The Batu Arang Kerling Route - 180km Round Trip.

N

nikhuzlan

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2011
Bikes
GSA, NC700D, KLX450R
I have not had a dirt bike since the 80s. Recently I bought the Kawasaki 150L ; a bike that I have been eyeing but did not acquire as it came with 19/16 wheels. The little Kawasaki now comes with 21/18 wheels, and instantly became an interesting starter bike for those new to dirt biking. Great Ride. My first trip was a ride into the forest reserve in Central Malaysia ( Mat Daling ), a story that will be posted soon.

After that trip I decided that I wanna take dirt riding a little more seriously and bought a 2012 KLX450R, and have not looked back since. The KLX150L became my wife's bike, and she loves that machine.

My first trip with the KLX450R was again to Mat Daling, the story which i will post later.

Long trips requires planning, so I needed day loops that can be done easily within a day from my home in Petaling Jaya, the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur.

One favorite loop was the fairly well known Kerling Loop, a 180km dirt trail round trip where the trail head is just 45km from my house. I can easily ride to the trailhead without requiring the use of a pick-up.

The trail is a combination of mining land that passes through some oil palm estates that ends at a nice waterfall in a forest reserve. Most of the trail is considered 'easy' where speeds of 110km/h can be attained, while parts of it are muddy with a few water crossings to keep things interesting.

One fine Sunday about 16 of us on mixed bikes ranging from the new KTM150 stroker to the Six Days and a load of Yamahas and Kawasakis thrown in gathered for a blast.

The general area lies in the center of the map.


Our Track for the day


A short video of the ride;


Many of the riders chose to ferry their bikes on Pick-ups but three of us, Robert, Chong Loo and me decided to ride to the trail head that began at Batang Kali, about 65km from our RV point at a popular biker RnR point.

Robert was on his CRF, Chong Loo was on his KLX250 and i was on my KLX450R


We met the rest at Batang Kali




Our three 'new' bikes, all beginners.....


The trail head starts here


Entering the plantation


It was pretty slippery as we had rain all night long


The trail was kinda fun


First casualty


The 'high speed' parts were really great


Someone's orchard








Back into the plantation


More to come.....
 
Fantastic to see you loving this so much Nick! Thanks for putting all the good info here will be very useful for many.
 
Yeah great to see.. What does the 450 cost down there, great option that would be so welcome here..
 
klx 450..another perfect bike that doesn't make it to TH ! :WTF thanks for all the info and good pics! ;)
 
The KLX 450R is indeed an easy to ride with friendly power delivery. At 122kg its a little on the heavy side, but easy going low rpm torque makes up for the weight. My bike has a full system FMF, makes good power and gives a nice raspy sound that is not noisy at speed. A higher flow water pump by Boysen ensures the coolant does not boil easily when traversing muddy slow tracks. The bike costs an equivalent of Baht 320,000 for an offroad configuration. Registered for road use will push the price up to 360,000. Its a big seller over here, many doing double duty on the Motard tracks with 17 inch wheels fitted. Used 450R holds its price fairly well as most owners prefers to keep and not part with their bikes.
The motor is bulletproof, servicing costs really cheap. A number were 'Adventurised' and are now being used for trips to Laos and Northern Thailand as its cheap and easy to push it into a train.
Adventurising means at least installing the 12 or 16 litre Acerbis tank, a higher capacity stator swap for the alternator, HID headlights, GPS wiring harness, Seat Concept comfort seat, a simple brakelight/indicator kit and TKC80s for tyres. The Kriega or Giant Loop soft bags works a treat as the fitment and weight distribution will not overload the weak subframe. I see a few dumping their GSAs preferring the versatility of this modded real ADV bike.

Story on the ride to be continued.
 
Out of the estate we needed to cross Sg Selangor river. It looks swollen, and at this time we did not realise that its an indication of things to come further up the trail.


The rickety bridge was a leap of faith for us newbie offroaders




the loose planks had big gaps in between, making scary sounds as we crossed the bridge.


My trusted ride.



A short break


A ten minute ride put us at this flooded patch


Our local "stuntman" tried to cross


This was the result


we had to make an adhoc detour


only to find more flooded patches


A short break to play with water




More to come.
 
thanks for reply..320K isn't much ..I would have bought it ,no questions asked ;) I think 450 is the perfect cc .anyway for the subframe ,(just thought about it last night,since I added custom made panniers to the CRF) better to reinforce it before hand ,than wait is damaged ,welding shop can do miracles :GF
look forward to the rest of your stories.ride on

nikhuzlan said:
The KLX 450R is indeed an easy to ride with friendly power delivery. At 122kg its a little on the heavy side, but easy going low rpm torque makes up for the weight. My bike has a full system FMF, makes good power and gives a nice raspy sound that is not noisy at speed. A higher flow water pump by Boysen ensures the coolant does not boil easily when traversing muddy slow tracks. The bike costs an equivalent of Baht 320,000 for an offroad configuration. Registered for road use will push the price up to 360,000. Its a big seller over here, many doing double duty on the Motard tracks with 17 inch wheels fitted. Used 450R holds its price fairly well as most owners prefers to keep and not part with their bikes.
The motor is bulletproof, servicing costs really cheap. A number were 'Adventurised' and are now being used for trips to Laos and Northern Thailand as its cheap and easy to push it into a train.
Adventurising means at least installing the 12 or 16 litre Acerbis tank, a higher capacity stator swap for the alternator, HID headlights, GPS wiring harness, Seat Concept comfort seat, a simple brakelight/indicator kit and TKC80s for tyres. The Kriega or Giant Loop soft bags works a treat as the fitment and weight distribution will not overload the weak subframe. I see a few dumping their GSAs preferring the versatility of this modded real ADV bike.

Story on the ride to be continued.
Click to expand...
 
Phil, Rob's 690 is a better mile muncher out of the box. Not much work needed. The KLX450r on the other hand needs significant 'adventurisation', the mods as i listed above is necessary. A major bummer is it has a 5 instead of a 6 speed gearbox. i love the light weight, agility and the instant off-idle torque. With proper sprocket 130 kmh cruise is easily achievable. Surprisingly there's little vibration at road speed. Unsure if it has a counter balancer. Don't know how many horses it makes but I suspect its between 40 - 45hp, plenty enough to push the bike to a top speed of 170km/h with the correct gearing. Friends who Motardised their bikes say the front end is flighty above 155km/h but most solve the issue by installing a steering damper.
By the time the bike is 'adventurised' the loaded weight ( bags filled with a full tank ) is under 160kg, half my GSA when I go for a typical North Thailand run.
The bike comes standard with 14/50. With 17inch wheels most fit 15/42 - 44, still good for power wheelies on 3rd gear.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom