New KLE in the forum - Help with gear?

[bloowitt]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum, so for a little introduction...

I started riding a Yamaha YBR 125 about a year and a half ago, and it has given me lots of satisfactions, including 2 roundtrips from Bilbao to Barcelona (one of them two-up and with soft panniers... Not bad for a 4-stroker 125).



After 12000 km on the YBR's clock, and having discovered bike travelling as a great passion, I took a Kawa KLE 500 as the YBR's garage companion. I was atracted to it by it's dual nature and versatility, and I'm completely in love with it.







So now the time has come to buy some gear for it, as I've gotten a little tired of travelling with the soft panniers and without a topcase; they are not waterproof, are uncomfortable to put and take off, and, most of all, one cannot leave the bike alone with them on, as they have no security. Problem is... I am confused in some parts.

Up until now, I had thought of buying the Hepco & Becker pannier support with a pair of Junior Enduro boxes, as I thought the H&B frame to be asymmetric, profiting from the lack of exhaust on the left side, and found the Five stars rack made the bike too fat, because it went over the indicators instead of moving them.



But I've read somewhere (sorry, looked at so many webpages about this that I have lost account) that H&B is making a new model that is symmetrical, and it sure seems so in their mounting instructions:



And, also, I have seen the alu panniers that flipperboy and robroymc carry on their bikes and find them great looking.

So I've changed my mind and am now thinking of getting the allit panniers, but don't know which frame to buy. The hepco is pricier, but looks to me that it's also thinner (in the "fattening the bike" sense). Does anyone have any advice in this sense?

For all of you that have the allit panniers mounted... Which rack do you have, and why did you choose it? Does it's look pleasure you? Could you show me a rear shot of the bike with the kit mounted, to see how wider it gets? Any advice against the allit panniers or any of the mounting kits?

Has someone tried the allit topcases from ebay and how to attach them to the KLE?

Thanks a lot for reading through this...

PS: I am also thinking of getting motor protector bars and a bigger windscreen, though I think I have that sorted out in favour of the h&b crash bars - because of the central bar joining the sides - and the MRA variotouring - I can't believe anyone doing something that ugly to this bike if it didn't work really well -.

[bloowitt]

I forgot... How good are the allit as it comes to water tightness?

[flipperboy]

Welcome.
Nice to see someone new. My racks are Hepco and Becker and they are superb, with no problems with being too wide or unsymmetrical.

The panniers are the allit ones from ebay, great value and with an excellent fixing kit included,its almost exactly the same as the touratech fixing kit, only they cost 36 quid per pannier plus postage and packing! Where as the allit ones come with the panniers.

The only downside is they are a bit wide, althought i have never had any problems from this, and they are essentially just flight cases, so quite strong and light, but the ally is a bit thin. I have dropped my bike several times and dented them badly and had to hammer them back into shape and rivet plates onto them to mend a hole i tore in them.But they are still going strong and look great with stickers on them.

I think they will serve me for many years to come, maybe i will buy some more expensive boxes some day but i will use the fitting kit from the allit boxes even then, no way i'll pay touratech prices.....

Myself and my best mate Dylan(1gear1brake from xrv.org) have our own brand name for doing all our adventure biking on the cheap, it's simple. POORATECH!

One question to all kle owners, does everybody find that bloody seat horrible? i have had a custom one built and it so much better(300 miles no probs). And also how does anybody get on with the side stand when not on the left hand side of the road?

Hope to see you all at the HU Meeting in July

Matt

[royzx7r]

post some pics of your bike matt.

Richard on this site got one of them Airhawk seat covers whick seems to work ok.



Roy

[flipperboy]

There are some pics of my bike in the Kle pics thread.

[royzx7r]

cheers Matt,

Have you a link to the ali cases you got? cant seem to find em?


Cheers
Roy

[bloowitt]

The cases flipperboy has are allit cases, adapted to fit as panniers by a guy in germany who sells them through eBay.

robroymc posted this thread with info on them. You can find them in ebay uk if you search "aluminium panniers", I think. The user selling them is marabu3.

[flipperboy]

Aluminium Panniers with mounting kits on eBay, also Luggage Covers, Accessories, Motorcycle Parts Accessories, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 15-Feb-08 16:02:33 GMT)


here's the link

[royzx7r]

Hey Matt,

Did you get the brackets needed to re-position the indicators with H&B rack or did you have to doctor it yourself?.


Cheers for the info.


Roy

[robroymc]

hi bloowitt
my rack is the five stars one it does have brackets to move your indicators back abit so the boxes fit .i have put some pics on front and back to show how wide .they are thesame as my mates bmw .but look wider as the front of bike is so thin .i have no problem with the width .
but i will tell u how wide in the next few days.
the racks are on get geared and are under a £100
hope this helped

[robroymc]

hi the width of the panniers fitted is 40 inch edge to edge
the boxs are allmost the same size as my mate on his bmw gs.
look at pic.

[bloowitt]

Thanks for taking the time to measure it

btw... Doing the holes on the panniers and mounting the fixing kit, was any harder than walking and chewing gum at the same time? Just to be sure...

[robroymc]

hi
fitting the mouting kit was ok just make a template out of card by drawing round boxs.
then sort out the level i use the seat to get the same slope.
then mark card by drawing the in side of rack to get size place the edge of round plastic
on the bottom or top fit to card and try on rack if it fits use the mark holes on card to mark box.
if this all goes well turn card round to do other side
by doing this you will not drill wrong holes
hope this helped