I have yet to encounter a hill climb that has left me working the clutch. There's a particularly nasty sandy hill that I ride quite often and even from a slow start in 2nd gear it picks up the revs and will motor up and over. On a hardpack thats covered in exposed roots and some sand sections I can tractor up in first as I'm not brave enough to tackle it any faster than that. My mods are in my signature and I still run the stock gearing.

 

that is what some of the problem with advertised horsepower is, most of the time it is just a number. This is the number that sells bikes and cars, it can be a big factor in the sale of a new bike. People most of the time want the best and if they can get, if a bike makes one more advertised horsepower than there buddies does, it is major bragging rights. Advertised horsepower numbers should be taken about as seriously as advertised mile per gallon numbers, some times the actual numbers are close, most of the time they are lower, and in rare cases they will be higher.Imo crank horsepower numbers are about usless, it is what is at the rear wheel that counts. On a side note a quick look found numbers on a stock 400ex to be around 25-27 horsepower, if this is at the wheels or the crank I am not sure.(would think it is the wheels). That number could also be way off.

 

The 400 motor in the dirtbike made in excess of 35hp, while in the 4 wheeler it was dropped down to 28 I believe. It's in one of my old DirtWheels magazines from when the 400EX first came out. Compare that to the 350 Yamaha Warrior 4 wheeler, and that only made 18 hp from the factory. If you look at it that way, our little KLX makes the same RWHP of a 350cc quad (albeit adated model).

 

Deej, I thought I read in another thread that you used to have a KLR 250, if so how much better is the KLX compared to the KLR. I know the suspesion is much better, I'm talking about the motor w/mods. I don't want to get in the same place I am now, not enough power. Thanks Dan

 

Well it wasn't me, I have never owned a KLR, in fact the KLX 250 is the first bike, well at least dual sport bike I have owned in 20 years. But I can tell you that the KLX modded, has twice the power as my wife's Yamaha XT 225, (don't tell her I said that) When I first got the bike I never had plans on any mods, in fact to tell you and everyone here the truth, I didn't even know what mods were.[&o]But after finding this site, wait I found the site 2 months before I got the bike. I ordered the bike and had to wait almost 45 days for it to get to the shop, I got the first one in western Washington. Anyway after the bad (or good) influence I found in this forum, I just couldn't resist. That and the fact that I charged all of the mods and the work on the Kawasaki card made it too easy, I just had to get it all done. Ok here is the low down, the bottom line, the last word, the final say, the....ok I'll stop now. I am 6-1 and weigh 230ish lbs. The bike has so much power for my size that I can;'t imagine what it would do if someone rode it that weighed 180 lbs. I never run out of power, and if you need more power than the KLX can give even after all the mods, then its really not the right bike anyway, after all we aren't trying to Super-cross them right? I hope that helped. But if not, there is a member on here named Marty that has a KLR and he could really give a goodcomparison between the two bikes.