KLR Fever

My motorcycle tastes seem to often shift from one type of bike to another.  After sampling the pro's and con's of owning a large sport-tourer for a summer, I keep finding myself thinking about getting a smaller, lighter dual sport machine.  Riding the Caponord in Michigan is always been lots of fun, but there are times that I wished for a lighter bike with knobbier tires.  The catch is, I need to be able to ride it up there without feeling like I'm on a torture rack.

The KLR650 is a bike that might just fit the bill.  The cost of ownership is very low and it is one of the 650 thumpers that is built to put on the miles.  My friend's KLR spent a year in my garage and I had a good time working on it and riding it.

With the ST1100 sold, I placed "Wanted to Buy" ads on Craigslist as well as on the ADVRider.com forum.  I went back and forth with several sellers of both 1st generation and 2nd generation KLR's.  Did I want to spend all of my motorcycle funds on a nice new KLR that I won't want to get dirty?  They have a lot of small improvements over the first model after all.  Or should I find a much less expensive 1st generation bike and leave myself with a bunch of cash in my pocket?

My decision was made when I heard from a seller who had a beautiful 2007 KLR with only 1,700 miles on the clock.  It looked pristine, and his selling price was half of what I was going to need to spend on a 2009 example.

There was a hitch however.  The bike was on Long Island, New York.  A quick check of shipping quotes showed that it was going to cost $700 to $900 to have it shipped to me.  Financially, that made the great deal a not-so-great deal. 

An idea came to me.  Post an ad on ADVRider.com asking if anyone from the east coast was heading through Chicago with room for a bike.  Within an hour I had three guys offering to help - all for MUCH less money than the professional shippers wanted.  A deal was struck with a guy who'd be driving to Seattle after Thanksgiving. 

My bike will be in my garage on Black Friday.