1612 DT final

NEWS
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The Kawasaki Versys-X 300
joins small adventure boom:
Kawasaki is the latest to enter the sub-500cc small
adventure bike market with its 300cc version of the
popular Versys all-roader.
It’s a segment clearly identified to grab the
attention of the novice adventure rider.
These bikes might also grab the attention of
those who have struggled with the weight
of heavy adventure bikes, but don’t
want the discomfort of riding down the
highway to the adventure trails on a
dirt bike that shakes and becomes
unstable at 100km/h on tar.
The Kawasaki Versys-X 300 uses the
300cc liquid-cooled parallel twin out
of the ever-popular Ninja 300 but has a
new and more rugged chassis.
Its adventure credentials are also verified by a
19-inch front wheel, dual-purpose IRC Trail Winner
rubber, tall screen, wire spoked wheels and longer
travel suspension.
Up front it’s got 41mm telescopic forks with a Uni-
Trak gas-charged rear monoshock. Suspension
travel figures are not supplied.
It’s no bush basher thoughl, it has a small plastic
bash plate. However, it should cope well with dirt
and gravel roads.
Two Versys options
There will be two options, anyway. The Versys-X
300 Urban is obviously for mostly road with some
roadworks and occasional dirt roads thrown in. It
gets a tank pad, handguards, centrestand and a
30-litre topbox.
The Versys-X 300 Adventure is a little more bush
focussed with a tank pad, tubular engine guard,
centrestand and 17-litre panniers.
It comes standard with a digital/analogue instrument
cluster, slipper clutch, ABS and weighs about 170kg.
Kawasaki claims that, when ridden in eco mode,
the baby Versys will have range of more than
380km which is great for ur long stretches between
fuel stops.
The segment didn’t exist a few months ago and now
we have the Honda 190cc Night Hawk launched at
Intermot last month plus the BMW G 310 GS and
Suzuki V-Strom 250 launched recently. We can also
throw into the mix the Royal Enfield Himalayan.
Hopefully it will arrive here and we’ll be able to take
one for a spin…
10 DIRT & TRAIL MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2016
RENTHAL distributed by
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