The Real Reason why you NEED a DIESEL KLR

I served for 21 years in the Marine Corps. Attended the Division schools Marine Corps Motorcycle Combat school. Rode the KLR in Camp Pendleton, 29 Palms and the Saudi desert. Simple but great bike. Rode with radio and M16 on my back. I now own a 2023 KLR 650 as a off road and computer bike every day. I haven't seen a Marine Corps bike in years. He is right about the Harley, I tested one off road at Camp Pendleton. Way too heavy! Thanks for the memories!

I had a KLR that had been converted to diesel a few years back. It was converted by a guy in Texas. He fitted a 418cc diesel generator motor and CV transmission in the 2002 KLR. I tweaked it a little to get it to run better, and it gave me a top speed of 60 mph. I built a proper header and intake for it because my shop is set up to do stuff like that. I sold it to a friend in Ohio, and last we talked, he still rides it a lot. I saw 106 mpg out of it if I rode it easy. Worst mileage was 85 mpg. Though about putting a turbo on it but never did still have the turbo! Was going to build a diesel Triumph Tiger with a 3 cyl Diahatsu motor snd Harley 6 speed, but got diagnosed with cancer and had to shelve that project. I still ride my other KLR. 153K miles on it so far. Good video Craig!

Every diesel engine fan was waiting for the start-up to hear that diesel sound. Which totally got lost in the background.

I laugh when I hear “Military grade.” Basically translates to “built by the lowest bidder.”

There's a hidden benefit to having a diesel motorcycle. Pull up to the diesel pump and watch as people scream and yell at you not to pump it into the tank. You can cup your ear like you're trying to listen closely to their screams while pulling back the pump handle to give them a momentary respite and false sense of security before putting the pump nozzle back into the tank and start pumping while nodding and grinning like an idiot.

As an equipment mechanic in the military, all of our stuff runs on Jet A (previously JP8). Small 2 cylinder deutz engines up to 4 cylinder Isuzu, Kubota, Cummins and 6 cylinder Cummins. We still have some older units running Detroit engines. All run pretty solid. I intend on a poor man's apocalypse build with a DR650.

There was a bike in India names "Sooraj" which was India's first diesel motorcycle and gave a mileage of around 80 kilometres to a litre of around 50 miles. Also, a very renowned company Royal Enfield also made Diesel motor cycles way back in 1980s giving almost the same milage

Fred Haise was also the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 13. He was portrayed by Bill Paxton in the movie.

One of my favorite bikes that you have picked up. Very cool.

Praise God brother. Keep it up! KLR was.my first and only bike. Sketchy at high speeds. I would stand up to stop the death wobble but it totally worked. Don't remember it doing much better than maybe 90 tops but probably somewhere in the 80s.

That white truck made me think that you would end up on the Moto Stars channel!

Love this show!

They are cool but there are so many good regular KLRs out there with a huge aftermarket support and readily available parts that I recommend the gas one. Mine is tuned enough to make it fun.

Thank you for making this almost into a series about this cool motorcycle. It’s cool wverytime

Kinda reminds me of the sound my royal enfield Himalayan I bought new back in 2018. It didn’t run as rough as the diesel but reminds me of the sound it made when I did winter rides. Once the engine warmed up, it smoothed out a bit. Same as my Delica diesel. Thanks for sharing.

I really, really wish this thing or something very similar had taken off and gotten a chance in the civilian market. I can't imagine Kawasaki would have been willing to supplying frames for a competitor, but a partnership might have been possible if the bean counters in Japan didn't think it'd cannibalize KLR-650 sales.

its running wooot wooot nice job mate

I don’t even like motorcycles, but I like this channel!

Wrong Fred. Hayes is the diesel bike guy. The Fred you pictured is the astronaut that didn’t mess with bikes. But great video 😁

The Delray Misfits podcast in California also chose a diesel powered KLR as the bike to have during a zombie apocalypse, but I don't think I would choose a diesel powered KLR for these reasons. One, during a real life nationwide catastrophe there is a good chance all communications will be down for quite a while, and trying to find another diesel powered KLR for parts to fix a problem related to the bikes diesel technology will be pretty hard. Two, if you need to siphon fuel from another vehicle your odds of finding gasoline is better than finding diesel, so I don't really care about the extra mpg from a diesel engine. Three, like you said in the video, these diesel powered KLR's don't have many miles on them, so how can you be sure their more reliable than a gas powered KLR? How do you know how the diesel KLR will behave in extreme climates and riding conditions? I've got over 40k miles on my KLR without any mechanical problems, so I already know from experience the gas powered KLR 650 is reliable enough for me to feel confident it will get me where I want to go. I never did any mods to the engine, so its reliable right off the showroom floor. Also, Supposedly a gov? commission determined that most vehicles would survive an EMP, and since the first and second gen KLR's don't have a computer I would think they would be included in the OK list.Those are the reasons why I would choose a gas powered KLR over the diesel model.