It's fun to mod your motorcycle with accessories and many KLR owners do this and make videos showing them off. There is nothing wrong with that, but I think many motorcycles you see online don't get much use, so recommendations come without much experience. You really don't need several thousand of dollars of accessories and extra protection to have fun on a KLR. I bought a 2009 Kawasaki KLR brand new back in 2009 and I have ridden the bike year round since then, and it's approaching 40,000 miles on the odometer. I mostly ride on city streets and dirt roads.
Right after I bought my KLR, on the very first day of ownership I went for a ride and drove over solid ice in the road and crashed. I wasn't going too fast and I don't remember breaking anything, but I did scratch it. Six months later during the summer months I parked close to an atm located in a bank parking lot and someone hit my KLR with their car. The car was backing up and didn't see the motorcycle. It knocked the bike over and broke the tabs for the left big side radiator fairing and broke part of the foot peg. They actually replaced the broken parts for me, but I never installed them. I never bothered to repair the foot peg, but I did repair the plastic fairing for a few dollars using some stuff I bought at the auto parts store. Soon after that I crashed on a residential street going 25 mph. I did something stupid by screwing around with the front brake and I crashed. I went rolling down the road like a bowling pin. I was bruised but fine, and I think the only thing broken on the bike was the right mirror and side case, but I managed to weld the mirror back together and its been good ever since. I did crash a few times off road in the mud, but nothing bad ever happened to the bike.
A stock KLR is pretty durable and tough, and when you do break something its not too expensive to repair. Plastic welders and plastic repair kits can be purchased for a few dollars and they fix a lot of things that break on a KLR during a crash. An inexpensive welder is a great thing to have for fixing broken steel parts. I never bothered to add a lot of the popular accessories you'll see on a new Adventure model KLR, but I did add a few things.
I added the Kawasaki soft side cases and top case, aftermarket sprockets, an aftermarket hard top case, guards for the side panels, Kawasaki tank bag, 12v outlet and a 2 prong connector attached to the battery. I never used the Kawasaki soft side cases much, and I ruined one of them when I crashed on the residential street. I never bothered to replace it because I just didn't use it. The Kawasaki soft top case was excellent for hauling things around like groceries. I went through 2 of them. However, they did have their issues. They offered no security for keeping your items safe from theft and the main zipper would fail after 4 or 5 years of regular use. I eventually replaced the soft top case with a cheap hard top case I found online. I still use it and it's been great so far. I think you can still buy one at cscmotorcycles dot com, and its called EMGO. Shortly after my first crash I installed some metal guards for the rear side panels on both sides of the motorcycle. I don't know it they offered much protection, but they've been great for attaching bungie cords to when hauling things around. If I had to do it over again, I think I might buy the metal hardware for attaching side cases to the motorcycle and use those for the same thing. I added a 12v outlet for powering an electric vest in colder weather. The electric cord for the vest eventually broke after years of use, so I replaced it with a 2 prong connector, which I now connect to another 2 prong connector near the seat and attached to the battery. The tank bag has been great for hauling smaller items. Sometimes I buy too many things at the store to fit in the top case, and I use the tank bag as overflow storage. I replaced the stock final drive sprockets to lower engine rpm on the freeway, but I don't think I would do that again. The stock gearing is fine.
Those are the only accessories and mods I've added to the KLR. I've never modified the engine with the doohickey or thermobob repair and I don't think those repairs are necessary. I don't think you need to add what Kawasaki calls "frame sliders" to the KLR before you start using it. I don't think you need fog lights to ride your KLR at night. I don't think you need new foot pegs to use the KLR. I don't think you need a new windshield to ride your KLR on the freeway. I don't think you need aftermarket hand guards to ride your KLR, which reminds me, the stock hand guards on the KLR are excellent for blocking wind from hitting your hand in cold weather riding. I'm not sure the aftermarket hand guards offer the same wind protection. The accessories available for a KLR are nice to have, but their not necessary for riding.
Anyway, you don't need all the accessories and mods to have fun on a KLR. You don't need to wrap your KLR in a shield of metal to protect it during rides. A stock KLR is a pretty durable and tough motorcycle as it is.
This is one of the most accessory rich KLR's I've seen. It seems to have everything....
