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.
