Hi

Congratulations on purchasing one of the best general purpose bikes ever made.

Not that I am biased - grin, but have one as well from new with about the same
mileage. In answer to your questions from my point of view.

1) Never really wanted more power for my style of riding - I am an old f*rt
and it has a pretty good spread of power from lugging at low revs in the bush
(despite being a twin) on fire trails, and still able to cruise well on the highway
keeping out of the way of semi's. Fuel consumption is pretty constant at
60mpg (told you I was an old f*rt) from slow speed work on the tracks
to cruising at 100 - 110kph.

2) I fitted an Eagle screen from WA- the wide touring one - best thing I
have done as the windblast used to collect the helmet at speed and make
my eyeballs vibrate, not now with the new screen.

3) Not seen a frame for panniers, picked up some soft ones from a bike shop
in Sydney on special (near Central Stn) and they work wonderfully. No effect
on bike handling at all even when heavily loaded. On the other hand
when I used the heavy duty vinyl ones designed for Minsk bikes in Vietnam
the bike wandered all over the road when hit by wind gusts - BUT
it can carry a heck of a lot of camping gear, it just limits your speed to
80 - 90kph when a southerly hits.

4) No idea - have not been in real muddy conditions - yet, most of the
tracks down here have a sandy base and junk gets flung off as you ride.

5) SEAT - Hah - same effect of numb bum here, if you are over 5'8"
you seem to hit the rear of the padding and it is AGONY. I had a local upholsterer
move the hollow further back with no effect, picked up a sheepskin cover
from Berry, now able to ride for 6-7 hours before the derrière gets sore.
Abt $60 for a generic one that fits, ~ $160 for a custom one for the KLE.

6) Tyres - the standard ones were OK in the dirt but had me all over the
place when on tight tar twisties on Macquarie pass - dangerous, so replaced
them with 80% road oriented ones from Mitas, MUCH better for cruising
but a bit of a handful when in deep sand. Depends on what you want from
the bike.

Good luck with your bike and hope you have fun riding on it.

If you want a few ideas on rides and locations, check out the trip
reports by " Lonestar " on the Aussie Kawaski forum