Hi!
Just moved down to Portugal from Sweden with the KLE and wanted to share some thoughts for those interested in the bike for travel.
First off, the bike is actually real fun on smaller roads and handles quite well with some luggage (used a top box, tank bag and strapped a large backpack over the saddle [cheapo solution!]). It's a comparatively small bike, and it sort of follows that the only real annoyance is it's not-so-great performance on bigger roads. Was short on time and covered much of Spain on the Autovias, and although the bike can keep up with the 130km/h limits, it's not the most pleasant ride. It gets quite thirsty (got about 150km on the main tank at 130-140km/h) and catches a lot of turbulence from other vehicles. To handle the highway speeds, I fitted it with the biggest screen I could find (eagle), and although this works great up until about 80km/h, after that I find that the turbulence from the screen will try to pull my helmet off. So I packed on another piece of plastic, lifting that mess above my head. Probably not great for fuel economy, but makes long distance highway travel bearable.
That said, in every other way it's been great. It's a great allrounder and probably one of the best value bikes for the money out there. Works great to ride here in Lisboa as well as up in the mountain ranges.
I had basically no mechanical experience, but fitted the bike with crash bars and center stand, as well as a new exhaust. If you're thinking about doing any of it, it's quite easily done.
One last thing - I bought the airhawk seat, and although it's great, it's the one thing I still wonder if it's really worth the money. Might be better of with some type of pelt..?
Attached: some pics crossing the Pyrenees (beautiful!), after having criss-crossed southern France.
Happy riding! /F

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