EP#47 - 2026 Kawasaki KLX300 Registered TESTED!

We grabbed the now-registered Kawasaki KLX300 and took it for a spin. We trail rode it, commuted on it and went for a bit of an adventure ride on it. We tested this bike back in 2021 but you could not register it back then, now you can which has opened it up to a whole new category of rider. Here's what we thought of it. 

Transcript

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Welcome to the ADV podcast where we talk all things dirt with your host Rich Lee. We are back with another podcast. This time we are actually going to test the Kawasaki KLX300. Now, a lot of you guys will probably be familiar with this bike maybe uh in previous years. We first tested it back in 2021. Uh back then it wasn't registerable though. It was just kind of a uh recreational uh bike that I guess you could use on private property. Uh if you're in states that allowed a rec regio, you could do a bit to this bike to get it uh recreationally registered. But uh we've been begging Kawasaki to kind of put full ADR compliance on this bike for a while because we think that the uh yeah KLX300 it fits into that full-blown trail bike market. So think about dual sport, commuting, trailbike riding, that kind of thing, and there's not many bikes in that class. So we wanted to get them to put Regia on it so it can be ridden out in the state forests illegally, like you do with the more high performance machines. And the reason we like this bike is because it's cheaper. I think it's around$9,500 right away, depending on the state or area that you live in. Uh so you're talking half the price of some of the more expensive um, you know, race-ready hard Enduro bikes. So uh or sorry, enduro bikes. So yeah, so we think it's got a kind of a cool, unique market, and we really want to push bikes like this because not everyone needs a$17,018,$19,000 enduro bike. Um this might suit some particular riders, as you're about to find out. So we wanted to test it. Here's what we thought of the 2020 Sigla Kawasaki KLX300 but before we do, I just want to thank our sponsor, Dunlop, for the sponsoring the show. They sponsor it with the AT82 tire. It's a multi-directional tire, so you can switch the tie around uh and get different traction because of the slightly different uh material on the knob from one side to the other. So one side of the knob is designed for hard pack, the other side of the knob is designed for soft. So you can kind of take one tire to any track and you can change the tire around if you've got the strength and the uh energy and the fitness uh after you've done, say, Moto 1 or you know, one spring added in zero and the terrain changes. So that's pretty cool. That's the Dunlop 8082. I believe Hayden Deegan is running it on his front wheel, we've heard, which is pretty cool. That's super crossover. It's good enough for him. Should be good enough for anyone. Uh anyway, without further ado, here is uh us out in the wild testing the Kawasaki KLX300. We stuck a mic under uh our nose to get you know what we thought the minute we hopped off the bike. Here's what we think. Okay, that's a big uh day testing for video and bits and pieces. I've been using this bike for two or three weeks now. Uh yes, so this is the same as the KLX 300 we've seen in the past, but Rego'd, like I said earlier. And it is a slightly different feel to the motor than the other one that's un not ADR compliant and not registered is. Um, someone asked me, is it like the one that's unregistered? Is it does is the does the motor feel the same? I'd say it doesn't. I'd say that unfortunately Kawasaki have to make this bike as choked up and as ADR compliant as possible. So it did take a little bit more clutch and you know attitude to get it to just get up and go off that original kind of friction point as you're taking off. The other one without all the ADR compliance on it, it's far more responsive and more aggressive and more you know, motor crossing dirt bike, I guess you'd say. Um, so that's the difference to the old one. The rest of the stuff, the suspension felt kind of similar, the chassis feels kind of similar, it does feel taller in the rear, I'll talk about that in a second. But um yeah, the motor, very similar. You can feel it's choked up, you can feel like it doesn't have that bottom end torque. Uh where does this bike? I'll start with where this bike fits. Actually, no, I won't start with where this bike fits. I'll just run through some of the things I thought about it and the different characteristics. I'll start I'll continue with that motor. Um so it's probably geared more for Jill Sport work rather than off-road work, like the um uh non-registered version is. I think if you change the final gearing to go up maybe two teeth on the rear or three on the rear and down one on the front, you get more torque, you get more of that dirt bike feel when you're riding along on some single track and logs coming up, and you just want to pull in some clutch and give it some throttles to pop the wheel over, that would help with that kind of thing because that the how this motor is at this as it is now first, second, third, you're probably getting to 70 or 80k's an hour by the time you're in third, um, and it's probably too tall for just trail work. However, if you're gonna use this bike to commute to work and then trail ride on, but you want to do kind of you know general soft trail riding and a bit of farm work and bits and pieces, the the um gearing would probably suffice. Um but I'd say even if you do want to do some farm work and some trail riding with your kids, you're gonna need to change the gearing. You're just gonna need to go for more aggressive gearing just because it's like I said, it's geared as a commuter and it lacks that bottom end punch and torque. Um, in terms of like strength of the motor, for a you know, a budget-built motor, it's actually pretty good. You've got to ring its neck. This bike, because of the gearing, likes mid and high revving. Um, and that includes when you're cruising through single track or when you're just trying to get it to spin around and turn around, you've got to kind of rev it to get it to turn around. Um but the motor itself is strong, the mid's strong, it's it's good, it's a smooth, it's super linear. There are no spikes in the power. It's the easiest motor I've ever probably ridden in my entire life. It's so so smooth, um, and it's quiet as well. So, if you're concerned about neighbours and that kind of thing, it's it's also pretty good on that in that space, too. So the motor's good, it doesn't have as much torque as the other one, it's not as off-roaded as the other one, it's probably geared more for commuting, so you're gonna need to change the gearing, but it's got enough power for most people for trail riding. Um, and yeah, you're just gonna remember you're gonna need a little bit of clutch to get it going and to do the things you want. Suspension-wise, it comes with decent suspension. Um, it's not, you know, their top-of-the-line gear from Kawasaki that they do out of shower, but it's still quite good. Uh, we kind of could hit most of the trail debris we wanted, and it felt nice. Um, I kind of compared it. Someone asked me what it's it like. I said the suspension feels like an XR250 with a bit more resistance. You might remember them back in the day. Uh, that's kind of where the suspension fit, and in fact, that's where this bike kind of fits. Think like XR250 from way back. Um, so the suspension is soft, it's not like a you know three mid capacity um Enduro four-stroke. Uh, it's it's far softer than that. And if you're a big and heavy bloke, you're probably gonna find it pogoing along when you start to go over bumps. Um, 100 kilos, it didn't really do that too bad. Um, but um yeah, it's good for the little trail debris, but it is quite soft. Uh and I know some people who have bought these out of the local Kawasaki dealer to me, and they've actually made some changes to the suspension straight away for heavier springs, uh, some different valving of bits and pieces, and that has apparently helped a lot. So if you're just using it for farm work and then the odd trail ride where you're gonna follow your kids cruising, it's probably fine. If you want to buy this thing to commute and to probably do some decent um trail riding and even maybe some adventure riding, probably gonna need to go firmer in the suspension, but it was good, it worked. Things like the ground clearance, everything else, it works really well. I got never got hooked up. Um, tires. If you're gonna do off-road work, and we had a lot of you can see how muddy it is, wet and slippery stuff today, you're gonna need a bit of proper knobby. The it's the sidewall knobs on this that killed me. There were sections where it'd start to get a little bit skew-if and it'll just keep going and it'll keep kind of stepping out. Uh, so the the tyres are set up for commuting and for trail work, so they're not a hardcore off-road knobby. So if you're gonna take this thing off-road, you're probably gonna want a decent set of tires on it. Um little things like there's a few radiator hoses that stick out here. You can see me moving that with my foot. Uh look, if you went and did some nasty crap and started bush bashing and you decided to run over some sticks that were you know an inch thick and they got up in there and jammed that red outer hose, that's your main hose, the one I just touched there. So you're gonna wind up in some trouble if you bust that off. So I don't know if there's a way to get a bash plate that kind of covers it, or just be mindful of it. So when you're doing those kind of things, just be aware that that red outer hose there is a little bit exposed. Um now, other little bits and pieces we thought, oh, this is interesting. Was this cable here, it's a speedo, all this stuff again, it's just ADR compliance, annoying thing. So, depending on what you're doing with it, take it off. If you're you know, I probably shouldn't be saying that, but you can. Um, if you need to leave it on there, look, we trail road with it all day through bush bashing through stuff, and we never grabbed it, but you can see it is fairly exposed there. It's kind of looks a little bit like an afterthought, so just be mindful of those bits and pieces on there. Um, things like the brakes, the brakes were good, uh, the levers felt you know quite comfortable. It didn't have a rubber insert, so they're kind of designed, hoping you're gonna go off-road with it. Uh, and then that takes me through to the chassis. Um, that was the highlight of this bike, was the chassis. I was blown away at how good it got into ruts, how easy it was to stay in ruts, um, and also you know how balanced it was. It never felt like it was top heavy and it didn't, despite having a weird-shaped seat. I thought it'd push me back and the front would climb out of ruts and I'd get all caught up. But it kind of lodges you right up the front for getting into ruts so I could get it in and leave it in ruts. And then because the power is not abrupt, it's not going to wheelie out, you could just like get on the power as hard as you could, and it's never gonna loop you out. It'd be great for someone who's maybe beginning to know that they can kind of get into ruts, use a lot of power without it worrying about it looping them out. Um, but the balance was excellent, it was really well balanced, a really comfortable bike. Standing up, I did feel a little bit like I was bending over a bit far for the handlebars, but I again I'm six foot two, uh, shorter guides are probably from the standing position perfect, uh, and everything was kind of comfortable and easy to get to. I should point out too that the handguards are not standard, they they are not a standard piece for this KLX 300, but they made a massive difference. I think all off-road bikes would come with it, so as well as the rear rack. The rear rack's not standard, but it helps if you're farming, strap stuff to it, helps if you want to do a tiny little overnight adventure or overnight trial ride, strap a bag to it. They're not standard bits. Um, now speaking of the rear end, in order to get this through ADR compliance, Kawasaki were loosely explaining to me without needing ABS on it, they had to adjust something like the suspension travel or the distance, the height of the rear wheel to the rear guard. There's something strange about that had to do with the height, so they've had to lift the rear of this Kawasaki. So it's kind of weird, but it's really tall in the back here and kind of a normal seat height here. It's still tall, this is still taller than most beginner bikes in and around here, but the back felt tall, so like swinging my leg on and off, it occasionally got caught in big boots. I think I was just in my farm be farm gear, I wouldn't get caught on it, but it's taller in the rear. Now, like I just said, the benefit of that is that every time I'd go to get in a rut, it has just shoved me down the front so I could get bury this thing into a rut and ride all the way through it, like you can see in some of this video. Uh, the downside is throwing your leg over felt a little bit tall, and then doing things like I tried to do a pivot wheelie, and normally on every bike I've owned, I can get right to the back of the seat. I'm tall, I can get my leg on the ground, and I can go up and spin it around. I went to do that and I lost my footing, it was too tall. So I found that the rear of this bike when I was sitting on it was actually taller, the very back here, than some of the you know, fully race-spected enduro bikes you can get. So just be mindful of that. The back is quite tall on this bike. So if I could sum up this bike in one word, it would be potential. Uh, I've ridden lots of dirt bikes over the 16-15 years with ADB, and every bike is kind of designed for you know racing and motocrossing or enduro, that kind of thing, adventure riding, and they've kind of got a design purpose. Uh, this is designed for trail riding, uh, uh, but I think it would be an excellent trail bike and like a dedicated trail bike if you just made some changes to it. And I think you know that mid-capacity 300cc easy to ride motor would actually suit more people than you realize. A lot of people do not need 450s and 500s and 300 two strokes, they need this capacity 300cc 4 stroke that's linear and soft. However, it just needs these changes to be one of the best trail bikes you could possibly get. And it's quite simple. Remove some of the ADR compliance. Poor old Kawasaki, they have to fit this stuff, guys. They don't get cranky out of why's it got all this crap hanging off it. They have no choice. If you want this bike registered, they have to come through with all that stuff. Now, that's not to say you can't come home and make some changes to make it a little bit air better in the bush. Uh so I'd start with you know removing the rear number plate kind of set up. You can get smaller, slimmer versions that are uh less cumbersome, you're gonna reduce some weight, it's gonna be have less chance of snapping if you try to jump something. I'd do something big time about the air, it needs to breathe more. The minute this thing breathes more, the motor I feel will come to life big time. Open the airbox, change the header pipe, and change the exhaust pipe. Um, they choke the motor up, you can hear it being choked up. Final gearing. I'd go up three-tooth on the rear, or I'd go down on one on the front, or I'd do a combination of the two. That'll give it more aggressive, abrupt power. I would switch out the tires, get a knobby tire. These are a good dual-purpose tire, and they're going to be fine for some maybe some dry trail riding. The minute it gets wet and slippery, and you're going to get off Cambrian ruts, you're going to notice it. Uh, I would also probably do something. The handlebar's okay and it'll suffice, but you could probably get a better handlebar, uh, which would be you know kind of help with the cockpit layout and stuff. I'd ditch the speedo cable because hey, a speedo cable is handy, but man, does this thing look like it's gonna get caught? Leave it there maybe until it rips off until it gets busted, but just another thing that's you know a little bit exposed. The speedo is huge, like size of the house brick. Again, Kawasaki got to fit this because they can't get through with one of these tiny little ones. We don't know why other manufacturers can, and the big, big guys like these at Kawasaki can't. Drop it, it'll make it smaller, it'll make it feel the cockpit feel less clustered and heavy. I'd do the same with the blinkers, you don't need big, massive blinkers. Kawasaki do to get through ADR, so you could switch the blinkers out. And then the last little thing I'd do is something to protect that radiator hose. Even if you can find online someone's already building a little bash plate or a little guard for it, you can fabricate yourself something, that would be good too. Now I know it probably sounds like I've mentioned a lot of things, but like I said, remember this is under$10,000. I think you could do all of what I just said. The most expensive thing is gonna be a header pipe and an exhaust for probably less than two grand. So you're still gonna be under$11,000 to do all the things I've just said. You've got a Kawasaki, so you know it's gonna last, the reliability is gonna be impressive. You've got a motor that is so ridable and so usable, you've got good suspension, you've got an excellent chassis, and you've got a bike that would rip in single track for a regular, everyday kind of punter that doesn't need you know WR 450 or KLX 40R kind of crazy power. Um, the other things I do to it, guys, like I said, this bike just represents so much potential as a dual sport commuter farm bike that you want to ride with your kids. It's excellent if that's what you want to do with it, if you want to buy it to do stuff around the farm, but then you also want to go out trail riding with the kids and go and do um you know organized trail rides, it'll do it fantastic. Uh, but and my suggestion would be to make those modifications, it'll turn it into an excellent trail and commuter bike. So, yeah, it's been awesome to have some fun on a bike that I don't feel like I've got a race everywhere. I can just go out and have fun. We can go to the pub and have some drinks and then have some lunch and then come on home. So, yeah, great trail bike, so much potential to be an excellent trail bike. Uh, and like I said, it's under 10 grand as it is, and it comes with all the Kawasaki reliability and support. They've got a dealer network that runs so deep and so vast, so you can kind of get good support there as well. That's our test on the Kawasaki KLX300, the registered version for the first time ever in Australia. If you're looking for a great reliable trail bike, go and have a look.