If you start looking at reasons to get more bikes, there is always one, i was talking to my buddy yesterday who has a fx450 husaberg and a goldwing, and wants something inbetween. So i let him take my KLR for a ride and i rode his goldwing.... niceee bike.

 

@Jonnieblaze: “It looks like I'm getting mixed answers”
Mixed answers!? On an online forum? That’s outrageous!

For what it’s worth, my perspective is this:
My street mount is a 919 which I regularly ride in the foothills & mountains with a crew made up of an RC8, Speed-Triple, 998, & Z1000. We ride in a close pack at speeds that would see all our licenses shredded if caught. Just for laughs I showed up for a ride one day on my little KLX250SF and it was only in the tightest hairpins that there was any contest. Otherwise it was a slaughter due to many factors including power, geometry, seating position, duosport tires, brakes, & handling.

I also recall track days 15-20 years ago when I was on an RC31, and supermoto was just an obscure fringe genre. Even with very competent riders, the su-mos were consistently at the back of the pack, and getting lapped several times over before the end of the race.

Different tools for different jobs; that’s how I justify 5 bikes to my wife!

So, in answer to your question, “KLX riding with sport bikes?” Sure, absolutely, I do it! Just be prepared for a different kind of experience, and don’t expect to show anybody up.

 

Jonnieblaze :It looks like I'm getting mixed answers. For those of you saying it won't do what I'm asking, where does the bike lack?

It lacks power and suspensions .
The KLX 250 or 350 is a very good trail bike and that´s about it . It will lose to a MX bike in a motocross chalenge , it will loose to a enduro bike in an enduro , it will loose to a sports bike on the asphalt . It may be plenty fast in a really tight , narrow mountain pass but a sport bike will always encounter that little straight that will leave your KLX in ( the dust ) and you talking laudly inside your helmet .
How abbout this for mixed answer ?

 

I think it would definitively hold up sub 60mph...above that a sport bike can twist the throttle halfway geared up and walk away from a klx...110 more lbs and 6x the horsepower.

NOW on a KART TRACK Klx all the way.

 

Thanks for the answers everyone. I didn't realize that bike was so unstable at higher speeds and that seems to be the biggest factor in it not being able to keep up with the sport bikes.

Sure it lacks top end stock, but with the 351 kit and a gear change, it might take it longer to get up to speed but at least it could hold 70 mph at a decent RPM just like it would hold 55 or 60 at that same RPM before the gear change. I don’t think the engine would be redlining at 75 like someone else mentioned. I'm honestly not seeing where it couldn't keep up in that regard (talking speed only, not even considering the superior handling and acceleration of a sport bike)

The handling seems to be a different story. It sounds scary-unstable at high speed. I don’t know much about suspension. I know my SV felt like a pogo stick in the turns if I took a tight one pretty fast. I had to swap out the rear shock with one from a zx10r and had to re-spring and install emulators in the front forks. Now it is very stable. I would think someone somewhere has recommendations for the suspension of the KLX to get it more stable at speed. I’ve seen people mention racetech springs, steering dampers, some guy talked about new bearings in the steering head. But it’s pretty unanimous from everyone’s comments here that it’s just not stable at those higher speeds.

I agree that I should have both bikes, but at this point I can’t afford it or even have any place to store an extra bike. Just wish this KLX could be more stable at speed then it would probably be just fine for what I need/want. Light enough for a newb on trails (not talking fire roads) but stable and fast enough to keep up with the back of the pack of sportbikes that I usually ride with (until they twist their throttle, then I'll just wave good bye to them for a few minutes).