KAWASAKI NINJA 1000 SX AND VERSYS 1000 - TOURING TORPEDOS

The Kawasaki Versys 1000 is an accomplished tourer, but the new Ninja 1000 SX will make you rethink your affinity for adventure tourers

- ROHIT PARADKAR

The photos you see here are from the beautiful Malshej ghats near Mumbai. If you agree that Maharashtra completely transforms into green heaven during the monsoons, then places like Malshej are like the upper tier of that heaven. During that season, this place looks magical as the clouds descend on the peaks of the Kalsubai mountain all through the day, there is a mist around the vegetation and many flowing rivulets along the route add a sense of calm. A calm that is best enjoyed when you actually break it. Break it with the sound of a big engine howling down the mountain road. This time we had the right bikes for this green heaven too – a glitzy green Ninja 1000 and a sophisticated white Versys 1000.

The last time I rode a Kawasaki on these roads it was my own 2011 Ninja 650, which I used to call Fiona. I called her that because the size, colour, grunt and those giant mirrors mounted on the fairing always reminded me of Fiona, the lady-ogre from Shrek, and her peculiar ears. Somehow the Ninja 1000 reminded me of her too, maybe for the exact same reasons. But compared to the 650, 1000 sounds so much better, handles so much sharper and those ogre-eared mirrors on this one also feel like the crosshairs when gunning through the winding switchbacks. Surprisingly, the large, heavy, and tall Versys 1000 doesn’t fall too far behind when attacking these roads either. I would certainly call it Shrek if I had one (and only if it was green).