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I hadn't heard about Kawasaki's new Versys 300 and at first thought it was a joke. No joke! Looking at it and reading about it I must say I'm a little more than intrigued. Small enough for commuter / local bank and store trips but big enough for nice day trips, and light enough to be a lot of fun! Here are some pics ...
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
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Small/light can be lots fun! Years ago a friend came across a really good deal on what IIRC was a 225 Yamaha dual-sport. Even though we both owned larger/faster bikes at the time the little Yammie was a blast to hold wide-open on the local back-roads. Only downside was the seat apparently came from the framing department at Home Depot.
I hadn't heard about Kawasaki's new Versys 300 and at first thought it was a joke. No joke! Looking at it and reading about it I must say I'm a little more than intrigued. Small enough for commuter / local bank and store trips but big enough for nice day trips, and light enough to be a lot of fun! Here are some pics ...
It LOOKs the part of a nice, lightweight ADV bike. Unfortunately, with only a little over 5 inches of suspension travel (likely coupled with budget shock and forks) I suspect will limit it pretty severely.
It LOOKs the part of a nice, lightweight ADV bike. Unfortunately, with only a little over 5 inches of suspension travel (likely coupled with budget shock and forks) I suspect will limit it pretty severely.
As an ADV bike it's pretty much limited to pavement and fire roads for most, and the tires alone attest it's not meant for clickers off of tabletops. But for exploring those forest service roads and such in the back country, it looks promising. IMO.
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cruz Azul Guy
Have you seen the KTM Duke 690?
Wow! Neat stuff! I haven't been keeping up, I'm torn. Haven't had a bike for a few years, moved to the beach and love it but the roads are too damn straight/flat to be very interesting. The urge comes and goes, been hoping to find my way into an airplane instead but 73HP at that weight must be an attention grabber. I always kinda lusted after that little 250 v-2 2-smoke Aprilia made that wasn't sold here.
Small bikes are fun because you can ride the crap out of them and not get yourself in over your head. but that kind of riding is pretty much limited to race tracks and back country single track so I dont see it being much fun in the city. I'm sure the gas mileage is off the charts though. 70mpg??
Naw, you can ride the snot out of smaller bikes pretty much anywhere. I got into the Ninja 250 while living in Atlanta, then had a series of them from northern AZ, Wyoming, Denver and here in Rural GA. You could full-throttle about 3 gears and still be within highway speed limits vs something like a Concours 1000 which was breaking every speed limit in the country at redline in first gear (I never even used 5th on that bike, other than to go in and come right back out of). I actually liked it better for city riding than a couple VFRs, a ZRX, YZF600, and a few other sport bikes simply because of the size and maneuverability. Only a KLR650 was close to the same fun in city traffic, but that was different (sit tall, jump curbs/potholes) ~ and oddly, they both had about the same HP.
Small CC doesn't mean big MPG though. You still have a similar CoF/drag from wind resistance to other motorcycles, which is more than a bus/semi. I saw about 50mpg over ~60k miles on a bunch of different 250's, which beat the snot out of the 40mpg I saw as the best of all the rest. Meanwhile my car has given me an average of 48.4mpg over the past 230k miles... so 50mpg just isn't very impressive to me. Some small people saw up to about 60mpg, and a few who went out of their way to eek out the very last bit of efficiency were close to 70 but I don't think any went over (not my cup of tea so I didn't pay much attention).
If the roads around me didn't bore me to sleep, I wouldn't mind this one as an only bike.
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Only downside was the seat apparently came from the framing department at Home Depot. 
