Since the most needed accessory for the KLE and any Adventure bike are crash/engine bars, that's where I started. The selection for the KLE were limited to Hepco & Becker or SW-Motech. Kawasaki don't make any bars for the KLE which I thought strange but thems the breaks. The H&B options were a little on the light side from the pictures and they did not get many hits on the net. The SW-Motech bars looked to provide great coverage and were the popular choice on the forums so I set about finding a supplier.
There were a number of shops saying that they sold SW-Motech gear but only one in QLD that could even offer me the price and delivery time. I decided to go straight to the source and contacted Motorrad Garage for some info. My experience from the word go with Michael was great. I was given the price (good too, $303 delivered to my door) the ETA (3 weeks) and kept in the loop for the entire time. Very nice folk.
Anyway, the bars arrived the day after Micheal said the were in the country and I was pleased with the quality of the materials and workmanship. Those Germans know their stuff! What follows is the process tips and tricks that presented whilst putting them on.
The kit included 3 major sections, namely two loops on either side which comprise the actual bars themselves and a cross brace that ties the two sides together and spreads the load across the frame and anchors the lateral movement. In the picture above you can see the cross brace that is secured on the right side via a replacement frame bolt. Below is a view from the left side which is anchored to the frame via a U bolt.
It is necessary to remove the two major side sections of the fairing to fit the cross brace. You may be able to do it with them in place but in attempts to undo and tighten the frame bolts and such, you are sure to slip and damage either the fairing panels or the radiator. Best to be safe than sorry. As per the instructions, place the cross brace in position and secure the bolts only finger tight as the exact position will be determined by the side loops when they are fitted. Also to undo the frame bots on the right side it is necessary to loosen the top bolt on the right radiator bar and to remove the bottom bolt. This gives good access to the bottom frame bolt with a socket and T bar (see below).
Once the cross bar is lightly secured in place, it's time to put the left side loop on. Both loops are secured to the bike at the bottom by replacement engine mount bolts (supplied). Rear side to the upper rear engine mount and the front by the front engine mount. To access the upper rear engine mount you need to remove the front sprocket cover which is secured by 4 8mm bolts. You don't need to remove the gear linkage which appears to be in the road at first inspection.
With the sprocket cover removed, you can access to the left side end of the upper rear engine mount. Place a ring spanner on the nut that secures it on the right side and undo the mount bolt from the left using a socket and extension.
Later on I discovered that you need to remove the rear brake light switch to get access to position the right side bar loop as it has the nut manufactured into to it. It was difficult to get the mount bolt to pick up the thread in the bar as it has to be exactly true and square to avoid 'crossing' the thread.
Remove the upper rear mount bolt and pass the supplied replacement bolt through the supplied spacer and the left bar loop then through the engine cases to the other side. NOTE. the starter active power cable is located near this upper rear mount bolt and if you let the bar sit over the cable it will pinch. Make sure to push it back out of the way when fitting the right loop so that it runs OVER the bar and NOT BETWEEN the bar and the engine case. The pic below shows the cable before the bar is fitted.
Once the right loop is held in place by the rear upper mount bolt, AND the rear mount bolt is pushed all the way through, remove the front engine mount bolt and replace it with the supplied replacement bolt after passing it through the front of the left bar loop. Place a ring spanner on the right end of the front mount bolt to help hold the nut while you undo the bolt. Do the same when tightening later when the bars are fitted. Once the left bar is in place by having both mount bolts through it you can find the correct position for the cross bar by placing the connecting bolt (supplied) into position at the top of the left loop. Tighten the cross bar U bolt nuts now that you know where the bar needs to be.
On the right side, position the right bar loop in the same way as the left. You may need to put the front mount bolt through first to locate the loop before you can get the upper rear mount bolt to 'start' into the thread of the bar. I had to put quit a bit of pressure (by hand) on the loop to get the threads to pick up. Once you have the front nut on and the rear thread started, place the cross bar connecting bolt into the top of the right loop so that you can fine tune the position of the cross bar as you did then left side. When the position is good, tighten the frame bolt holding the cross bar.
Now it is time to replace the fairing panels as they can not be re-fitted after the engine mount bolts are tightened on the bars. Start with the right side fairing panel. Use a drift to make sure both engine mount bolts are in or home as far as possible on the left side. This effectively gives you the maximum free play on the right side so that the right side bar loop can hang out from the side of the bike as far as possible to allow enough room the slip the fairing panle between the bike and the bar loop to be re-fitted (see pic below). NOTE that the cross bar protrudes through the hole in the faring panel so let it in before trying to push the panel home on the rubber mounts.
Once the right side fairing panel is in place, make sure the nut on the right side of the front mount bolt is undone to within 2 turns of coming off and use a drift to push the bolt back through to the left side as far as possible. Do the same for the upper rear mount bolt, giving yourself as much slack on the left side to allow the bar loop to hang out from the bike as we just did for the right side. Repeat the mounting of the fairing panel for the left side.
Once the fairing panels are in place (but nut screwed off just in case you need to remove them again
) make sure that you have:
a) replaced anything you have removed, like the right side radiator bar (other than the rear brake light switch)
b) have checked that all wires and hoses are clear and in position.
Then and only then, tighten the engine mount bolts. Place a ring spanner on the right side to hold the nuts in place if needed. Check that the bar loops have seated flat and in position and that the cross bar tabs are clear of the fairing panels. If that's all OK, insert and tighten the cross bar bolts, re-fit the rear brake light switche and you are don. Hopefully your finished product looks like this:
See ya on the road 
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