STAYING SINGLE
La Nina was in full swing last summer, drenching rains sweeping across the east coast, saturating the land and keeping bridges and causeways continually wet. I came to one with a bend where the road turned about 60 degrees in the water to run diagonally up the far side bank. It was difficult to see slippery green slime on the concrete causeway and I soon found myself unexpectantly laying in the water with the bike on its side.
Getting up, I saw my phone sailing through the air, pulled from my pocket by my headphones. I grabbed the cord, but that just caused the phone to detach from the lead, plopping into the water, followed by a mad scramble as I fought to find the device I’m so dependent on these days.
Then I realised one of the KLR’s panniers had popped off and was floating away…
AN UPDATED KLR
Australia loves its middleweight adventure bikes, buying the big singles from all four Japanese manufacturers over the years in huge numbers. In 2022, only the KLR, thanks to a fuel injection update to make it emissions compliant and the addition of ABS brakes, survives. There are only small-bore machines under 650cc and only twins bigger – the days of the big single appear to be numbered.
The KLR650 has been with us since 1987 and while it’s changed a lot in that time, it’s still a moderate-output simple 650cc single-cylinder four-stroke. Low cost, (the base KLR is $8995 +ORC or the extra value option of the
