Kawasaki
The motorcycle world has seen a few eras come and go in recent years. The cafe racer craze, the scrambler era, the age of the middleweight ADV. But as middleweight adventure bikes wane, and both buyers and manufacturers search for the next hot thing, Kawasaki is making a big bet: The next big trend will be sport tourers, led by the new Versys 900.
Kawasaki revealed the Versys 900 earlier this week, and the new bike is very clearly more Versys than KLE or even Versys-X. It's got 17-inch wheels front and rear, an integrated subframe, matched hard luggage, and of course the 948cc inline-4 engine pulled from the Z900. It's a street bike through and through, and Kawasaki thinks it's what buyers will want more than an Africa Twin-fighting KLE900. For my part, I think Kawasaki is putting its bets on the right horse. I, for one, welcome our new sport-touring overlords.
For a different genre of adventure
Kawasaki
The Versys 900 is very much a street bike, from the 43mm inverted front forks with 5.9 inches of travel (the rear monoshock gets a whole 6.3 inches) to the key-matched hard bags out back (a top case, which Kawasaki says holds two helmets, is an available accessory). That street focus is apparent in the new Versys' tech, too, where dirt modes and slide control have been eschewed in favor of heated grips, blind spot monitoring, and adaptive cruise control. Kawasaki didn't release any specs on the bike's weight, but expect it to be more than you'd like to pick up regularly — given that the Versys 1100 weighs about 83.9 pounds more than its Z1100 sibling, we can guess the Versys 900 will come in at about 555 pounds.
It may seem like Kawasaki is making an odd move here, focusing its latest bike on the street rather than on adventure, but it's really following market trends. Adventure bikes may sell, but they don't leave the pavement as often as owners like to imagine, and larger ADVs keep getting more and more road-oriented. Look no further than the existence of the KTM 890 SMT for proof that buyers really do want sport tourers.
Kawasaki says the Versys 900 should arrive on dealer floors early next year, with a price starting at $14,439 after an $840 destination charge. I can't wait to swing a leg over the next hot thing in motorcycling. I think the Age of the Sport Tourer will be a good one.