#300

The 2021 Kawasaki KLX300SM might be the best new beginner motorcycle on the market. Did that get you fired up? Lemme ‘splain. It’s obvious that the new KLX300SM can be a lot of fun for riders of all levels, but there are some clear advantages of a supermoto-style motorcycle for the uninitiated. 

Who would’ve thought the Scooter category would be the one to tear apart our once happy and cohesive team, leaving it in tattered shreds of its former glory. Sometimes it’s up to the youngest and brightest to stand up to the old guard to bring to light what is honest and true. [Easy there, Sparky. —Ed.] And that, in this case, is bestowing the 2020 Vespa GTS 300 HPE platform with Motorcycle.com’s Scooter of the Year award.

At EICMA last fall, Yamaha introduced the Niken GT, a sport-touring motorcycle with the company’s leaning-multi-wheel (LMW) technology. But the Niken GT wasn’t the only three-wheeler shown at EICMA; Yamaha also revealed a 300cc LMW scooter prototype called the 3CT.

Yamaha is bringing the 292cc version of the XMax scooter to the U.S., topping its 2018 scooter lineup which also includes the 155cc SMax, the Zuma 125 and the 49cc Zuma 50F, Zuma 50FX and Vino Classic. The 2018 Yamaha XMax will arrive in dealerships in October with an MSRP of $5,599.

The Lightweight Nakeds Comparo we did last September was such a hoot we decided to do it again on a few more little thumper/screamers. Flying around sunny SoCal’s freeways and mountain roads like little white blood cells fighting pathogens and boredom in your cardiovascular system is what we do best, flitting from Starbucks to Starbucks, letting the lattes fall where they may.