Hmmmmm, either I need to lose weight or we need to start our own club...LOL

 

Oh and welcome to the forums!

 

How about the DR650? It's an awesome bike (I have one). It's GREAT on the highway and handles dirt roads and non-technical trails very very well. It'll do technical trails if you don't load it up with stuff (like I did) and put good knobbies on it.

I got a KLX250S as a second bike to use on the tighter, more technical trails. I rarely take my KLX on the highway... yeah it'll go 70 (I'm only 165 lbs) but it really doesn't feel safe above it, and takes some work to keep it at that speed.

You can buy used DR650's all day long for $2500-3000 and there's a huge aftermarket for them. IMO its a far better bike than the KLR650. Sorry Kawi fans.

But I do love my KLX250S!!

Rob

 

The DR650 is a great bike...better IMO off road than the KLR. But of the 3 main Jap 650's, the XRL is the superior off road bike...especially for the bigger rider...and especially for the more desert environment. The XRL is just a DS clothed XR600 for the most part, and that bike was the supreme desert sled for real racing for several years. The off road riding and commuting that this rather large OP is describing fits the XRL better than either the DR or KLR. We all have our favorites, and the XRL isn't even in the running for my favorite for my use, but it's hard to argue the right bike for this OP's described situation. If I lived in SoCal, I'd have a highly modded XRL to beat up Anza-Borrego, Death Valley, and a hundred other places out there. I'd rather have an electric start XR650R, but I ain't kicking that beast over on a regular basis.

 

I was recently stuck in traffic and was very very happy to have an engine coolant fan. Without it, I would have had to pull over or overheat the engine.

I don't like radiators, they seem to take damage and be a weakness but water cooled engines with fans have that one superior characteristic of unlimited idle time or crawl time. Steep and nasty single track will heat up the KLX to the point of the fan turning on too. I imagine that the air cooled bikes just get really hot.

 

Yeah on the Grand Canyon trip on my ST 1300, as my cousin and I came through Lake Tahoe, traffic was crawling at less than 1 mph and stopping, my fan kicked on and off and his BMW (Air cooled) had to be shut off, I thought it was going to hit the max on heat. Water cooled and fan = good.

 

If yer doin a lot of highway, a klx would be good for ya. Might have to gear it down for your size a bit for a lil more peppiness or just do a big bore kit like a 351. Or go for a KLR, yea it isnt the best offroad bike but if you look around, lots of KLR's have been through some nasty stuff. yer a bigger guy so I think you could toss it around a lil better than most of us. I chose the KLX over the KLR cause I do more offroad rides and since im smaller a KLR would be a lil harder for me to take offroad. Sometimes I wish I had the KLR since my KLX is mainly driven on the highways and does 60mile round trips to the gf's house. I geared mine very high 15-39 for highway but I can still take it on some nasty trails. I vote Kawi just because thats really all I know and since this is a kawi site, might as well help sell some more green bikes hehe. I've heard of some people offroading the Versys. Pretty cool ones out there if you google some pics of it.