Hi guys... well, I could ask all kind of questions after spending my off time in the last three days reading through KLX250 related forums and websites, but as I don't even own a bike again yet, I guess this one is just as good as another. The questions first before the minutae that might bore many of you: [ol][*]Seeing as Kawasaki has brought out their 2009 model a year early (anaphalactic reaction to the Yamaha's 2008 WR250R?), what are the chances that Kawasaki will provide EFI on the KLX to keep up with the Jones's as it were, within a year? Us older guys have started to come to the realization we don't have a lot of time left to fritter away waiting on anything, so about a year Is all I would be willing to ride around a beater while waiting for ANY specific feature.[*]Further speculation is invited on just how much of a difference EFI would make on this bike as far as economy and power would be concerned - would it even be worth waiting for in the first place?[/ol]I realize that unless somebody has a personal line into Kawasaki's R&D and marketing departments this is all little better than wild *** guesses, but I'd enjoy hearing your take on the matter.

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Now the personal stuff and new guy introduction:

First post; nice to be here. Haven't owned a motorcycle in about 35 years I guess. Raced motocross back in the 60's and early 70's when some guy named Roger DeCoster was the guy we always talked about, along with some upstart new guy named Heikki Mikkola or something like that. Made a pilgramage down to California to watch DeCoster race one year. The dirt bikes we talked about had foreign names like AJS Stormer, CZ, Bultaco, etc - we rode Yamahas and yet somehow or other didn't think of them as "foreign". The 501 Maico had near mythical status with us - although we'd never seen one. Our motocross bikes were Yamaha enduros with all the lights, fenders, etc stripped off them. There was always some local guy/welder who had the secret formula for pipes he made himself that would at least TRIPLE the power of our bikes... we were so young, naive, and broke. The guys who could afford to buy the CZ's and Husky's could usually kick our asses. Then Suzuki and Yamaha started selling MX bikes that we could actually afford and the fun really started. My first YZ was my last year of racing and owning motorcycles - a really cool looking bike that had it's gas tank held on by a nylon strap of all things. After that, my father's urging me to get out of the mines and get a career led me off to service in the military and law enforcement in places and a lifestyle that just didn't seem conducive to having dirt bikes. Rode a friend's road bike here and there a time or two over the decades, but that was about it.

Fast forward to present day and I'm on the wrong side of 50 in yet a new career as a GIS analyst, which leads me back to where I was as a kid, spending a lot of my time in the Rocky Mountains in the East Kootenays of BC and the Glacier/Whitefish/Kalispel area of Montana (I live and work - legally - on both sides of the border). I've been musing for years now that I really do need to get a dirt bike again. Three days ago I got a wild hair up my *** and decided I WILL be buying myself a dirt bike as a present to myself for sticking out my current contract work in the money patch out on the bald assed prairies. Started poking around in my off hours on the Internet looking at Yamahas (and realizing that dirt bikes nowadays all look like starships to me). Apologies to you Kawi guys, but what can you expect from a guy whose past was raced Yamaha MX bikes and cheated death while being stupid on a succession of RD350's? The closest I ever came to owning a Kawasaki was breaking my collarbone when I dumped a friends 750 Triple in a tight hairpin while trying to make it corner like my RD. He was a good sport about it and said not to worry about it.

Anyways, while looking at the available choices of street legal 250's, I stumbled over Dan Moore's KLX page, which kinda/sorta led me to this forum and a few similar ones. And while reading through all of those - particularly the posts and comments from you folks here - I pretty much concluded that the KLX250s is probably the best choice for the kind of plonking around a timid middle aged guy like me will be doing.

My days of going like my hair is on fire are long behind me now. The sins of my youth long ago started making their presence known every morning, jumping out of airplanes for a living added it's own history to the bod, and born too soon is starting to set in. Worst of all, being self employed I can't afford to go off hurting myself so that the paycheques stop but the medical bills don't - and the family has this odd notion that there should always be enough money for frivolous stuff like food, no matter what ideas I get in my head. So I've been looking right from the start with something like the KLX in mind.

Soooooo.... your postings here in particular have convinced me that the KLX might well be capable of wild, but its mild side will probably be just about perfect for my uses. Really inexpensive to buy and good milage - the excuse I'll give my wife when I tell her it means I can leave the Dodge Ram 2500 diesel parked in the garage most of the time in these days of diesel owners being ripped off with exorbitant diesel prices. Something I can once again use to ride out to my favorite hunting, flyfishing, etc spots on the countless new and old forestry and mining roads around here. And something I can ride again just for plain old fun, even if my days of stuffing into a berm and hammering the throttle are over. Lots of ways to have fun on a motorcycle... And who knows, if I can find a way to incorporate using it into the GPS survey part of my profession, I might even be able to write the bike off as a regrettable - but necessary - business expense!

I suspect it will be almost all I need as is, but I expect I'll need a few mods right off the bat. Lots of local roads out here where an out and back would easily be beyond the reach of the stock gas tank, so an aftermarket tank will be almost mandatory - not too many circle loops in the places I have in mind where a gas station is available. A source of suspension upgrades as I weigh in at around 220 lbs and have always been well known for packing all kinds of crap with me. And a serious cargo rack/bustle rack upgrade on the back so I can haul an elk quarter around on there, car battery and RTK GPS setup - or more likely, most of the time, a sleeping bag, bivvy bag, camera bag, and some spare gas if I need it for a longer overnighter on a fishing or hunting trip. Yeah, I know some of that would be a big load to ask a 250 to carry, but those trips would be rare whereas some camping/fishing/hunting gear would not be.

Look forward to learning lots more from you guys here and meeting any of you in this area once I finally get some wheels back under me again. Can't contribute anything on the mechanical front as I was always dumb as a post about wrenching anyways and what I did know was long forgotten (not to mention outdated). But, I do know GPS and mapping backwards and forwards, so anything on that front or any issues dealing with spatial data for you offroad travellers I can probably help out with.

BTW, the "Airborne" user name doesn't imply a like of big air in any way, shape, or form, past or present. My real name is Rick, but that was taken as was just about any other username I tried to think of that I would remember. I finally tried what I used to do for a living - and that worked:



Thanks in advance to those of you posting replies in response to my questions.

Oh... one last question... why is it that my leathers have shrunk six waist sizes over all these decades? Damned leather... pay all that good money to get a custom set of leathers sewed up, and just because you leave them stowed away unused for a few years they shrink like crazy. Does anybody even wear leathers anymore - I see hockey shoulder pads and elbow pads are no longer the leading edge in protective gear anymore...

Regards,
Rick

 

Welcome aboard Rick, The KLX250 will serve you up a load of fun. A few mods, little xtra fuel will do you fine. Maybe some seat padding will help, I finally understand why everyone removes the seat strap!

 

Jeepers creepers, me too! Two days on the bike, and that thing has GOT to go! Its in the worst spot, right on my tailbone, and pretty much useless if someone were riding, since I'd be sitting on it. Mine's gonna get unbolted ASAP

 

Hey Rick, glad to have you on board, I have to say that is one of the longest questions/introductions I have seen in 2 years. We know more about you than we do about most members that have been on here for years...... Again, welcome to the forums, and get out there and pick up a KLX before they are all gone. Everyone knows the 06 is still the best one made.[8D]

 

Yeah... well, when you're sitting in front of a screen picking your nose while waiting for a couple of thousand map tiles to finish generating so you can move on, you have lots of time to read through KLX threads... and type introductions. And when you type a bit over 100 wpm, it is a little easy to crank out a lot of stuff in a hurry - not always a good thing.

Besides, after that nobody is going to write a post saying something like "Why would you want a rack on your bike that would hold that much weight", or something like that...

As for getting one, first I have to get my *** out of the money patch and back to civilization where there's some bike dealers...

Okay... I'll bite... why is an '06 like you presumably own the best? Because you can't afford a new one? Or does the Honda Red version offend your delicate sensibilities?????

Jeez, no comments on the EFI questions. Most people see it as mostly as a "who cares" issue - having too much fun already?

 

hello, nice to hear from you. welcome aboard. I'll bite on the efi thingy. The way I see it, and it's just my opinion is that you won't see fi on the KLX here in the USA. They're just now bringing it to the '09 KX450F and the 250F doesn't even have it. It would raise the price significantly I would guess. The new '09 KLX is selling like hotcakes in case you didn't know and why fix what isn't broken- it's cheap and has loads of potential both stock and aftermarket. The CV is a good carb in spite of what some may say. It isn't a pumper with instant throttle snap, but when jetted properly it will deliver in most situations more than adequately plus, it's better on-road than any pumper could ever be. Yes, the Japanese KLX version is fuel-injected, but for whatever reason, they chose not to give other parts of the world the fuel-injection. Personally, the only motorcycles I feel to benefit from fuel-injection recently were Harley-Davidson's. They really needed it. The Sportster line just got it last year as the big twins have had it for five or six years. Nah, the KLX won't get it anytime soon. It just got redesigned, including reworking the carb a bit so 2010 changes will be very minimal I'm betting. That's my 'speculation'.

 

I think the KLX will get FI, probably next year, perhaps the year after. I think offering it in Japan is just the first step to shake out the design. Besides, if they don't, they will lose all their potential KLX customers to the WR250R/X instead where the FI is getting rave reviews..

 

Welcome to the funhouse Rick. You'll find that most of the regulars here give new meaning to the term "characters". All in good fun though, and opinions freely offered.

Regarding your query about FI. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the KLX to get it, and forseveral reasons. For those of us old enough to remember there was a time when a fuel injected auto was a rarity, but then a logical progression began. First, the big dollar import exotics, then the high end domestic rides, and finally filtering down to entry level cars. And I don't even count the BS 'throttle body' stuff GM tried to foist on the public in the late seventies/early eighties. Today you'd be hard pressed to find a new car - of any kind - that doesn't have it. I'll bet MC makers follow a similar path and that sometime in the not to distant future all bikes will have it. Except for the Chinese marques, of course, who will buy the old tooling from the big guys and will continue making '07 KLX's into the 21st century.

I think the second reason FI could be awhile is simple $$$$$$$. Remember, Kawi has a pretty large price point advantage over the Red and Blue brothers. Part of it might be getting the most out of tried and true (read 'older') technologies while the big two blaze the path. But I'll bet NoBrakes is correct - Yammi just raised the bar. Man, just like the old Big Three horsepower wars from the sixties. And you remember who won that one, right? The consumer! Go ahead and duke it out, boys, we get better products. What a country.

I hear what you're saying about the new bikes looking like starships. Look a little closer though and you'll discover just how similar the old and new are. Case in point. My last bike before the KLX was a '79 Honda XL250S (kinda spooky, the only thing missing is the 'K'). The Honda had a four valve engine, compression equalizer to facilitate kick starts, something like a 34" seat height and decent suspension for the day. At first glance the differences in the KLX seem subtle but are in fact huge. Twin disc brakes, liquid cooling, 6 speed tranny, much better suspension - and are about what I'd expect after a 30 year evolution.

Now for my 2 cents. Instead of waiting for FI to (maybe) come in the next couple of years, look for a low mileage 06/07 (deej and Eric love their '06's but they are essentially the same bike). Several of us here, myself included, have gone that route. With the $1,500 or so you should save over new get yourself some mods you want, maybe and exhaust, carb kit, and cargo rack. If FI comes out in the next couple of years you will probably be able to recoup a lot of your capital cost assuming that gas prices don't take a plunge - yeah, right.

Speaking of racks, you'll find some threads here that will show you some alternatives. And I thought of a couple of old makes you didn't mention - Hodaka and Montessa.

Best of luck on your new ride.

 

Rick,

It sounds like you aren't going to be doing any hardcore single track trails or trail blazing. Given your weight, plus the weight you intend to "pack along", I'm going to have to recommend the BMW F800GS. Yes, it's pricey at $11,000 (and not available in the US until September). The fuel tank (4.2 gal)is under the seat for a lower center of gravity. It weighs a little over a hundred pounds more than the KLX, but it has the horsepower (85hp) to carry it. And, it already has fuel injection. I'm guessing that while doing a leisurely ride around the forest and mining roads, the range will be in excess of 200 miles. For about $2300 less, you can get the new F650GS, which has a detuned version (73hp) of the same parallel twin 800 that is on the F800GS.

I'm anxiously awaiting September (and I would like the stock market to recover just a little to pay for it).

No, the KLX will not be for sale...

http://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/bikes/...Section=enduro

 

[]LOOK DEEJ............. He's got a 2500 Dodge Diesel! this guys gotta be OK!!

welcome to the site!