Quiet Classics of the Showroom
LEANINGS
Quiet classics of the showroom
Peter Egan
“WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS LIKE?” I asked my friend Lee Fleming, nodding toward a brand-new black Kawasaki Concours. “I know they’ve been around forever, but I’ve never had a chance to ride one.”
We were standing just outside the showroom of Champion Motorcycles, Lee’s dealership in Costa Mesa, California. Lee and I go way back, having raced motorcycles together in prehistoric times, and I always drop by for a visit when I’m in California.
I had just escaped from the characterbuilding rigors of the dark Wisconsin winter, flying into the Golden State for a writing assignment. Barb had driven me to the airport in her Jeep on a day when schools were closed because of high winds and drifted snow across the highways. Meanwhile, here in Costa Mesa, it was 72 degrees and the sun beamed down upon my shoulders like God’s own electric vest. A blonde woman drove by in a red Alfa convertible, the boulevard flanked by palm trees. Strains of a Randy Newman song wafted through my brain.
Where was I? Ah, yes.. .motorcycles.
Lee folded his arms and looked at the Concours thoughtfully. “Well,” he said, “it’s comfortable, reasonably fast and has good wind protection. It’s basically a bike that gives you about 95 percent of the performance of a current-generation sport-tourer, but it costs about $5000 less. It’s a steady seller for us, with a dedicated following.”
“I remember when these things came out, in 1986,” I said.
Lee nodded. “It’s one of those bikes I enjoy selling, because the owner is always happy. Same for the KLR650. It’s not the latest thing, but it does exactly what people want it to, and it doesn’t cost too much. And you know, at any given moment, that there are half a dozen people going around the world on KLRs and having a great time.”
Lee went off to help a customer, and I wandered around the shop looking at bikes. It seemed to me that in his description of the Concours and the KLR650 he had touched on a whole segment of the motorcycle market-the often-overlooked modem workhorse that keeps selling, year after year, because it fulfills a real need and there is no exact replacement.
These are both bikes that get very little (or no) advertising and promotion from their mother company, and not much ink in magazines like this one. We announced and tested them years ago, included them in various comparison tests with their contemporaries, and then moved on to newer products. But the bikes are still in production, still being bought by a loyal coterie of fans who appreciate their virtues.
I have three friends-in Wisconsin, Colorado and Alabama-who all ride KLRs. One went to Alaska and back on his, and the others ride fireroads on the weekends. The KLR isn’t much of a dirtbike for hard-core off-roading, but it works fine on unpaved roads, and it comes right off the showroom floor with a big gas tank, a cushy seat and a luggage rack. It’s comfortable on the highway, has a relatively low seat height and, when dropped, can be picked up by a single human being. These are all details that don’t go unnoticed by people who adventure-tour, so the bike stays in production year after year.
Looking around Lee’s showroom, I spotted another often-overlooked gem, the Honda XR400. Lee said sales of these bikes have been pretty slow, because many riders prefer to buy newer, lighter and more powerful liquid-cooled enduro bikes. It’s hard to argue with more horsepower and less weight, but the old XR still has a few things going for it.
When I was trail riding in Baja with my buddy Pat Donnelly last year, we kept running into off-road tour groups who were mounted almost exclusively on XR400s. I asked a couple of the tour guides about this, and they said, essentially, “We use XRs because you can’t kill them. They have kickstarters and they’re air-cooled. No hoses, radiators or water pumps to break in the middle of nowhere, and maintenance is minimal.”
Dirtbike technology marches on, but as long as there are places like Baja I suspect there will always be a market for a bike like the XR, whose very lack of complexity and exotic plumbing is the reason people buy it. Too much technology is not always a good thing when you’re 30 miles from a reliable source of drinking water. Or coolant.
That rugged, air-cooled appeal also holds true for another bike I think is an unsung budget classic, the Suzuki DR650-which, like the XR400, has been with us since 1996. It’s on about the same adventure-tourer/fireroad wavelength as the KLR 650, but is a little more dirt-oriented and not quite as posh on the highway. It also has a smaller gas tank and doesn’t come with a luggage rack, but it has a higher level of fit and finish than the KLR and is a bit more agile. Also, the motor is wonderful, torquey yet willing to rev, and has a nice snap to it.
Others?
Well, on the road-bike side, there’s the Yamaha YZF600R (introduced in 1996 also), which I’m glad to see is still in production. The YZF isn’t nearly as intense or track-worthy as its R6 stablemate, but it makes a better all-around streetbike. It has a low price (under seven grand), laser-sharp steering, great torque for a high-revving Four, and it’s as comfortable to tour on as a Honda VFR800, while feeling somewhat lighter and sportier. And I worry that when it’s gone, there won’t be anything quite like it.
But that’s true of all the bikes I’ve mentioned, and a few others as well (the V-Max comes to mind). The funny thing these motorcycles have in common is that they are all amazingly cheap, by any modern standard, yet the people I know who own them are experienced riders who could probably afford any bike on Earth. You’d think, based on price, that these perennial survivors might be aimed at novices, yet they are just as often bought by people who aren’t easily dazzled and know exactly what they want.
People who, as Lee put it so nicely, always leave the dealership happy.
