A new addition to the family - a dirty little beast!

Well, it has finally happened, I'm now back on an offroad bike. It has been 13 years since I sold the venerable DR250 single and I have now upgraded to a big brother equivalent from Kawasaki - the Killer 650. A big benefit of this beast, compared withe DR, is its electric leg. Since my arthroscopy in July my right knee has deteriorated and is most definitely not up to the strain of kickstarting a big single. So the question, why a Killer? Well the journey to reach this point was quite a long and arduous one. Over a period of a year I sampled a range of offroad oriented machines - some far more offroad oriented than other. These included Suzukis (DR and DL 650s), BMWs (GSes - 1100/1200, 800 and 650 varieties), Triumphs (Tiger 1050 and 800 triples) and Kawasakis (Versys, KLE500 and KLR). Ultimately, the decision came down to buying a multicylinder (more road oriented) or single (more offroad oriented). Given that the reason for buying an offroad bike is so that I could run a reconnaisance mission across the Simpson desert before I attempt it on B1, it makes more sense that I choose a bike more at home riding on sand and this meant a 21" front wheel was mandatory. Thus in one fell swoop I had eliminated the multicylinder bikes and it became a choice between the KLR, DR and GS Sertao. More to come.