I'm in the market for a dual purpose bike and am leaning heavily towards the KLX 250 for its off road qualities. My dealer has a new '07 for about $3900 and new '09s for about $4300. The $400 is pretty irrelevant but is one bike "better" than the other performance or reliability wise? My main use will be sub-100 mile road trips and a fair amount of mild trail/logging road riding. I'd like to occasionally be able to do a 300 mile road trip but that would likely be no more than once a month max.

Thoughts?

 

New 09's for $4300 - Wow, that's a great price. MSRP is $4999 without dealer prep etc. Not sure about the 07 but the 09 is a great bike and has some upgrades over the 06 and 07's. I.e. thicker spokes, stronger swingarm, petal brakes with 250mm, digital dash (if you like that), closer gear ratios between 5th and 6th gear, more aggressive styling (again, this is subjective).

Some people don't like the fact that the suspension is shorter on the 09's than the 06,07's. Also, it doesn't come with a rack.

I'd buy the 09 at $4300!

 

Well actually the 06 is the best bike but they are hard to find now. I'm just kidding....you can still find an 06 if you look real hard. Again just messing around, if it were me I would get the 07 just because its been out long enough for some parts to be easily found, but in reality either one would be great.

 

I'm with Deej on this one. 07 though.
I've only had the bike a year but It's already got retro styling thanks to the 09.. I love it.

 

I have an 09 and I really like the bike. With the 09 you may have more resale value later down the line because it is technically two years newer, and I think it's a better looking bike JMO. How ever the 07 has more suspension travel, and a rack but from what I have heard the 09 can be converted to longer travel,and racks are available. The biggest disadvantage with the 09 is that no larger gas tanks are available. What part of Virginia do you live in any where near Harrisonburg?

 

roadglider, I'm down on the NC border.

 

I went with the '09 over the '07 because of the updated features (changes in suspension, better spokes, the digital dash was a big +++, much better styling). I was shopping in summer 2008 and even back then I didn't want a year+ old bike. I couldn't imagine wanting to buy a 2+ year old bike in 2009. That's just me, though. If I'm gonna buy new, I'm getting new, not leftovers from a couple seasons ago.

And FWIW 99% of the mods you can do to the 06/07 and the parts available will work on the '09, of course the noteable exceptions being gas tanks. There are racks available if that's your thing. I persoanlly treat this like a dirt bike, not a dual-purpose. Racks and mondo-tanks are for sissy boys that like to putter around all day As a matter of fact, I plan on buying a bigger CamelBak so I can ditch the girly toolbag on the fender.

 

mondo tanks are for guys who can actually run the tank dry before putting a foot down. i would love to see you come to cali and do half the single track i ride with "all that extra gas".

 

Better spokes you people believe everything. There the same spoke as used in the KLR so Kawasaki can cut down on parts, to save money.

I can't EVER remember a time when I had bad spokes, except that one time when my dad ran over my bicycle with his car.

 

Calm down, cow-poke, you musta not seen the smiley at the end of that sentence you quoted I was just pickin' I meant no offense. Long-distance isn't my cup of tea. 100 miles of gravel roads and a little highway on Saturday had me feelin' the monkey-butt. I have no doubt you can outride me. I personally have no need for a bigger tank, mad props to those of you who do.