rob-houston
05-26-2004, 10:18 PM
I saw this article and thought about what you had said about your GS:
Two Wheels for Adventure
Take a look at a Kawasaki KLR 650 the next time you're standing under one. It's a pair of stilts on wheels. The KLR 650 is a motorcycle SUV. It seats you tall enough to see over anything shorter than a refrigerator semi. Following me on a trip to Red Wing, my son-in-law said that he never once lost sight of me, even when he was jammed up in freeway traffic a full freeway exit back.
If one of your goals in riding a motorcycle is to be noticed, this is the bike for you. It's got a cool-factor that can't be measured in normal bike terms. Ride one of these things in to downtown Minneapolis and everyone stares as you look down on all of them. The military-green paint job is a lot more attention grabbing than you might suspect. The bike looks as if the only thing that's missing is a machine gun mounted between the forks. Its post-apocalypse, Mad Max styling just begs for armament of some kind, at least a giant pump-powered water cannon.
There are some significant limitations to a bike this tall. My first attempt at getting on to the KLR ended with me and the bike lying down together in Victor's driveway. Our test bike's kickstand had been trimmed away for some unknowable purpose and the combination of the bike's unnatural over-center perch, a 35" seat height, and my 28" inseam was a formula for a little driveway comedy. I managed to protect the bike with my body parts and, after hitching my Aerostitch into full-wedgie mode,
Have bike. Will Travel.
Rob
Two Wheels for Adventure
Take a look at a Kawasaki KLR 650 the next time you're standing under one. It's a pair of stilts on wheels. The KLR 650 is a motorcycle SUV. It seats you tall enough to see over anything shorter than a refrigerator semi. Following me on a trip to Red Wing, my son-in-law said that he never once lost sight of me, even when he was jammed up in freeway traffic a full freeway exit back.
If one of your goals in riding a motorcycle is to be noticed, this is the bike for you. It's got a cool-factor that can't be measured in normal bike terms. Ride one of these things in to downtown Minneapolis and everyone stares as you look down on all of them. The military-green paint job is a lot more attention grabbing than you might suspect. The bike looks as if the only thing that's missing is a machine gun mounted between the forks. Its post-apocalypse, Mad Max styling just begs for armament of some kind, at least a giant pump-powered water cannon.
There are some significant limitations to a bike this tall. My first attempt at getting on to the KLR ended with me and the bike lying down together in Victor's driveway. Our test bike's kickstand had been trimmed away for some unknowable purpose and the combination of the bike's unnatural over-center perch, a 35" seat height, and my 28" inseam was a formula for a little driveway comedy. I managed to protect the bike with my body parts and, after hitching my Aerostitch into full-wedgie mode,
Have bike. Will Travel.
Rob