Kawasaki invited CN and a few other media
outlets to New Mexico to ride the 2022 Kawa-
saki KLR650 for the first time. Over the next two
days, we covered a little bit of everything: open
highways, twisty two-lane mountain roads, well-
maintained forest service dirt roads and a touch
of technical two-track Jeep roads with a bit of
soft sand mixed in to keep our heart rates up. We
even played around in some tricky silt and crossed
rocky streams. Much of the riding was also done
at altitude, flirting with 10,000 feet at times.
When our time in New Mexico had concluded,
I wasn't quite finished yet. I packed the Adven-
ture's side bags and rode the KLR650 back
home to Southern California, via mostly back-
country two-lane roads with a few off-road side
excursions thrown in just for fun. After four days
in all, I tallied a little more than 1000 miles on the
KLR. And, after all that, the KLR and I are still
talking to each other.
RIDE REVIEW I 2022 KAWASAKI KLR650
P96
The KLR650
performed flawlessly
in the blistering
August heat of
Arizona.
THE RIDE
