Tusk Tsk

When you own a Dual Sport or dirt bike, accessories and components to make your toy look and run better becomes a dalliance of some interest.

Front of the Glide plate when the rear 4 bolts are in

I ordered a lot of Tusk accessories for my new KLR 650 adventure recently and have to say that the quality of their stuff is pretty piss poor, IMHO.

I managed to make the Tusk Glide skid plate work but only because I did some deft engineering hacks to get it to work.

The Tusk skid plate comes with 6 bolts - two of which are 8 mm, with nowhere to bolt them into?

The front is miles from the front flanges when the back 4 bolts are bolted in and lined up with the oil drain plug however…

I was thus less than impressed with this skid plate.

It is actually a solid plate - but I had to drill an additional 2 holes at the front of it to get it to work. If you buy one for a Gen3 KLR, expect to drill and get additional nuts and bolts....

Clearer view 2

The Tusk 2 Offset handlebar risers also require you to extend the electrical cables, throttle cables and clutch cables by 1 3/4 inches if you route them per factory setup, so that is not a good fit for my 2025 KLR 650 at all.

I will have to disconnect both cables from the throttle assembly and route them up before they go through the front of the yoke.

Everyone says it works if you tilt the handlebars forward but I want them backwards, not forwards which means the wiring will not work.

I have a very long torso and I need these bars back a long way.

I got the Tusk colored brake cover in blue and also quickly found that while it could be made to fit, that the blue is the wrong color blue and this is not really a good replacement for the OEM item anyway as it does not accommodate the white plastic OEM guide for the rubber insert.

I just switched it back to the original.

Kawasaki never did the blue variant they painted this brake cylinder cover with.

Then I ordered the Tusk Upper crash bars, after calling first and being told it would work with my existing crash bars. They do not. I sent them back already!

I will get the T-Rex uppers instead.

So far, I am not having much luck with Tusk, so time to switch to CNC to see what they can rustle up for me!

I get the idea these Tusk components are cheap Chinese crap.

I actually bought cheap Chinese crap for my KLX 300 and had far better results.....

The Chinese skid plate for the KLX was $75 and was easier to fit to the KLX than this Tusk Glide plate for the KLR.

The front of that cheap KLX plate also vibrated in resonance with the engine and had to be craftily dealt with but then it was just $75….

I did not mind spending 8 hours and another $20 to fix that shortcoming…

At $139 this Tusk Glide skid plate for the KLR 650 is $65 over priced.

Oi Vey! As my Rabbi would say!