If you buy a Kawasaki KLR 650, the first thing you'll hear from a lot of other owners is "make sure you fix the KLR 650 doohickey right away!" It's a common believe among KLR 650 owners that the KLR doohickey (another name for the counterbalancer chain tensioner) will eventually wear out and fail, causing your KLR to die. The belief in the Kawasaki KLR 650 doohickey problem is so widespread that many people actually replace their KLR doohickey immediately after buying a brand new bike.

I've gotten a ton of KLR doohickey questions since I bought my 2022 KLR 650 Adventure last year, and I wanted to cut through the rumor and hearsay and go right to an expert on the subject. Mike at Power Motorsports, a veteran Kawasaki mechanic with 25 years experience, was kind enough to come on camera and talk about his experiences over the years fixing KLR doohickeys.

His answer might surprise you. Mike has never seen a doohickey fail, nor has he ever opened up a KLR and found a doohickey on the verge of failure. He's installed a ton of KLR doohickey kits at customer request over the years, but he's never had to do one as a result of a failure.

Properly maintained, KLRs will run forever, at least according to Mike.

Big thanks to Matt and Mike at Power Motorsports for being in the video. Check out Power's website here: http://www.powermotorsports.com

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