I do think that people sometimes want more power. I sometimes wonder if people really should be labeling things as beginner bikes. But then there's this bike, this is, in my opinion, and I don't use this term very often, this is a really good beginner bike. Now again, if you're an experienced motorcyclist, this is also an option to pick up if you're really an experienced motorcyclist. To me, the KLX 300 is probably the best option as it has a little bit more power. Things like liquid cooling and a couple little features that we're gonna talk about that this one does not have. What this one does have is a ton of durability, a ton of simplicity and a lot of things that beginners should look for. And keep in mind, anytime a manufacturer makes a entry level vehicle, or in this case a beginner type bike, they have to keep in mind what they're gonna leave off of that in order to hit price points

So there are things that aren't on this bike sometimes that makes it better as a beginner bike, and sometimes you just have to decide what you want in your beginner bike. So let's go through in detail some of the things that I think make this a great beginner bike and we'll talk about what's here and what's missing. So you can decide if this is the right bike for you. So let's start with what's here. This is a single cylinder air cooled engine. It's a 230 or so CC engine, and that's a good size for beginners to learn on. It's not too much power that it's gonna scare you. It's also very low maintenance, no liquid cooling to worry about, which again, can make things nicer, but it can also simplify the process. If you have maintenance, there's no, uh, you know, cooling to leak, no other things to go on, uh, just simply air cooling and one cylinder to worry about. Very, very

Simple. Everything's routed up here nicely. You do have some protection built in from the factory underneath here. So if you're doing some off-road riding and you crash into some things, you've got good protection. And again, everything here is all about simplicity. While we're looking down here, let's look at the foot pegs here. You do have steel foot pegs, steel, uh, brake lever there and no rubber uh, padding there. So nothing to absorb vibrations. Again, these are things that are missing. Interestingly, on this bike you have rubber coated rear pegs on the KLX 300. You do not have rubber coated rear pegs, so got a little bit better. Uh, things for your passengers here, however, I don't think you'll take too many passengers as we'll. Talk about the rear area here in a second, but it's not as large. And there's a couple other little features where you may not wanna take passengers for a long time, but you do have the legal ability to take them. 

So let's talk about the passenger compartment, passenger area here. You do have much less space here than on something like the KLX 300, a little bit less space. The KLX 300 also has a little toolbox here and it has little tie downs here so you can tie extra things down. The reality is a two 30 cc single cylinder engine does not have a ton of power. It's not something you're gonna want to take two people on for a long time, but legally you can, like we said, so you've got no real luggage carrying capacity back here. You're gonna be carrying a backpack if you're carrying extra things. But again, those foot pegs are there. There is a little tie down above those foot bags so you could tie some things down, but not a ton of stuff, uh, to make it really comfortable for a passenger. 

So while you do have a few less things for passenger capacity, you still have some really nice things that are really full size bike things. You have 21 inch front tire, 18 inch rear, which is the same thing you'd have on something like a klr or the KLX 300. You've also got nice suspension, you've got the full rubber coverage here. So that allows whatever you're hitting there to not sort of, uh, you know, bug splatter and other things hit up against your shock seals and this will just help protect them. These aren't pretty, but they're very functional. The spoke wheels give you tons of strength and you have disc brakes front and rear and you might notice this little ABS logo go up here. ABS brakes front and rear. And when we talk about beginner bikes, this is a 2022 bike, it's 20 22, 20 23. If you get a beginner bike, you should get abs. 

That's my personal opinion. Uh, it really helps you, especially as you're learning, if you get on, you know, too much front break or too much rear break, it can just keep you from locking up and that can keep you upright, especially as you're sort of learning to modulate all those things. So really good idea. Abs on the bike, again, great beginner bike feature and you know, when they decide well what they're taking away, what they're adding, that's something that they added and they didn't take away. So really good, uh, job there. The other thing I should mention, the suspension on this bike is excellent. A lot of beginner bikes don't have great ride, great suspension. Sometimes they're too soft or too, you know, whatever they just don't handle well. This one's still got very good suspension and that's another thing that Kawasaki sort of prides himself in. They're a race bike company, so very good job there as well. Taking a look at the dash on the KLX two 30 here, this one's an interesting one to me because the KLX 300 has a different dash. This is actually borrowed from the K L R, which is

Interesting, interesting to me because Klr is a higher end motorcycle. Now in here I thought it should be a gear shift, uh, indicator or a gear shift, uh, tells you what uh, gear you're in. It does not have that there. What is in there is, if you saw it when I turned it on, we'll just do it quickly again, is a battery symbol. So if we turn the light on, if the battery light comes on, it'll be in that little frame there. Uh, but that's what's lit up there. So if you look at this, you can see you've got a fuel gauge, which is nice. You've got a clock and you've got a really clear speedometer down on the bottom. There's a little bit of glare in there, but you have the odometer, the trip a trip B, and that's it. Again, this is the same dash that's in the klr, which is interesting to me.

One thing that's missing on both the klr, and this is a tachometer. Now again, a single cylinder engine, you're gonna get most of your torque down lower. It's not the end of the world On the klr it kinda makes sense because you know, you're just really not shifting all that often. This one I would've liked to see attack, but you don't have it. And again, the KLX 300 does have a tax sort of, kind of across the top of this, uh, which is my preference. But again, they're making cuts here where they have to make cuts and it's not just about not displaying it, it also probably doesn't record it or doesn't, uh, have a, a computer there to see what's going on with the engine. So that's probably some savings there. Again, less things to break. Another thing that's interesting to me about less things to break is you have these round mirrors there, the round mirrors are simple and they don't stick out quite as far as some other mirrors. 

Now that does put my arm just a hair into the edge there. However, when you drop this bike, if you drop this bike, and again, if you're a beginner starting offroad, doing all those kind of things, it's possible that you're gonna drop this bike in offroad conditions. Uh, it does stay inside of the handlebar and that to me is interesting because they're a little bit more protected and there's a number of things on this bike that are a little less expensive if they had to be replaced in places where you might replace them. And I think the mirrors are one so good mirrors, they're fine, they're uh, you know, set out, but again, usually they're a couple inches further out to really see around you. These ones can see back no problem, but they're tucked in and I think that's about, uh, you know, just keeping them safe. 

In the case of a dropped bike, taking a look at the controls, pretty basic stuff here, which is what you want. Now interestingly, this is the only Kawasaki that I know of that has these little three indents in the headlight switch. So you have simple headlight switch there, high beam over there, of course they're always on the uh, signal. Switch there, there and press it in good high quality feeling stuff. And we lost some focus there. We'll try to get it back for you. There we go. Uh, we've also got the horn down low. So simple controls, there is no slipper and assists clutch like on the uh, ninja 400 or on the uh, versus 300. Uh, but you do have a still very light clutch, easy to modulate. So very simple stuff there on the throttle side. Simply a kill switch up here with, again, the three dots in there. Uh, and you've got the start button over there. Simple, simple controls easy, easy to work. If you're buying a dual sport as your first bike, one thing to keep in mind is they can be a little bit taller, but this one is not bad at all. Now I'm about six feet tall. Uh, even though my feet are kind of flat on the ground ish, uh, you may be tippy toed if you're a little shorter than me. And again, to get on, you might

Have to be to be tippy toed. And then once you put your weight on it, it will sink down a little bit. The riding position is very compact and simple and this bike is extremely narrow, which really helps you control it. It also lets you sort of lean it way over while you're at a standstill without having to worry about it falling over. It's both lightweight, it's narrow, it's easy. And you can see from a riding position it's very comfortable. Uh, something like the klr, much wider handlebar. Some bikes have a little bit more reach for you, but this is very relaxed, very comfortable. And the nice thing with these mirrors here, we talked about them being a little bit more inset, but because they're so close to you, they give you a fairly wide angle on something like a Ninja 400, they're gonna be much further away from you. 

It's gonna give you good view behind you, but the angle of uh, the width of that is a little bit less. So very comfortable riding position, very, you know, typical firm dirt bike style seat. So it's not gonna be something that is super plush like a cruiser, but it's not gonna allow you control and you can really, you know, it's still comfortable for all the trips you're gonna do on this kind of bike. And then very easy to control bike because of decently wide handle bars and nice and close to you so you don't feel like you're in any way reaching no matter if you're standing, sitting, whatever you're doing. Taking a look at some more beginner friendly features here. If you turn this bike on, you will see it has a regular halogen headlight and you've got the high beam there as well, which is nice and bright. 

You've also got halogen style, or sorry, incandescent style, uh, signal bulbs which are on the nice uh, rubbery stalks and again, very close mounted if you were to drop this bike, it's kind of protected by the handlebars here. The nice thing about these is they're a little bit less expensive to replace than the L E D turn signals. And same thing with the headlights. So if something goes wrong, you are in a situation where these are less expensive to replace, however, they don't offer as much white and bright light as some of the L e D options. So you can sort of decide if this is what you're looking for or you can step up to the KLX and get some of those l e D features. But these would still be the incandescent. And again, it's just because the style of bike, if something happens, if you hit sticks, trees, whatever it else it is, it is something that will be very durable. 

So let's finish off with who this bike is for. Obviously we talked about beginners, but it's also a great simple bike, low maintenance, not a whole lot going on with it that makes it great for a bike around the cottage or a bike around, you know, off-road areas where you can use it just a little bit but still be road legal to get where you want to go, which is nice to just take shortcuts through trails or through dirt roads. What I like about it as a beginner bike is it really allows you to explore what kind of riding you like. A lightweight bike is a lot of fun to ride, even if it's not all that fast and that 230 cc single cylinder, it's not gonna be all that fast. So it's good safe bike where it doesn't get you into too much trouble with too much power. It still has abs brakes front and rear, which makes it kind of nice to handle. And you can really kind of explore the style of riding you like. If this type of bike is the kind of bike that you wanna stay with forever, you can move up to something like a klr in the future. If you decide you wanna do a little bit more on-road riding, you can move to things in the Z and ninja lineup, those kind of things. It can really help you

Figure, figure out the type of riding you like because you can do absolutely anything on this. If you want something a little sportier, you can get something sportier, but a lot of sporty bikes are heavier and this bike still feels sporty despite the fact that it doesn't have sporty tires simply because it's lightweight. So it's a pretty good option for a first bike. A lot of durability in here in the places that could have contact with the ground or that kind of thing. And a lot of just simplicity so you can just ride it and enjoy it. So I really quite like this bike, but like I said, if you are considering this bike, the KLX 300 is another option that's gonna give you a little bit more power. It's probably gonna give you a little bit more refined suspension as well. And it does give you a little bit better rear seat space with some more luggage capacity because it has some more tie downs here. 

It's an other bike worth considering, just depends on what you wanna do because that bike also costs just a little bit more. Lots of options within the Kawasaki lineup. Let me know below what your first bike was, what you think about this first bike. And again, I wanna thank Jim Gilbert's Power Sports for allowing me complete access here because if you have questions you can let me know in the comments, make sure you hit subscribe and I'll come back both in the comments and in future videos to make sure I get you the answers. Thanks everybody for watching.