Cheap commuter

KLE500 acquired this nickname during its early years when colours were
similar to a Jimmy Saville tracksuit

and the price of fresh haddock today is?

 

If you MUST have panniers here are a coupe of oddball suggestions:
MZ Skorpion Traveller (with luggage) if you can find one. Cheap as chips
and Yamaha XT660Z engine is reliable.
Honda Pacific Coast, PC800 if you can find one, With built-in boot instead
of panniers. Good low-mileage examples can be found under £2k

However, speaking as someone who does a minumum 60 mile daily round trip on
a bike, I suggest that you forget the panniers. Get any cheap, reliable and
reasonably quick bike with a large topbox already fitted to it. Then get a
REALLY big tailpack and attach it to the pillion seat. This will allow you
to carry lots of stuff without making the bike too wide. You don't want to
be too wide because you WILL want to filter like a loon either to shorten
the journey time, get through traffic congestion or just to relieve the
tedium. My commuting bike is a 650 V-strom and every day I pass much
quicker bikes that can't get through the gaps that I can because their
panniers are too wide.

 

Don't have to have panniers at all, a top box big enough to take a
laptop and a change of clothes will be fine. In fact would prefer not to
have panniers for exactly the reasons you came up with.

That PC800 is one ugly bike. Skorpion looks ok, but I'd prefer the
height of a KLE or Divvy. not ruled it out though.

 

Seriously, what were the BBC thinking of, putting a wizened man in a
gaudy tracksuit on a magic chair for the entertainment of small kids
on his knees ..

Paul.

 

Well known kiddyfiddler, too.

Kevin Keegan is the same.

 

I have a Givi monokey top plate; like this one 270572704101 on eBay. I
drilled two holes through the KLE rack and bolted the Givi bit on. I have a
set of monokey luggage and use the smaller pannier or larger top box
depending on the space I need. You could bolt any top box directly onto the
KLE rack. There's a 1996 KLE on Bike Trader at £1395 with only 9000 miles on
it. It could well have a nicer engine than mine - I say this because I had a
1998 ER5 (which I found a bit cramped) when I bought the 2005 KLE500. The
KLE seems to run leaner and has a few extra bits of pipework around the
engine. I think they did something to get it through a change in emissions
regs. The ER seemed to have the sweeter engine. I found the older (thinner
and firmer) seat more comfortable than the new one. I like the relaxed and
spacious riding position of the KLE. As for prices, they do seem to have
gone up recently; I suppose the big price rises in new bikes has trickled
down to used ones. Mine has got a bit tatty because I use it in the winter
in preference to the Transalp. It also goes on farm and forestry roads.
However last week, when I fitted new tyres, chain and sprockets and removed
and cleaned the radiator, I also took lots of bits off and gave them a bit
of a clean - it now looks somewhat better.

John

 

I was thinking more like a CB72. Someone was flogging one recently;
can't recall who...

 

I did see that one in bike trader but it's in North Wales (considerably
further than the 89 miles quoted by Biketrader).

I don't understand why you say you can bolt any top box directly to the
KLE rack, but also say you needed a monokey adapter which you had to
drill the KLE rack to make fit?

 

Oh right, whooshed.

No luggage capacity anyway, umm and out of budget!

 

Crap. Too slow. No weather protection. Utter waste of time for a 100+
mile round trip.

Ever owned a sports bike?

Suggest that a K100/75/1100 or a PanEuropean. Weather protection and
comfort is pretty important on a 100 mile plus round trip; based on
experience of doing a 120mile round trip for about 10 years. I'd go
with the K every time.

Try ebay 110526713286 or 120562664497

Condition more important than mileage; the 86 on K series will do really
big mileages; I've taken two past 100k and the thing that killed them
was winter use and rot caused by salt. Nothing that couldn't have been
saved but I couldn't be bothered since it was easier to buy another one
(my time being worth more to me than the 500 quid or so I had to find to
get the replacement bike).

Pan European I thought had a really poor fairing for a full on touring
bike. Nice engine though but look out for rotten exhausts and swing
arms.

 

bolting a topbox to a rack suggests it is a permanent fixture. The Givi
rack allows you to remove the top box with ease.

 

Well, if panniers are not required then there is a vast world of SOBs out
there looking for a home! A lot will depend on your requirements re
economical running, tank range (really important IMHO), performance and
comfort. If you want tall(ish) type bike then consider the BMW F650 Funduro
(and other variants), which returns really good mpg with reasonable
performance and is now coming into the "cheap" category. You could also
look at Aprilia Pegaso, MZ Baghira, XT600, XL600 Transalp etc. etc.

 

Gixer K1/2/3 600/750 and the K1/K2 1000s are extremely comfortable and
don't have a really radical riding position. 140 miles on one would be
fine for anyone.

 

Mike Buckley wrote:

I have a spare monolock adaptor plate, don't worry about it.

 

How about 300420822544?

 

I can comfortably do 400 miles a day on my K8 GSXR.

 

Care to be specific? 'cos I don't *think* Nige has bought an utter
shitter of a model.

 

wrote in

Apart from the Range/Land Rovers

 

I did sell him my Daytona 955iSE

 

As Wessie says - I have Givi luggage which I can clip on and off at will. If
I didn't already own the Givi stuff (and only 1 bike I wanted a box on) then
I would probably buy a topbox for less than the price of a Givi and bolt it
on the KLE rack - just like in the old days; well 1972. My Transalp is just
the same. It has the Honda rack as standard and I've bolted a Givi top plate
to it - I can swap boxes between the bikes very quickly.

John