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Homemade Tool Tube. Allows relocation of tools from rear rack, increasing carrying capacity and moving weight from high and to the rear to low and toward the front. Easy to make and inexpensive. At almost every gas stop someone will ask you, "What's in the tube?", and you'll need to come up with a snappy answer. Something other than "Explosives", or "Drugs". Questions from bystanders can be reduced by stenciling on a bio-hazard or nuclear warning symbol, but this may complicate border crossings.

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Skid plate. Probably made by Moose, they all seem to be the same where ever you get them. One noted KLR guru says skid plates are unnecessary unless travelling in extremely rocky conditions. One the other hand, while I was in Alaska, a rider had a hole punched in the front of his engine from a rock thrown up on the Haul Road and the bike lost all it's oil. It's still up there.

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I had a spare clutch cable routed along side the original cable just in case of failure out in the middle of no where. Needless to say, the stock cable performed flawlessly.

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Upgraded Brake Bracket. Possibly overkill, but the stock unit can break if hit by a rock, leaving you without a rear brake when you are 4,000 feet up in the mountains on a dirt road hundreds of miles from nowhere. In the rain. Alone.

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Handlebar risers. By Eagle Mike, from Fred at Arrowhead Motorsports. Raises bars 18mm, provides easy access for steering head bearing adjustments. This mod helped offset part of the seat height increase created by adding the Sheepskin butt pad and Temperfoam pad, and better maintained the original seat-to-handlebar relationship..

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Upgraded subframe bolts. There are better ways to upgrade the KLR subframe, but this is the easiest and cheapest. Just a little extra insurance before heading out fully loaded on those washboard surface dirt roads.

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Cheapskate uses NASA Space Program technology to save a buck. In order to avoid having to buy an aftermarket seat to replace the painful stocker, I purchased a $20 sheet of 1.5inch thick Temperfoam, the polyurethane open cell memory foam developed by NASA in the 60's for astronaut's seats. I placed this pad over the stock seat, then topped it with a plush Sheepskin buttpad from Alaska Leathers. Voila! The poor man's long distance touring seat. I was able to do several back to back 500 mile days with this combo.

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Avon Gripster Tires. Used by many long distance and RTW travelers, I chose the Gripsters for their reputation of balanced performance on bad roads and excellent longevity. I hoped to make it from California to the Circle and back on a single set of tires. And I would have, had not the Gripster suffered a rock cut puncture in the Yukon on the way up. Since I had sealed the rear wheel in order to be able to run tubeless, the tire was easily plugged with an inexpensive and reliable gummy-string plug kit. Unfortunately, that left me with a decision: ride the remaining five thousand miles on a plug...or replace the tire. I chose the latter.

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I found the the Kawasaki dealer in Whitehorse to be useless, totally useless, and not only because they didn't have a Gripster in stock. Locals recommend the Honda dealer, even for people riding other makes. The Honda dealer didn't have a Gripster in stock but did have an Avon Distanzia. The more street oriented tread pattern did not inspire as much confidence as the the more DS pattern of the Gripster, and still doesn't today. Even on asphalt I prefer the Gripsters and when the Distanzia wears out I'll go back to a Gripster. I'm hoping the rock cut in the Gripster was just sheer bad luck and not indicative of a less cut-resistant compound. I'll give 'em another chance.