There's a glaring hole in Kawasaki's lineup: an adventure motorcycle.
Yes, I understand that the KLR exists, but I'll offer up this question in return. Is the KLR an adventure motorcycle? Again, yes, but not in the same way as Yamaha's Tenere 700 or Honda's Transalp or any of the other middleweight adventure motorcycles we've all come to know and love. The KLR has been sorta the donkey of the adventure motorcycle world, and I'm saying that with all the love I can.
If you point the KLR's nose to the top of Mount Everest, it'd probably get you there. Slowly, but that bike will just chug along, puttering its way all the way to the top without a care in the world. It's the hammer and nail compared to a nail gun, an old machine that's perfect for so many different applications. But it's not what we've all come to know what an adventure motorcycle is.
And it sorta feels like Kawasaki has finally realized that too.
For years, Kawasaki's adventure motorcycles have been the KLR or a variant of one of the brand's dirt bikes. But at the Motorcycle Live show in the United Kingdom, it teased something...new. Something that's more punchy, more off-roady, more like the middle-weight adventure motorcycles we see dominating the market.
What we do know about the upcoming motorcycle is what we've been able to glean from reporting done by the outlet Enduro21, which was at the show. First and foremost, we know the name of the motorcycle: KLE. That could strongly hint at two things. First, the motorcycle under the box is a KLR-variant, but one that's been beefed the hell up to fight middleweights in the segment, i.e. more power, better brakes, more suspension travel, etc.
But on the other hand, Kawasaki's KL-branding is known worldwide. It's good branding. As such, Team Green could just be borrowing the nomenclature and using it for something all-new, i.e. a middleweight adventure that's based on another motorcycle within the company's lineup. And that's sorta where I'm thinking this is headed.
Enduro21 states that from what they can see from the limited viewing they had, the KLE features a twin-cylinder engine, which the KLR absolutely doesn't have, adjustable long-travel suspension, beefy Nisin brakes, and a camouflaged fairing that doesn't look anything like the KLR, but does resemble middleweights within the segment. The KLE also has some off-road knobby tires fitted to its wheels, though we can only see the front.
As for literally anything else, we've got nothing. Enduro21 speculates that the twin-cylinder engine they saw on the teaser motorcycle could be the 650 out of the Ninja, which could be accurate. It'd likely have to see some serious upgrading to compete with the Tenere or Transalp, but it could also be a happy medium between the small-displacement motorcycles we've been seeing, and everyone's been buying, and the bigger middleweights.
I reached out to Kawasaki to ask when we'll have more information on the KLE, to which they responded with "No comment." So stay tuned.
