00:00Hey guys, Alex Simpson here with Cycle World. We're out with Kawasaki for the KLE500 launch in beautiful Zion, Utah.
00:18And what is this motorcycle? For a lot of us in the U.S. market, we may not be familiar
00:22with it, but it's actually a platform.
00:24The Kawasaki first launched in the early 90s over in the European market, took a little break, brought it back
00:30through the mid-2000s for a few years, and then here it is now for us, 2026, and it's entering
00:36that red-hot, lightweight adventure bike segment.
00:39Now, we got to ride this today all over Zion. We did highway, we did two-track Jeep trails, we
00:45did a little bit of single-track, fire roads, just county roads, paved roads.
00:49We got it on a lot of different terrain, and the bike was a ton of fun.
00:53The biggest takeaway, right? Like, how do we like it? I liked it. I had a great time.
00:58There's a few small nitpicks, of course. We're going to talk about those in a little bit, but for the
01:02most part, I think Kawasaki is putting a great new motorcycle out into the market at a good price point.
01:06This thing comes in at $6,599 for the base model, and today we were on the SE. This one
01:12comes in at $900 more.
01:15Now, what do you get for that extra $900? LED turn signals, metal hand guards, a little bit taller windscreen
01:21up here.
01:22You get the TFT dash, and you get a little bit beefier skid plate down the front.
01:27You're getting a little bit more bang for the buck with the SE, and you can't forget the Rally Raid
01:32-inspired graphics on the SE.
01:34So, personally, I like those upgrades. It was nice to have the hand guards hitting the brush, the skid plate.
01:39It's a pretty good little upgrade, but at mid-six to mid-sevens, you're getting a lot of motorcycle that
01:44can do a lot of things for you.
01:45I'm not the biggest fan of rubber foot pegs, but what Kawasaki did on this I thought was pretty cool.
01:51There is a rubber foot peg insert that you don't need any tools to install or take out.
01:56So, riding on the highway when we were first starting the day off, I had those in just to see
02:00how they felt, and it was all good.
02:02But when we got into the dirt and it was time to sort of get serious, you just pop them
02:06straight out.
02:07I stowed them under the passenger seat. No problem. It's literally one second to take them out.
02:13And then, let's say you got a long ride home back on the highway or whatever, you can pop them
02:17right back in and off you go.
02:18So, nice little detail touch there.
02:21What I also liked about today is we just ran the stock tires, IRCs. They did fine.
02:26We were at 25 PSI. It was good for the street. Through the twisties, we're handling good.
02:31Got in the dirt. No problem.
02:32Kawasaki talked a lot about the geometry is set up based on the KX platform, and you can feel that.
02:38Like, you get in the dirt, you got the 21-inch front, you got the 17-inch rear, and there's
02:43a lot of confidence through the geometry of the bike, the rake, the trail.
02:46It's just pretty darn composed, both off-road and then also going through the twisties.
02:51Now, where did we run into a couple hiccups?
02:53Let's remember where this is coming in at a price point, but we did run into a little bit.
02:58We don't have a lot of adjustability with the suspension, pretty much some preload.
03:01We have 8.3 inches of travel up front, 7.7 in the back, giving us some ground clearance at
03:07about 7.3 inches there.
03:09Not a ton of adjustability in the suspension.
03:12Personally, I found it a little soft for my weight.
03:14I'm about 200 without the gear, so add a bit there for gear as well.
03:18And I think when you start to get into that intermediate rider, off-road rider, when you're intermediate and up,
03:24you're probably going to start feeling the limits of suspension, so you just got to respect it.
03:28I had a blast today.
03:29I was getting after it, but when you see those big G-outs or a whoop section, that ain't the
03:34time to be charging it.
03:35You got to kind of respect the motorcycle.
03:37If you treat it right, you're going to have a great time.
03:40You can look behind us here at Zion.
03:41What I like about an adventure bike is when I see a dirt road off the side, I want to
03:46know where it goes,
03:46and this bike's pretty much going to take us anywhere we want to go.
03:49There is a lot of options you can add on through the Kawasaki accessories catalog.
03:53You can get some side bags, a back rack with a top case.
03:57You can get some more protective guards here, hang some lights off the front, heated grips.
04:03So there are some nice accessories, a radiator guard that can tailor the bike to what you want.
04:09But honestly, with the side bags on here, I'd have no problem taking this thing out three, four days, having
04:14a great time.
04:15Let's talk about the engine.
04:16It's a 500cc parallel twin.
04:18It's a well-proven platform.
04:19It's been used on a lot of motorcycles over the years, most notably in the Ninja 500.
04:23It's reliable.
04:24It works well.
04:25But again, we got to kind of understand where it's happy.
04:28Below 5,000 RPM, it's going to kind of start to fall off.
04:31I personally like to have it 5,500, 6,000 and up, and I found that to be the sweet
04:36spot for both like throttle response, power, torque.
04:39Off-road in the tight stuff, a lot of first gear, revving it up.
04:42Second gear, clutching it a bit.
04:44It is a super light clutch, so one finger, two finger, no problem all day long.
04:48And I was using that clutch a bit to sort of help me through sections where second gear just didn't
04:52have that bottom end I needed.
04:54But the engine's happy through the mid-range through the top end, and you can really run it out pretty
04:58good.
04:58You also have to be aware with a 500cc parallel twin, you're not going to be setting any land speed
05:03record.
05:04So when you're on that highway, when you're on the slab, you're probably happy about 70-75.
05:08Pushing it up to 80 to make a pass, it can do it.
05:11But I was pretty comfortable in that 70-75 mile an hour range, and the bike was pretty good there,
05:16wind protection and everything like that.
05:18Overall, had a great day on it.
05:20We have a little bit more riding tomorrow, and we'll put it through some more paces.
05:23But first impressions, you get a lot of bike for the money.
05:26I think if I owned this bike personally, I would look at beefing up that suspension.
05:30Probably that's about it.
05:32I don't know that I'd really need to do a whole lot more to go out there and have a
05:34lot of fun.
05:35Great new motorcycle, the KLE 500 from Kawasaki.
05:38Recommend you checking it out.
05:39Keep an eye on Cycle World for all of our impressions.
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