Doug's KLX Evolution

Story number 3 on my KLX300

I did finally did take the suspension off and give it to Bucky to change the oil. I decided not to do any revalving I don’t think it needed it for what I’m doing so Bucky just change out the OEM oil which apparently is like honey. And I will never take the suspension off this bike again, I‘ve taken suspension off countless bikes over the years, but the KLX was not fun at all and fought me at every turn, nothing came apart or went back together like it should have, totally frustrating.

On my last ride before I had the suspension serviced Wayne and I ended riding to a lake called Bowmen which is probably a PG&E Hydro Power lake up in the Sierras. The roads in and out are very bad and full of various sized sharp edged rocks. After only a short time of riding on those rocks I told Wayne I need to get off the rocks, we are many, many miles from our trucks and if I should get a flat I’m screwed. I have the stock tires, tubes and no rim locks, if I get a flat with no rim locks trying to ride back to the truck will become a nightmare.

So after I had the suspension serviced and before I rode it I had heavy duty tubes, rim locks installed and the wheels balanced. So Wayne and I went for a nice 64 mile ride and I felt much safer with the new tubes and rim locks and the suspension worked excellent. I don’t think I could ask for it to work any better than it now does. So it has stock valving, stock springs, just clicker adjustments and preload spring adjustments and I weigh 210 plus gear. Can I and do I bottom it out occasionally, yes. I’m not a slug on the type of terrain I ride, far from it and the suspension is soft and I do have my trusty ole fork Air Cells (Which aren’t manufactured anymore) they smooth out the initial fork travel and keep the front end from deflecting over the small stuff. I’ve whined about how I wouldn’t want to ride single track on this bike because it’s so heavy, but when I think about it I rode lots of bikes 35 years ago on single track trails that were close to 300 pounds like a XR600. If I had my 2025 KLX300 to ride back then it would more than held its own against any four strokes in that era and I wouldn’t have been complaining, although my 1991 XR600 and my 1998 XR400 were pretty good and most of today’s single track trails in my area are pretty beat up compared to how they were back in that time period. Today’s bikes are so good it’s easy to create cornering berms and to create suspension and braking bumps that tear up trails. And the mindset of lot riders today is to have no regard for the trails and treat them like a moto cross course, it is possible to ride those trails at speed and not tear them up. But that’s a story for another time.

Let me say it again I like this bike, is it perfect no, but it’s easy to ride, because it’s closer to the ground it feels very planted and confidence inspiring. Even if I went back to a light weight trail bike (Which I won’t be doing) I believe I would spend the money to shorten the suspension, I don’t think I need or want 12” of travel for trail riding, but I am an old man now.

Doug 21J