Night and day. its easy to get frustrated on the KLR on the highway or while accelerating because of its lack of power.
I shouldn't get frustrated because it has the same acceleration as just about any compact car on the market today. but as a bike it falls flat on its face. I changed the gear ratio of the final drive so that as a thumper it isnt spinning at 5k vibrating me to death on the highway, its now much more comfortable at 75mph where before it would be almost painful to go over 65, the vibrations were crazy (all I did was go up 1 on the front sprocket). Its fairly comfortable and I can sit on it all day, and it has plenty of room to let me move around. The biggest down side which is easily fixable is that without the big windshield I get blown around and wiped out from fighting the wind, with the big windshield (thats what I have on it now) its not bad.
The CBR is angry and powerful and uncomfortable. Its really not bad, but being leaned over like that for hours can take its toll on the body. When I rode to the rally last year I had that monster tank bag which I filled up as much as possible to lean against. and that worked great, but the body position for anything over a few hours is enough to break your back. I can do a 1000 mile day on it, but I need to use heat pads to keep from cramping up between my shoulders and on my lower back
Surprisingly I used to have a shadow which was much less comfortable than either of my current bikes, my ass went through teh seat in half an hour and I felt like I was sitting on the frame, the bike chugged along with no problem but the position of my arms put my hands at chest height and it would just wipe me out after a few hours, in fact with that bike a 300 mile day would just kill me.
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