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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Hi FredrikH

What beautiful touring country, and commiserations on the seat problem.

I had to have an upholsterer remove some of the foam padding
so that the "hump" was moved backwards and now use a
lambswool cover on top.

It has changed the pain threshold from ~ 1 hour to more like
5 hours, enough for a days ride.

The little KLE sucks petrol over 110km/h which is our limit
here in Australia, I get about 250km/tank whether riding
slow in the bush or at 110 km/h on the highway.

The only problem I have when touring is that when loaded up for
a trip and it falls over (dratted stupid sidestand) I cannot pick
it back up without assistance (yes I am a 60+yo weakling)

regards Alex

Thanks! It's funny - it's for the tipping reason I installed the centerstand, but once the bike is packed, I can't get the thing down!

Hi Fredrick

Yes - I have the centre stand as well and have the same problem
it has it's mounting to far back and is a real struggle to
get the bike up. I purchased it so that I could oil the chain
regularly, but in the end made up a crude chain oiler.

I visited a pet shop aquarium section and came away
with a 100ml plastic bottle, 2 scew taps and a couple of
metres of 3mm ID tubing and a bag of plastic zip ties.
(bottle is a bird water feeder)

The bottle mounts upside down on the back part of the frame
(just under the side panel) in a couple of zip tied plastic clips, 100mm
of tubing to a valve (flow rate) and then another 100mm
of tubing to another valve (on/off). The rest then is zip tied to just in front
of the rear sprocket. A cotton bud stem in the end of the tube makes a
perfect feeder for the oil to the chain/sprocket.

I did have to drill a couple of holes in the plastic chain guard for extra
zip ties to help retain the tubing back to the chain.

At one drop/minute it is enough for a days ride. Just have to
remember to turn it on/off.

regards

Alex

That's a great idea - thought about making something too, and this seems like a clever idea - do you have any picture of the setup?

Hi

I hope the pictures work, forgot to mention that I had a 600mm
piece of large copper wire in the tubing at the end so that
the oil dripper would stay in place.

Also the resevoir cap has to have a tube going to the bottom of
the bottle to allow it to vent.

Spring has finally arrived and after the next weeks rain it will
be time for a ride in the bush without being frozen.

Alex

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