The Versys-X 300 is an Indian bike. It it made in India using Japanese 300 Ninja engine and is a street bike with some off road capabilities and is the most powerful small CC adventure bike at 40HP for 380lbs and thats why I bought it. It runs up to 100mph on the highways with no problem and I do go down the highway and then duck off onto gravel service roads. Mostly oil well and powerline roads, and I have had no issues, however when I hooked up with the Adventure Riders club here in Texas, and those guys are hard core off road riders, I had to switch out the 80/20 dual sport tires to Shenko Big Block 705s which are 50/50 and I can tell you , its made a world of difference for off road, however, I can tell its not as good highway now, not as smooth especially at low speeds you feels the knobs, but like we are all saying here, you just cannot win with a motorcycle. Everything is going to be a trade off.
I will say Kawasaki Versys strikes a good balance. I have had some guys tell me though that if I wanted to do the Baja 500 or some really long Adventure race you want the bigger bike and I cannot for the life of me understand why. They don't get any better top end, and yeh the bikes are bigger and heavier, but what is the advantage really?
More power on the low end maybe, but the Versys 1st gear is a granny gear and its like a tractor in that gear and you can easily start off in 2nd. That first gear however, I can power up steep hills 30% grade in first and go 3mph right up the hill , no problem, so I think Kawasaki figured out how to gear a twin cylinder bike to offset the low end torque capabilities of the bigger single cylinder bikes.
The Versys also has a big fuel tank. I think mine is almost 4 gallons and I am getting about 60 miles per gallon. BMW just came out with an equivalent small CC adventure bike, a little bit better styling and it definitely has better ground clearance, and I will say clearance has been an issue, but I installed a engine guard under the bike which was needed. I have hit that guard and bottomed out the bike so many time now on tree limbs, bridges, just all kinds of stuff I didn't really see, but you know it when you hit it. Certainly get an engine guard and also side guards. The price I think on BMW is about $8k and the Versys 300 is $5k.
Also there is a ton of debate about whether or not ABS. BMW did allot of testing and found full time ABS which the Versys has, and cannot be switched off, they found it safer even on dirt. Allot of people disagree with that, and it is annoying on dirt because it "ratchets" a ton because of slippage and you cannot turn it off. If ABS is your thing some adventure bike like KTM will have a switch to turn ABS on and off on the fly. I wish I had that feature.
Look at my videos on Youtube. Here is the link. This was the last two adventure rides I did and you will see every kind of bike and you be the judge. Watch my top end on the Kawasaki on the second video in Juntion Tx. We did hit 90mph on the highway prior to hitting the ranch roads. I eat it at the end and the rollbars worked wonders and also I upgrade the shifter to a spring loaded break away shifter which saved my gearbox in that wreck. Propped the bike up and went on about my merry way.
