Painted

Update: I decided to go flat black and khaki, keeping the with classic tail of the KLR and the more tech nature of the front fairing.

Bleeding red (as in Honda), it was a switch to ride something green. That's not to say that Kawasaki is inferior to Honda, but we all know how we are when it comes to brand loyalties, and that's whack. And that's not the only reason I decided to change the paint scheme on the KLR. I saw one featured on the KLR650 forum page painted khaki and I really liked it.

I also like the factory paint on the new KLRs, not so much the digi camo, but the blacked-out bikes with simplified graphics, not to mention the few older camo-rattle-canned KLRs I've seen on the interweb.

I played around a bit on Photoshop to see what a khaki scheme might look like on the KLR's lines.

I decided to make some changes, going simplest form first. I didn't want to change the tank color so I reversed the black and gray motif, going black on the headlight cowl fairings, and gray over the silver radiator fairings.

All factory graphics were removed using a heat gun and Goof-Off to clean up residual glue. The cladding was then removed, cleaned and degreased, buffed with steel wool, washed and tacked and suspended on a line. Three colors were shot; flat khaki on the tail-light shroud and side panels under the seat, gray on the radiator covers, and flat black on the headlight shroud fairings.

The Krylon products worked well, applied in ideal conditions. They advise that the coating becomes chip-resistant in seven days. Not being that patient, I rode three days later and got caught in a hail storm. I thought for sure I'd reshooting everything, but it came out without a scratch.