Protection

The most vulnerable bits on the KLR are the radiator and engine case. There's no factory protection for the cooling system and the plastic skid plate that ships with the bike is more cosmetic than anything armored. 

And while the factory hand guards do well to deflect air, there's little more protection offered since they're open at the bar ends. 

There are a number of aftermarket alternatives out there to remedy these issues and after considerable research I decided to go with SW-Motech products. 

Much was said about their fit and finish, and the installations required no last-minute alterations or engineering to get everything to match up. And they were right. 

The crash bars are powder coated 26.9 mm mild steel tubing engineered to mount at the top frame/subframe junction, the front engine mount aft of the skid plate and then on the bottom of the main frame forward the foot pegs. The accompanying hardware insulates the cage very well at the buzziest point of the engine mount. The precision of these mounting points speaks to SW-Motech's German engineering.

The SW-Motech skid plate is constructed from 4mm aluminum alloy, laser cut and bent to install with no wiggle room whatsoever. It looks much better than the black hockey mask from Kawasaki and appears to offer a bit more clearance. I haven't measured, it just looks higher.

I was considering Barkbusters for the hand guards but found an SW-Motech Kobra alternative (so I thought) that allowed me to relocate my turn indicators to the handlebars freeing up the stock space for a pair of Trail Tech Equinox lamps. 

I ordered the kit and received a stout pair of wind deflectors upon which mount SW-Motech's LED indicators that mount on Barkbusters' hardware.

Gone are the bar-end weights, but these ballasts are supplemented by the combined weight of the guards, though they're lighter. The Barkbusters come with an array of spacers and mounts to adequately clear levers. I found at freeways speeds the same stability I had previously, and on the dirt to have lighter, less lethargic steering response.

The LED indicators need a 10ohm resister installed inline (parallel to positive and negative feeds on both sides) to manage the extra wattage not consumed by the lamps. The blink rate is much faster without the resistors. I wired the indicator harnesses into the factory loom using off-the-shelf hardware that fit the SW-Motech connectors. 

Kudos to Rocky Mountain ATV/MC for their service, prices and shipping. I don't live at the end of the world, but you can see it from there, and they managed to get everything to me in two days, free shipping. 





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