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Part philosophical inquiry, part motorcycle travel diary, Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and its many pages were pure inspiration. In no small part, they’ve led me to many of the adventures I’ve written about here, on Gear Patrol. Pirsig passed on April 24, but his most remembered lessons came flooding back to me on a recent ride through majestic southern Utah, aboard Kawasaki’s all-new Versys X300.
Sometimes it’s a little better to travel than to arrive.
That one rolls through my head pretty much on a regular basis. Regardless of the bike I’m riding, I’ve long agreed with its romanticized sentiment. This time that bike happens to be a small displacement, go-anywhere machine aimed at getting new riders into the wilds. The combination of the machine and the landscape flanking the route — it’s nothing short of epic. The visuals are therapeutic. Desert gives way Mesa, gives way to red rocks, gives way to mountains.
The more you look, the more you see.
Then pavement gives way to dirt just outside of Hanksville. The 19-inch front wheel isn’t scared off by rocks or ruts, but a more rugged skid plate would help curb fears of cracking the engine on a rock and spilling internals all over the beautiful land. Typically, in these rocky, dirty conditions I short shift the bike and let the torque carry through making it less twitchy on uncertain conditions.
That’s just not possible on the little Versys. All the power is in the upper tenth of the rev range and demands a healthy twist of the throttle to keep rolling. A couple of turns and some fast, riddled crests later, we’ve found the bike’s rhythm. Even with decidedly street-oriented tires, the Versys X300 hammers through the hard-packed dirt with nary a twitch through its chassis. I wouldn’t tackle anything too technical on this bike as it sits, but Kawasaki’s engineers should be applauded for delivering a street-oriented machine that feels this at-home on uncertain ground.
