You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
What's the Best Survival Motor Bike?
- Thread starter Kyle S
- Start date
Buster Brown
New member
The KLR650 is the best survival motor bike. The Last Whole Earth Catalog, around 1968 or so, addressed this question, or something very like it. It included only two motorcycles, the Jawa 2-stroke and the roller-crank BMW. These two alone were viewed as having the virtues of simplicity, durability and ease of repair appropriate to a tool for the wannabe nomad. Similar attributes might be called for in a survival bike.
The /2 BMW's, in particular, were remarkably durable compared to anything else available. Why, the roller crank, with oil slinger feed to the big-ends, was good for an amazing 40,000 miles, before the accumulation of centrifugally-impacted sludge in the slingers dictated a strip of the engine for crank service (or else catastrophic damage to oil-starved crank-pin bearings).
The Jawas, designed to function in socialist economies characterized by scarcity, poverty and a lack of infrastructures, were so simple you could almost dismantle one with the crude tool-kit. In fact, you could acquire (or make) all of the special tools necessary for a complete rebuild for less than the cost of a set of Snap-On combination wrenches. The Jawas were 2-strokes, so it is doubtful any piston ever went over 20,000 miles, which gave the owner the opportunity to consider new bearings for the bottom end at the same time. If any bikes of their time could be considered "bomb-proof", the Jawa and the BMW would be the ones.
By comparison, my KLR is ticking along fine after 45,000 trouble-free miles, not withstanding slackeness is valve adjustments and more than one tardy oil change. Even with all the hours of farkle-time, I have spent less time working on it than I did in 15,000 miles of /2, and a total of maybe 6000 miles spread among half a dozen Jawas. A whole host of crash-proofing accessories are available for it, lever protectors, a plastic tank that protects the radiator and adds about 70 miles of range, bash plates and protection for the rear brake lever and brake rotor. It will run without a battery if you can bump-start it or retrofit a kickstart lever (doable, with difficulty). Fuel capacity is almost six gallons, more with the IMS tank. The KLR is used by the military in both gas and diesel forms. If there is a better survival bike around, I don't know what it is.
__________________
The /2 BMW's, in particular, were remarkably durable compared to anything else available. Why, the roller crank, with oil slinger feed to the big-ends, was good for an amazing 40,000 miles, before the accumulation of centrifugally-impacted sludge in the slingers dictated a strip of the engine for crank service (or else catastrophic damage to oil-starved crank-pin bearings).
The Jawas, designed to function in socialist economies characterized by scarcity, poverty and a lack of infrastructures, were so simple you could almost dismantle one with the crude tool-kit. In fact, you could acquire (or make) all of the special tools necessary for a complete rebuild for less than the cost of a set of Snap-On combination wrenches. The Jawas were 2-strokes, so it is doubtful any piston ever went over 20,000 miles, which gave the owner the opportunity to consider new bearings for the bottom end at the same time. If any bikes of their time could be considered "bomb-proof", the Jawa and the BMW would be the ones.
By comparison, my KLR is ticking along fine after 45,000 trouble-free miles, not withstanding slackeness is valve adjustments and more than one tardy oil change. Even with all the hours of farkle-time, I have spent less time working on it than I did in 15,000 miles of /2, and a total of maybe 6000 miles spread among half a dozen Jawas. A whole host of crash-proofing accessories are available for it, lever protectors, a plastic tank that protects the radiator and adds about 70 miles of range, bash plates and protection for the rear brake lever and brake rotor. It will run without a battery if you can bump-start it or retrofit a kickstart lever (doable, with difficulty). Fuel capacity is almost six gallons, more with the IMS tank. The KLR is used by the military in both gas and diesel forms. If there is a better survival bike around, I don't know what it is.
__________________