motorcyclistonline.com | 69That’s light, but it comes at a cost. The
CRF250L has experienced price creep
since it was introduced in 2013 for
$4,499, and this year’s Rally version is
$6,199 with switchable off-road ABS.
Adding the optional $430 side cases and
rack to the Versys kicks the Kawasaki’s
as-tested cost to $6,129, so these bikes
are essentially the same price.
Strapping camping gear and a few
days’ supplies to the back of our pint-
size ADVs, we’d set off from Los Angeles
with nearly 200 freeway miles between
us and the landslide on the PCH. That
was about 199 miles more than was
needed to realize that these bikes are
better suited to freeway sprints than
marathons. The Versys cruises 75 mph
with far more ease than the Rally and
its rider is more comfortable doing it,
but both bikes are happier (and spin
smoother) below 65 and are downright
fun on twisty back roads. And once
we’d confirmed the road closure for
ourselves, turned inland, and found
some truck trails to explore, we were
excited to see how happy the bikes were
in the dirt.
Zack and I were initially skeptical
of the Versys-X, eyeing its low-hanging
exhaust and street-biased tires and
presuming the model to be just another
styling exercise. We were wrong. The
Versys is actually quite a good little ADV.
The suspension is well calibrated forcomfort and control, and front-end feel
was particularly good. ABS engagement
is lenient enough to not get in the way in
the dirt, and the rider triangle that’s so
appropriate on the highway also works
well while standing on the footpegs off
road. That Ninja engine—famous for
its top-end rush and high redline—has
good bottom-end torque and plenty of
revs to play with, so I just left the slick-
shifting transmission in third gear as
we threaded our way up the flank of the
Santa Lucia Range, the steep and jagged
mountains that wall the Big Sur coast off
from the rest of California.
The Versys’ capabilities were a
surprise, but our expectations were
low. Meanwhile, the Rally suffered from
the opposite scenario. With its asser-
tive styling and burly inverted fork, the
assumption is that the Rally is going torip off road. The truth is it’s still largely a
CRF250L, which means it’s too soft and
too slow for truly aggressive riding.
One look at this bike, though, and it’s
obvious that travel and some measure
of comfort are baked in, so raw off-
road performance becomes less of a
priority. That’s a good thing because
the suspension—all 11 inches up front
and 10.3 inches out back, nearly double
that of the Versys—is absurdly soft and
has no perceptible rebound damping,
leading to a loose ride that dissuades
you from hitting obstacles at speed. And
if the suspension doesn’t inhibit you
from carrying momentum, the engine
will. The Rally’s 249cc single feels less
anemic off road, but it’s still underpow-
ered and easily outpaced by the Versys.
The Honda’s front brake is better
than the Kawasaki’s, but you can’t really
exploit it. “On pavement it’s not so much
a front-brake lever, as a fork-dive lever,”
Zack mused. In the dirt, however, we
loved the Rally’s off-road ABS, which
lets you lock the rear tire while retaining
anti-skid function up front.
In the end, the Rally still works better
than the Versys off road and is much
improved on road compared to the
CRF250L, but as we ascended the ridge
we’d looked up at from the PCH and
turned our gaze toward the ocean, how
the bikes were working was the last thing
on our minds.WE WERE
WRONG.
THE VERSYS
IS ACTUALLY
QUITE A GOOD
LITTLE ADV.
MCY1017_COMP.indd 69 7/24/17 3:56 PM