Some bikes are more versatile than others. Every type of bike has an ideal purpose—sports and cruisers do better on the road while adventure and dual sport do well off of it. Some models that are off-roading-friendly can usually transition to asphalted surfaces fairly easily, without punishing the rider too much. The same can rarely be said of the opposite, however: road-friendly models are rarely equipped to face the rugged reality of the trails. But who cares, really? Being aware of a model's limitations doesn’t mean you shouldn’t challenge them and that’s exactly what this Toronto, Canada dude did. Who said a Ninja wasn’t a good off-roader anyway?
HAH-YA, NINJA!
YouTube user Radonkulous had a tough call to make: his mini ride (a Kawasaki Z125 I believe) was in the shop, but some of his buddies were hitting the trails and he didn’t want to miss out. What to do, what to do? Hey, why not dust the Kawasaki Ninja 300 up? So that’s exactly what he did and thankfully for us, he recorded the session.
We get to go on a 2-minute long adventure through the woods as Radonkulous pushes the boundaries and puts his little sportbike to the limits. He even manages to get the little sportster through a bed of gnarly-looking rocks. From the look of it, he doesn’t seem to have done any alterations to the Ninja to make it a little more dirt-friendly (tires look like standard road tires).
The only thing I would have done differently in the video would have been to leave the original sound to hear how well the Kawi is working its way through the trail. Aside from that, this is a fun ride to check out if you’re curious to see a guy put his sportbike in the dust. It surprisingly works.