Kawasaki KLR650 (2022) vs Yamaha T7 | Fair Comparison

In this video we compare the Kawasaki KLR 650 with the Yamaha T7

Now before you leave, hear me out. So I want to compare the KLR 650, the new one, the 2022 model, the Gen 3, or is that 2.5

With the Yamaha Tenere 700. And the reason I'm doing this is many people online have been comparing these two bikes

and people are disappointed with the new KLR because they were expected this

the KLX 700 Tengai it's not a real bike, it doesn't exist yet, maybe, hopefully one day

but this was designed by Oberdon... what? Oberdon Bezzi, a motorcycle designer

so it's based on the Versys 650 twin cylinder, so 6 speed

it's more of a T7 or KTM 890 competitor But sadly, that's not what we got

They basically gave us the old KLR with a few updates, which we'll chat about in this video

But in this video, I want to compare the two. The question is, is the T7 better than the KLR

Well, I would say absolutely yes. In almost all respects, it will be better than the KLR 650 that we got for 2022

But that doesn't mean we can't compare the two. But we have to be fair. So a lot of people want more

When it comes to bikes, when it comes to new models, you want more, but you don't always want to pay more

And that's the key thing. The Tenere 700, or the T7, costs £9,999, or £10,000

$10,000 in the USA, whereas the new KLR650, the 2022 model, is only retailing at £6,999

So $7,000, that's the one with the ABS, the base model with ABS

So directly comparable to the T7? Well, I say directly, but it's the base model

Now, the T7 is 43% more expensive than the KLR 650. So that means we should expect a bike that is 43% better than the KLR 650

And that's what we're going to find out in this video. I'm going to compare the bikes, the specs of the bikes, line for line

and every time the Tenere 700 is not 40% will give them 3% leeway

40% better than the KLR. You're going to give it a b**. So the first thing we're going to look at is engine size

I know this is an arbitrary thing. You can't say bigger is always better

A lot of people will disagree. But anyways, the T7 has a 700cc

It's a 698cc engine. Whereas the KLR has the old trussed 652 that's been available since 1987

but now only with fuel injection which we'll chat about later. So that's a 6

bigger engine but it's a twin. The T7 has a twin cylinder so that will most

certainly make a much bigger difference. You can't compare a single with the twin

it'll rev much higher so that brings us to the next thing so let's

that so that brings us to the next thing which is power so the T7 has I think

it's 54 kilowatts we don't have kilowatts so that's 72 horsepower we don't have

horsepower figures for the KLR yet but remember horsepower or kilowatts or

power is a function of engine speed and torque so we have to torque figure so we

can compare the torque figures and then think about the revs to see what the

power figures might be now if we look at torques that 68 Newton meters for the T7 and 53 for the KLR650 so that a 28 the T7 is 28 more torque here 28 more torque than the KLR so that not far off 40 but it

revs much higher I mean it's a twin cylinder so it'll rev the peak power of

the T7 is at 9000 rpm so the higher the revs the higher the power for the same

amount of torque so it's very likely that the T7 will have 40% more power than the KLR so it's not

worth a b*****g. So next we're looking at gears so I mean this is so silly I shouldn't almost even do it

but anyways the KLR has five gears the Yamaha T7 has six gears that's 20% more gears one more so

that's a but this is one of the big disappointments of the new KLR650 for many riders

not for me I'll come back to that just now but many riders on the internet

complained about not having that six speed the problem with adding a six

speed is that's a complete redesign of the gearbox and possibly some of the

bottom end I'm not a mechanic or engineer but it's going to be a huge thing to add

six gears not just slapping on another cog so it's a big redesign and that will

probably cost a lot more and so does do we need a 6 year on the KLR well I had an

old I had two gen 1 KLRs the C model and the A model and I remember doing 140

kilometers per hour the whole day that's eight nine hours at 140 kilometers per

hour that's about 80 miles per hour is that right? 80 90 miles per hour and it

used oil that's fine but it was comfortable enough to do that speed and

So, 6-key, yes, it would have been nice, but it's not a necessity, and at legal speed limits, it's definitely not necessary to have a 6-speed on the KLR, not for the additional price or cost that it would have added

Another big consideration, and this is another disappointment that many people have with the KLR, is the weight

It added, I can't remember how many, whether it's 20 kilos or 20 pounds, but it added a lot of weight to an already heavy dual-sport bike

But what about the T7? Here, we can't go for more weight is better

You know, lighter is better, obviously. If we pay 40% more for a bike we expect it to be 40% lighter or at least somewhat lighter

and in this case it's 205 kilograms for the T7 versus 209 for the KLR that's 2% lighter so it's basically the same

and the KLR has more fuel I think this is weight weight so the KLR is actually slightly lighter if it's a dry weight

so that's a bit cheap for the T7 way more expensive both are heavy bikes

So I would say the KLR, even though it is a heavy bike, and we did expect it to be lighter

it would have been nice if they made it lighter, but not at the expense of adding $1,000

So I would say KLR wins this one. Then for both are dual sport bikes, or they are, well, adventure bikes made for off and on road

The T7 is renowned for doing awesome things off road in the right hands

So let's look at ground clearance. The T7 is 239 millimeters versus the KLRs lower 211 millimeters

It's 13%, so it's not 40% more. So that's a better for the T7

It's fairly similar. What about the suspension? So suspension is difficult to measure in terms of numbers

You really have to get on the bikes. And if you see what guys do on the T7s, you can't do that on the KLR

You'll break something or yourself. But let's look at the figures. it front suspension travel 210mm for the T7 180mm for the KLR that 17 not going to beep this and then suspension travel 210mm for the T7 180 for the KLR that 17 I not going to beep this and then suspension travel with the rear 200mm for the T7 185 for the KLR

It's 8% So I'm almost 100% certain or let's say 95% 97% certain that the T7 has at least suspension that's 40% better

maybe even 100% better than the KLR So that is I think definitely a win. The KLR didn't do that even though there are upgrades, it's not

What a lot of people expected. I don't care about that because you can upgrade your suspension for very cheap

I did progressive front forks or springs in the front forks and a complete rebuild of the rear suspension with the thicker spring for

I think it was $200 back then so and made huge difference

So I think that's a cheap upgrade on the KLR, which you can do yourself. Not worth the factory spending lots of money on that and charging you for it

And what about the brakes? So this is a very clear win for the T7

It's got two 282mm discs up front versus the KLR's one 300mm

So if you take the full area of the braking or the full area of the disc, that's 88% for the T7

more braking power just by looking at the size of the rotors

So clear win. I think the T7 is going to definitely have better brakes than the KLR

No arguing about that. We'll have to wait and see what the KLRs feel like versus the old Gen 2

And then in the rear, it's almost the same. 245 versus 240, so it's 2% different

So what about features? We know and love the T7 for the lack of all these rider aids and traction control

and cruise control that's what I love about it it doesn't have all those electronics that could fail on you in the middle of nowhere it only has ABS

the KLR now has ABS which is a huge thing a huge upgrade for the KLR so it's

basically the same old features same basic bikes fuel injection but now with

ABS now on the fuel injection a lot of people complained about the KLR

having throttle body fuel injection or that's basically like common rail for a

car where it just squirts fuel in the intake. Now I'm again not an engineer but

I looked at Kawasaki's website and it says DFI next to the fuel injection so I

didn't even look this up but that seems to be like direct fuel injection so yeah

and that'll be tunable hopefully so let's see what they come up with and what we can squeeze out of the KLR. Then C type there's nothing in that

874 millimeters for the T7 and it's 871 for the KLR that's a 0

difference if you round it off. Then another big thing and if you think of an

adventure bike you want to tour with the bike go long distance huge things fuel

range or fuel capacity and this is where the KLR has always shone or rose above

all the other bikes. It's got 23 liters. They said it's more usable because of where it picks up

but then there's a fuel pump in the tank so it's basically 23 liters same as the old models

versus the Tenerae's 16 liters so that's 30% less. You pay 40% more but you get 30% less range

The fuel consumption should be similar depending on how you ride. So that's a huge

Plus for the KLR and what I love about the KLR. And the thing is, you can add aftermarket tanks

but who going to add a plastic tank on a T7 I mean really So that a big downfall of the T7 for me as a big long distance touring bike you have to take extra fuel So I know this was a crazy comparison

and there's no way that you really can say that the KLR is better than the T7 but if you take the

price into consideration then it has to count for something so value for money I don't think any bike

out there can beat the KLR currently. I've got a Honda XR 650L and you can see a lot of videos on

this channel so please subscribe if you want to see that and for the same price I mean the Honda

goes for $6999 now in the US and that's the same old bike since 93 whereas the KLR is a completely

new bike with fuel injection, ABS, that big tank, much more comfort, better brakes, all of that

for the same price as that old Honda. So you can't compare the the KLR with bikes at $10,000

$12,000. We'll have to wait for hopefully that thing guy, the KLX 700. But for now

nothing will beat the KLR and I hope they sell tens of thousands of them so I can get one second

and because I'm a cheap as xKLR owner. I'm adding this in here, I forgot to mention

another thing why I think the KLR or the Kawasaki was very clever with the KLR is, remember, they

they've got all the tooling, all the parts to build this bike

So with minor changes, they did major upgrades to this bike to give it an extra couple of years of life

And I'm sure they're going to sell lots of this. So from a business perspective

it would have been stupid to come out with something that would compete with the T7 directly

And then they take on another competitor that has spent many, many years of development on a bike

and they've got experience in the market for that type of bike especially like if you look at KTM

and BMW so KLR I mean there's no competition in the class that they are competing in at the moment

so at that price and for what you get there's no competition so and it was a very easy switch from

where they were with the Gen 2 so I think they were very clever I don't think this was a mistake

and there's a lot of comments about how this was a mistake and they didn't listen to anyone

I think they knew exactly what they did. Then I also have to add about the doohickey. A lot of people mentioned that it was fixed. Others said it doesn't. It wasn't. Well, all I mentioned is I think the cam chain tensioner that was upgraded or changed the shape of it. But that is not the doohickey. The doohickey is obviously the balancer, balancing or the balancer's chain tensioner. And what they did do is they upgraded the chain, the guides, the cam chain guides

And I've seen a video I'll link below where one guy said that was one of the issues with the DoEK is the

And the chain got windows guides without the balance of chain slackens or they too much play and that

obviously Can't be taken out by the spring anymore. And that's why the thing fails prematurely. So it's not there

The only cause but it is part of the course according to this guy and why the doEK fails is that can chain guides

So if they did upgrade that they did at least listen to someone

So let's see well take a couple of thousand miles to see whether they did or not did not and

Anyways, that was just something I thought of later. Anyways, thank you for joining me. If you like this video

Please give it a thumbs up and let me know what you think about the new Kale R650

And if you get one, please let me know. I'd love to hear what you think of it. Till next week. Cheerio

Thank you