Unbelievable it would be that bad on such a new bike. I used to think adding Eagle Mike's doohickey was just a precautionary measure but now I believe its a necessity.

 

I had exactly the same experience. Did the Doohickey at 12,300 miles and my stock spring had ZERO tension. I could jiggle it around. So glad I did that when I did and wish I had done it sooner. Kawasaki REALLY needs to go to a torsion spring and maybe pay Eagle Mike a royalty for the idea.

 

I think you guys are seeing things, the Doohicky isn't a problem. At least according to many naysayers.
I had bought all the ingredients and tools from EM. Took the case apart in anticipation of making the upgrade only to find that the PO had already done it. Oh well I was glad I didn't open it up to find a slack or broken OEM spring.

 

I think you guys are seeing things, the Doohicky isn't a problem.

The OEM doo-hickey is a very sloppy fit on the shaft, EM's is a tighter fit.
Eagle Mikes Doo-Hickey is re-indexed on the shaft to begin life with more adjustment range of life.
Eagle Mikes Doo-Hickey was re-designed to specifically work with his Torsion Spring, the OEM doo-hickey wasn't designed to readily accept the EM torsion spring.

Why would anyone want to do a half-a**ed job?

 

the Doohicky isn't a problem

You're right. It's not. It's the spring, at least on these newer bikes.

 

Yep, another prime example of why you need to upgrade the doo & spring!
I find it funny that people continue to adjust their OEM doo…long after it’s been rendered useless!

 

I find it funny that people continue to Attempt to allow re-adjustment of their OEM doo…long after it’s been rendered useless!

There I fixed it for you.

 

Update--finished the install tonight with the torsion spring.

No issues buttoning everything back up.

Also did valve clearance adjustment, but the bike seems to run so much more smoothly after knocking out these jobs.

Looking forward to straightforward maintenance like oil and tires and chain slack for a bit. I can go a while before I see the inside of that engine case again.

 

The official word is they plan on solving the issue in 2026!

 

Wow…right in the nick of time.
….After 39 years of production….😆

 

KLR aside Kawasakis adventure bike line up is basically nonexistent. The Versys line up gets less and less adventure ready as the displacement goes up and aside from the from the 300 are they even adventure bikes? I’ve seen people making due with the 650, not very well.

They have a lot of “equity” in the KLR brand.

I would love to see them do a clean sheet 4th gen.

1. 8 inches of suspension travel front and rear, with a cartridge fork.

2. 21 front 18 rear tubeless spoked wheels.

3. 800 cc plus single making 70 hp and 50 pounds of torque.

4. Dual front brakes

5. 250 miles of range on a tank of gas

6. a one piece seat

7. Crashable and tough

8. since I’m dreaming, making it a dry sunp, single sided swingarm, with shaft drive, and an optional 6 axis IMU

MSRP $9999.

 

KLR aside Kawasakis adventure bike line up is basically nonexistent. The Versys line up gets less and less adventure ready as the displacement goes up and aside from the from the 300 are they even adventure bikes? I’ve seen people making due with the 650, not very well.

They have a lot of “equity” in the KLR brand.

I would love to see them do a clean sheet 4th gen.

1. 8 inches of suspension travel front and rear, with a cartridge fork.

2. 21 front 18 rear tubeless spoked wheels.

3. 800 cc plus single making 70 hp and 50 pounds of torque.

4. Dual front brakes

5. 250 miles of range on a tank of gas

6. a one piece seat

7. Crashable and tough

8. since I’m dreaming, making it a dry sunp, single sided swingarm, with shaft drive, and an optional 6 axis IMU

MSRP $9999.

Can’t believe you forgot 6th gear!

 

All I know is that I parted ways with my 08' KLR back in 18' for a revolving door of machines loaded with considerably more "tech" and better "specs", only to end up with my 22' KLR after multiple other bikes I thought I wanted more. Bikes that were "better".
I think this 22' will be around awhile.

 

Kawasaki has some sharp engineers, but they have some even sharper marketing folks.

Had they done a clean sheet redesign of the KLR, it would cost over $10k and they would now be competing directly with the Transalp, the Tenere 700, and the Vstrom 650, all in a rapidly collasping motorcycle market.

Instead they are unique, with no real competition in their price range.

Yes I would have preferred a more refined and perhaps lighter mid range adventure bike, but I did not care to pay twice as much for a two wheeled computer.

I can not emphasis this last point strongly enough. Modern high dollar adventure bikes use computers to control the throttle and brake. They call this digital throttle, antilock brakes, and traction control.

I much prefer to do it myself.

 

Kawasaki has some sharp engineers, but they have some even sharper marketing folks.

Had they done a clean sheet redesign of the KLR, it would cost over $10k and they would now be competing directly with the Transalp, the Tenere 700, and the Vstrom 650, all in a rapidly collasping motorcycle market.

Instead they are unique, with no real competition in their price range.

Yes I would have preferred a more refined and perhaps lighter mid range adventure bike, but I did not care to pay twice as much for a two wheeled computer.

I can not emphasis this last point strongly enough, modern high dollar adventure bikes use computers to control the throttle and brake. I much prefer to do it myself.

+1 on that. I tried a KTM 790 Adventure for the only high tech bike I've ever owned in over 57 years of riding (never even had ABS and figured I'd try it all out once). Rain mode was nice, but I hated a lot of the other ride-by-wire features and went back to a simple Gen 3 KLR.