If you want ultimate reliability for riding to the end of the earth, then you saddle up on a Kawasaki KLR650.
The Kawasaki KLR650 is a machine that’s been around for years. Yes, in 2018 Kawasaki took it off the market to make updates to it, but those updates weren’t really anything crazy. Kawasaki released the new version of the KLR and it’s very similar.
In the video above, FortNine takes a closer look at what makes this 80s-single-cylinder motorcycle at heart so good, even today.
The Kawasaki KLR650 Puts Advanced ADV Bikes to Shame
Forget BMW’s GS bikes. Forget about the Yamaha T7 or the Honda Africa Twin. Those machines are truly great motorcycles, but if you want something that you can literally beat the shit out of, you buy a KLR650.
There’s no other motorcycle on earth like it, and it’s cheaper than just about every other comparable bike.
The KLR650 will do 90 percent of what those other bikes do at a small fraction of the price. The bike received some notable updates to do just enough to bring it into the modern age (sorta).
It gets some emissions updates and some niceties like ABS, but as FortNine points out there are also some new welded subframe bolts and stiffened springs, two things that needed to happen. As Ryan says, “A tractor perfected can do 98 percent of a T7’s job for half the price.”
This is likely the last time Kawasaki will be able to keep the KLR650 around in more or less the same format. With everything in the world changing, simple 650cc adventure motorcycles might be on their way out.
Check it out at Kawasaki’s website.
