Back when the voting kicked off for our next long term motorcycle, I handed the choice over to my readers with secret hopes the Kawasaki Concours 14 would win. Why did I prefer the Connie over alternates like the Z1000 with its sporty, naked bike appeal, or the rocket ship-like ZX-14R?

To make a long story short, the Concours 14 was the most versatile yet capable bike of the bunch. While it doesn’t have the absolute dragstrip-ready brawn of the ZX-14R, its 1,386cc inline-4 certainly isn’t lacking for power.

And though it isn’t nearly as terrain flexible as the Versys, it easily removable saddlebags make it seconds away from transforming from a long distance tourer to a narrower, lane-splitting capable city bike.

What’s New?

Taking on the long term Concours 14 was a sort of reunion for me. The last time I tested a Connie was when I rode the thoroughly redesigned bike in 2008. As I noted back then, the 14’s engine power was eye-opening, but the drivetrain upgrade also came with the price of thigh-grilling heat convection.
An update in 2010 resculpted the bodywork into a more attractive, and more functional form which did a better job of routing hot air around the rider. New features included a taller, electrically actuated windscreen and ducts above the instrument panel to help calm the cockpit air. Heated grips became a standard item, as well as a two-mode linked braking system and a defeatable traction control setup.

The Concours 14’s price has climbed from $12,899 (or $13,799 with ABS) in 2008 to $16,199 for 2014.

First Impressions

After picking up my long term tester from Kawasaki headquarters in Irvine, California, I tackled a 60+ mile roundtrip commute that takes me from the outer suburbs of Los Angeles to a consulting job near the coast. The route is fairly varied: following a brief jog through city streets, it takes me onto a six-lane superslab (which is thankfully equipped with a less trafficked HOV lane that can be legally occupied by a motorcycle), and eventually onto the perpetual gridlock nightmare that is interstate 405.
My first impressions after three days of commuting aboard the Concours 14? Well, perhaps the most immediate (and most telling) impression of the bike is that 200 miles felt like a walk in the park. Sure, traffic was relatively easy and weather was cooperative (this is, after all, Southern California), but the Concours’s easy posture and pavement gobbling personality have already led me to believe that it’s going to take a lot more miles to get to the bottom of its wells of personality.

Standby for more reports, as I pile on the miles and dissect the sport touring beast that is the Kawasaki Concours 14 ABS.