[Jeff Higgins]

Rich, I thought you were keeping it...

The KTM's are certainly very, very appealing. Problem is, I just spoke with our local KTM dealer - 3 to 4 months out on the 690's, and they won't be getting many. They want money down to claim one. Sorry, went through that a decade back with H-D; no desire to do that again. This year's 500 EXC or last year's 530 EXC (I wonder why there is no 2012 model?) are more available, but are also leaning towards that "race bike with lights" end of the spectrum.

Scottmandue mentions the DR650SE in his post above. Folks seem to be pretty loyal to those things as well, and they fit into that weird niche of the 20 year Japanese enduro lifespan. It, the KLR, and the Honda XR650L seem to be stuck in some kind of a time warp, which is o.k. by me, I guess. The KLR stands out from this crowd, however, in that it's the only water-pumper. Hell, I don't even own a water cooled car, and none of my other three bikes have that evil green slime in their veigns, so I find the DR650SE and XR650L appealing on that front. That, and both run that very familiar (to me) Mikuni CV carb. No fancy injected hokus-pokus.

It kinda looks like I'm steering myself in that direction - air-cooled, carbureted, simple. The DR looks more street-worthy, while the XR looks more dirt-worthy. Both are in stock at a number of local dealers, or both have several newish examples on Craigslist that I might be interested in. Both have very good aftermarket support, with tons of hop-up parts and accessories available. Both are dirt cheap compared to the KTM's and BMW's, like $4-$5 grand less. Any thoughts regarding how these two compare?