’s hard not to like a bike that’s a good commuter, great for this trip today from Melbourne to Phillip Island and extremely comfortable.
“And you know that if you’d headed off to Broome instead of the Island, the KLR would serve you just as well.”
RED ROSES
Top suspension
Sweet gearbox
That lovely seat
ONION WEED
Hot legs syndrome
Long sidestand
Distracting reflections
SPEX
KAWASAKI KLR650
ENGINE
Type: Liquid-cooled, four-valve, four-stroke, single cylinder
Bore and stroke: 100 x 83mm
Displacement: 651cc
Compression ratio: 9.8:1
Fuel system: CVK40 carb
TRANSMISSION
Type: Five-speed, constant mesh
Final drive: chain
CHASSIS AND RUNNING GEAR
Frame type: Tubular steel – semi-double-cradle
Front suspension: 41mm telescopic
Rear suspension: Link-type Uni-Trak shock – preload and rebound adjustable
Front brake: Single 280mm “petal” disc with twin-piston caliper
Rear brake: Single 240mm “petal” disc with twin-piston caliper
DIMENSIONS AND CAPACITIES
Dry weight: 173kg
Seat height: 890mm
Fuel capacity: 22.1 litres
PERFORMANCE
Max power: n/a
Max torque: n/a
OTHER STUFF
Price: $8499 plus ORC
Test bike supplied by: Kawasaki Australia
Warranty: 24 months/unlimited km
Accessories
Tall windscreen K46001-336 rec retail $145.40
Saddlebags K57003-100 “ “ $313.15
Tail Bag K57003-101 “ “ $212.70
Tank Bag K57003-102 “ “ $116.40