First Look: Kawasaki Versys Travel

Don't be so quick to look away. I ride a Ducati Multistrada -- also a challenging, all purpose bike -- and adore it. But there are times when I think a smaller motor would be nice, a softer clutch would do well in the city, and a generally easier bike to ride might be nice to just fire up and pop down to the movie rather than waiting for the Desmo L Twin to sputter to life. The Versys is clearly a Multistrada wannabe, but the Japanese often do an excellent job at copying, and softening, European models. This one could be a winner, especially since Ducati killed the 620cc version of the Multistrada and -- for reasons I can't imagine -- decided we needed even more power in the form of a 1100 cc engine, (or so) up from 992.
Posted: 15/05/2008 23:28