There's one glaring hole in the Kawasaki lineup: an adventure bike.
Yes, I understand that the KLR existsbut I will propose this question in return. Is the KLR an adventure motorcycle? Again, yes, but not in the same way as Yamaha Ténéré 700 Or Honda's Transalp or any of the other middleweight adventure motorcycles we all know and love. The KLR has been kind of the donkey of the adventure motorcycle world, and I say that with all the love I can.
If you point the KLR's nose toward the summit of Mount Everest, you'll probably get there. Slowly, but this bike will just move forward, barreling its way to the top without a care in the world. It's the hammer and nail compared to a nail gun, an old machine perfect for many different applications. But that's not what we all know what an adventure motorcycle is.
And it's sort of like Kawasaki finally realized it too.
For years, Kawasaki's adventure motorcycles have been the KLR or a variation of one of the brand's dirt bikes. But at the Motorcycle Live show in the UK, he teased something…new. Something punchier, more off-road, more like the middleweight adventure bikes we see dominating the market.
What we know about the upcoming bike is what we have been able to glean from the media's reporting. Enduro21who was in the living room. First of all, we know the name of the bike: KLE. This could strongly suggest two things. Firstly, the bike under the box is a KLR variant, but one that has been beefed up to combat the segment's middleweights, i.e. more power, better brakes, more suspension travel, etc.
But on the other hand, Kawasaki's KL brand is known all over the world. It's a good brand image. As such, Team Green could simply borrow the nomenclature and use it for something entirely new, i.e. a middleweight adventure based on another motorcycle in the company's lineup. And that's kind of where I think it's going.
Enduro21 states that from what they can see from the limited observation they have had, the KLE has a twin-cylinder engine, which the KLR absolutely does not have, long travel adjustable suspension, beefy Nisin brakes and a camouflaged fairing that doesn't have any. kind of looks like the KLR, but looks like the middleweights in the segment. The KLE also has off-road knobby tires fitted to its wheels, although we can only see the front.
As for the rest, we have nothing. Enduro21 speculates that the twin-cylinder engine they saw on the teaser bike could be the 650 from the Ninja, which could be accurate. It would probably take a serious upgrade to compete with the Tenere or Transalp, but it could also be a happy medium between the small displacement bikes we've seen, and that everyone is buying, and the bigger middleweights.
I contacted Kawasaki to ask when we will have more information on the KLE, to which they responded “No comment.” So stay tuned.
