Welcome, welcome, welcome!!! Awesome that you guys bought one of each color. It sounds like some good riding is in store for you two. Make sure to take some pics for the ride report.

 

I don't think it will easily bolt up. Some people go with the KLX300 stock exhaust, as it is marginally better than our stock exhaust. But if I'm going to spend time and money on exhaust, I might as well make it worth it. And the gains going from one stock exhaust to another are going to be marginal, at best.

 

Actually a KLX 300 muffler with no end cap is just about as good as anything, certainly on a noise/vs performance scale. Its still a ugly boat anchor like the 250S one though.

 

JBillen, welcome to KF! hope you and your dad enjoy your KLX's as much as I do mine. You'll find plenty of good info here!
Warning doing mods on your bike can be habit forming!

 

First of all, thanks to everyone for all of the posts and for making this noob feel very welcome. This forum is a wealth of information, and the VAST majority of folks here seem like excellent people.

Lostnite, I'm very sorry to hear about your father. If you ever find yourself and your KLX in the Colorado area, let's decal his initials onto our bikes or helmets and ride in his memory.

___

So here we are all fueled up and ready to continue the break-in exersise on a pretty crisp January day in Golden. We both put Renthal RC High bars and Acerbis Pro Rally handguards on our bikes. Dad has his DynoJet kit and FMF Q4 slip-on installed. I'm still waiting for my DynoJet kit and full FMF exhaust to arrive, but I have installed my Unabiler Rad guards, and they are SWEET (see photo)!

It is completely unreasonable to be expected to keep these bikes under 4000 RPM's for 500 miles, and then under 6000 for the next 500. I'm doing my best to baby it for the first few hundred miles, but you can barely even get around the neighborhood keeping it under 4K. I found that my top speed at 4K in 6th gear was about 40-43 MPH. We actually had to pull over and let cars pass us when we were going up a curvy mountain road today! How embarrassing (especially since I still have my temporary tags)!!! However, we did get into a bit of dirt/mud/snow today, and I can tell that these bikes are going to be a LOT of fun once they are borken in and dialed in. It is pretty obvious that the KLX is going to be much easier to manipulate than the '05 DR-Z 400 that I had a couple of years ago, and needless to to say, it's night and day from my last bike, which was a BMW F650 GS Dakar. Dropping a tooth in the front and/or adding a few in the rear should help the low end, but I don't want to do that until she's a little more broken in.

I'd post more photos, but it seems that my photo album quota on this site is incredibly low. Will it get bigger as I use the site more?

Maybe dad will join this forum/thread ahd share some observations/mods/questions too. C'mon, Pop! :-) By the way, that's him on the top right of the top photo. Hey dad! :-)

 

Nothing beats riding with your old man... I love it. Its the single most enjoyable aspect of riding.

 

Any trouble getting the Acerbis Pro Rally handguards installed, especially around the front brake line on the left side where it exits the top guide and makes the bend toward the right?

How much difference did the exhaust & jet kit make?

 

The hand guards were no trouble at all. The bike fills like I have added about 7 or 8 hp after doing the Q4 fmf and the dynojet. I decided to use the 24 main jet instead of the 28 that is called for because my son Justin and I ride at 5000ft and up to 9000ft and the 24 has a great color on the spark plug. I wll install a powerbomb next, will add another 2 or 3 hp I also added a car type PCV valve on the crank case breather and got rid of all the junk hose for the air injection. It works great no addional heat to the header. The bike is starting to fill like I thought it should for a dual sport 250 Bob Billen Justin's proud father PS We will be using 13 tooth front sprockets soon

 

That's awesome stuff, sir! Only one problem: You're supposed to make your bike faster than your son's Its hell trying to keep up with my old man and his DRZ 400

 

As far as our riding ability is concerned we are about equal,but as time goes on Justin will probably out ride me. At 69 I am starting to slow down a bit. Been broken to many times in the past, however there are times when I am still pretty good. I sure am enjoying these forums great bunch of people to chat with. I guess it is a Kawasaki thing huh ? Bob Billen ( the old man)