My KLR650...13 years and going?

[pdedse]

I bought my '07 Kawasaki KLR650 13 years ago this month--it had 2500 miles on it when I bought it, and now it's 200 shy of 50,000. It has been an awesome bike that has taken me from Oregon to Baja, from Texas to Guatemala to Oregon, it has been my comuter to work on sunny and lots of rainy days, I've done two 700 mile day rides with this bike, it has taken me all over Oregon...and only once have I had a road-side issue which was just a blown fuse.

Today was a celebration of 13 happy years together. On a whim, I headed towards the coast this morning. Started at 9:30am, taking I-84 towards Portland, then 26 west. Veer south by southwest on hiway 6 towards Tillamook. Nearly all of that was on pavement. The idea was to simply do lots of forest riding to explore any interesting gravel forest roads along the way.





I've been using my [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=17160]First Gear Rush Jacket (see here for review), and I really do like this jacket alot. The only thing is that when I left home, it was nice and warm, and so I left the re-movable rain liner at home. When I got up in the mountains, there was a cold air flow coming in from the coast. Well, the mesh Rush jacket works great! It lets copious air flow pass through--and I was getting chilly with just a T-shirt and light long sleeve shirt underneath.

After lunch, I headed straight to a local department store and bought another long sleeve shirt. I don't mind riding in the cold--I have the gear for that...normally. But I hate riding when I'm cold.

Along hiway 1 near Twin Rocks


Quick stop at the beach...


At Wheeler where I turned inland on hiway 53


Time to explore more service roads


Yellow sign says "No wood cutting this area"


53 meets back up with 26 completing the circle. It was difficult to find open forest service roads as the state of Oregon has closed access to many roads due to extremely dry conditions.


About 230 miles. A very agreeable ride.

The KLR650 does 70-80mph just fine, 90 if you really must. It has low enough grunt to tractor up anything I've tried--albeit I'm not very accomplished off road. I've never had to have it serviced because it is easy to work on...yet, I'm wondering if it's time to "downgrade". Who knows how many miles it has left. It's in perfect running condition, no oil leaks, it pulls strong in all gears, doesn't burn much oil except after long trips at hiway speeds. It has fairly new tires, chain and sprockets--in short, it just works and never gives me hassles.

And yet...there is another Kawasaki that's caught my eye...the KLX300.


or



It's nearly 120 lbs lighter, six gears, FI instead of carb...hmmm...

Terrible thing to think about while celebrating 13 years together.