Dam, I am glad I bought my KLE in January. I think that this bike is very under rated and I am more than pleased with it. Planning a 4-5 day camping trip around Tasmania next year on it :funmeteryes:

yes, little change in plans. were going to southafrika

I'm in Cape Town, so you're welcome to pop in if you're in the area.

i will, thanks

Africa trip
 

Hello Luuk.

You must deffinately keep us up to date on the trip and pop in in Cape Town.

Replace the 2 main bolts in the carrier with a thicker allen cap bolt and nut. You will have to drill the original threads out. My bolts sheared of after about 300km of bad road with a load on the carrier.

Regards

you mean the plastic back carrier? the one yoy can mount a case one?

back carrier
 

Hello Luuk.

Yes. Just where the seat ends, you have 2 bolts going through the carrier and back mud guard into the frame from the top. You need to upgrade those by an extra 2mm. Use an hex head bolt, as you cannot get a spanner into the recess when the bolt is bigger. Also drill out the threads the old bolts turn into, and use Nylok nuts at the bottom. A high tensile or stainless bolt will be good.

There are also the 2 silvery side bolts of the carrier just under the back end of the seat. Make sure to put some Lok Tite on there, as they shake loose and it then creates more stress on the top bolts.

I can post some pics if it may help.

Regards

thanks for the tip, i'll will replace them

I'm off

not a RTW but from holland trough germany (autotrain to northen kroatia, autobahn is verry verry boring), kroatia, bosnia, serbia, bulgaria, turkey, syria, jordan, egypte, sudan, ethiopia, kenya, tanzania, zambia, namibia, botswan to finaly south-africa. i'm riding togeter with a africa twin so you can expect some extensive KLE/AT testing. ozhanu, we will try and meet up with you in ankara.


i"ll post some pics once i have figured out how to make them small enough.

modifications/maitenace i did are:

- air in front forks 0.5 bar instead of 0.0
- rearschok at 1 setting from hardest
- new spark plugs
- reoilt the airfilter
- sheepskin on saddle
- strengtend the gargo plate
- bolted a amunition box on the back (to use as a safe and emercency centrestand)
- made a schreen to protect the headlight (basicly layers of chikenwire, looks verry mad max)
- bidon on the handelbar (just cheap moutainbike one, but the idea was from atouratec catalog)
-wide foot on sidestand
- new DID chain and sprocket set



and of course extensive routine maintanace
and i'm bringing 2 * 5 liter jerrycans(only thing i don't like about the KLE is the fact that there no bigger tanks available) and a set of TKC 80 twinduro's for the sudanese sand.

Good luck Luuk (no pun there then!!),

Sounds like your bike is worth a few pictures, so, here's a tip that I got from another thread a while back, about making your pics small enough to fit on here:-
(The tip about saving your pics as some other name means do it first!! I tried to do this as part of the process and I lost the higher quality pics for ever, so far as I can tell).
I think other programs such as photoshop do the same thing, but this is free.

"there is a free program on the net called irfanview (downloadable here IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide) It is a very simple matter to re size photos (even in batches) and can handle all (dont hold me to this) Raw formates. Plus it makes quite a good quick viewer, (it other editing abilities are limited .. but for a freebie it very good).
Click on photo you want then <Image> or <ctrl+r>, then click on <resize/resample> and bobs your mothers brother.
For doing batch work.. <file> then <Batch conversion> Then click <advanced options> .. set the file size you want.. ectra..

You can resize in the real programs to.. Photoshop go to Image then Image size and put in the size you want.

IN ALL CASES MAKE SURE YOU SAVE AS SOMETHING ELSE.. cus going down in size is easy and works.. going up .. DONT!"

That's an interesting route to get to Africa - are you shipping back or riding back?

Cheers, :thumbup1:

got someone (computer wizzkid) working on the pictures already. but thanks for the tip. i'm flying back and i hope to schip my bike, otherwise it will have to fly aswel. still looking for a shiping agency though.

Hi Ozhanu,
I have a 1996 KLE, and although I love it, I'd go for another one if I would be preparing a RTW trip now. As said before, the tank is only 15 l, and you would have to carry big jerrycans to avoid this problem. The bigger tank you can get on the bike, the best. Any can you have to carry will take valuable space you may need to carry other things.
Other problem: No fuel or temperature indicator. I am going to install on mine a temp indicator which is made for computer motherboards. It has a pair of thermocouples and is quite accurate, with a range from 0-120ºC will do the job well. Anyway, I would like to have a fuel indicator, as I have to calculate the remaining from the odometer (200 km up to the reserve, 50 km more to empty the tank)
Other problem: the light is not very powerful. You would have to add supplementary lights (well you should do it with any bike, but it would be desireable to have a good standard light)
Other problem: It does not have centre stand unless you install it from aftermarket. SW-Motech has a good one wich costs 120 euros here in Spain. You will need it to make on road repairs and tire changes.
To sum up, I think the KLE is perfectly capable of that RTW trip, but you would have to add a lot of extras to complete it, and if you are going to buy a bike, go for the one that is better prepared from the start and you will save money. Good options are the TA or the Africa Twin (why Honda stopped manufacturing it???) and if you think the AT is high, remember Jordi Arcarons, 2nd in the Paris-Dakar four times, 3d two times, winner of the Atlas Rally 2 times....with those huge rally bikes...and being 1.62 cm tall...imagine him trying to jump up to a giant Cagiva Elephant in the middle of the dunes... Remember Yoda teachings "Size matters not", hehehe
I am preparing a trip to Cape North from Spain and I am waiting for the upcoming BMW F800GS, New 2008 Transalp and the new Yamaha Ténéré to choose one before the trip. .

Good luck with your trip, and overall, have fun on the bike.

Best regards

Jules

It's not so hard to rebuilt original tank. Look at this link and see how I did it for my trip to Siberia. Nikola Mrakovcic - personal motorcycle travel site

Hello Everyone,

Thanks a lot for the info and advices. I think I am gonna buy a KLE for a RTW. In overall it is better than TA or AT.

JULESKLE500, thanks for the tricks...

Luuk, I am in Antalya for a conference now and I'll be back on 23rd. Hope to meet you.

[update] away again 2nd week of October for 10 day

Have a save journey

yes..the KLE tank might be 15L,,,might I have avg 160-200miles before it hit reserve tank (ie when i need to switch to reserve; giving it anything from 22-28.5km/L) if course the later achievement is done cruising at a highway at 80-100km/h...