I am 10k plus thousand miles into a trip on a 2007 KLR. Most of these miles have been on paved highways, and this is due largely to a two-month delay early in my trip (by virtue of which I missed most of the fall, with my bike arriving in Germany in time for early snows and multiple cold waves). The delay itself was due to a failed balancer chain with catasrophic consequences and the ensuing wait for parts at a dealer in Canada. Also involved: a couple of long distance transports by flatbed, much driving of rental cars and flying around on commercial jets, etc. Note that I paid for all of this out of pocket, although repairs were fully warranteed. All in all, I'd sure recommend doing the standard "doohicky" repair before leaving on a trip of any consequence.

I have had plenty of time to think about Kawasaki in general and KLR's in particular, but I'll spare you that part. The balancer mechanism aside, I had some trouble with my fork seals (and with the warranty repair), but little else of consequence: a bunch of burnt out bulbs, a chain, some mysterious and unrepeated electrical issues, lots of lost fasteners and such. I also had some trouble with the carb vent, which sucks water when it rains, causing the vent to fail and the bike to die....or so I've concluded based on its intermittent issues with drenching rains. Overall, the bike seems rather cheaply made, but it's very amenable to seat-of-the-pants diagnosis and repair.

If travelling to Europe I can attest that there are few Kawasakis here, and although dealers exist they don't seem familiar with this model. The other day I went searching for brake pads, and the closest the interchange charts offered was a KLR 500 apparently sold in Austria! This may or may not be important at some point.

I'm planning to put another couple of thousand miles on the bike, then leave it here and return to tour some more, maybe getting off the pavement a bit more.

Hope that helps.

Mark

Edit to add: I've been wondering about the applicability of the dual sport concept to this sort of heavily-laden travel. It works for some, and might very well work for me in a gentler season (maybe next week in Morocco, for example, but certainly not last week in the Pyrenees), but so far my experience has been that with a full load the bike is just too unwieldy for the kind of terrain for which its suited closer to home. In fact, early on I took it over a high mountain pass on a jeep road, hit rain which threatened snow, found a ten mile stretch of slick clay and mud, dropped it in a ditch, spent two hours getting it upright and paddling my way slowly down from the pass, hit pavement long after dark in cold, driving rain, finally got to a hotel somewhat hypothermic near midnight.....this made me wary of doing the kind of travelling for which I bought the KLR, and I've been thinking about taking another trip with a Vstrom or similar for comparison.