I’m preparing for my trip on the Trans-America Trail with Sam Correro August 8. I’ll be riding a 2003 Kawasaki KLX400A dual sport which looks to be the perfect vehicle except he hopes that we don’t have to change out a jet in Colorado at 10,000 feet. He can change out a jet on his XR600 in about five minutes, but the engine on the 400 is so compact that many repairs and adjustments may mean taking off the gas tank and other such major disassembly.
This is the question: Is there enough range on the KLX400A to deal with the change in altitude, or are we going to need to change out the jets on Pike’s Peak? Advice appreciated.
Mods he’s already made are the rear sprocket and tires. Says he pushed the sprocket up 2 teeth, which will give me more ‘grunt’ at the rear wheel but will slow the top speed. (“You’re not a speed freak are you,” he asked.) Also changed out the stock tires to the more aggressive DOT knobbies.
And here’s great news: Chris & Spice are riding their KLR650’s all the way from Atlanta to Colorado to join us. This pair took a round-the-world-trip a couple of years ago on these bikes, and started with a six-week journey along Sam’s entire Trans-America trail.
Sign up for my mailing list (click at left) and be the first to hear about this trip mid-August.
Carla
I am in the process of writing-up my recent trip, taking a Suzuki DR-Z400S (which Kawasaki re-brand as the KLX400?) – taking it to Italy and back, over the Swiss Alps. The first part of the writeup is online at http://www.crypticide.com/users/alecm/albums/2004-suntour/story.html – but in a nutshell, the bike was fine at 9500 feet in cold dry (if cloudy) alpine air, with the proviso that I was using reasonably rich fuel (RON98) and so long as I was riding smoothly; bursty acceleration would sometimes result in a brief stutter, but if you ramped the throttle up/down in easy, gentle movements, it was fine.
If you’re going seriously offroading at altitude, however, I could not say; sudden demands for power-on-tap might be less well received. If it’ll be basic trail-riding, I’d suggest that checking that your carb is not set too lean / too rich is probably the most critical requirement; that was the only major issue I’ve ever had with the bike.
I’d be happy to swap notes if you’re interested – my e-mail address is on my website.
Might want to check this thread in Advrider… it’s exactly what they’re talking about:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46466