![]() ![]() The KLR 650 Adventure comes pre-farkled with LED accessory lights, hard saddlebags and several other useful parts. But if you fancy ABS, it’s completely unavailable on the Honda or Suzuki, and both those machines rely on carburetors, while the new KLR has EFI. With supply chain issues, you’ll have to just take what you can get, and the term “optional” is meaningless unless you actually have a choice. The Gen 3 bike comes with optional ABS, but that’s a bit of a misnomer. As mentioned above, it’s quite heavy as well. There’s a 21-inch front wheel, long-travel suspension and knobby tires, but this bike is most comfortable on the street or fire road. The Gen 3 bike that came out as a 2022 model completed the transformation into a proper adventure bike. The Gen 2 (2008-2019) bikes were even more porky, with more front end plastics that hinted at on-road bias (although many riders still happily tore around off-road on them). The Gen 1 and Gen 1.5 KLRs (1987-2007) were true dual sports-slightly on the porky side, perhaps, but very rugged and solid machines. The current-generation KLR650 is even bigger and heavier than before, but the price is still low, and the bike still offers the best road comfort of all the Japanese 650s in fact, it’s far better than it was before. The DR650 can even be lowered very easily, with factory parts (flip the shock linkage upside down, reverse some fork internals, bolt on a new kickstand). If you like to tinker on machinery, the DR650 is one of the best bikes available, because the end result can turn out being surprisingly capable. ![]() Want to install an EFI system? It’s been done. Big-bore kits are readily available and easy to install. You can turn the DR650 into anything you want, within reason: A hardened dirt-basher, a streamlined street tourer (uh, sort of), a supermoto, the world is the limit. However, if you want to make it more street-friendly or more dirt-friendly, the aftermarket is there. That’s because if you want an all-round machine that’s OK on the trails, OK on the street, it’s hard to beat the DR formula. There’s very little that can go wrong with this air/oil-cooled single-cylinder engine, and if you keep an eye on the POTW post every Friday, you’ll notice that the DR650 is probably the best-represented machine there, with at least one example on display every week. Suzuki DR650 for a rally raid? Let’s dance! Maybe not the best bike for the job, but it can be adapted to any task… Photo: Egleįor that money, you’re getting one of the most reliable bikes in the world. ![]()
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