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 ...