Tusk Tsk

Owning a Dual Sport or dirt bike often leads to a keen interest in accessories and components that enhance its appearance and performance.

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

I recently ordered several Tusk accessories for my new KLR 650 adventure, and I must admit that while the quality is good, it requires additional effort to make everything function as intended.

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

The Tusk skid plate includes 6 bolts, two of which are 8 mm and are intended for the middle of the three locations at the rear, but there is no place to secure them to.

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

Therefore, I was not very impressed with this skid plate when I discovered that I would need to do extra makeshift engineering to make it function as intended.

It's essentially a solid plate; however, I needed to drill two extra holes at the front to make it functional. If you're purchasing one for a Gen3 KLR, be prepared to drill and acquire extra nuts and bolts...

Clearer view 2

The Tusk 2 Offset handlebar risers necessitate extending the electrical, throttle, and clutch cables by 1 3/4 inches if they are routed according to the factory setup, making them unsuitable for my 2025 KLR 650.

You can make it work however, you just have to disconnect both cables from the throttle assembly and route them up before they go through the front of the yoke.

Made some brass inserts for each side for the Glide Skid plate

Everyone says these risers work 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 also got the Tusk colored brake cover in blue and also quickly found that while it could be made to fit, that the blue it is painted with 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 OEM 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 was 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 overpriced.

I did contact Rocky Mountain Tech and they agreed and supplied me with a $25 gift card.

My Danish friend Erik came over with his hammer, which calls Mjolnir. He er, talks to the hammer like it is a person, very strange. It took two strikes from Mjolnir on each foot peg bushing to make em all fit.

Mjolnir weighs 120 pounds, and Erik is 390! I can lift the hammer, but I can't wield it like Erik does...But it got the job done!

Oi Vey! As my Rabbi would say!

I also added the 3D Cycles twist lock quick release seat screws to my 2025 KLR Adventure.

Unfortunately I had to remove the metal bushings for this to work which is not a sound engineering idea.

These things I bought from 3D Cycle works should have longer threads that go through the metal bushings on each seat side.

Each of these needs a thread as long as the OEM screw to work with the OEM bushing for a grand old cushing.

I will press 3D cycle works for this mod, as it is, it's a bit of a COD.

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