The price of an FMF Q4 slip-on is $389.99.

I'm EFI, so the price of the EJK is $224.95.

That's $615 for 2 horsepower and 2 lb-ft of torque added to a bike that in the grand scheme of things is still going to be slow. In my world that isn't worth it. I'm going to keep riding my KLX as-is for now and when the time comes I'll sell it and switch to a different platform.

In the linked thread you say, "The difference in performance is best described as "Extreme"..". We're clearly two different types of riders looking for two different types of results.

 

You already spent $225/HP on your bike, so the upgrade is about the same cost. Why did you buy a KLX when you wanted a Husky?

 

I just had Bill install his 351 kit in my bike, $800 installed. You can't beat that for bang for buck, and it does make an extreme difference.

 

Well that's some mental gymnastics if I've ever seen any. I didn't pay $225/HP, I paid an amount for an approachable dual-sport with suspension that's better than CRF250L, for the lower center of gravity than a DRZ400, for the versatility and the ease of plating an "off-road" bike as-is and being able to get a taste of street riding, for the whole bike..
I didn't want a Husky when I bought this bike, I wanted exactly what I got. Something easy going. That's what this bike is, it's tame and a stepping stone. But as riders there's always the next thing to go after as we develop.

The question is why have a KLX that you want to make quicker, and then put a bunch of money into it where your total cost ends up equaling as much as a Husky, just to have an end result that will *still* be inferior to the Husky anyway. Because that's what I see a lot of here and it doesn't make any sense. And then this place calls small power gains on a low HP engine "extreme". Extreme is a KX450, or a ZX-10, or touring the country on an H2 SX. We're in the wrong neighborhood of the Kawasaki forum to be talking "extreme".

I like this bike for what it is, but I think a lot of other KLX owners seem to have a skewed perspective about it. Saying any 25 HP full-size motorcycle has huge power is like saying that plain mayonnaise is 8 out of 10 on the heat scale. And I'm not directing that at you personally, but at the overall content of this forum.

 

Oh, ok... You are only interested in standing on a soap box with a bullhorn.. Nothing more.

Speaking to those other than you then, the degree to which your riding experience changes is affected mainly by the span of RPM whereby a "new" performance power curve is elevated over a previous curve ( both HP and TRQ ) . A small "bump" over a tiny rpm span , from a previous curve, may not even be felt - but elevate the entire curve over the previous, especially to the degree you see here, and you have a "whole new bike" to enjoy - a "Huge" power increase . Another way of trying to describe the change - when you accelerate at WOT for the first time, you will experience power, from one millisecond to the next, that you've never felt before. It's the cumulative affect of more power, one millisecond after the next, that paints a big stupid smile on your face and makes you giggle like a little girl..

Then there is the fact that you can now power wheelie (as in my vid below), do-up 100+ mph ( indicated ) - all with stock spraughkets..

NOTE: efi bikes, YMMV, concerning top speed as the stock detune running on the ecm muzzles upper RPM power levels compared to carb'd KLX's.. There is no "cure" available at this time for this problem.

 

Hey @durielk , anytime you're in the N. Texas area, ya gotta swing by me ranch casa ... I'll get up a good grill'in fire and go shoot us someone's farm animal..

You like horse.. emu .. dog ?

 

Why? Because you still have half as much in it as you would with a decent Euro bike. I have about $11,000 in a new XSR700 and a good used KLX250S. I ride the street bike on the street, I ride the dual sport when doing back roads, dirt/gravel, trails. I don't ride it on boring highways when I go, I put it in the pick up and haul it where I want to ride. Not a bad deal.

 

I bought my 09 with 1500 miles for 2000, I'll put another 3000 in it with bb, full suspension and all the upgrades. The KTM I wanted was 12500 out the door, and another 1000 for property tax. 8500 difference , plus much higher insurance and I'd still want to do some stuff to it. My last dirt bike was a KTM 250 2 stroke, about 5hp shy of the 450's and I can say the 351 has enough power for me to do anything I need to do . So unless your buying the new bike, or have the skills that you shouldn't even be thinking about a KLX, it can make a lot of sense.

 

How would you rate the KLX against the KTM in terms of nimble feel off-road? What, if anything, of the riding experiences between the two are surprisingly similar? And what area of off-road performance do you find to be profoundly worse on the KLX than the KTM? Is the weight and less refined suspension of the KLX something that's constantly in the back of your mind when it wouldn't be a second thought on the KTM?

 

I feel the KLX can be just as nimble, but the weight of the KTM makes going faster while being nimble easier. On my KTM I had them set the suspension for me when I bought it and never touched it. The real shortcomings for me with the KLX is like quick bumps into corners or jumps and the general softness when coming off jumps. Gold valves and springs should be able to sort that out and I probably will never worry about that again. The weight would be a bigger issue if it was taller, as is, pushing in loose surfaces through corners and the times I want to flick it around , are my biggest weight gripes. But I find the MX 450's to be less flickable than the 2 stroke 250's even when their weights are similar, as the whole 4 stroke 2 stroke thing comes into play. So I can't totally blame it on the weight.

I look as I'm building my KLX toward a street legal, 4 stroke , KDX200 type, trail bike. Hopefully capable of doing anything off road , but knowing it's never going to be a 250 2stroke true enduro.