Kawasaki KLX230 review: Barely Legal, Not

We were recently out here at the Pro Dirt Adventure park on the outskirts of the city to check out what has become India's first production level road legal, dual sport Japanese motorcycle under 250cc.

This is the new KLX 230 from Kawasaki. This, of course, is a street legal motorcycle. It's got the headlights, the turn indicators, digital dash. And of course, this one has a sari guard and some pillion foot pegs as well. So that's pretty interesting for a dirt motorcycle to say the least.

So you can ride one in the city and you can go hunting your adventurous trails as well on this kind of motorcycle. So that's what this bike is all about. This of course, is not the standard model. This is the motorcycle that is kitted out with all the optional accessories from the knuckle guards that you see out here. Then you have, the engine crash guard, a skid plate, which is plastic, which is kind of strange. And then you also have a panel to protect the chassis from, your feet kind of scratching it up. And of course, this is not the standard seat. The standard seat height is of this motorcycle is quite tall â€" it stands at around 880mm, but this lower seat height brings it down that figure down by 14mm. And of course, you do get the carriage rack out back here as well.

So if you're looking for the, price of this motorcycle, we don't have that for you right now because it hasn't been, really revealed to us and the company say that they are going to launch this motorcycle properly somewhere around the first week of December. As per the biking calendar, this is around when IBW is slated to happen.

Yes, this motorcycle comes to us as a CKD unit, and it's not a CBU, a complete CBU import like the competition version spec version of this motorcycle, which is the KLX 230RS, which is already launched. Now that motorcycle costs a steep, steep five lakh plus rupees ex-showroom. This one. Well, of course this comes as a CKD. It's not going to be as costly, but if you're expecting something, expecting the price to be around the two lakh margin, well, you might be kind of disappointed because this we picture this motorcycle to be priced around three, three and a half lakhs, actually on road. Now let's see how that pans out. But as of now, we have a short while to experience what this motorcycle has to offer. Just three motorcycles, around 20 journos and just one day. So really short on time. That's why we are really lucky to have this kind of scenario where we are alone with the motorcycle. That's why we picked this one out here today to actually start off this video. So let's see what this motorcycle has to offer.

All right, so the KLX 230 is powered by a single cylinder, 233cc air cooled motor. And of course, the power figures of 18PS and a little over 18NM of torque seem a bit modest on paper. But then again, in these kind of certain situations, when you're riding off road in your trails, well, the power seems very adequate because of the low weight of this motorcycle.

It's so easy to balance and shift yourself around. Now this motorcycle that we have out here has the flatter handlebar with the risers which is a lot better than the standard one. But then again, even the standard model that we've been riding along the course of this day, well, it is really light and nimble.

And of course, this is one of the first motorcycles of its kind to get dual channel abs, it can be switched off completely. So that's a really cool thing. As far as the ground clearance goes, you have around 265mm to play with, and, as far as your suspension travel goes, you have 240mm of travel on the Showa front fork and 250mm on the mono shock at the rear. So that is more than sufficient, I would say for you to really go attack your trails with ferocity and have a real blast on in these kind of outdoor environments.

Now, this is also a dual purpose motorcycle. Now, it is supposed to be pretty city friendly as well. Now, the tank, of course, is really tiny and is about 7.6l - and, the company are claiming that you can take this motorcycle over 200km on a single fill. So sounds kind of tricky. But, let's we'll have to figure out if that is really true once we actually have this motorcycle out on the road.

Yes, once again, you can ride the KLX 230 on the road because, it gets a headlight, the indicators, you will have a small bracket up front over here, but you can mount your number plate and the rear, you get the same works, which makes it all street legal. And there's even a sari guard on there. On a dirt bike. I never thought the day would come. But yes, we have arrived. Ladies and gentlemen.

Now we barely had any time to spend with the KLX 230 on our own on this outing, and were just ushered through three supervised courses with barely any time to really run the bike how we saw fit. But for what it's worth, the KLX 230 did feel very nimble and light through what we'd subjected it to today. It didn't feel to be lacking any real power, but in all honesty, the conditions weren't overly challenging. There was a section which was like a tight, short trail complete with berms and small jumps and everything, where I thought the KLX 230 did quite well. See where you want to go, point it in that direction and the bike will get you there in a jiffy. There was a section which was covered with small loose stones where I did wish that the KLX 230 came with proper knobby tyres like the competition spec RS version, because with the dual-purpose MRF treads on this bike, especially the front just lost traction practically everywhere.

The ride today made me think of a good reason as to why this bike makes sense. And another why it doesn't. Consider this. The KLX 230 feels like a capable machine given its lovely perimeter frame, simple SOHC 2-valve engine with the punchy low and mid-range, the 21/18-inch spoke wheel setup the showa suspension and everything, it's really easy to get used to riding as well. And if you're new to the off-road riding scenario and want to get into it, yes the KLX 230 makes sense. Even though it is slightly on the expensive side of things. You can ride the bike on the road because it has all the bits required to be deemed so, including some app and connectivity features which some nowadays deems a necessity. Better still is you can you can hit the trails on your practice runs too and practice your postures, body positioning etc., and learn the ropes properly. That's all well and good, right!

But then again, if you're a pro rider and are into legit competition, the bike is rather incomplete in a way. Because, although this is the kind of bike that you can ride yourself to the actual competition, if you had to, you'd have to remove the road-legal bits and swap out these tyres for better ones before you actually get to the starting line. Which is kind of a costly and time consuming affair. Differences in the KLX 230 RS and this KLX 230 lie in the suspension travel, the seat height and some bits that alter the rider geometry, the road legal bits and according to the company's spec sheet the competition bike makes more power too.

Then there's always the question about spares. Although our friends at BigRock Dirt Park, Bangalore and the Pro Dirt Adventure, Pune, who have owned a couple of the KLX 230 RS bikes for a while now tell us that these Kawasakis have engines that are pretty much bullet proof, still, I'd like to think that the owner of a bike like this would feel a little more at ease the closer they are in proximity to some Kawasaki shutters, you know, in case something goes wrong with the bike or some new parts are required. And there's just 48 touchpoints that Kawasaki have setup in the country currently. So a bike like this does have its pros and cons.

Alright, now do some things up out here with the Kawasaki. Yes, it is a very fun, exciting and very capable machine. But then at the end of it, it all boils down to the pricing

Okay, now, the pricing of this motorcycle is really going to make or break it. And considering the position that this one is going to face in the form of the Hero Xpulse because they are quite similar in terms of power and capability. But, pricing is going to make or break it. And, we don't see it coming really cheap being brought to India by the CKD route. It's not going to be all that cheap. And we expect a price tag of around 3 to 3 and a half lakhs (on road). And the prices are going to be revealed later this December in the first week, we presume is going to be at IBW. So do watch out for that.