The Most Hated Motorcycle - 2026 Kawasaki KLE500 Review

Hello, I'm Ryan F9 and that is a 21-in front wheel, which for a long time is all we saw of the Kawasaki KLE 500. Ooh, what could it be? Uh, KLR for the post-industrial revolution. A miniature T7 Japanese and all. Life's a rally, Kawasaki proclaims. Dare we even expect a Dar homologation? But then the KLE 500 arrived, and that 21-in front wheel was the most adventurous thing on it. And working our way back, we come to the exact engine off of a Ninja 500 sport bike. Zero internal changes. The sport bikes make all their power at a bazillion RPM and they have long gearing. So, they're not very useful for thump thump thumping around the trails. Also, it's not actually a 500. It's 451cc's. So, if we're rounding up that much, then I have an even 1 ft penis. After that, we come to the midsection paradox. a class highest 34 in seat, but a class lowest 6. 8 in of ground clearance. How is that even possible? This thing would bottom out on a dinner fork. And finally, there is the 17-in rear wheel. You ever been pushing your shopping cart and suddenly you spill all your absence and your kids fall out and now social services are coming all because you hit one tiny little pebble? Well, that is why you want a larger wheel. They simply roll over rocks easier. And speaking of IRC GP410 WTF, what the hell is this tire? I've never seen this before, nor have I seen any common off-road tires in such an oddball size, 140x70 R17. Why not make it 140 by 80? There's lots of off-road tires in 140 by 80. And sure, I'm the type of guy who would just buy one of those and pinch it onto the weird rim anyway, but I also take the armor out of my jacket, so do I know. This is the biggest disappointment since all of our leaders turned out to be pedophiles. But then came the sizzle reel. And you know what? Chris Northover is making this cowie look cool. That's pretty loose. That's gnarly. That's just bottomed out on a molehill. Granted, Chris could bottom out a hovercraft, so I had to feel for myself. Oh god, it happened to me too. Is it dead? What does this mean? Fortina, I'm on my way to Japan to confront Kawasaki directly. So, this video is sponsored by SY. After a 10-hour flight, I don't want to wait in the 40-minute line for a SIM card. And even if I did, how would I know that it's not fake? I don't speak Japanese. Fortunately, I can simply download SY now and buy an e SIM for any of over 200 countries. I could even buy regional or global plans so I don't have to redownload a new SIM every time I cross a border. Whether you buy gigabytes or unlimited data, you're going to save heaps of money on roaming fees. And SY was coded by the NordVPN geek, so you know they snuck an ad blocker in there, too, to save you even more cash. Did you know 28. 6% of your data just goes to downloading ad material? Jeez. Means the internet is onethird ads nowadays. My favorite feature is 24/7 chat support. I'm the type of guy who still uses Ask Jeieves, so I appreciate having someone more intelligent to yell at. Get an exclusive 15% discount on sale eim data plans by downloading the sale app through this QR and using the code Fortnite at checkin. to Nichiwa. Kawasaki says that the skid plate is there for a reason and I should stop being such a and just ride the thing on pavement. Woo! Listen to that. It makes a class reading 51 horsepower at 10,000 RPM. And the red line is even further up in the five figures. Kind of reminds me of the Versus X300. And Kawasaki loves a revved up adventure bike. Hitting a high RPM means you need to breathe fuel and air in and out faster. So Kawasaki tilted the Ninja engine forward that lets them use a downdraft intake. Simply takes advantage of gravity to help the fuel fall through the cylinder faster. But more fuel requires more air. So the Kyle 500 also gets a 5. 6 L airbox, the biggest in class. And 5. 6 L only fits under the tank. It's an annoying place to blow the dust out of. But that massive volume is also why we can hear those intake noises so well. And now that we've taken a roughly rectangular engine and turned it onto its points, capped it with a massive airbox, you can see how this bike ended up with such a tall seat but such a low ground clearance. It's simply a tall

architecture, but it sounds amazing. Handling is also stunning. Now, I'm comfortable throwing the KLE into turns harder than any adventure middleweight, even harder than the Ninja. See, the KLE gets 43 mm rigid and 210 mm long inverted KYB forks, normally reserved for leader bikes. Compare that to any competition, and you'll find it skinnier, shorter, and flexier. So, it's a formidable sport tour. We would expect that given the off-road compromises. What's less expected is the value compromises or the absolute lack of value compromises. At 8,199 Canadian, this is near as makes no difference. The same price as the Chinese Ibex. And for $800 more, you can get the special edition version, which gets you this skid plate. That's fine. I've been bashing this all day. I wouldn't change it. You also get steel reinforced handguards that I can't legally call bark busters, but you know what I mean. And you get the tall windscreen complete with these see-through side shrouds so you can spot the terrain as you ride. You get the LED indicators and you get a TFT dash which doesn't add any features aside from the range indicator, but it does look very pretty. And try to buy all of that kit on Fortnite. ca for $800. Sorry boss, that's not going to happen. This feels like a very luxury package at an unbeatable price. It's the same price as a KLR 650. How Kawasaki expects to sell a slower, heavier, shakier, uglier machine made from old steam train parts next to this, I have no idea. Probably they just pegged the KLE 500 at 8 grand because the Ibex exists. But China aside, this is $1,500 cheaper than an NX500 and you get a 21-in front wheel. is about the same price as an Indian Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 or a even more Indian KTM 390 Adventure R. Both those bikes get you higher ground clearance than the option for tubeless tires, but both of them are singles. Ride any appreciable distance on a single and you're going to go for the Japanese Twin every single time. And if you never air down for off-roading, which I never do, you're probably not going to get a puncture anyway. I haven't had one for 10 years and I ride a lot of dirt as I must now do on the KLE 500. — Wait a minute. This feels like a natural off-road. It's nimble. It's quite surefooted. I mean, okay. Yeah. Sport bike engine takes a bigger handful of throttle to slide its ass out, but it'll still do it. Oh, yeah. The internet said this was supposed to suck, but it feels very natural off-road. Very natural. How? Remember, we have the tallest forks and the smallest rear wheel. I put it on the scales and sure enough this is a 46. 5% 53. 5% weight distribution. So the K500 is very much by the rear. Racers would complain of lost cornering speed, but for most amateurs sitting back on the rear tire is confidence inspiring. It asks less of the front and losing the front is scary. With killable ABS and OTC to begin with, sitting on the rear is just a less risky place to get loose. But there's something else. Most middle weights have to shove their pegs back a bit to increase the distance between these two points. Relax your knee angle. But remember here we have the tallest seat and the lowest belly. So Kawasaki can comfortably put the peg directly underneath the sitting point. That means when you stand up, you stand straight up as you would on a dirt bike, not sort of falling forward. That's why the K 500 feels so natural off-road. And the Nori on top of all of this is this smooth one-piece sliding panel which comes straight from the KX motocross line. Meanwhile, the competition all has these bruising joints and frame knobs and panel gaps. Seems like a little thing, but you'll do this 500 times a day, and it's nicer here than anywhere. I've spent a lot of time on adventure middleweights. I would say the Kaye 500 has the nicest off-roading ergonomic out of all of them. even if you'll scrape the skid pan a little more often while you do it. And let's talk about that because if you math it out, this is 1. 9 in lower than the ibex. That much. Any rocks below this, either bike will clear. Any rocks above it, both bikes are going to get stuck. That thin margin is your margin of difference. And we have to be careful with bikes that arrive this much better all around the spec sheet because that's a very trivial way to claim total victory, especially when things like trust are not so easily measured. Variations on that engine have been

proving themselves flawlessly for over 30 years. That goes back to the GPZ. And the IBEX engine is lovely to ride and maybe China is the new Japan, but we don't know that yet. We've had CF motors in this country for five bloody minutes. Are we really going to walk past the brands that have been on our street corner for half a century over that? I don't know, man. Thanks for watching.