Is the much mooted Kawasaki KLX650 coming soon after all?

We’ll be honest, when Kawasaki revealed in October that it was readying as many as six new motorcycles to launch the following month we were a tad excited.

We always expected two of them to be fresh Kawasaki ZX-10R/RR models, but our imaginations ran rife with what the other four would be. So we were a tad disappointed that a new flagship trim for the Z H2 and a broader roll-out of the Showa Skyhook suspension technology were the remainder of the big reveals… maybe we’re just greedy.

Except it seems now, according to RideApart, that Kawasaki may have cheekily shuffled a couple of these proposed new machines back to January 2021, presumably because they either weren’t quite ready or because it is big enough to warrant its own stage for prominence.

2020 Kawasaki Z H2 - REVIEW

Which leads us to speculate what it could be… now, whiie we can classify this ‘guess’ as educated, it does rather re-spark up the rumours that the primary model lurking under those covers is the much discussed (and desired) KLX650. 

It’s a motorcycle we have speculated about for quite some time now so we’ll hesitate to say this is what we can expect, but there are some clues that work in this favour.  Presuming the CGI imagery isn’t default, there are some road-rubbered wire-spoke wheels peering out and the video accompaniment from October did show a machine going from Tarmac to dirty and back.

Coupled to the fact it would be a model that is big enough to not risk being overshadowed by a new sportsbike, then we’re fairly confident Kawasaki will be ringing in the new year with its long-awaited return to the mid-range ADV sector and provide Yamaha with a convincing rival to its Tenere 700. 

Then again, we do like surprises too...