As I mentioned, I am a big guy so I always knew I was going to need to do something about the suspension. The problem was I didn't really know what I needed or how to choose, so I spent quite a bit of time researching and testing in order to feel like I was making an informed choice. Here's a long-winded post on how I went through the whole process.
About the stock suspensions on dual sports
In fairness to Kawasaki and all other dual sport manufacturers, the stock suspension must be a compromise for a wide variety people, abilities, and terrain. And this compromise must fit in the price point that these bikes sell in. It's basically impossible to create an all-around stock suspension that will also work for serious off-road riding, so you will definitely need to upgrade your suspension.
My test program and standard test track
I really wanted to understand the handling of my bike and be very thorough in evaluating the before and after performance of the upgrades I made, so I set up a systematic way to evaluate my bike's baseline performance with the stock suspension, and then started making changes.
I am fortunate to live in a beautiful area of Boulder County Colorado, on the edge of town, so with a very short ride I'm out in the country. Within a half mile I can be on a long dirt road with a variety of terrain: some stretches of light washboard, gravelly spots, hard pack, some sharp corners, and various straight stretches to build speed and then brake hard for the next corner. At the end of my test ride, on the short paved ride home, I have various curbing and terrain that I can hit it at various speeds to try to bottom out the front and rear suspension.
Baseline testing the stock suspension
As you might guess from what I've already said, the standard test track showed the stock suspension to be very mushy and slow to respond. On soft stuff you feel like you're floating and the front wheel is trying to wander off in any direction. Hard braking is slow and wobbly because the suspension must compress a lot before the bike starts slowing down. On washboards the front wheel chatters and seems to bounce around. In general I get a feeling of instability and the bike wanting to wander. I picked a place where I can hit the bottom of a dip at higher speed and easily bottom out the rear suspension. Its kind of an unfair test, but I could hit a sharp curb at 15+ miles an hour and easily bottom out the forks. My size makes things worse obviously, but this is about what you can expect from any stock dual sport suspension.
The newer KLR's have a very accessible rear shock pre-load and dampening adjustment, so I cranked up both to the max. I didn't expect miracles, but even at the highest settings I didn't see much difference. It was probably a little harder to bottom out the rear suspension, but that's about it.
This is the rear shock. The front fork upgrade is all internal - the only evidence is an off color cap on the top of your fork tube.
Back to the test track - OMG!
When I picked up my bike, just riding home on regular pavement there was a very noticeable difference in handling. It was stiffer, but not overly hard. It felt solid.
The combination of the front shocks with the fork brace gave me a much better feeling of responsiveness and stability. I hit my favorite curb at various speeds and was not able to bottom out the front suspension, although I got the feeling that there was a point where I could hit it hard enough to bottom it out. There are some more adjustments that can be made if I wanted to prevent that, but I decided that I'm not looking to do the Paris to Dakar any time soon, and I'll stick with a little lighter but-still-firm setup I have now.
What a difference! It literally tansformed my KLR into a different bike!
Just Do it!
I'm convinced that there is no other upgrade you can do that will improve your enjoyment more than this. Besides it handling better, it simply makes you feel safer and in control. There's plenty of good options out there both more or less expensive than what I did. I'd recommend doing both front and back done at the same time and getting some expert assistance from a local dealer or someone like Happy Trails. And unless you're really knowledgeable and mechanically savvy, I'd leave the installation to the professionals.
About the stock suspensions on dual sports
In fairness to Kawasaki and all other dual sport manufacturers, the stock suspension must be a compromise for a wide variety people, abilities, and terrain. And this compromise must fit in the price point that these bikes sell in. It's basically impossible to create an all-around stock suspension that will also work for serious off-road riding, so you will definitely need to upgrade your suspension.
My test program and standard test track
I really wanted to understand the handling of my bike and be very thorough in evaluating the before and after performance of the upgrades I made, so I set up a systematic way to evaluate my bike's baseline performance with the stock suspension, and then started making changes.
I am fortunate to live in a beautiful area of Boulder County Colorado, on the edge of town, so with a very short ride I'm out in the country. Within a half mile I can be on a long dirt road with a variety of terrain: some stretches of light washboard, gravelly spots, hard pack, some sharp corners, and various straight stretches to build speed and then brake hard for the next corner. At the end of my test ride, on the short paved ride home, I have various curbing and terrain that I can hit it at various speeds to try to bottom out the front and rear suspension.
Baseline testing the stock suspension
As you might guess from what I've already said, the standard test track showed the stock suspension to be very mushy and slow to respond. On soft stuff you feel like you're floating and the front wheel is trying to wander off in any direction. Hard braking is slow and wobbly because the suspension must compress a lot before the bike starts slowing down. On washboards the front wheel chatters and seems to bounce around. In general I get a feeling of instability and the bike wanting to wander. I picked a place where I can hit the bottom of a dip at higher speed and easily bottom out the rear suspension. Its kind of an unfair test, but I could hit a sharp curb at 15+ miles an hour and easily bottom out the forks. My size makes things worse obviously, but this is about what you can expect from any stock dual sport suspension.
The newer KLR's have a very accessible rear shock pre-load and dampening adjustment, so I cranked up both to the max. I didn't expect miracles, but even at the highest settings I didn't see much difference. It was probably a little harder to bottom out the rear suspension, but that's about it.
Fork Brace
When researching different springing options for the front suspension, I came across discussion boards talking about needing a fork brace to take care of the inherent flexing of the Kawasaki fork. Not knowing what fork spring changes I wanted to make yet, I decided to try the brace first just to see if I could tell any difference before changing anything else. I chose the Happy Trails K9 Fork Brace and installation is dead simple - 20 minutes tops. The product is precision made and fits perfectly.
Back to the test track not really expecting to see much difference, but surprisingly I noticed it was immediately less likely to wander in the soft gravel and light washboard. A fork brace by itself is no substitute for a suspension upgrade, but its definitely recommended and fairly inexpensive.
Going for it - upgrade both the front & rear suspension
When researching different springing options for the front suspension, I came across discussion boards talking about needing a fork brace to take care of the inherent flexing of the Kawasaki fork. Not knowing what fork spring changes I wanted to make yet, I decided to try the brace first just to see if I could tell any difference before changing anything else. I chose the Happy Trails K9 Fork Brace and installation is dead simple - 20 minutes tops. The product is precision made and fits perfectly.
Back to the test track not really expecting to see much difference, but surprisingly I noticed it was immediately less likely to wander in the soft gravel and light washboard. A fork brace by itself is no substitute for a suspension upgrade, but its definitely recommended and fairly inexpensive.
Going for it - upgrade both the front & rear suspension
I was pleasantly surprised seeing even a small change in handling with the fork brace, which got me jazzed to get serious about doing more. The stock suspension is lame enough that I personally believe you need to do both front and rear suspensions at the same time. The problem was I looked at many different options and didn't have a good feel for how or why to choose one over another. I was surfing the web, reading KLR forums, and no closer to deciding what do when I happened to be visiting the spring open house at my local dealer Rocky Mountain Kawasaki. They were running a promotion for Progressive Suspension - a Monotube Cartridge Damper setup for the front and 465 Series RAP (remote adjustable pre-load) rear.
This is the rear shock. The front fork upgrade is all internal - the only evidence is an off color cap on the top of your fork tube.
It made sense to me that getting both front and rear components from the same manufacturer would be a good idea and ought to be a coordinated system. I also do not have the time, the tools. nor the expertise to install suspensions myself, and considering how important they are to enough to my health and well-being I feel this is a good job to leave to the professionals. There's also some installation choices that need to be made based on your weight and riding style, so I liked the idea of having some advice from experts. So my decision was made - just need to drop my bike at my friendly local dealer to get it done.
Back to the test track - OMG!
When I picked up my bike, just riding home on regular pavement there was a very noticeable difference in handling. It was stiffer, but not overly hard. It felt solid.
On the test track it felt better immediately. On the light washboard the stability was amazingly better with less wandering. The front tire tire stayed in better contact with the ground because of better responsiveness and I soon found I was giving it gas and going over the washboard at a higher speeds without even realizing it. Next was a high-speed braking stop and the suspension loaded sooner and started stopping quicker with less wandering. All that previous mushy suspension travel during braking was actually less safe than I realized, causing the bike to feel squirelly. Cornering in both gravel and hard pack was not hugely different than the stock suspension, but still felt more stable and responsive.
Next I hit my favorite dip at high speed to bottom out rear suspension and it sailed right through. I couldn't bottom it out no matter what I did. I still haven't explored all the different ways to fine adjustments on the rear suspension pre-load, but its such an improvement already that I'm not in a hurry.
The combination of the front shocks with the fork brace gave me a much better feeling of responsiveness and stability. I hit my favorite curb at various speeds and was not able to bottom out the front suspension, although I got the feeling that there was a point where I could hit it hard enough to bottom it out. There are some more adjustments that can be made if I wanted to prevent that, but I decided that I'm not looking to do the Paris to Dakar any time soon, and I'll stick with a little lighter but-still-firm setup I have now.
What a difference! It literally tansformed my KLR into a different bike!
Just Do it!
I'm convinced that there is no other upgrade you can do that will improve your enjoyment more than this. Besides it handling better, it simply makes you feel safer and in control. There's plenty of good options out there both more or less expensive than what I did. I'd recommend doing both front and back done at the same time and getting some expert assistance from a local dealer or someone like Happy Trails. And unless you're really knowledgeable and mechanically savvy, I'd leave the installation to the professionals.
