Kawasaki keeps knocking with sportier sport-tourers.

[Grumpy Goat]

I resized the picture to 1024 pixels wide and reduced the JPEG quality by 20%. Now I can see the whole bike on my screen without scrolling sideways.

Back in 2015 when I was in the market, I looked at the Kawasaki Versys 1000 LT and loved the look of it and the promise of Japanese reliability. But it had one fatal flaw - no cruise control on a touring bike. Ain't gonna pass GO for me. The chain is less of an issue for me. I then looked at the S1000XR and while it had cruise control and nice power, the vibration was too much for me for long distances. Then came the RS and the rest is history.

Finally in 2020 Kawasaki figured out how to offer throttle-by-wire which enables cruise control and ride modes, etc. Over 5 years later! And they offer this beautiful SX sport tourer as well, with CC ... nice indeed.

Weird that the CC maxes out at 85 mph indeed, although for me that is OK since I cruise at 80 mph maximum - good balance of fuel consumption, noise, speed traps, etc.