The Kawasaki Versys-X 300 is an excellent travel bike with a 19-inch wheel, equipped with a 300 cc twin-cylinder engine (but in Japan, for regulatory reasons, a 250 cc is used) with around 40 hp: a bike that is alive in many Asian countries and in the United States.
Given that the model is still in full production, it seems almost absurd to think of a test prototype with the same characteristics, but that’s what Bikewhale’s Indian colleagues got during a road test. What would be the point of testing a model already in production?
The reason may lie in the specific context of India, but it could also have repercussions in our “mature” markets. In India, almost all the manufacturers most active on the market (TVS, KTM, Honda, Yamaha, Royal Enfield, BMW, Bajaj, Hero, Yezdi, Suzuki, etc.) have an adventure bike of around 300/400 cc in their catalog or, if they haven’t produced one yet, are in the process of doing so. Specifically, the segment of motorcycles in this displacement range is very widespread and has such large volumes that it warrants a fight to the last… prototype. There are two paths followed by manufacturers: that of the platform on which various models are derived, even from different extractions (the case of Yezdi or, in part, Royal Enfield, for example), and that of motorcycles designed on a one-off basis, but the content does not change: in India, we find a considerable variety of motorcycles of around 350 cc with 21 or 19 inch front wheels, and many of them are not imported into Europe.
Kawasaki, with this prototype, may be planning to introduce the Versys-X to the Indian market (where the only Versys on the market is the 650 cc), since it already has a proven product at home that only needs a few modifications to comply with the BS6 emissions standard and enter the 40 hp adventure bike area. What makes us hesitate, however, is that the Indian BS6 standard is not too far from Euro 5, so – in theory – once the Versys-X 300’s engine has been updated, it wouldn’t be that complicated to bring it back to Europe; Obviously, this is just a hypothesis that would have to be tested on the basis of European market conditions, where, moreover, the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450, the KTM 390 ADV, the CFMOTO 450 MT, the Honda CRF 300, the BMW G 310 GS, the Voge Valico 300 Rally, to name just a few of the likely competitors, are all achieving good sales figures to a greater or lesser extent.
So, Kawasaki, why not bring the Versys-X back to Europe? The same can be said of another major absentee in this segment, Suzuki, which after depriving us of the twin-cylinder V-Strom 250 (which, however, was a crossover, not an Adventure, given the 17-inch front wheel) has a 26.5 hp single-cylinder V-Strom 250 SX with a 19-inch front wheel on its list in India. Once again, there’s no sign of an export to the Old Continent.