There have been rumours of a Kawasaki Versys 250 for some time now, and the latest hot gossip says the bike is about to debut in Indonesia.
Not many details about the bike have surfaced, aside from a few documents that point to its impending arrival — Kawasaki tends to play the secrecy game a little better than most manufacturers these days. But it’s logical to expect the bike would be powered by Kawasaki’s parallel twin 250 cc engine (296 cc in our market, powering the Ninja 300, making about 35 hp). Kawasaki’s single-cylinder 250 is also a possibility, but unlikely.
Aside from that, the chassis will likely be very similar to the naked Z300 sold in overseas markets, with cast rims to save money — spoked rims drive up the price of what would most likely be a budget-minded model.
If it doesn’t appear in the Indonesian market in coming days, we could see the Versys 250 at EICMA in the middle of November.
As we said not long ago, the mini-ADV market could be about to blow wide open. Considering there was nothing available in this segment a few months back, we could be looking at sub-500 cc adventure bikes from BMW, Suzuki, and Kawasaki in the next few weeks. Whether they will all be for sale in our Canadian market is another question entirely.
